good and kind people, honest at heart, who yet are full of distractions
of another sort; who are of double mind--look two ways at once, and are
afraid to be quite open, quite straightforward--who like to COMPASS their
ends, as the old saying is, that is to go round about, towards what they
want, instead of going boldly up to it; who like to try two or more ways
of getting the same thing done; and, as the proverb has it, have many
irons in the fire; who love little schemes, and plots, and mysteries,
even when there is no need for them. Do such people get most work done?
Far, far from it. They take more trouble about getting a little matter
done, than simpler and braver men take about getting great matters done.
They fret themselves, they weary themselves, they waste their brains and
hearts--and sometimes their honesty besides--and if they fail, as in the
chances and changes of this mortal life they must too often fail, have
nothing for all their schemings save vanity and vexation of spirit.

But the man who will get most work done, and done with the least trouble,
whether for himself, for his family, or in the calling and duty to which
God has called him, will be the man who takes our Lord's advice. Who
takes no thought for the morrow, and leaves the morrow to take thought
for itself. That man will believe that this world is a well-ordered
world, as it needs must be, seeing that God made it, God redeemed it, God
governs it; and that God is merciful in this--that He rewardeth every man
according to his works. That man will take thought for to-day, earnestly
and diligently, even at times anxiously and in fear and trembling; but he
will not distract, and divide, and weaken his mind by taking thought for
to-morrow also. Each day he will set about the duty which lies nearest
him, with a whole heart and with a single eye, giving himself to it for
the time, as if there was nothing else to be done in the world. As for
what he is to do next, he will think little of that. Little, even, will
he think of whether his work will succeed or not. That must be as God