Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1851-12-09
Alislellaneoms.
MUTUAL FOEBEARANCE.
By DIR. BoARpMAN.

That house viii be kept in turmoil where
there is no tolerance of each others errors,
no lenity shown to falling no meek submis-
sion to injuries, no soft answers to turn away
wrath If you lay single stick of wood
upon the andirons and apply fire to lit, it will
go OUT put on another stick, and they will
burn; add half dozen. and you will have
grand confagration. There are other fires
subject to the same conditions. If one NOM
Der Of a family gets into passion, and it is
let alone, he will cool down, and possibly be
ashamed, and repent But oppose temper
to temper; pile on the fuel draw in the 9th
er members of the group, and let one harsh
answer be followed by another; and there
will soon be blaze which will enwrap them
in all its lurid splendors. The venerable
Philip Henry understood this well. and when
bis son Matthew, the commentator. was mar
ried, he sent threse lines to tie welded
PART
Glove ono another pray oft together and see
You never both together angry be;
If one speak fire. t'other with water come;
Is one provoked be tother soft or dumbn
So thought the excellent Bishop Cowper,
of whom this remarkable anecdote is related
The wife of this good man was afraid be
would injure bis health by close confinement
So, one day, like kind hearted, oifcious
wife, she went into his library in his absence,
and gathering up all the manuscript notes he
had been eight years collecting for his die
tionary, threw them into the FIRE. When he
came home, she told him what she had done
Assured of the kind motive which had
prompted her to this act Of Vandalism, bis
only reply to her was, IVOman, thou hast pat
me to eight gears study more ~
This, it must be confessed, is carving
meekness about as far as flesh and blood can
ordinarily be expected to go. But even
less measure Of this quality would be found
great sedative to those ebullitions of passion
which ruffic the serenity of households, AL
lied with a sound judgment and with true af-
lection it would aim at shutting out from the
circle such topics Of conversation as were
known to produce an irritating effect upon
any of the group
The same spirit would restrain family
from pushing question, on which they diff
fered, to the point of a peremptory decision
IL would admonish them when the ice was
beginning to culver and crackle, aud show
them where they must stop, unless they meant
to break through. There are too many who
refuse to see, or at least to heed, these indi-
cations, and whom nothing will arrest but an
actual plunge into the wintry wave They
will insist upon their point with such perth
nacity as to bring down at length that terri
tic you shall" or ''you shall not" which in
conjugal life is as freezing as bath in De-
cember. Happy are those families where
discussions never reachtbis crisis 1t is said
that in the business meetings Of that cxem-
plary Christian Society, the Friends, . there
is no votiag. The clerk gathers the views
of the members from their observations, and
frames corresponding minute, which, unless
excepted to, stands, without vote, as the
act Of the bouy This is safe principle for
households. The opinions of those who wear
the purple can usually be got at without a
vote and voting sometimes creates differ
encc of feeling, where there was simply d.
versity Of sentiment.