South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1913-10-10
A PRAYER FOR
COMMON SENSE
A Gift More Rare Than Genius,
Common Sense is An InfaIIi-
BILE Guide as Well as a Com
Portable Possession.


You have no common sense and
want to have nothing more to DO
with YOU" wrote bishop to a man
whom he was dismissing from the
diocese.
Harsh words these would seem to
! be from a follower of the Gentle
! Shepherd, and yet at almost the same
| moment a wise woman was saying
/ in her home half way around the
| world from where the Bishop lived
| and worked. 4 don't want my boys
| 10 grow up geniuses. Geniuses are
! one sided people, overdeveloped in
/ one direction. under developed in an
I other. I've never known any real
| good a genius has done in the world.
| / shall raise my boys so that they
will be honest country gentlemen,
| sweet and clean of mind and full of
| common sense"
The bishop and the lady in differ
ent walks and different sorts OF
worlds had reached the same conclu-
sion. If it were in the bishops
power to change by word the
changeless ritual of his church he
would incorporate a prayer for COM
mon sense. The lady quite candidly
says that il is her prayer for every
earnest wish she reagrds as prayer
II we all prayed for common sense
and as in so many instances is true
we answered our own prayers. this
would be a world full of comfortable
people. At once comfortable and
progressive, for common sense while
il prompts us to accept a situation
we cannot control bids us control ev-
cry situation we can for its better
ment.
If common sense were really COM
mon instead of one of the rarest
things in the world we would con-
tinue in any good path we had begun
to walk. Tenacity of purpose is one
of the best and most uncommon hui
man attributes. 1t is what gets
man TO the goal he had started for
and holds him against all distractions
and disturbances. The man who has
common sense arrives at his destina-
ton despite wrecks and delays on
the road. He may not arrive on
schedule time, but he arrives some
time.
He is criticised for being obstinate.
and he is in a measure. But Solo
mon himself could not decide where
firmness ends and obstinacy begins.
We have only the light within and
our own judgment and if we permit
ourselves to be dazzled by other lights
even though more brilliant than our
own. We may lose our way. If man
does always what he thinks Is wise
and right he will not go far wrong,
no matter how loud the chorus of
voices that bid him do something
else.
If Ii Were Really Common.
If common sense were frequent
possession we would look far down
the road to see where it ends. In
stead we dash along, headlOng, blind
ly, and when we bruise and all but
kill ourselves against some particular
ly hard stone wall, we moan and de-
plore our fate as though fate were
some i'll tempered wench who had a
grudge against us. Every road has
it's signs. We should have read them
but we didn't. hence the bruises, the
all but mortal hurts. A woman mar
ries a man whom all the signs tell
her is a drunkard and debauchee.
His conversation needs eXpurging
and when a mans conversation needs
expurging. so do his thoughts. His
kisses are wine or whisky favored. |
Yet she marries him and in year
there is stamped on her face the UNI
mistakable expression OF the drunk
ards wife. / can read il among a
thousand faces. the tense, frightened, |
agonized look of a soul living always
in torments Of dread. This woman
bewails her fate as bitterly as though |
she hadn't made II herself. She |
thought the liquor-flavored. foul |
tongued creature her destiny" |
Emerson says 1.-The only destiny in |
character" One of the indications of |
character is the choice we make in |
of a home. of a husband. If we have |