St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1901-10-05
HURTS CHARACTER.
Folly of Allowing Forebodings Of
Evil to Influence Action.
DR.. TalmaRe i'm His Sermon Declares
the Life OF Every Man, Woman
and Child to BE Closely
Under Divine Care.
copyright, 1901, by Louis Klopsch. N. ~
Washington,

Cn0eE divine SaESs
copyright, 1901, by Louis Klopsch. N. ~
In this discourse DR.. Talmage
shows the folly of allowing forebod-
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 a law of storms
in the natural world, SO there is q
law of trouble, a law of disaster. q
law of misfortune; but the majority
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 filing the earth
with glory, making rainbow for the
storm and halo for the mountain,
rreenness for the moss, saffron for
the cloud and crystal for the blllow
and procession of hammered 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
arching all other splendor with it's
triumph, covering up all other beauty
with it's garlands and publishing all
thrones with it's dominion-deliver-
ance for lost world through the
Great Redeemer.
I discourse of the sin of borrow
ing trouble.
First, such a habit of mind and
heart is wrong, because it puts one
into dependency that i'll fits him
for duty. I planted two rosebushes
in my garden; the one thrived beau
tifully, the other persisted. 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
ular and religious failures. Fear OF
SANDER and abuse has often invited
all the long-beaked vultures of scorn
and backbiting. Many of the misfor-
tunes of life, like hyenas, fee it You
courageously meet them.
How poorly prepared for religious
duty is a man who sits down under
the gloom of expected misfortune! #
he prays, he says: Il do not think 1
shall be answered." If he gives, he
says: II 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 Summerfields 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-
ioicings of Heaven with sobs and
wailing.
You will have nothing but misfor-
tune in the future If you sedulously
watch for it. How shall a 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 second time to the COM
bat. Now, the eagle in the sunlight,
with a stroke of his talons and q
great cry, cleared the air, and his en-
emies, with torn feathers and
splashed with blood, tumbled into
the thickets. Ye are the children OF
light. In the night of dependency
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 10 wrong because it has a
tendency to make us overlook pres
ent blessing. To Stake mans thirst
the rock is cleft and cool waters leap
into his trimming 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 soldier on hall
rations or q sailor on short allow
ance; that man should stand neck
deep in harvests looking forward ia
famine; thet one should feel the