Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-07-05
CONTROL YOUR TEMPER.
DR.. Talmage in His Discourse Urges a
Delicate Duty Upon Those Given
to Quick Temper.
Sins That We Should Be Angry With
Pity the Sinner.
tCopyright 1901.

ICopyriEht 1901
WASHINGTON, D. CA delicate and
difficult duty is by DR.. Talmage in this
discourse urged upon all and especially
upon those given to quick temper; text,
Ephesians Nv, 26, "Be We angry and sin
hot"
Equipoise of temper, kindness, patience,
forbearance, are extolled by most of the
radiant pens of inspiration, but my text
contains that which at first sight is start
ing. A certain kind of anger is approved;
ave, we are commanded to indulge in it.
The most of us have no need to cultivate
high temper, and how often we say
things and do things under affronted i'm
pulse which we are sorry for when per
haps it is too late to make effective apol-
pgy! Why, then, should the apostle Paul
Hip his pen in the ink horn and trace
Upon paper for all ages, the injunction,
BE We angry and sin not"
My text commends wholesome indig-
cation. 1t discriminates between the Of
ence and the offender, the sin and the
inner, the crime and the criminal.
To illustrate, alcoholism has ruined
Nore fortunes, blasted more homes, de-
troyed more souls than any evil that
Ihink Of. 1t pours a river of poison and
ire through the nations. Millions have
iied because of it, and millions are dying
bw, and others will die, Intemperance is
N old sin. The great Cyrus, writing to
me Lacedemonians of himself, boosted of
hany of his qualities, among others that
Se could drink and bear more wine than
lis distinguished brother. Louis X. and
Alexander the Great dice drink. The
Parliament of Edinburgh in 1861 is called
" history 'the drunken Parliament"
-Fugh Miller, first stonemason and after
Yard world renowned geologist, writes
of the drinking habits of his day, saying:
when the foundation was laid, they
drank. When the walls were leveled for
laying, they drank. When the building
was finished, they drank. When an APP
prentice joined, they drank In the
tainment boosted that none of the guests
went home sober. Noah, the first ship
captain, was wrecked not in the ark, for
that was safely landed, but he was wrecked
With strong drink Every man or woman
rightly constructed will blush with indig-
nation at the national and international
and hemisphere and planetary curse. 1t
is good to be aroused against it. You
come out of that condition a better man
or better woman. BE We angry at that
abomination, and the more anger the more
exaltaton to character But that aroused
feeling becomes sinful when it extends to
the victim of this great evil. Drunken
ness YOU are to hate with vivid hatred,
but the drunkard you are to pity, to help
to eXtricate.
Just take into consideration that there
are men and women who once were as
upright as yourself who have been pros.
trated by alcoholism. Perhaps 1t came OF
physicians prescription for the relief OF
pain, a recurrence OF the pain calling Tor
a continuance of the remedy. Perhaps
the grandfather was an inebriate, and the
temptation to inebriety, leaping over
generation, has swooped on this unfortu,,
nate. Perhaps it was very gradual
claiming of the man with the beverage
which was thought to be a servant, When
one day it announced itself master. Be
humble now, and admit that there Is
strong probability that under the same
circumstances. you yourself might nave
been captured. The two appropriate emo
tions for YOU to allow are indignation at
the intoxicant which enthralled and SYM
pathy for the victim. Try to get the suf-
ferer out of his present environment.
Recommend any hygienic relief that you
know of, and, above all, implore the d.
vine rescue for the struggle in which so
many of the noblest and grandest have
been worsted. Do not give yourself up to
too many ,philippics about what the fnan
ought to have been and ought to have
done While your cheek fushes with
wrath at the foe that has brought the
ruin. let your eye be mositened with tears
of pity for the sufferer. In that way you
will have fulfilled the INDUCTION of the text,
"Be We angry and sin not"
There is another evil the adherence OF
which you are all called to, and it is on
the increase-the gambling practice. Re
cent developments show that much OF this
devastation is being wrought in ladies
pariors. 1t is an evil which sometimes is
as polite and gracious as it is harmful.
Indeed there never were so many people
trying to get money without earning it.
But it is a haggard transgression that
comes down to us from the past, bhghtinq
all its way.
| have seen in the archives of the nation
in this national capital large book IN
which one of the early Presidents of the
United States kept an account in his own
handwriting of gains and losses at play
ing cards, on one page the gains and on
the other the losses, and there are many
pages. In other days many of nationa'
reputation went from the halls of Con.
gress and the Senate chamber to spend
the night in notorious gambling saloons.
In Spain don lost in twentyfour hours
what equals Sl2O00,00O. Twenty years
ego it was estimated that the average
gambling exchange of money throughout
OHIlSJtUuOlH tACttuSu SlZO,lUU,UUO,UOO q
year. but statistics twenty years ago would
BE tame compared with the present stats
tics if we could find any one able enough
st figures to tabulate them. 1t is all the
same spirit of gambling whether the in
struments are cards or the clicking chips
or the turning wheel or the bids of the
Stock Exchange, where people sell what
they never owned and fail because they
cannot &C. paid for it. A prominent
barker tells Inc that he thinks $4,000 peo
pie were financially Frustrated by the re-
there case is reported, but the vast ma
iority suffer in silence. The children are
brought home from school, the wardrobe
viii be denied repenishment; the table
viii have scant supply; wild generosity
Mil lie turned into grim want. Forty
gears from now will be felt the disaster
Of last months black Thursday.
But, while you are hotly indignant
against the crime how do you feel about
did not know that their small boat was so
near the maelstrom. Some of them were
born with q tendency to recklessness and
experiment and hazard. They inherited
a disposition to tempt chance. DO not
heap on them additional discouragements
DO not deride their losses. Help them to
start again. Show them that there are
more fortunes to be gained than have yet
been gathered. and that with God for
their friend they will be provided for
here, and through the Saviour's mercy
they may reign forever in the land where
there are no losses and infinite gains.
While you may redden in the face at the
fact that gambling is the disgraceful moth
CT of multtudious crimes, of envies, .jeal-
ousies, revenges, quarrels, cruelties, false
hoods, forgeries, suicides, murders and de-
spair, be careful what you say to the vic
tim of the vice and what YOU do. He
needs more sympathy than the man who
came up from inebriety and debauch and