Daily American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1852, 1852-02-04
Bear with one another.

That house will be kept in turmoil where
there is no tolerance of each others errors no
lenity shown to failings no meek submission
to injuries, no soft answers to turn away wrath
If you lay a single stick of wood upon the
andirons and apply fire to it, it will 90 out; put
on another stick, and they will burn; add a
half dozen, and you will have a grand confa-
grafton. There are other fires subject to the
same conditions. If one member of a family
gets into passion and is let alone, he viii cool
down. and possibly be ashamed, and repent
But oppose temper to temper; pile on the fuel
draw in the other members of the group, and
let one harsh answer be followed by another
and there will soon be blaze which viii en-
wrap pthem all in its lurid splendors The vener-
able Philip Henry understood this well and
when his son Matthew, the Commentator, was
married, he sent these lines to the welded pair:
Love one another. pray oft together; and sec
You never both together angry be:
If one speak fire, t'other with water come:
Is one provoked? be tother soft or dumb"
So thought the excellent Bishop Cowper, of
whom this remarkable anecd0te is related.
The wife of this good man was afraid he would
inure his health by close confinement. So,
one day, like kind-hearted ofhcious wife. she
went into his library in his absence, and gath
ering up all the manuscript notes he had
airy, threw them into the fire. When he came
home, she told him what she had done. As
sured of the kind motive which had prompted
her to this act of Vandalism, his only reply to
her was /" Wouaa,, thou hast put me to eight
years. study more -"
This it must be confessed, is carrying meek
ness about as far as flesh and blood can ord-
narily be expected to 60. But even a less
measure of this quality would be considered
a great sedatiye to those ebullitions of passion
which rufile the serenity Of households AL
lied with sound Judgment, and with true af-
fection, 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 differed, to
the point Of a peremptory decision. It would
admonish them when the ice was beginning to
culver and crackle, and 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 indications and whom
nothing will arrest but an actual plunge into
the wintry wave They will insist upon their
point with such pertinacity as to bring down
at length that terrific You shall OF g You shall
no." which in conjugal life is as freezing as
bath in December Happy are those families
where discussions never reach this crisis, 1t ia
said that in the business meetings Of that ex-
emplary Christian Society, the Friends there
is no voting The clerk gathers the views Of
the members from their observations, and
frames a corresponding minute, which unless ex
cepted to stands, without a vote, as the act o
the body, This is a safe principle for house
holds. The opinions Of those who Wear th,
purple can usually be got at without alvote
and voting sometimes creates q difference o
feeling, where there was simply diversity 0
sentiment, -BoardmaWs Bible in the Family