CRATER LAKE, OREGON, SHOWING WIZARD ISLAND. This lake is the site of an extinct, or supposedly extinct, volcano.
TOO QUICK ON THE TRIGGER.
By Helen A. Steinhauer
“Papa, the boys take my bicycle away from me,” said a little Scandinavian boy of ten or eleven to his father, who was assisting a neighbor with an unaccommodating stovepipe. The child’s tones were calm and deliberate, and his face thoughtful, not in the least ruffled.
A moment’s pause, and the father as quietly replied, “Well, let them have it part of the time.”
This was doing to others as we would have them do to us, and the moderation of the speakers pleased me. Under similar circumstances I fear most American lads would have come in, cheeks aflame, eyes aglow, and shouted angrily:—
“The boys take my bicycle away from me, pa. I wish you’d make them quit it.”
And I incline to think that the average American father would have returned, with considerable asperity:—
“Tell those boys that I say to let your bicycle alone or I’ll attend to their cases.”
As I pondered, I wondered whether we Americans as a nation are not too quick on the trigger. It also set me to thinking whether Christians of all nationalities do not too often forget to let their moderation be known to all men.
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind,” and there is ample opportunity for its exercise even in the smallest affairs of life. Constitutional phlegm may prove an efficient restraint to its possessor, but is not better still the Christlike spirit, which “is not easily provoked”? Let us, therefore, “be slow to wrath,” for “he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.”
The wise man tells us: “By long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone.” “He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.” “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.” “Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him.” “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.” “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty.” “Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbor hath put thee to shame.” “He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.” “It is an honor for a man to cease from strife; but every fool will be meddling.” “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go; lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.” “The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water; therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with.” Proverbs.
