Control tempers
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President Gordon B. Hinckley pleaded with priesthood brethren "to control your tempers, to put a smile upon your faces, which will erase anger; speak out with words of love and peace, appreciation and respect."
Speaking in the priesthood session, he promised listeners that if they would do those things, "your lives will be without regret. Your marriages and family relationships will be preserved. You will be much happier. You will do greater good. You will feel a sense of peace that will be wonderful."
The Church president said, "It is when we become angry that we get into trouble. The road rage that affects our highways is a hateful expression of anger. I dare say that most of the inmates of our prisons are there because they did something when they were angry. In their wrath they swore, they lost control of themselves, and terrible things happened, even murder. There were moments of offense followed by years of regret."
President Hinckley recounted an incident from the life of Charles W. Penrose, an apostle who served as as counselor to President Joseph F. Smith and subsequently to President Heber J. Grant.
A convert to the Church, Elder Penrose served a mission in England for 11 years, then sold some of his belongings to pay for his trip to Zion.
"Some of the Saints observing him said he was taking Church property," President Hinckley related. "This angered him so, that he went upstairs in his residence, sat down, and wrote these words that are familiar to you."
President Hinckley then quoted the words of the hymn "School Thy Feelings," No. 336 in the Church hymnbook.
"Many years ago," President Hinckley recalled, "I worked for one of our railroads. A switchman was aimlessly strolling about the platform. I asked him to move a car to another track. He exploded. He threw his cap on the pavement and jumped up and down on it, swearing like a drunken sailor. I stood there and laughed at his childish behavior. Noting my laughter, he began to laugh at his own foolishness. He then quietly climbed on the switch engine, drove it over to the empty car, and moved it to an empty track.
"I thought of a verse from Ecclesiastes: 'Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools"' (Ecclesiastes 7:9).
President Hinckley cited a newspaper report that more than half the Americans who might have celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary since 2000 were divorced, separated or widowed before reaching that milestone.
"Widowhood is beyond the control of the parties, but divorce and separation are not," President Hinckley commented. "A man and a woman fall in love, as they say; each is wonderful in the sight of the other; they feel romantic affection for no one else; they stretch their finances to buy a diamond ring; they marry. All is bliss — that is, for a while. Then little inconsequential activities lead to criticism. Little flaws are magnified into great torrents of fault-finding; they fall apart, they separate and then with rancor and bitterness they divorce.
"It is the cycle which is repeated again and again in thousands of cases. It is tragic, and, as I have said, it is in most cases the bitter fruit of anger."
President Hinckley said many people make a great fuss of matters of small consequence. "Grudges, if left to fester, can become serious maladies. Like a painful ailment they can absorb all of our time and attention."
He recounted a story by author Guy de Maupassant. "It concerns Master Hauchecome who on market day went to town. He was afflicted with rheumatism, and as he stumbled along he noticed a piece of string on the ground in front of him. He picked it up and carefully put it in his pocket. He was seen doing so by his enemy, the harness maker.
"At the same time it was reported to the mayor that a pocket book containing money had been lost. It was assumed that what Hauchecome had picked up was the pocket book and he was accused of taking it. He vehemently denied the charge. A search of his clothing disclosed only the piece of string, but the slander against him had so troubled him that he became obsessed with it. Wherever he went he bothered to tell people about it. He became such a nuisance that they cried out against him. It sickened him. 'His mind kept growing weaker, and about the end of December he took to his bed.
"He passed away early in January and, in the ravings of (his) death agony, he protested his innocence repeating: 'A little bit of string, a little bit of string. See, here it is Mister Mayor" (Guy de Maupassant, 'The Piece of String,' Short Stories of De Maupassant, 34-38, (1941)).
President Hinckley acknowledged, "Anger may be justified in some circumstances. The scriptures tell us that Jesus drove the moneychangers from the temple saying, 'My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves' (Matthew 21:13). But even this was spoken more as a rebuke than an outburst of uncontrolled anger."
