Article February 6, 1902 Issue

Taking Thought

BY ANNIE L. FISHER.

When riding in the street cars, through the very busy sections of the city, have you ever looked from the windows and noted the crowds of teams and people which seem to be in the way along which you must pass? Have you not wondered how the car ever could pass safely through among so many obstacles? and have you noticed how carefully the motorman manages his part? He does not concern himself with how he shall get through the next crowded place, nor how he will manage when his car is out in the country, but he rings his bell and with great care moves on, taking advantage of every opportunity to go forward.

Now it seems to me that we can draw a very useful lesson from this common, every-day event. We are all moving forward day by day. It often seems that the way is so obstructed that it is well-nigh impossible for us to proceed; we often look into the future and it seems as if a great stone wall stood in our path. But this is not right. Our Master said, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow." This does not mean that we should neglect any opportunity to improve our condition, nor does it mean that we will be provided for in the future, no matter how we spend our time now. It means simply this,—that if we are doing the very best we can now, we need have no anxious thoughts about to-morrow. The lesson which is learned in the grammar school forms the foundation on which rests the college education, but the child in the grammar school has no cause to worry about what marks he will receive on his work in his college course. His business is to learn the lessons of to-day, and "the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself."

If our thought is filled with the cares that to-morrow may bring, we cannot give our whole attention to that which is before us in the present, and the task but poorly done, is not done at all, but simply set aside in order that we may give our thought to something that may never really concern us.

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