Thomas County cat., 1886-11-11
CHRISTIAN ANGER.

1t Is Like the Summer Storm, Beginning
with Lightning Flashes But Ending in
Showers of Tears.
Christian anger is without sin. 1t is
anger like that of the Saviour who
wept over Jerusalem though He had
doomed it to destruction. Read what
Mark reports of His interview with the
Pharisees an the synagogue when He
healed the man with the withered
hand. '-And when He had looked
round about on them with anger, be-
ing grieved for the hardness of their
hearts Angry and yet sorry: indig-
nant at their formality and hypocrisy,
yet sad because He loved their souls
and would rather save them than pun
ish them. Such was the Spirit of
Christ toward the chief of sinners, and
such should be ours.
We have two other passages that
teach us what Christ's idea of anger
was. In that beautiful sermon on the
Mount, where He tells us SO much
about mercy and forgiveness, about
turning the other cheek when we are
smitten, He says: ..Whosoever is
angry with his brother without cause
shall be in danger of the Judgment
(Matt v. 22). Why did He put the
words without cause?" If all
anger is wrong those words are super
fiuous and misleading. Do they not
teach that there are circumstances
which justify our being angry even
with a brother? Again, in the parable
of the Great Supper, Christ said, when
the servants returned with the excuses
of the invited guests: ''Then the mas
ter of the house, being angry" The
master here represents the Saviour
Himself. He is angry. justly angry
with those who scorn His love. But
Ills anger does not lead Him to retalia-
ton and revenge. 1t tleads Him to send
out into the highway and hedges for
the poor, the MANNED, the halt and the
blind.
The trouble with our anger is that it
is largely selfish. We experience very
little holy Indignation until some in
justice or insult touches us. Then our
passions are aroused to repel and to
avenge. We nurse the anger. which
in its first instructive upblazing is right,
until it becomes a malevolent passion
until we hate the wrong-doer as well
as the evil deed. 1t is this tendency in
anger to spread like fire until it con-
sumes all that is beautiful, and leaves
dcsolation in its track, of which
Paul warns the Ephesians He writes
to them: Let not the sun 90 down
upon your WRATH Starke saws. the
meaning here is: .'Anger must not be
taken to bed with us, and allowed to
go to sleep with us, lest it become
hatred" If the anger is Godlike, Christ
like. there is no danger of this. Such
anger glows, but it does not burn. We
love our enemies. and would gladly do
good unto them even when we hate
their evil ways, and the more indic-
nant we are with their vices or their
crimes the more anxious we are to save
them. Divine anger-Christian anger
lis like the summer storm. 1t begins
with thunder-pealsr and lightning
flashes. but it ends in showers of tears.
Such anger is'holy. 1t stimulates to
fidelity. A Christian who is never
angry in this world so full of meanness
and malice, of fraud, hypocrisy and
cruelty, is sadly wanting in sympathy
with his Lord. His passionless apathy
is an evidence not of piety and growth
in grace. but of laziness. seltshness
and cowardice. He does not want to
resist evil, like soldier of the cross,
but to be carried in ambulance, in the
rear of the sacramental host. There
is no better evidence of spiritual health
than righteous indignation.-Ihe In
tcriOr.