Norwich bulletin., 1914-02-13
ABRAHAM LINCOLN HAD
 GREAT SELF CONTROL.
Lesson from His Life in Shop Talk by
 Rev. Dr. SIocun.


 Under the auspices of the Y. M. C. A., Rev. pr. Joel E. Slocum addressed large gathering of men at the Cres- cent Arms company Thursday noon. He based his talk on control, and Tn rart he said:
 In baseball language there is an in teresting word-the word control. It Is used especially in reference to that remarkable ability by which the plteh- CT compels the ball to do his bidding. Watch good game of baseball from seat in the grandS tand just Dack or the home plate. Anybody could throw a ball somewhere and somehow in the vicinity of that home base. 1t is not question of somewhere and some how; it is a question of a particular area whose vertical and horizontal field lies within narrow confines It Is not simply a problem of getting the ball over the plate, but getting 1t over safely; getting 1t over swiftly or very slowly, as the particular moment may decide; getting it over in a straight line or in a curve; get it past the most skilfm batter whose keen eye and practical judgment dispute the way. The Price of Control.
 This is the pitchers job. and any one who knows anything about it knows that it is big one. Before the pitcher reaches the professional stage, he must secure the proper develop ment, not simply of his arm, but of his arm and his brain; for there must be | a very swift understanding between the two. Then. too, he must back up l his arm with the assistance of practi- | cally every other muscle of his body. | All this is the price of control. So 1t | comes about that prerequisite to that | thing which we have been talking | about is self control. Without self l control there certainly could be no 1 control of the ball. I have known men who started out with a good deal | of promise as pitchers and had to give | it up because they could not control | themselves.
 And after all that's what I want to | talk about today. The baseball sea l son will have to wait a little till this l cold snap gets by. But meanwhile 1 there is place for self control every | day; winter, spring, summer, autumn, | right through the year. If the ability | to control, more or less perfectly, the | direction, speed and curves of that lit ' tie American institution which we call 1 baseball is something desirable, some | thing that Is worth all the way from l three thousand to ten thousand dollars f a year, then surely that other control ! which we call self control is a priceless possession of the individual who has it. Control of the Human Machine. Our human machines often get pret- i ty near the bursting point. Too much 1 steam? Possibly But more likely 1t |
 l I can imagine a man without any temper. He would be very safe man under all circumstances So would a dead man be harmless. It is not that we need to get rid of our tempers, but we do need to control them.
 It is not a sin to get mad, but 1t is a ! sin when our madness runs away with | us and we get into all sorts of trou- ble as a consequence. There is log ical process in the development of that | strange power within us by which we lose our self control. The trouble be- gins with our feelings. Something | arouses them~and they push up against the safety valve and as a consequence out fly some sizzling hot words. Ther before the words are cold, other words still hotter, follow; and infiamed feel ings and scorching words issue in de- ! structive actions-actions that have 1 things all their own way, because vii and judgment have left their calm throne and are hopelessly mixed uI in the unrestrained turmoil.
 There was a very wise man whose | prayer was: "Set thou a guard upOr my lips, lest I sin against thee"
 That is the place for the beginning of our control. If we succeed there at the feelings, we shall be victoriou: at every point along the journey.
 Lincoln an Example.
 In closing. Dr. Slocum referred tC Lincoln as one of the finest example. of self control in all history and asked the men to join with him in a deter imitation to retain control of self ana ! to keep the temper under restraint sC that only good actions may be the re- suit of our right thinking and whole some speaking.
 Selections on the Victrola were heard l with great interest.