Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-09-13
BORROWING TROUBLE.
Dr.. Talmage Says II Is q Bad Habit That
Units Many to Properly D;soharg:
Their Duties.
ued viii Meet Our Exigencies as They Arse.
Copyright 1901.

pectation of evil weakens and destroys
text, Matthew 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:
Az there is law of storms in the natural
world, so there is law of trouble, law
OF disaster, law of misfortune but the
majority of the troubles of life are imag-
mary, 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 filing the earth with glory,
making rainbow for the storm and halo
fO. the mountain. greenness for the moss.
saffron for the cloud and crystal for the
billow and procession of hammered flame
through the opening gates of the morning,
ehaffinches to sing. rivers to glitter, seas
TO chant and springs to blossom and over
powcring all other sounds with it's song
and over-reaching ali other splendor with
it's triumph, covering up all other beauty
with its garlands and publishing all other
thrones with its observation-disclosures
}or lost world through the Great Re-
deemer.
I discourse of the sin Of borrowing
trouble
First, such habit of mind and heart
is wrong because it puts one into de-
spondency that Ill fits him for duty. [
planted two rose bushes in my garden.
the one thrivcd beautifully; the other
persisted. ] found the dead one on the
shady side Of the house Our dispositions,
ike our plants, need sunshine. Expec-
fancy OF repulse is the cause of many Sec
ulsr and religious failures. Fear OF bank
ruptey has uptorn many fine business
and sent the man lodging among the note
shavers. Fear of SANDER and abuse has
ofeen invited the long,beaked vultures of
scorn and backbiting. Many of the mis-.
fortunes of life, like hyenas, fee if you
eourageously meet them.
How poorly prepared for religious duty
is a man who sits down under the gloom
of expected misfortunei If he prays, he
says, ri do not think I shall be an
swered." If he gives, he says, II expect
they will steal the money" Helen CHAIN.
ars told me that her father, Thomas
Chalmers, in the darkest hour of the
Free Church of Scotland and when the
his heart, said to his children, Come, let
us 60 out and play ball or fly kite" and
the only difficulty in the play was that
the children could not keep, zip with their
father. The McCheynes and the Summer
fields of the church who did the most
good toiled in the sunlight. Away with
the horrors! They distil poison. They
dig graves, and if they could climb so high
they would drown the rejoiciugs Of heaven
with sobs and wailing.
You will have nothing but misfortune
in the future if YOU sedulously watch for
it. How shall man catch the right kind
of fish if he arranges line and hook and
bait to catch lizards and water serpents!
Hunt for bats and hawks, and bats and
ha wks 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 q 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 despond-
ency 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"
y
is wrong, because it has tendency to
make us overlook present blessing. To
Stake mans thirst the rock is cleft, and
roo! water leap into his trimming cup.
To feed his hunger the fields bow down
with bending wheat and the cattle come
down 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 exuberance of
blessing man should growl as though he
were soldier on half rations or sailor
on short allowance; that a man should
stand neck deep in harvests looking for
ward to famine that one should feel the
strong pulses of health marching with reg
ulnr tread all the avenues of life and yet
tremble at the expected assault Of sick
ness: that man should sit in his pleasant
home. fearful that ruthless want will some
day rattle the broken window sash with
tempest and sweep the Goals from the
hearth and pour hunger into the bread
all the harvests should expect to starve;
that one whom God loves and surrounds
wish benediction and attends with angelic
escort and hovers over with more than
motherly fondness should be looking for
heritage of tearsl Has God been hard
with thee that thou shouldst be forebod
ing? Has He stinted thy board?' Has He
covered thee with rags? Has He spread
traps for thy feet and CALLED thy cup and
rasped thy soul and wrecked thee with
storm and Numbered upon thee with
life full of calamity?
If your father or brother come into your
bank. where gold and silver are lying
about, you do not watch them, for you
know they are honest, but if an entire
stranger come by the safe you keep your
eve on him, for you do not know his de-
signs. So some men treat God not as a
father, but a stranger, and act suspi-
ciously toward Him. 1t is high time you
began to thank God for present blessing;
thank Him for your children, happy buoy
ant and bounding; praise Him for your
home, with its fountain OF song and
laughter; adore Him for morning light
cool water bubbling from the rock, leap
ing in the cascade, soaring In the mist,
falling in the shower, dashing against the
rocks and clapping it's hands in the tenn
pest; love Him for the grass that cushions
the earth and the clouds that curtain the
sky and the foliage that waves in the for
est; thank Him for Bible to read and
Saviour to deliver.
Many Christians think II bad sign to
be jubilant, and their work of selfexam-
jnation is hewing down of their brighter
experiences. Like boy with new jack
knife hacking everything he comes across.
so their determination is religious
cutting to pieces of the greenest things
They can lay their hands on. They i'm
agine they are doing Gods service when
they are going about borrowing trouble.
End borrowing it at thirty per cent,
which is always a sure precursor Of bank, |
ruptcy.
Again, the habit Of borrowing trouble
,s wrong because the present is sufficiently
taxed with trial God sees that we all
need a certain amount of trouble. and so !