Never Cross a Bridge till you Come to it.
"NEVER cross a bridge until you come to it!" was the counsel usually given by a patriarch in the ministry to troubled and over-careful christians. Are you troubled about the future? Do you see difficulties rising in Alpine ranges along your path? Are you alarmed at the state of your business, and uncertainties hanging over your life, at the gloomy contingencies which fancy sketches and invests with a sort of life-like reality—at the woes which hang over the cause of the Redeemer, or at any other earthly evil? Do not cross the bridge until you come to it. Perhaps you will never have occasion to cross it; and if you do, you will find that a timid imagination has greatly overrated the toil to be undergone, or has underrated the power of that grace which can lighten the christian's every labor. In approaching the Notch of the White Mountains from one direction, the traveler finds himself in the midst of conical hills, which seem to surround him as he advances, and forbid further progress. He can see but a short distance along his winding road; it seems as if his journey must stop abruptly at the base of the barriers. He begins to think of turning back his horse, to escape from hopeless enclosure among impassable barriers. But let him advance, and he finds that the road curves around the frowning hill before him, and leads him unto other and still other straits, from which he finds escape simply by advancing. Every new discovery of a passage around the obstructions of his path, teaches him to hope in the practicality of his road. He cannot see far ahead at any time; but a passage discovers itself as he advances. He is neither required to turn back nor to scale the steep sides of towering hills. His road winds along, preserving for miles almost an exact level. He finds that nothing is gained by crossing the bridge before he comes to it. Such is often the journey of life. How much of its toilsome ruggedness would be relieved by attention to the above admonition. Never cross a bridge until you come to it. Or, to express the same counsel in a form that does not involve the charge of a Hibernicism, 'Be careful for nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep (garrison) your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.'—Independent.