Newport weekly independent., 1901-09-13
HURTS CHARACTER.
Folly of Allowing Forebodings of
 Evil to Influence Action.
pr. TaImage in TIis Sermon Declares the Life of livery Man, Woman and Child to Be Closely
 Under Divine Care.
TCopyright, 1901 by Louis Klopsch, N. VI
 Washington, Sept. 5.


 ings to influence us and how expec- tation of evil weakens and destroys. Text, Matthew 6:34: Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof"
 The life of every man, woman and child is as closely under Divine care as though such person were the only man, woman or child. There are no accidents. AS there is law of storms in the natural world, so there is a law of trouble, law of disaster, law of misfortune; but the ma iority of the troubles of life are imaginary, and the most of those anticipated never come. At any rate, there is no cause of complaint against God. See how much He has done to make you 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 pillow and procession of bannered flame through the opening gates of the morning, chaffinches to sing, rivers to glitter, seas to chant and springs to blossom, and overpowering all other sounds with it's song and over- archlng all other splendOr with it's triumph, covering up all other beauty with it's garland and outfashing all thrones with it's dominion-deliver- ance for a lost world through the Great Redeemer.
 l discourse of the sin of borrow lng trouble.
 First, such a habit of mind and heart is wrong, because it puts one into despondency that ill fits him for duty. I planted two rosebushes in my garden; the one thrived beau tifully, the other perished. I found the dead one on the shady side of the house. Our dispositions, like our plants, need sunshine. Expectancy of repulse is the cause of many sec- 1lar and religious failures. Fear of slander and abuse has often invited tll the long-bealled vultures of scorn md backbiting. Many of the misfor tunes of life, like hyenas, flee if you ;ourageously meet them.
 How poorly prepared for religious duty is a man who sits down under the gloom of expected misfortunei If 1e prays, he says: ''I do not think I shall be answered." If he gives, he says: "I 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 his children: "Come, let us go 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 McCheynes and the Summerfelds of the church who did the most good tOiled in the sunlight. Away with the horrors! They distill poison; they dig graves, and if they could climb so high they would drown the re- joicings of Heaven with sobs and wailing.
 You will have nothing but misfor- tune in the future if you sedulously watch for it. How shall man catch the right kind of fish if he arranges his line and hook and bait to catch lizards and water serpents? Hunt for bats and hawks, and bats and hawks you will find. Hunt for robin red breasts, and you will find robin red breasts. One night an eagle and an owl got into fierce battle. The eagle, unused to the night, was no match for the owl, which is most at home in the darkness, and the king of the air fell helpless. But the morning rose, and with it rose the eagle, and the owls and the nighthawks and the bats came a second time to the com bat. Now, the eagle in the sunlight, with a stroke of his talOns and a great cry, cleared the air, and his en- emies, with torn feathers and spfashed with blood, tumbled into light. In the night of despondency you will have no chance against your enemies that flock up from beneath; but, trusting in God and standing 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 tendency to make us overlook pres ent blessing. To slake mans 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 from the clover pastures to give him milk, and the orchards yellow and ripen, casting their juicy fruits into his lap. Alas, that amid such exuber- ance of blessing man should growl as though he were a soldier on half