The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-09-25
Our Impressions an Unsafe Guide.

THERE is no more unsafe guide for us
than our impressions of the hour. Yet
there is no guide which, commonly, we
are reader to follow. If we feel like
going off on vacation, or like sticking
at our work year in and year out; if we
feel like eating or fasting; if we feel
like going to church or like staying at
home; if we feel like praying or Bible
reading; if we feel like being sociable,
and meeting friends and nei ghbors cor
daily, or like shutting ourselves up
within ourselves, and showing others
that we are disinclined to conversation;
if we feel like walking, or riding, or
reading, or sleeping-it ordinarily
seems to us that that is the very thing
we ought to do just now. Not only is
it clearly the most agreeable thing, but
it appears to us to be the one proper
thing, for the hour. And why cannot
an intelligent, sensible, right-minded
man, man of principle, and a man
well trained in habits of correct think
ing and correct doing, trust his feelings
in such matters as these? Is he likely
to feel like doing that which he ought
not to do? or like refrairling from that
to which duty should impel him? What
safer guide can he have, in matters
where choice is open to him, than his
own feelings, his drawings, his impress
sions of the desirableness and propriety
of a course under consideration? How,
indeed, can he be himself and pursue
any other course than that which at the
time for action seems right and proper,
all things considered?
Whether man can be himself or not,
it is his duty, in every emergency and
under all circumstances, to do what is
right, whether he feels like doing it or
not; whether, indeed, he can for the
moment perceive the right or wrong in
the case. And as a great many have
done wrong conscientiously, have done
wrong impulsively, have been uncon-
sciously swayed from the right by their
fears, their affections, and their varying
personal interests, it is important to
every man that he know what IS right,
and that he be ready to do it unfiinch-
ingly, regardless of his temporary feel
ings--of his fluctuating impressions and
his emotional impellings. AS practi-
cal matter, those persons who most
steadily do and say what is right in the
world are persons who are accustomed
to do and say a great deal that they do
not feel like doing and saying; a great
deal that would seem quite unnecessary
or uncalled for on their part if they
trusted their feelings or their judg-
ments of the hour. The highest
order of work is not to be
comprised by snatches of labor when
a man feels like working. In
painting, in sculpture, in poetry, in SER
mon-writing, in essay-writing, in ro-
handwriting, in brain work, and in
handiwork Of every sort, there is
drudgery to be done at times when it
goes against the workers grain to bend
down to it unswervingly. And in minor
personal habits the man who cares best
for his physical well-being is he who
eats and sleeps and walks and rides,
and who takes hold of his work, and lets
go of it again, when he ought to, rather
than when he wants to. Moreover, the
loveliest and most attractive persons in
the world-in home life, in business life
and in society life-are persons who give
their time and attention to others gen.
erously, cordially, with seeming hearth
ness, and whose words of sympathy and
interest are free and timely, when they
feel least like anything of the sort, as
well as when they feel just like it. And
no greater mistake could be made by a
conscientious person than in supposing
that it is better and truer "always to be
ones SELF" and to speak and act just as
one feels, according to ones immediate
impressiOns.-S. S. Times.