Newport weekly independent., 1901-05-02

7 their long train of wheat or corn or oats. The farmers are not more busy in July and August in reaping their harvest than are the ants busy in July and August reaping their harvest. They stack them away; they pile them up. They question when they have enough. They aggre- gate a sufficient amount to last them until the next warm season. When winter opens, they are ready. Blow, ye wintry blasts! Hang your icicles from the tree branches. Imbed all the highways under snowdrifts! Enough for all the denizens of the hills. Hunger shut out, and plenty sits within. God, who feedeth every living thing, has blessed the ant hill
 In contrast with that insectile be- havior, what do you think of that large number of prosperous men and women who live up to every dol lar that they make, raising their familieI in luxurious habits and at death expecting some kind friend to give their daughters employment as music teachers or tyEewriters or gov ernment employees? Such parents have no right to children. Every neighborhood has specimens of such | improvidence. The two words that most strike me in the text are 'sum- mer" and "winter.'' Some people have no summer in their lives. From the rocking cradle to the still grave it is relentless January. Invalid in fancy followed by some crippling ac- cident or dimness of eyesight or dull ness of hearing or privation or disas- ter or unfortunate environment make life a perpetual winter. But in most lives there is a period of summer, al- | though it may be a short summer, and that is the time to provide for | the future.
 One of the best ways of insuring the future is to put aside all you can for charitable provision. You put crumhbling stone in the foundation of your fortune if you do not in your plans, regard the sufferings that you may alleviate. You will have the pledge of the high heavens for your temporal welfare when you help the helpless, for the promise is: "Blessed is he that considereth the poor. The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble" Then there is another way of providing for the future. If you have $1,000 year income, save $100; or $2,000 year, save $500; or $3,000, save $1,ooo. Do you say such econ omy is meanness? I say it is a vast CT meanness for you to make no .,ro- vision for the future and l~ compel your friends or the world to take care of you or yours in case of be- reayement or calamity.
 But my subject reaches higher than temporalities foresight for the soul, provision for eternal expert ences, preparation for the far be- yond. Ant hills, speak out and teach us larger and mightier lesson of preparing food for the more impor- tant part of us! Do you realize that man may be a millionaire or a mCltlmlllionaire for time and bankrupt for eternity, a prince for a few years and a pauper forever? The ant would not be satisfied with gathering enough food for half winter or quarter of winter. But how many of us seem content, though not having prepared for the ten-millionth part of what will be our existence! Put yourself in right relations to the Christ of the ages, through Him seek pardon for all you have ever done wrong and strength for all you will be called to- endure, and there will be no force in life or death or eternity to discomfit you. I declare it! There is enough of transforming and strengthening power in Christ for both hemi- spheres.
 Furthermore, go to the ant and consider that it does not decline work because it is insignificant. The fragment of seed it hauls into it's habitation may be so small that the unaided eye cannot see it, but the in- sectile work goes on, the carpenter ant at work above ground, the ma son ant at work underground. Some of these creatures mix the leaves of the fir and the catlIins of the pine for the roof or wall of their tiny abode, and others go out as hunters looking for food, while others in do- Hiesolc uuIleS stay at nome. twenty specks of the food they are moving toward their granary put on a bal ance would hardly make the scales quiver. All of it work on a small scale. There is no use in our refus- ing a mission because it is insignifi- cant. Anything that God in His prov idence puts before us to do is impor- tant The needle has it's office as certainly as the telescope and the spade as 9 parliamentarian scroll