I couldn't find a performance of this hymns, but watch a talk from President Monson called as this hymn, "School thy feelings, O my brother"
1. School thy feelings, O my brother;
Train thy warm, impulsive soul.
Do not its emotions smother,
But let wisdom’s voice control.
School thy feelings; there is power
In the cool, collected mind.
Passion shatters reason’s tower,
Makes the clearest vision blind.
2. School thy feelings; condemnation
Never pass on friend or foe,
Though the tide of accusation
Like a flood of truth may flow.
Hear defense before deciding,
And a ray of light may gleam,
Showing thee what filth is hiding
Underneath the shallow stream.
3. Should affliction’s acrid vial
Burst o’er thy unsheltered head,
School thy feelings to the trial;
Half its bitterness hath fled.
Art thou falsely, basely, slandered?
Does the world begin to frown?
Gauge thy wrath by wisdom’s standard;
Keep thy rising anger down.
4. Rest thyself on this assurance:
Time’s a friend to innocence,
And the patient, calm endurance
Wins respect and aids defense.
Noblest minds have finest feelings;
Quiv’ring strings a breath can move;
And the gospel’s sweet revealings
Tune them with the key of love.
5. Hearts so sensitively molded
Strongly fortified should be,
Trained to firmness and enfolded
In a calm tranquility.
Wound not willfully another;
Conquer haste with reason’s might;
School thy feelings, sister, brother;
Train them in the path of right.
School thy feelings, train thy soul when it's warm and impulsive, Let wisdom and not emotions control. It is normal that our feelings, impulsions and emotions might be those of a soul that has been hurt, offended, frustrated, hopeless, sad, overwhelmed, angry, exhausted, and other negative feelings/impulsions/emotions. But we don't have to let them govern. We have the capacity to control and teach ourselves to react in a positive way instead of letting the natural man in us taking over. We are promised that we can put away that natural man, which mean that this is something completely possible. President Monson taught: "To be angry is to yield to the influence of Satan. No one can make us angry. It is our choice. If we desire to have a proper spirit with us at all times, we must choose to refrain from becoming angry. I testify that such is possible."
It is so easy to get caught in those impulsions. Sometimes they are founded on true facts, some other times on misunderstandings or on mistakes. I believe that most of the times our anger is unfounded, we suppose things, we believe something someone else say, we judge quickly, not knowing what exactly happened. Don't we look dumb when we make a big drama or something unfounded, to then discover that we were wrong or that it was an accident or unwanted mistake? It is much better to school our feelings, to hear defense, to calm down, and to talk patienly of what happened.
Schooling our feelings is even harder when we are right, when we are truly being the target of emotional attacks, of abuse, of mockery, of gossip, or when we see people not doing things as they should, not following for example church instrunctions on the manual, or causing contention among members of a family or a ward. It is really hard to accept those situations and to keep our calm, not complaining, not geting mad, frustrated. But even in those circumstances, we must leave the natural man behind. As President Monson said, falling in the trap of anger is to yield to the influence of Satan. Although other make mistakes, do we really want to yield to the influence of Satan. Is it really worth it?
"Noblest minds have finest feelings". That's the kind of mind and feeling we must have! We are not simple animals following our instincts - We are CHILDREN OF GOD, with godly attributes in us waiting to be developped and used! We have to potential to become gods, but how would we if we get angry so easily. Remember the Christ. He was persecuted, he was betrayed, he was mocked, he was crucified. All because he was living a perfect life, leaving us an example, and he was trying to accomplish a mission to be able to save us. What did he do? "Forgive them; for they know not what they do". If he, who suffer more than any of us in earth, was willing to forgive, why not us? Of course we are not perfect as he was, but we have that potential in us, so we must at least try, do an effort to avoid anger control our lives. Instead, we must use widom, patience, understanding, calm tranquility, love. By doing our best to do that, we might avoid worse circumstance, and receive more blessings for trying to be like Jesus.
I am not saying it is easy and that I never let Satan win; but the more we try, the more we practice Christlike attributes, the more we desire to have the pure love of Christ in us, the more we can have the ability to remain calm, and this ability help us to solve many of those misunderstandings, and to remain "in the path of right".
Watch this extract from Music and the Spoken Word about anger.
Scriptures
Alma 38:12
"Use boldness, but not overbearance; and also see that ye bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love; see that ye refrain from idleness."
Bridle your passions, be filled with love towards those who might offend us. When we let anger that over, we are being idle, we are not making the effort that is needed to love others and to solve problems righteously.
Proverbs 16:32
"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city."I love this! Can you see the power of schooling our feelings? There truly is power in the cool, collected mind.
About the author:
Charles William Penrose (4 February 1832 – 16 May 1925) was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints(LDS Church) from 1904 to 1911. Penrose was also a member of the First Presidency of the church under church presidents Joseph F. Smith and Heber J. Grant from 1911 until his death.
Penrose was born in London, England. It is said that he learned to read the Bible by the age of four. Penrose was introduced to the LDS Church and baptized at the age of eighteen on 14 May 1850, in London. (1)
Charles W. Penrose was called as a missionary not long after his baptism in England. A decade later as he was finishing his missionary labors and preparing to emigrate to Utah Territory, he noted, “A sort of quiet slander had been circulated concerning me in Birmingham by an elder from Zion and it had cut me to the quick.”
When he had moved to head the Birmingham Conference, he had taken family furniture and other belongings with him and had used them to furnish the office.
It was intimated by one of the Elders from Zion that I was endeavoring to lay claim to the property that belonged to the Birmingham Conference… I had labored then over ten years in the ministry, most of the time as traveling elder, literally without purse or scrip. I started that way and had continued, suffering a great many hardships and difficulties and trials that I need not refer to now, and this touched me right to the heart. I did not know how to bear it.
He continued:
I did not care how much I might be scandalized by enemies of the Church; I had become accustomed to that. I used to say that my hide had got as tough as a hippopotamus; I did not care what an enemy said about me.
But when an elder in the Church did that it cut me to the heart, and I felt like retaliating. But I sat down and wrote that little poem, “School thy feelings, O my brother, Train thy warm, impulsive soul,” and so on. And that was for me.
I did not intend it for anybody else, but it was giving a little counsel to myself.
Penrose’s little poem was shared and shared again and became widely circulated in the Church. “President Brigham Young…later told [an author] that he had it read to him several times when he had a deputy marshal guarding him in his house.” (2)
You can learn more about his life on the Mormon Channel.
