River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-10-22
SELF DISCIPLINE.
It's Importance as an Aid to Success In


True discipline is what we all need
20 bring out the best that is in us.
only thus can any one experience the
meaning and the blessing of freedom,
'or without it, though no hand NAV
iirect him and no voice command him,
ais own breast viii be a scene of an
irchy and tyranny, and he its powerless
Tictim- Perhaps no other power is
more important in the pursuit of the
various avocations of life. 1t enables a
nan to submit patiently to whatever
preparation is necessary, to overcome
natural repugnances which would
hinder his career, to triumph over the
owe of ease, or the craving for pleasure.
which would destroy his hopes of sue
sess. Many a man with brilliant
talents and fine prospects has been
wrecked upon these unseen rocks He
has trusted to his abilities, and they
nave betrayed him. simply because they
we're not well disciplined. The dry
"details of his work weary him, its
irudgery he cannot bear. its enforced
regularity he despises- Presently to
MS surprise, he is distanced in the race
0y those of inferior powers, but who,
oy perseverance and self-denial, have
Ised them to better purpose. Often
he authority of the mind is required TO
make us leave off what is engrossing
as, to the exclusion OF other duties aud
interests.
Much of the overworlx that is so fire.
luently prostrating men o. business
and professional life comes from the
lack of self-discipline. They know and
will admit that they are doing too much;
that they need rest and relaxation; that
they are not giving what they owe to
their families or to society; but they
plead that they can not help it, which
simply means that they have not that
power of command over themselves
which would enable them to do what
they know TO be right. A self-poised
man has the same control over the vari-
Gus faculties that the practiced musi-
clan has over the keys of his instru-
ment, while the undisciplined man
strikes at random, never knowing
whether harmony or discord may ensue.
Not only in the labor of our lives do we
need to preserve this authority over
self. In our hours of recreation. in our
association with our fellow men, in the
thousand details of life, its con-
slant presence is necessary. 1t
distinguishes the strong and no.
bic character from the weak and
wavering one. 1t enables us to choose
between the different motives which
are constantly presenting themselves.
and to stem the tide, instead of drifting
helplessly down with the current
Every one has an ideal of life higher
than his actual life reaches We should
all like to be better, nobler. more just
and generous and disinterested than we
are. Through self-discipline alone can
we climb this ladder and approach this
ideal II is by no chance metaphor
that we speak of ascending to the
higher life, or sinking TO the lower.
The one implies determination, power.
effort; the other merely the absence of
all these, the letting go of the moral
reins, the abdication of authority over
self. For one man who resolves DELHI
erately and knowingly to tread the
downward path, there are thousands
who merely sink into it from mental
and moral inertia If we lose control
of cur muscles. we fall to the earth; if
we lose control of our mental faculties.
we fall into idiocy; if we lose control of
our moral powers. we fall into evil
Weakness is the real slavery; strength
the real freedom. And this strength is
the ever-growing result of self disci-
pline. Each one may gain it and hold it
for himself; for, like every other
power, it grows by exercise. and no one
who seeks it in all earnestness will
seek in vain. -Philadelphia Ledger.