Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-17
EVIL ANTICIPATI0NS.
Dependency and Fretfulness Unfit
Us for Life's Duties.
CHRISTIANS OF SOUR TEMPER,
Anxious Merchants and Whining Invalids
the Chief Culprits.
THE TRTUMPHS FOR JOYOUS SOULS

sted in health, and cheered by the hearty
and enthusiastic greetings he has received i'll
the numerous cities he has visited. Thou.
sands of persons who have read his sermons
in their local newspapers have struggled to
get within sound of his voice wherever he
has spoken. His sermon this week is on
the very common and foolish habit of "Bor-
rowing Trouble" and his text is Mathew
vi, "a: Sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof"
The life of every man, woman and child is
as closely under the divine care as though
such person were the only man, woman or
child. There are no accidents. As there is
a law of storms in the natural world SO there
is law of trouble, law of disaster, a law OF
misfortune: but the majority of the troubles
of life are imaginary, and the most of those
anticipated never come. At any rate, there
Is nc cause of complaint against God. See
how much He hath done to make thee happy;
His sunshine filling the earth with glory,
making rainbow for the storm and halo for
the mountain, greenness for the moss,
saffron for the cloud, and crystal for the bill
low, and procession of hammered fame
through the opening gates of the morning,
chaffnches to sing, rivers to glitter, seas to
chant, and springs to blossom. and over
powering all other sounds with its song, and
overarching all other splendor with Its
triumph, covering up all other beauty with
its garlands, and outfiashing all other
thrones with its dominion = deliverance
for a lost world through the Great Re-
deemer.
L discourse of the sin of borrowing trouble.
DESPoNDENCY UNITS FOR DUTY. -,
First-such a habit of mind and heart is
wrong, because it puts one into despon-
dencv that i'll fits him for duty. planted
two rose bushes in my garden; the one
thriyed beautifully, the other perished. l
found the dead one on the shady side OF the
house Our dispositions, like our plants,
cause of many secular and religious failures.
Fear of bankruptcy has uptorn many a fine
business and sent the man dodging among
the note-shuvers- Fear of SANDER and abuse
has often invited all the long-beaked vul-
lures OF scorn and back-biting. Many of the
misiortunss of life, like hyenas, Zee if you
CoUTdgeoasly meet them.
How poorly prepared for religious duty is
g man who sits down under the gloom of ex-
pected misfortunei II he pray, he says, Il
do not think shall be answered" If he
give, he says, Il expect they will steal the
money" Helen Chalmers told me that her
father, Thomas Chalmers, in the darkest
hour of the history of the Free Church of
Scotland, and when the woes of the land
seemed to weigh upon his heart, said to the
children, Come, let us 90 out and play ball
or fly kite and the only difficulty in the
play was that the children could not keep
up with their father The M'Cheynes and
the Summer1ields of the church who did the
most good, cultivated sunlight. Away with
the horrors! they distill poison: they dig
graves; and if they could climb so high, they
would drown the rejoicings of heaven with
sobS and wailing-
MISFoRTUNES FOR THE GLOOMY.
You will have nothing but misfortune in
the future if you sedulously watch for it.
How shall a man catch the right kind of fish
If he arranges his line, and hook, and bait to
catch lizards and water-serpents? Hunt for
bat and haws, and bats and hawks you will
find. Hunt for robin-redbreasts, and you
VIII find robin-redbreasts. One night an
eagle and an owl got into fierce battle; the
eagle unused to the night was no match for
an owl, which is most at home in the dark
ness, and the king of the air fell helpless; but
the mOT-Iing rose, and with it rose the eagle;
and the owls, and the night-hawks, and the
bats came second time to The combat: now
the eagle. IN the sunlight, with stroke of
his talons and great cry, cleared the air,
and his enemies, with torn feathers and
splashed with blood, tumbled into the
thickets. Ye are the children of light. In
the night of dependency you will have no
chance against your enemies that flock up
from beneath, but, trusting in God and
in the sunshine of the promises,
You shall renew your youth like the eagle"
Again: The habit of borrowing trouble is
wrong, because it has a tendency to make US
& S
thirst, the rock is cleft, and cool waters leap
into his brimming cup. To feed his hunger,
the fields bow down with bending wheat, |
and the cattle come down with full udders |
from the clover pastures to give him milk, |
and the orchards yellow and rfpen, casting |
their juicy fruits into his lap. Alas! that |
amid such exubeIance of blessing, man |
should growl as though he were soldier on |
half rations, or a sailor on short allowance; |
that a man should stand neck deep in |
harvests looking forward to famine; that |
one should feel the strong pulses of health /
with regular tread through all the /
avenues of life, and yet tremble at the ex- 4
pecueS assault of sickness; that man should |
sit in his pleasant home, fearful that
the broken window sash with tempest,
and sweep the Goals from the hearth,
and pour hunger into the bread-tray; that a |
man fed by Him who owns all the harvests
should expect to staTve; that one whom
sod loves and surrounds with benediction,
and attends with angelic escort and hovers
pyer with more than motherly fondness, |
should be looking for heritage OF tearSi
Has God been hard with thee, that thou /
shouldst be foreboding? Has He stinted thy 4
board? Has He covered thee with ragse 1
thy cup, and rasped thy soul, and wrecked |
thee with storm, and thundered upon thee |
with life full of calamity? If your father or |
brother come into your bank where gold /
md silver are lying about you do not watch 1
them, for you know they are honest; but if |
an entire stranger come by the safe, you |
keep your eye on him, for you do not know
his designs. So some men treat God; not as |
father, but a stranger, and act suspiciously |
oward Him, as though they were afraid He /
would steal something.
SoUR-HEARTED CHRISTIANS.
1t is high time you began to thank God for
present blessing. Thank Him for your chill /
lren, happy, buoyant and bounding: Praise |
lin for your home, with its fountain of song
no laughter. Adore Him for morning light
md evening shadow. Praise Him for fresh,
,ool water, bubbling from the rock, leaping
n the cascade, soaring in the mist, falling in |
he shower, dashing against the rock and
.lapping its hands in the tempest Love Him
or the grass that cushions the earth, and 4
he clouds that curtain the sky, and the foli-
.ge that waves in the forest. Thank Him |
or a Bible TO read, and a cross to gaze upon, |
nd Savior to deliver.
Many Christians think it a bad sign to be |
ubilant, and their work of determination |
: q hewlng down of their brighter expert |
noes Like = boy with a new jack-knife, |
lacking everything he comes across, so |
heir determination is a religious cutting |
o pieces of the greenest things they can lay |
heir hands on. They imagine they are doing |
Iods service when they are gong about
borrowing trouble, and borrowing it at 80 per
ent, which is always a sure precursor of |
Again: The habit of borrowing trouble is
7rong, because the present is sufficiently
aNed with trial. God sees that we all need |
certain amount of trouble, and SO He ap- |
,ortions it for all the days and years of our |
ie. Alas for the policy of gathering it all !
ID for one day or year! Cruel thing to put
lpon the back of one camel all the cargo in |
ended for the entire caravan. never look
I my memorandum book to see what en-
agements and duties are far ahead. Let
very week bear its own burdens.
The shadows of to-day are thick enough, !
,hy iInplore the presence of other shadows?
he cup is already distasteful, why halloo to
isasters far distant to come, and wiring out
lore gall into the bitterness? Are we such
hanpiOns that having won ihe belt in |