The Bossier banner., 1891-10-22

sHs d Stranger, ana acC SuSplClOuoly
toward Him, as though they were
afraid He would steal something.
1t Is high time you began to thank
God for present blessing. Thank Him
for your children, happy, buoyant, and
bounding. Praise Him for your home,
with its fountain of song and laughter.
Adore Him for morning light and even
ing shadow. Praise Him for fresh, cool
water, bubbling from the rock, leaping
IN the cascade, soaring in the mist, fall
ing in the shower, washing aginst the
rock and clapping its hands In the
tempest Love Him for the grass that
cushions the earth, and the clouds that
curtain the sky, and the foliage that
waves in the forest. Thank Him for
Bible to read, and cross to gaze upon
and Saviour to deliver,
Many Christians think it a bad sign
to be lubilant, and their work of self
examination is hewing down on their
brighter experiences. Like a boy with
new jack-knife, hacking everything
he comes across, so their self-examina-
ton is a religious cutting to pieces of
the greenest things they can lay their
hands on. They imagine they are 60
ing about borrowing trouble, and bor-
rowing it at thirty per cent, which Is
always a sure precursor of bankruptcy.
Again: The habit of borrowing
trouble is wrong, because the present
is sufficiently taxed with trial. God
sees 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 it 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. l
never look at my memorandum 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 in
former encounters, we can go forth to
all GIl0
Here are business men inst 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
day-bool, on your ledger, on your
lnoney-safe: Sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof!"s 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 1s91
as 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 bothering themselves about future
pleurisieS and rheumatismS and neu-
ralgias and fevers. Their eyesight 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. Be 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 II
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 peo-
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
on the pulpit sofa to rest, and then go
on again. Theodore Frelinghuysen 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.
Life's- 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. Bows
in attempting to jump a 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