Says a recent journal:
Many years ago, in the lecture-room of President Woolsey,
of Yale University, a young man who did not know his lesson
ventured to make a mock recitation and to give an impertinent
answer. The president was a man of fiery temper, tho it had been
curbed and subdued by the discipline of years. On this occasion
his face turned white; he bowed his head upon the desk before
him. There was a half-minute’s silence of death; he raised his
head, called upon another man, and the recitation went on. He
knew that if he spoke to the offender he would speak too much,
so he said nothing.
The students of that class knew well what a lava-flood was
penned up there. Self-repression did not seem to them a sign of
weakness--it was the greatest evidence of power.
Shall we call it a sign of weakness in God that he bears with
the sins of men? When God humbles himself to behold and to
forbear, shall we not see in this voluntary self-limitation one
of the proofs of his greatness? (Text.)
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