Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/223

 VOLUNTARY ACTION

stinctive controls of conduct, to reduce to smaller propor tions the rational control and so to restrict within narrower limits the range and freedom of voluntary action, and this without any compensation in the enrichment of the feel ings.

Such an emotional disturbance may serve a good purpose in exceptional conditions. Doubtless electrical storms, hur ricanes and tornadoes, floods and earthquakes, all have nec essary functions in the economy of nature ; but we neverthe less count ourselves fortunate when such convulsions and upheavals are rare. They indicate that the equilibrium of cosmic forces has been lost and can be regained only by violent readjustments, which imperil many interests ; and however necessary they may be, leave behind them a trail of wreckage and death. Sometimes abnormal processses are required to correct abnormal conditions, though it is by no means always so : and when they are, the sooner they can be dispensed with the better. So it is with storms of emotional excitement.

The public speaker, and especially the preacher, should be a man of strong will. What does that expression mean? Often it means in common speech a man of powerful im pulses ; but while a man of powerful impulses acts vigor ously, he may not have a strong will. A strong will is one in which powerful impulses are subject to an equally power ful self-control. The impulsive and inhibitive factors of personality should balance one another; but both must be strong to make a strong will. The man of energetic im pulses and weak self-control is &quot; wilful,&quot; which means that he is unreasonable, that he is disproportionately feeble in the intellectual and directive functions of his personality. Sometimes we call him &quot; head-strong &quot; an expression which is singularly infelicitous, because his strength is em phatically not in his head. The more accurate, though much less elegant, characterization of him is &quot; bull-headed. &quot; But a man s impulsive nature can hardly be too energetic if the inhibitive functions are in due proportion. The greatest

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