El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-04-01
The Three Things Needful.

Tho Three Things NeedfuI.
Ye ought to be quiet, and to do moth
ing rashly.-Acts, xix. Sc.
One of the peculiarities in the char
acter Of Christ which excite my con-
slant amazement is His serenity. There
is no recorded circumstance in which
His self-control was lost. Whether in
the family group at Bethany or kneel-
ing under the olive tree in Gethsemane.
He was always calm and self-con-
tanned That He possessed like pas
sions with ourselves is, of course, not
to be doubted, but for some reason He
never gave way to them. His mental
and spiritual attitude toward the per-
plexities of life was such that they
were lost sight of in the great purpose
which He had in view. just as one ig-
nores a physical pain and becomes
entirely unconscious of it when in
the presence of sudden danger.
1t seems to be that one OF the best
ofsces of true religion is to so train Il
man that he shall always have himself
well in hand. So long as you keep quiet
you are strong; when your passions,
like wild horses, run away with you
you are sure to do what will cause re-
greet
One cannot help being angry at
timeSi Indeed, anger is essential to
well developed character; but man
should always be master Of himself.
There are occurrences which naturally
and properly arouse your Indignation,
and to be Indifferent toward them is to
show lack of manliness. So there is
wintry weather during which you need
a hot fire in the CRATE. If you have
no fire you simply freeze to death. But
when your fire is hot you must be sure
that your fiues are all clear to carry
off the surplus flame and smoke. 1t is
poor policy to burn your house down
under pretense of keeping warm. 1t
is equally poor policy to let your pas
sions loose and so miss the very OBJ
ject for which you were endowed with
the capacity for anger. By controlling
yourself you exert influence, but by
losing this control you ruin everything
and bring shame on yourself. When
anger is suppressed it is effective en-
ergy, but when not suppressed it hurts
you more than anyone else, and be-
comes mere folly.
There is another class of people who
never enjoy the quiet which true re-
ligion affords, 1 refer to those who
have the habit of fretfulness To be
fretful is to be spiritually diseased. 1t
indicates a mental condition which is
as unsound as it is unfortunate AS
one goes through life he ought to make
things as easy as possible for others
IS well as himself, and to make them
harder than they need be by constant
hi inc th1,,
short of a criminal offense
A mans life is pretty nearly what he
makes it. He can think himself into a
fever over his disagreeable experiences
just as he can brood over a headache
until he seems all head and all ache.
He can also look SO steadily at what
is bright that what is dark becomes in
visible. When a man tells me he is
religious and then finds fault with |
everything L know that what he calls
is chemical connection which
ought to be labelled counterfeit. The |
genuine article comes from the foun- |
tain of eternal youth, but wha: he has |
produces premature decrepitude.
If this is really Gods world it Is safe
to conclude that it is well governed |
and quite worth living in. The fret
full man banisheS God, or ignores Him.
and lives in a very poor world of his
OWN creation. Th-re is more fretfuI-
ness in true religion than there is
water in fire.
One other tendency is destructive of
spiritual attainment-a tendency so
common that you can find it in every
a mily as you find weeds in every gar
len. 1 refer to the worry that is need
ess. A certain amount Of solicitude is
he product of caution and is apt TO
a mans energy. 1 do not
" any means advocate lazy indif-
erence to possibilities any more than
would ask the captain of a ship to
pend his time in the cabin regardless
Il the storm which appears on the
orizon. But the captain who in fair
7eather works his nerves to their ut
most tension because a tempest NAV
cine some time during the voyage I'M
is himself to meet it when it does
ONE, and the man who is so afraid of
he future that he cannot enjoy the | .
God things of the present is in a very
ad mental condition, and is commit !
ng slow religious suicide
The amount of useless worry in the
'orld is enough to make the angels i