STRONG OR WEAK MEN by Robertson

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 9, 1880

STRONG OR WEAK MEN.

By Robertson

WE mistake strong feeling to be strong character. A man who bears all before him—before whose frown domestics tremble and whose bursts of fury make the children of the house quake—because he has his will obeyed, and his own way in all things, we call him a strong man. The truth is, that is a weak man; it is his passions that are strong; he, mastered by them, is weak. You must measure the strength of a man by the power of the feelings he subdues, not by the power of those which subdue him. And hence composure is very often the highest result of strength.

Did we never see a man receive a flat grand insult, and only grow a little pale and then reply quietly? That was a man spiritually strong. Or did we never see a man in anguish, stand as if carved out of the solid rock, mastering himself? Or one bearing a hopeless daily trial, remain silent and never tell the world what it was that cankered his home peace? That is strength. He who, with strong passions, remains chaste—he who, keenly sensitive, with manly power of indignation in him, can be provoked, yet can restrain himself and forgive—these are strong men, spiritual heroes.—Robertson.