In my travel and observation I have found a vast amount of jealous worry in institutions of one kind and another—­such as the Indian Service, in reform schools, in humane societies, in hospitals, among the nurses, etc.  It seems to be one of the misfortunes of weak human nature when men and women associate themselves together to do some work which ought to call out all the nobleness, the magnanimity, the godlike qualities of their souls, they become maggoty with jealous worries—­worry that they are not accorded the honor that is their due; worry that their work is not properly appreciated; worry lest someone else becomes a favorite of the Superintendent, etc., etc., etc., ad libitum.  Worries of this nature in every case, are a proof of small, or undeveloped, natures.  No truly great man or woman can be jealous.  Jealousy implies that you are not sure of your own worth, ability, power.  You find someone else is being appreciated, you covet that appreciation for yourself, whether you deserve it or not.  In other words you yield to accursed selfishness, utterly forgetful of the apostolic injunction:  “In honor preferring one another.”

And the same jealousies are found among men and women in every walk of life, in trade, in the office, among professors in schools, colleges, universities; in the learned professions, among lawyers, physicians and even among the ministers of the gospel, and judges upon the bench.

Oh! shame! shame! upon the littleness, the meanness, the paltriness of such jealousies; of the worries that come from them.  How any human being is to be pitied whose mortal mind is corroded with the biting acid of jealous worry.  When I see those who are full of worry because yielding to this demon of jealousy I am almost inclined to believe in the old-time Presbyterian doctrine of “total depravity.”  Whenever, where-ever, you find yourself feeling jealous, take yourself by the throat (figuratively), and strangle the feeling, then go and frankly congratulate the person of whom you are jealous upon some good you can truthfully say you see in him; spread his praises abroad; seek to do him honor.  Thus by active work against your own paltry emotion you will soon overcome it and be free from its damning and damnable worries.

Akin to the worries of jealousy are the worries of hate.  How much worry hate causes the hater, he alone can tell.  He spends hours in conjuring up more reasons for his hate than he would care to write down.  Every success of the hated is another stimulant to worry, and each step forward is a sting full of pain and bitterness.

He who hates walks along the path of worry, and so long as he hates he must worry.  Hence, there is but one practical way of escape from the worries of hatred, viz., by ceasing to hate, by overcoming evil with good.

CHAPTER XX

THE WORRIES OF SUSPICION