results, it is sinful, it is reproaching my Master, I
_won't._ That is the first simple rule.

Thankful for Anything.

The second helps to carry out the first. It is this, _thankful for
anything._ Thanksgiving and praise are always associated with singing.
When you feel the worry mood creeping on--it is a mood that attacks
you--when it comes sing something, especially something with Jesus' name
in it. These temptations to worry are from the Evil One. He can come in
only through an _open_ door. Remember that. Yet the open doors seem
plenty. Even when we trustingly and resolutely keep every door of evil
shut the circle in which we move will open doors upon us. Singing
something with Jesus' name in it sends him or any of his brood off
quickly. They hate that Name of their Conqueror. They get away from the
sound of it as fast as they can.

A friend was calling upon another and began pouring out a stream of
personal woes. This had gone wrong, and this, and this other would go
wrong. Everything was wrong. And her friend, who knew her quite well, had
her get a pencil and paper and asked her if possibly there was _one_ thing
for which she could be thankful. Reluctantly from her lips came the
mention of some particular thing for which she felt indeed grateful. Then
a second was gradually recalled, and then more. And as the train of
thought grew on her she suddenly asked, "Why was I so despondent when I
came in? Everything seems so changed."

It's a fine thing to go about one's work singing some hymn with praise in
it, and with Jesus' name in it. And if singing may not always be allowable
under all circumstances, you can _hum_ a tune. And that brings up to the
memory the words connected with it. I know of a woman who was much given
to worrying. She made it a rule to sing the long-meter doxology whenever
things seemed not right. Ofttimes she could hardly get her lips shaped up
to begin the first words. But she would persist. And by the time the
fourth line came it was ringing out and her atmosphere had changed without
and within.

This was David's rule. He said: "Thy statutes have been my songs in the
house of my pilgrimage."[18] He is not speaking of the time when he was
acknowledged king over both Judah and all Israel, when the fortress of
Jerusalem was his own capital. No, he is talking of the earlier days of
his _pilgrimage_. When he was being hunted over the Judean fastnesses by
King Saul. When with his band of fai