The Brookhaven leader., 1891-08-27
tempest. Love Him for the grass that


Many Christians think IL a bad sign
to be jubilant, and their work of self
examination is a hewing down on their
brighter experiences. Like boy with
q new jack-knife, hacking everything
he comes across, so their self-examina-
ton is religious cutting to pieces of
the greenest things they can lay their
hands on. They imagine they are go
ing about borrowing trouble, and bor-
rowing it at thirty per cent, which is
always n sure precursor of bankruptcy.
| Again: The habit of borrowing
trouble is wrong, because the present
is sufficiently taxed with trial. God
secs that we all need a certain amount
of trouble, and so He apportions it for
all the days and years of our life. Alas
for the policy of gathering il all up for
one day or year! Cruel thing to put
upon the back of one camel all the
cargo intended for the entire caravan.
never look at my book to
see what engagements and duties are
far ahead. Let every week bear its
own burdens.
| The shadows of to-day are thick
enough; why implore the presence of
other shadows? The cup is already dis
tasteful, why halloo to disasters far
distant to come, and wiring out more
! gall into the bitterness? Are we such
champions that, having won the belt i'll
former encounters, we can go forth 70
challenge all the future?
Here are business men just able to
manage affairs as they now are. They
can pay their rent and meet their
notes, and manage affairs, as they now
are, but what if there should come a
panic? Go tomorrow and write on your
daybook, on your ledger, on your
luoney-safe: Sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof" Do not wor
ry about notes that are far from
due. Do not pile upon your
counting desk the financial anxieties of
the next twenty years. The God who
has taken care of your worldly occupa-
ton, guarding your store from the
torch of the incendiary and the key of
the burglar, will be as faithful in 1891
rs in 1881. Gods hand is mightier than
the Vaccinations of stock gamblers, or
the plots of political demagogues, or
the red right arm of revolution, and the
darkness will fly and the storm fall
dead at His feet.
So there are persons in feeble health,
and they are worried about the future.
They make out very well now, but they
are bothcring themselves about future
plcurisiCs and rheumatisms and neu-
ralgias and fcvers. Their eycsight is
feeble, and they are worried lest they
entirely lose it. Their hearing is indis-
tinct, and they are alarmed lest they
become entirely deaf. They felt chilly
to-day, and are expecting an attack of
typhoid. They have been troubled for
weeks with some perplexing malady,
and dread becoming lifelong invalids.
Take care of your health now, and trust
God for the future. Re not guilty of the
blasphemy of asking Him to take care of
you while you sleep with your windows
| tight down, or eat chicken salad at IL
O'Clock at night, or sit down on a cake
of ice to cool off. BE prudent and then
be confident. Some Of the sickeSt pcO-
| pie have been the most useful. 1t was
SO with Payson. who died deaths daily,
, and Robert Hall, who used to stop in
| the midst of his sermon and lie down
. Ol lllC pun i1lG SOlb W rest, anu IICil 20
on again. Theodore Frelnghuysen had
great horror of dying till the time
| came, and then went peacefully. Take
care of the present, and let the future
look out for itself. Sufficient unto
| the day is the evil thereof"
Again: The habit OF borrowing mis-
fortune is wrong, because it units us
for it when it actually does come. We
can not always have smooth sailing.
| Lies path will sometimes tumble
among declivities. and mount steep,
and be thorn-pierced. Judas will kiss
our cheek, and then sell us for thirty
pieces of silver. Human scorn will
try to cruelty us between two thieves.
We will hear the iron gate of the
sepulcher creak and grind as it shuts
! in our kindred. But we can not get
ready for these things by forebodings.
They who fight imaginary woes will
come, out of breath, into conflict with
the armed disasters of the future.
! Their ammunition will have been
wasted long before they come under
the guns of the real misfortune. Boys
in attempting to jump wall, some
times go SO far back in order to get
impetus, that when they come up they
are exhausted: and these long races in
order to get spring enough to vault
trouble, bring us up at last to the
dreadful reality with our strength gone.
Finally: The habit of borrowing
IL ouble is wrong, because it is unbe-
lief. God has promised to take care of
us. The Bible blooms with assurances.
Your hunger will be alleviated; your
| sorrows will be healed. God will san
dial your feet, and smoot your path, and
along by frowning crag and opening
| grave sound the voices of victory and
| good cheer. The summer clouds that
seem thunder-charged really carry in
their bosom harvests of wheat and
shocks of corn, and vineyards purpling
for the wine-press. The wrathful wave
will kiss the feet of the great storm
walker. Our great Joshua will com
mand, and above your soul the sun of
| prosperity will stand still. Bleak and
wave-struck Patmos shall have
| apocalyptic vision, and you shall hear
the cry of the elders, and the sweep of
wings, and trumpets of salvation, and
the voice of hallclujah unto God for
ever.
Your way may wind along dangerous