The Plymouth Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1869-1941, 1870-05-05
The Evils OF Anxious FOrethOught.

| The veXations that come to us from
looking down into the future are dust
rubbed of, mostly from vanity, from pride,
from avarice, from appetite, from the va
rious malign feelings. If you take these
thousand little frets that thought Breeds
ana that make you unhappy; if you lay
aside physical causes, and come to mental,
you will find that most of them are selfish,
and so are malign. And when a man
brOods anxiously, looking down into the
future, two things take place: first, he
loses the use of the correct instrument
o. his mind-by this overheating and,
secondly, he brings his mind under the in
fuence Of these malign feelings, which
seem to rise up and take possession of
that great untrOdden pasture ground of
the future. His mind is brought insidi-
ously under the dominion of these things
in a critical time the man OF the house
hold goes to the window, and looks out,
and says: Who can tell what those
signs mean on the horizon? Who can
tell what that banner means? Who can
| tell what armed host that is that is COM
ng?"--And Thousands Ofmen say to Fear,
"Go, sit in the window and watch = and
Fear, sitting in the souls window, and
looking far down into the future, says" 81
see something there" "What is it!"
| says Avarice. "Loss of money-bank-
ruptcy-trouble is coming!' 90 Lord
O Lord! Trouble in the future. 1t is all
trouble. Man is born TO sorrow as the
sparks fly upward 4 few days, and full
Of trouble Q troublei trouble" And
for days and weeks the man goes round
crying, "Troublc trouble = What is it?
Money. Nothing in the world but money.
1t is avarice that has made all that fuss
about the futuTe-all that dust. 1t was
because it was not golden dust that the
man was troubled.
| Fear still sits in the window. "What
seest thou ?" says Vanity. Whisperings
are abroad" says Fear. Men are point
ing at yOu-or they will as soon as you
come TO point of observation" go, my
| good name!' says the man. "All that l
have done {; all that | have laid up-what
will become CT that? Where is my repu-
tation going? What will become of Inc
when l lose it, and when folks turn away
from me? O, trouble, trouble lit is
coming!' What is it? Fear is sitting in
the window of the soul, and looking into
the future, and Interpreting the signs
thereof to the love of appreciation in its
cOarsest and lowest condition.
| Fear still sits looking into the future,
and Pride, coming up, says: "What is 1t
that you see?" 81 see," says Fear, 'your
castle robbed. l see you topple down
| from your eminence. | see you under the
base mems feet. L see you weakened |
see you disesteemed. l see your power
scattered and gone" go, LOrdl what a
world is this % says Pride.
No. that man has not had q particle OF
trouble. Fear sat in the window and
L. r.ol
and Avarice cried-and ought TO cry.
Fear sat and told lies to them all. For
| there was not ole Of those things, proba-
bly,, down there. Did Fear see them !?
Yes. But Fear has q Kaleidoscope in its
eye, and every time it turns it takes new
form. 1t is filled with broken glass, and
it gives false pictures continually. Fear
does not see right. It is forever seeing
wrong. And it is stimulated by other
feelings. Pride stimulates it; and Vanity
stimulates it; and Lust stimulates it and
Love Itself finds, sometimes, no better
business than to send Fear on its bad er
| rand For Love cries at the cradle, say
Ing, ooh the child will die!' 1t will
not die. 1t will get well. And then you
will not be ashamed that you prophecied
that it would die. You put on mourning
in advance. Where will my family be ?
Where will all my children go? What
will become of me-" says Love in its
lower moods. Love without faith is as
bad as faith without love.
SO Fear sits in the window to torment
the lower form OF all our good feelings
and all our malign feelings And under
such circumstances how can a man do
anything: He has smoked glass before
his eyes when bis feelings get before
them, and they are in a morbid state.
How many times in summer has that
black cloud which was full of mighty
storm, and which came rising, and open
ing, and swinging through the air, gone
by without having drop of rain in 1t
1t was a wind cloud. And after it had all
disappeared, men took breath and said,
ave need not have cooked up the hay in
such hurry" or, We need not have
run ourselves out OF breath to get shelter
under this tree" And how many times
have there been clouds rolled up in mems
heaven, which have apparently been full
of bolts and trouble, but which have not
had trouble in theml And when they
are gone, men forget to get any wisdom.
They do rot say, Next time ] will dc
better" The next time they do just the
same thing. OF the thought that excited
them, that haunted them, that fevered
them, that disturbed their sleep, setting
them whirling around in eddies OF
thought, when they get past it, they say
Gall that suffered for nothing" But
will you be any wiser for that experience
Probably not. You have the bad habit OF
looking into the future with a hot brain
and you will not cure yourself of it by
any amount of fear.
| int OF in
which they rather want anxiety and
trouble. AS poison becomes stimulants
so these cOrrosions and cares not unfre-
quently become almost indispensable
There are many people who not only suf
fer, but seek suffering. They look al
everything on the dark side.
If you present the bright side to them,
they do not want TO see that. They are
in minor key, and they want everything
to wall. They not only are sick, but dc
not want to get well. They do not wan
| to have people say To them, "You looE
, better day than you did yesterday" /
one says to them, :" | congratulate you or
having fewer pains" they resent il, and
say" have not fewer pains. [ never
/ suffered so much in all my life" They
begin to have morbid desire for sympa
, tiny on account of trouble They are yer!
. much like what are called weeping
q trees. They have a downward tendency
T and if you undertake to make then
straight you break them. They are de
I termined TO be weeping willows Their
are many people of whom it may be sai'
that they are never happy unless they art
:. miserable.
8 Suppose everything should befal maj
Y that could happen to him, what would
matter? How long would it be before h
+ | would be out of reach of suffering
O Where are the fathers? Where arc tn
/, Puritans that died the first winter aloDl
v the coast Of Massachusetts Their trou
e BILE was long since over. They have foI
!, gotten it unless now and then though
4 comes to raise higher strain of triumph