Year: 1870




The following extract from a sermon Of
Henry Ward Beeeher, from the text Of
sufficient unto the day is the evil there
Of" is full of truth:


And how absurd is this anticipating
what is to comeI When by-and-by God
leads you step by step, down to the trOublg
which you are thinking of, there will have
been wrought such changes, and such
preparations Will have taken place, that iE
will not seem like a trouble.


According to my observation, there is
nothing in the world which so rebukes
torethOught and anxiety as dying. I have
seen the heads of the family 20; I have
seen the father and the mother go; 81 have
been yOuug and now am old; yet have
not seen the righteous fOrsaken, nor his
seed begging bread" The taking the
heads of families is like the sowing OF
wheat. The seeds, being scattered, take
root for themselves and grow. And chill
dren, when thrown upon their own re-
sources, take care of themselves. Part
ridges know how to do it on the noun
tain; and so do children in the household,
and everywhere. God takes care of YOUR
children. He took care Of them through
you to-day. It may be that be will take
care Of them without you tomorrow. You
may he good mother, whose children do
better with you than they would without
you; but have seen children who did
better after their mother was gone than
they did before. At any rate, God will
not tOrsake the children whose parents are
called to leave them.


When the trouble comes Christ will
come with it. Never bear your cross till
the cross is laid on your shoulders. New
or or a I
to you, and puts it on you. Then you
will find that with the trouble comes the
preparation, so that they cease to Ls
troubles.


Our troubles are not once in thousand
times what we anticipate them to be-
Many of those troubles which we are To-
bear, when the day comes, so far from be-
ing what we anticipated they would be,
become positive sources of enjoyment
Oh! that men would derive from their
past experience some little wisdom in re-
spect to their future.


used, when I was in the West, and
] Travelled on horseback, to dread, all day
| long, the fOrds. l had peculiar fear Of
fords, arising from an early experience in
which 1 was twice swept away and came
near losing my life. Though l was cour-
ageOus in most things, I dreaded fords, so





In those mud rivers Of the West, one new
er knew when the ground might shift,
nor what condition certain ford would
be in when he got to it. In going from
place to place the thought of the fords
would have to cross was a perpetual tor
ment to me. For instance, I would 90
through White river all right, and Blue
river would be back of me; but there
would be Eel river to come; and L could
not get there till FIVE or six o'clock in the
afternoon; that was the worst fUrd-(the
one that is before is always the wOrst). At
last would come to it; and now 1 would
/ brace myself up and go across; but in
stead Of there being a raging, foaming tor
rent such as I had imagined, the water
would be 50 low that the horse would not
| go knee deep in any place. And then [
would be mad because it was not deep,
after had been fretting all day about It..
| When I came back on the other side, it
would be no comfort to me that l had
! lately crossed with so little difficulty
ITO be sure" 1 would say, .'the ford was
not deep then; but it may be now. How
I do 1 know but it has been raining there?T
| But when I would get to the ford again,
would find that it was no worse than it
was before, and would laugh at myself,
And 1 never got any wiser. 1 always was
afraid of a ford.


] Now, my friends, we, every one of usr
/ have ford somewhere that we are cross
/ ing every day; and we dread it aud dread
| it until we get to it; and then we go over
safely; but when we get to the other side
we forget the lesson; and when we come
/ back to it again, We come with the same
dread. We are not wise in the things
which relate to our own happiness.