left in yer cup when ye’re dune drinkin’.  An’ if ye drap yer piece on the floor ye’re no’ to gang efter it; ye’re jist to let on ye’ve ett it.  An’ ye’re no’—­

    ‘Deed, Lizzie,’ interposed her husband, ’ye’re the yin to
    think aboot things.’

    ‘Weel, John, if I dinna tell Macgreegor hoo to behave hissel’,
    he’ll affront me,’ etc., etc., etc.

Who has not thus seen the anxious mother?  And who ever saw her worrying and anxiety do much if any good?  Train your child by all means in your own home, but let up when you are going out, for your worry worries him, makes him self-conscious, brings about the very disasters you wish to avoid, and at the same time destroys his, your, and everyone’s else, pleasure who observes, feels, or hears the expressions of worry.

CHAPTER VII

CAUSES OF WORRY

Worry is as multiform and as diverse as are the people who worry.  Indeed worriers are the most ingenious persons in the world.  When every possible source of worry seems to be removed, they proceed immediately to invent some new cause which an ordinary healthful mind could never have conceived.

The causes of worry are innumerable.  They represent the sum total of the errors, faults, missteps, unholy aims, ambitions, foibles, weaknesses and crimes of men.  Every error, mistake, weakness, crime, etc., is a source of worry—­a cause of worry.  Worry is connected only with the weak, the human, the evil side of human nature.  It has no place whatever in association with goodness, purity, holiness, faith, courage and trust in God.  When good men and women worry, in so far as they worry they are not good.  Their worry is a sign of weakness, of lack of trust in God, of unbelief, of unfaithfulness.  The man who knows God and his relationship to man; who knows his own spiritual nature and his relationship to God never worries.  There is no possible place in such a man’s life for worry.

Hence it will be seen that I believe worry to be evil, and nothing but evil, and, therefore, without one reclaiming or redeeming feature, for it can be productive of nothing but evil.

If you really desire to know the sources of your worry study each worry as it comes up.  Analyse it, dissect it, weigh it, examine it from every standpoint, judge it by the one test that everything in life must, and ought to submit to, viz.:  its usefulness.  What use is it to you?  How necessary to your existence?  How helpful is it in solving the problems that confront you; how far does it aid you in their solution, wherein does it remove the obstacles before your pathway.  Find out how much it strengthens, invigorates, inspires you.  Ask yourself how much it encourages, enheartens, emboldens you.  Put down on paper every slightest item of good, or help, or inspiration it is to you, and on the other hand, the harm, the discouragement, the evil, the fears it brings to you, and then strike a balance.