ABOUT TEMPER | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 7, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 39.

ABOUT TEMPER.

THE most pitiful sight that I can imagine is to see a man or woman growing old in a bad temper.

Temper, you know, is so largely a matter of habit, of self-training, that it is almost a crime for anybody who has reached the years of discretion, after a childhood of opportunities, to be ill tempered.

We frequently hear persons spoken of as good natured or ill natured, when it is not a matter of nature at all, but of the exercise, or the want, of self-restraint.

Many a man who was by nature ill tempered—quick, fiery, irascible—has recognized his weakness, and, by the exercise of a strong will, so softened and wrought upon his natural disposition as to acquire perfect control of his temper, thus making himself sweet and lovable in spite of his nature. Others who were naturally amiable have allowed every little tendency to irritability full sway, until ill temper has grown up and mastered their naturally sweet and tractable dispositions, thus rendering them overbearing, disagreeable, and hard to get along with.

Old age seems but to deepen and strengthen these tendencies. The individual who acquires self-command and exercises full control over his temper will find it easier to control as he grows older, and will grow sweeter and more lovable with every flying year. He who allows temper to gain the mastery will each year become more hopelessly its slave, until he finally spends all his waking hours in disagreeable speech and unhappy thought.

Make up your mind while young to master your temper, and you will find as you grow old that you have not only saved yourself many heartaches, but that you have kept yourself from making those about you unhappy.—The Southland.