The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-19
NEW NATIONAL QUESTIONS
LARGER ISSUES AND DUTIES OPEN
 ING TO THE 4 AMERICAN PEOPLE.

TwItchell's Sermon in Full on "The Unknown Morrowr nt Dwight Place Church Last Sunday Morning.
 James 4: fl, "Ye know not what shall be on the morrow"
 The word morrow" here does not necessarily mean the next twenty-four hours.
 Read our text this way: "Ye know not what shall be in the near future" There is nothing more true than this. Human life is full of surprises. The unsuspected is sure to happen; some times of good; sometimes of i'll.
 This fact obtains in reference to health, home, friends, fortune-every- thing with which we mortals have connection or relation.
 Health very often suddenly gives way to sickness-acute, severe, danger out, fatal.
 Few die of old age. The machinery, instead of wearing out, breaks down at some point and puts the life in jeopar- dy.
 Then again, when practically all hope is gone, the life that seems abo1, to end, revives and runs on, a ma vel to both physicians and nurses.
 Take home. The circle is to-day un- broken and so far as is apparent prom ises to remain indefinitely unbroken. But all at once with scarce a note of warning, the invader comes, hushes all the music there, hanging up the dra- pery of death, or of bitter disappoint- ment.
 Take friends. They are the light of our life. We cherish them and trust them, rejoice in the cheer they bring us, and live in the radiance of an un- suspicious love.
 But ere we are aware, and from causes which we cannot explain, light gives way to darkness, confidence to distrust, and over all the radiance rises a cloud of chilling. and impoverishing gloom.
 The same of fortune. This enriches and blesses. We call ourselves secure in material possessions. But the un- forseen happens-a few brief hours or days scattering the fortune in whole or part obliging us to start again in the battle for bread.
 So true is all this to life as we live 1t, and as we see it lived around us, that no man, as to any of these temporali- ties, knows what is in the near future for him, whether of good or i'll.
 Of course great laws obtain regard Z ing health, home, friends fortune-eve- rything material-hygenic laws, domes- To al 1o1 But life in all departments is crowded with contingencies. Things frequently occur which are not determinable by any known rule; the result of agencies whose operation is uncertain-is not possibly practicable; so that we live in the midst of uncertainties and sur prises which are found helpful or harm full.
 While therefore we should be always hopeful, it is wise not to be over-confi- dent, but ever Watchful waiting upon God.
 Turning now to classes and commit mites, the same uncertainties appear. We are often shocked at unlocked for revelations of character and conduct The long trusted and least-suspected are found forgers and defaulters, de- serters and seducers All of sudden so far as any provision is concerned, banks are broken promising enterpris- es collapse and fondest expectations fail to be realized.
 If we turn from these affairs to na- ture we find the same fact of ignor- ance regarding the near future. Mod ern science in regard to many things has become a prophet. Our 'weather- men, so-called, tell us of the ap- proach of heat and cold, of storm and calm--give us warning of atmospheric changes hours and even days before they reach us. But no "weather-man' has yet been found wise enough to prophecy the birth of a cyclone or the course of an electric bolt. This is a great world of ours: mighty forces still remain unmeasured and un- discovered.
 Fire set by careless hands may con- sune a whole city square, or lay waste miles of golden grain out on western prairie.
 Gas in the coal mine, or as recently off Cleveland in tunnel under the wa ters of Lake Erie, unwarned, expSdes putting beyond reach of rescue scores of workmen.
 We boast of having tanned and har- messed electricity, and think we know all the secrets of this subtle fluid. But doubtless as great surprises await us in the near future as ever yet the worlc has had.
 Nature is constantly telling us new stories regarding substances. and laws most familiar. The same of all affairs individual, social, civil and ecclesiasti. cal They have foreshadowings, bu their prophecy as we read it often fails We can judge of the future from the past, but only in a general way. The minutia is development read only il development.
 Unexpected contingencies arise in ref erence to all human affairs, especially with such as depend on. the peoples choice.
 See this illustrated in Christian gath erings, whose doctrines or church poll ty is being considered; also in politica conventions, state or national, and here especially. What sudden and surpris
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