Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-05-06
A SOFT ANSWER.

The soft answer turneth away wrath,
and the meek of spirit inherit where the
contentious are cast out.
There is no greater cause OF unhappl-
ness in married life-in all home life,
midlothian the snappy answer to the
surly word. If Fate and a cross-cut
Fortune have decreed between them
that we are to be mated with Snarley
Vow, or set down by the side OF hu-
man Stromboli, or a never cooling gey-
ser, we ought in common sense to make
the best of our bad bargain, and to slip
round the pointed angles which we can
not rub down into smooth planes. III
we are bent on giving our tit for that
others tat, and letting loose savage
Roland to meet an exasperatlng Oliver,
we shall never come to good ends. and
never know the blessing OF domestic
peace. The gentle acceptance of injus-
tic which in a nation would be self
destruction is in housemate general
preservation. The soft answer, which
with a body of men would encourage
insubordinatlon and send the whole
affair to ruin, in the home makes only
for the better accord of elsewise jar
ring notes and the better fitting in of
elsewise misfitting bits. The "Angel
of the House" is always the peacemaker
because of her gentleness. She uses
the soft answer and not the hard snap;
takes care to apply anodynes, not lr-
rltants, after the manner of so many.
The soft answer is often the measure
of woman's wisdom. She may not be
OF good in active counsel-she may not
have the initiative which belongs to
energy and courage: but if she has
the wisdom of gentleness and the power
to keep silent when provoked, she is in
very deed and truth wise and blessed
among her sex. She who has this
power brings the whole Temple of Con-
cord tumbling to the ground. Do we
know them, those tart-tempered, sharp
tongued, porcupine-quilled creatures,
who never let an occasion pass when
they might, # they would, bring the
blessing of peace by silence or sweeter
soothing, and do instead make bad
into worse by their bitter words and
sharp retorts? Say what you will to
them in the hours when you think to
find them unruffled and amenable to
reason-say what you will by way of
counsel and exhortation-then next time
the same circumstance occurs SO will
they use the same method of angry
word; and the soft answer that would
have tnrned away wrath is as little to
be found as last years SHOWS.
Such a woman calls her brusque un-
wisdom. having a proper spirit, and
when demonstrated with, asks, dis
dainfully if she is to be a slave and
crushed creature? In all probability
she is a Christian by convict N, and
would be utterly abashed if told that
she was n traitress to her creed. 1t
Is only when she is called on to put the
Christian precepts into practice that
she fails so signally-that the crooked
temper shows itself so far stronger than
the sweet saintliness of her ereed-that
what she was enjoined to do by the
Master Himself she refuses to do at the
bidding of pride and anger.
OF what use is it to fly into q rage
when things go wrong? Human beings
are fallible at the best; and even ma
chimes, like sewing machines, watches,
and typewrlters, get into that state
which many call "out of temper"
Much more SO then the machines of
flesh and blood and nerves and all the
rest of 1t called men and womeni But
where is the good of that outbreak of
anger2 And suppose Betty and Molly
fire back in return? More than the
original deficit falls then on the ex-
chequer of peace, and perhaps what gen
tleness would have nullified into a mere
breath becomes a living blizzard that
desolates and devastates all whereby it
passes. The ''soft answer" stands for
more than itself. 1t stands for all the
sweetness of woman and all the gentle
ness of man-and without this sweet
ness, this gentleness, the world must go
back to barbarIsm, and the brute man
become once more the normal type of
the race.