Discipline by Richard Grant White

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 22, 1883

Discipline

By Richard Grant White

There was a very aged gentleman who, in my boyhood, visited often at my father's house. He had been a member of Parliament, which in his young days, implied even more social distinction than it does now. His manners were charming, and he was venerable in character as well as in years. He was very kind to me, and, boy as I was, treated me with never-failing courtesy. One day, when I fretted a little in his presence under the bonds of discipline, he laid his hand upon my shoulder and said: "Let me tell you a story of the great Dr. Parr. You know, of course, who he was; what a power he was in literature, in politics, and in the church. One day I dined in company with him, and he attracted much attention in his wig and his little black silk apron that he wore like a bishop. The conversation turned upon training in schools and colleges; and there was a self-sufficient young man at the table who made himself conspicuous by a disagreeable and noisy denunciation of discipline, as something that was calculated to break down a youth of spirit. Parr said nothing for awhile, but at last, taking advantage of a pause, he turned to the young man and said, in his lisping way: 'I'm not thurprithed, thir, at your objection to dithipline. Dithipline, thir, maketh the theolar; dithipline, thir, maketh the gentleman, and the lack of dithipline hath made you, thir—what you are.'"