THE POWER OF OPINION by Helen Elizabeth Jeffers

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Sep 13, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 37.

THE POWER OF OPINION.

By Helen Elizabeth Jeffers

WHY must we be affected by what people say? Why is it that popular opinion has so much weight with us? There are in this world many people who season their conversation with disagreeable sayings, unpleasant comments, uncomfortable insinuations.

In the first place, we must realize that certain remarks indicate certain conditions of our friends' minds, which, as we can not hope to alter, we must resign ourselves to. A disagreeable thing is either true in itself, or true as representing the speaker's state of feelings. All of us, no doubt, have friends, relatives, and acquaintances who think it quite a sufficient reason for saying a thing, that it is true. We ourselves know the state of mind in which we find a certain fact or opinion a load to be got rid of; and, under the gross mistake that all truth must be spoken, and convinced that truth, like murder, will out, we ourselves take the part of executioner. Most of us have suffered from the crude simplicity of some one who has acted the enfant terrible.

There are many who even turn friendship into a system of lawful and unpunishable impertinence. "Why did you tell that young lady her dress was very unbecoming?"

You say, "I really thought so."

It is, strange to say, noticeable in persons of this obtrusive candor that they have eyes for blemishes only. They are never impelled to tell pleasant truths. They seem always to hit upon the wrong thing and instinctively ferret out sore subjects.

We must care for the opinion of a person in order to have sayings of this sort keenly annoy us. A real expert in this art can hit one in his most vulnerable part, and send him off depressed and uncomfortable, without a word that can be fairly taken hold of.

If we should seek the cause of the unrest and unhappiness of most people, we would find that it came primarily from the fear of what people will say and what they will think of me, of my actions, and my surroundings. "So they say," is a common expression, and "they" will say anything and everything. "They" say things that break up families, crush hearts, blight hopes, and smother worthy aspirations. Never repeat those words, "So they say."

There are many who spend their entire lives in trying to conform to the opinions of others. What is there in opinion that we should bow down to it? It is man-made, merely human conjecture, and not necessarily true. Cast away all regard for opinion and you are saved much labor and suffering. Consider that everything is merely a matter of opinion, and opinion is in your power. Who can hinder you from casting it away? It is your God-given right to live in the greatest tranquillity of mind even if all the world cry out against you.

If you are doing your duty and living up to your highest light, whether ill-spoken of or praised, nothing which can be said concerning you can in the slightest degree change you. You are the same whether praised or blamed, and why then should you be elated or depressed by either? It is in the power of each soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquillity. You can live as on a mountain and still hear all the noise and turmoil in the valley.

Think every morning as soon as you awake, whether it makes any difference what another does, as long as you do what is just and right. Think as much as possible of the virtues of those about you, and never of their evil qualities. Cultivate the habit of searching as earnestly for good in everything as you have for evil. Remember, if we can not make ourselves perfect how then can we expect those about us to be perfection? We notice small things in others, and pass over great matters in ourselves.

How seldom we weigh ourselves in the same balance with our neighbors? We call to mind a man who was always finding fault with those about him. He had moved many times, but never found pleasant neighbors, and one day he remarked to his little daughter:—

"Mary, no one seems to understand or appreciate me, and the people next door are so very disagreeable I think we will move again."

The little girl looked up in his face and said, "But, papa, you will be there."

That is it, we think if people only treated us better, or had a higher opinion of us, we would be happy; but it is the "old man" within. "Nothing can bring you peace but yourself." Let us learn first to keep ourselves in peace, and then we shall know how to make peace among others; and remember ever that the most profitable lesson is a true knowledge of ourselves. Let us have that perfect love which shall overlook the faults of others, and which shall make us invincible to either praise or blame.

"What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" Say to thy soul in seasons of unrest, "What is that to thee? follow thou Me." There is but One whom we should strive to please, even the Father.

HELEN ELIZABETH JEFFERS. Montour Falls, N. Y.