p. 150 | Stammering

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Oct 10, 1865

Stammering.

UNFORTUNATELY for such, there are many persons in the world, who, some way or other, have acquired the painful habit of stammering. In some cases this is the result of malformation in the lingual organs, but more frequently the result of habit. And how embarrassing such an infirmity is to both speaker and hearer. Those persons who are afflicted with imperfect enunciation, will doubtless appreciate the following, from the "Illustrated Annual of Phrenology and Physiology :"

“A writer in Fraser’s Magazine after recommending, very judiciously, a persevering course of physical exercises calculated to expand the chest, strengthen the respiratory organs, improve the health, and give a manly bearing, thus concludes :

“Meanwhile, let him learn again the art of speaking; and having learned, think before he speaks, and say his say calmly, with self-respect, as a man who does not talk at random, and has a right to a courteous answer. Let him fix in his mind that there is nothing on earth to be ashamed of, save doing wrong, and no being to be feared save Almighty God; and so go on making the best of the body and soul which Heaven has given him, and I will warrant that in a few months his old misery of stammering will lie behind him, as an ugly and all but impossible dream when one awakes in the morning.

“This is truth, every word of it. The habit of stammering can be overcome. Right methods, persevered in, will in the end be crowned with success; but while cultivating self-reliance, the stammerer should realize that all strength cometh from God, and that if he overcomes the habit, it will be due to His blessing upon his own prayerful exertions.”