Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-06-24

zHE R8CroR on ST. MATHEW
r. e. CHURCH PREACHED
LAST EVENING
To the 1901 Graduating Glass of the
High SchOOl-fIin Text--siuch Good
Advice-The sermon In Full.

Last evening the Rev. David w. How
ard, the rector OF the st. Matthews p
E. church. preached the baccalaureate
sermon to the graduating class of the
High school. He chose as his text:
"Take therefore no thought for the
morrow: for the morrow shall take
thought for the things of itself; suf-
ficient unto the day is the evil there
Of" ST. Matthew VII "a.
It may seem little strange that
should select such words as these to
form the basis of sermon to the grad
uating class of our High school, who
having satisfactorily completed the first
step of the great education of this life
its members are now looking with anx-
ious hopes and fears into the future.
Christ here seems to allow anxiety
for each day as it comes around, and
says: Because all needful things
shall be added do not have one anxious
thought for the future, even for what is
coming on the very next day"
ST. Luke, in his gospel, concludes this
section with the words, Fear not little
flock; for it is your Fathers good
pleasure to give you the kingdom"
is it in any sense true that we are to
take no thought at all for tomorrow;
and attend only to the day that is pass
ing over us, and make no provision for
the future?
Are we not to look forward; to sup
pose a continuation of life, and a want
Of the means which are necessary to
support it? Should we sit still with
our arms folded, and expect that Provi-
aence will supply us with those means.
without using our own endeavors? Is
not the husbandman, when he has
reaped one harvest, to SOW his seed for
another? Most assuredly he is. The
scriptures suppose all men to have some
occupation, and to be laboring in it
that the state of the world may be up
holden. In the Old Testament we are
told that, "the hand of the diligent
maketh rich;" and in the New Tesla
ment, that IF any man will not work,
neither shall he eat"
In the former, man is sent to learn
wisdom Of 'the ant, which provideth
her meat in the summer, and gathereth
for food in the harvest" with a view
to the approaching winter. In the lat
ter we read that 1.-THE parents should
lay up for the children
In a word, no one thing is more Sc
verely condemned and exposed than
the folly of the sluggard, who has the
presumption to tempt God, by imagining
that all the blessings of heaven will de-
scend on the head of idleness, and that
meat will drop into his mouth if he
does but condescend to open it.
The truth is, that the Greek word
that is here translated take no
thought signifies properly, be not
anxious, solicitous, miserable about to-
morrow; literally and strictly it would
mean, be not doubtful and of divided
mind.
In short we are SO to use our endeav-
ors in this world, as to perform with
great diligence all that appears wisest
and best for us to perform, remember
ing always that our times and our lives
are in the hand of God.
The force of my text seems to imply
absolute self-consecration to God
"Give me thy heart" God says to each
one of us. The heart will always be
where the treasure is; SO we see how
necessary it is that we should LAY up
treasure in heaven in order that our
heart may be there also.
Il must leave all this" was the sad
cry of the great French statesman
Cardinal Wazarin, when, stricken al
ready by the hand of death, he took
his last view of the treasures of art, and