The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1901-07-05
COMMENDABLE ANGER
Ta1mage on How to Be Angry and
Still Sin Not.
Discriminates Between the Onense
and the Ofender-We Should
Be Indignant mt One and
Pity the Other.
copyright, 1901, by Louis Klopsch. N. VI
Washington.

1
copyright. 1901. by Louis Klopsch. N. VI
| Washington,
| A delicate and difficult duty is by
DR.. Talmage in this discourse urged
upon all, and especially upon those
given to quick temper; text, Ephe-
slams w., 20: BE We angry and sin
not
Equipose of temper, kindness, pa
| thence, forbearance, are eXtOlled by
most of the radiant pens of inspira-
| ton, but my text contains that which
| at first sight is startling. A certain
kind of anger is approved-aye, 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 affront-
ed impulse which we are sorry for
when perhaps it is too late to make
effective apology! Why, then, should
| the apostle Paul dip his pen in the ink
horn and trace upon parchment, after
| ward to be printed upon paper for
all ages, the injunction, Re ye angry
and sin not?"
My text cOmmendS a wholesome in
| dignation. 1t discriminates between
the offense and the offender, the sin
and the sinner, the crime and the
criminal.
To illustrates: Alcoholism has
ruined more fortunes, blasted more
homes, destroyed more souls, than
any evil that L think of. 1t pours
a river of poison and fire through the
nations. Millions have died because
of it, and millions are dying now, and
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old sin. The great Cyrus, writing
to the Lacedemonians of himself,
boosted of many of his qualities,
among others, that he could drink
and bear more wine than his distin-
guished brother. Louis Y. and AL
eXander the Great died drunk. The
parliament of Edinburgh in 1861 is
called in history 1.-The drunken par
lament" Hugh Miller, first stone
mason and afterward a world-re-
nowned geologist, writes of the drink
ing habits of his day, saying: when
the foundation was laid, they drank.
When the walls were leveled for
laying the joists, they drank. When
the building was finished, they drank.
When an apprentice joined, they
drank" In the eighteenth century,
the giver of an entertainment boast
ed that none of the guests went away
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 indignation at the ma
tional and international and hemi-
spheric and planetary curse. 1t is
good to be aroused against it. You
come out of that condition a better
man or a better woman. Be We an
CRY at that abomination, and the
more anger the more eXaltation to
character. But that aroused feeling
becomes sinful when it extends to
the victim of this great evil. Drunk
enness you are to hate with a 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 Frustrated by alcoholism.
Perhaps it came of physicians pre-
scription for the relief of pain, a re-
currence of the pain calling for a
continuance of the remedy; perhaps
the grandfather was an inebriate and
the temptation to inebriety, leaping
over a generation, has swooped on
this unfortunate; perhaps it was I'M
der an attempt to drown trouble that
was sought after; perhaps it was
a very gradual claiming of the man
with the beverage which was thought
to be a servant, when one day it an
nOunced itself master. Be humble
now, and admit that there is a
strong probability that under the
same circumstances you yourself
might have been captured. The two
appropriate emotions for you to al
low are Indignation at the intoXicant
which enthralled and sympathy for
the victim. Try to get the sufferer
out of his present environment; rec
ommend any hygienic relief that you
know of and, above all, implore the
divine rescue for the struggle in
which many of the noblest and
grandest have been worsted. Do not
give yourself up to too many phil
ippics about what the man ought to
have been and ought to have done.
While your cheek Pushes with wrath
at the foe that has brought the ruin,
lcG your eye Dc InOlSUeneu WIN tears
of pity for the sufferer. In that way
you will have fulfilled the Injunction
of the text: BE We angry and sin
not"
There is another evil the abhor-
renee of which you are called to,
and it is on the increase-the gam
bling practice. Recent developments
show that much of this devastation
is being wrought in ladies' parlors.
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 blighting all its way.
I have seen in the archives of the
nation in this national capital large
book in which one of the early pres
idents of the United States kept an
account in his own handwriting of
gains and losses at playing cards
on one page the gains and on the
other the losses, and there are many
pages. In other days many of ma
tionai reputation went from the halls
of congress and the senate chamber
to spend the night in notorious gam
bling saloons. One of the ablest men