author has recently written a book bearing the title of
'Worry, the Disease of the Age'. He takes trouble to show that, owing
to commercial competition, the increased desire for luxurious living,
keeping up appearances, and other developments of modern days, heads of
families and persons in responsible positions do a great deal of
worrying. This writer then goes on to say: 'It is, however, more than a
certainty that true religion is a cure for worry, a preventative of
worry, and is utterly incomparable in its performance of these
functions'. 'The religion which Jesus Christ taught in Galilee', says
the same writer, 'is a casting of one's care upon the Lord, an
acceptance of the ills and lashes of life with a settled faith that God
is too good and wise to err or to be unkind, and that He will make all
things work together for good to them that love Him'.

I know that a state of worry may arise from physical causes. Inflamed
nerves, mental depressions, or hysterical fears, are, in many
instances, quite beyond the control of the sufferer. With others there
is an intense desire to do something or get something done; but I also
know that, as with bad tempers, a good deal is put down to physical and
nervous disorders which ought to be put down to lack of spiritual life
and power.

Now, when I speak of Salvation from worry, I do not mean deliverance
from nervous agitation or shrinking from physical suffering, although I
do not know how to fix a point where God's gracious power is exhausted,
even as regards these things; but 'worry' is that carking care, that
undue anxiety about one's personal affairs which destroys peace of
mind, burdens the heart, and often leads to distrust of God's love and
power. From such things God's grace is sufficient to deliver.

Let me be plain, however, on one point. I think carelessness,
recklessness, and indifference to possible happenings, is wrong. You
hear persons say, 'Oh, never mind; what does it matter? Don't fash or
bother yourself.' But such expressions often spring from pure
selfishness, and sometimes exhibit a sinful disregard for the happiness
of other people. Nothing makes it right to ease yourself at the expense
of others, or to shirk burdens by shifting them to other shoulders.
Some are clever at that, but such action may be positively sinful. On
the other hand, God can deliver us from that anxious care and
foreboding and unrest with which so many good people are afflicted.

Oh,