Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1905-05-22
Calnage
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talrnaee, D. d.

plea for the establishment of more
brotherly relations among men In pub
lie and private life and for the exercise
of magnanimity in the forgiveness of
our enemies. The text is Ephesians
iv, 20, LEI not the sun go down upon
your wrath
Righteous indignation! An absurd
verbal term, that" says some one
1.-TWO such antithetical words should
never be yoked together. The first is
found in Gods lexicon of honored
names. The second is of Satanic ter
minology Can the Iightnings and the
sunbeams play together in a garden
at the same hour? Can the blackness
Of midnight and the brightness of mid
noon be welded at the same altar? Is
not anger a sin? Is not anger's ebon
featured twin sister, wrath, condemned
again and again in sacred Scripture?
Wrath is cruel, and anger is out
rageous,' is the Solomonic arraignment
of hates evil companions. And yet
here today by this suggestive caption
you are going to talk about twilight
forgiveness as though it was right
sometimes to be angry until sunset.
Why. such a sermonic theme is not
Biblical. 1t is not according to Gods
will. Once let the egg of anger be
incubated by the Satanic fires and the
germs be allowed to live even for a
little while, and before SHUTDOWN those
minute particles of life will grow into
huge, Kissing venomous serpents that
will poison with spiritual death the
hand that nurtures them. Better make
fire in a gunpowder magazine to cook
an evening meal than allow anger to
rest in your heart until the twilight"
wherefore my beloved brethren, let
every man be swift to hear, slow to
speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of
man worketh not the righteousness Of
God"
Anger always a sin? Wrath always
under divine condemnation? Oh, no,
my brother, you are wrong. Righteous
indignation has a right to live by di-
vine commandment Supposing l go
down the street and see a great, burly,
drunken loafer abusing and kicking
little, helpless cripple. If l have the
heart of a man shall not my eyes flash
and mgcheeks flush and my fists clinch
In theprotection of that suffering child?
Didnot Christ in anger drive the mon
ey icIlangers out of the temple? Sup
pdsing 1 should be called to my front
door by a ring of the bell and there
AhouId meet a man who, with cowhide
,A4br club. should begin to beat me and
to koock me down. Must quietly sub
nit to being knocked down? Oh, no.
That is not the gospel. 1t is not Chris
tfantcommon sense I should probably
do as that Sunday school scholar re-
solved whose teacher one day said to
him, "Charley, what does the Bible
teach you to do if one of your little
playmates slapped you on one cheek"
Il would turn to him the other cheek"
said the boy. '"Then what would you
do if he hit you on the other cheekW
.'Then,' said Charley, 81 would hit him
back as hard as l could" Paul says:
'sBe ye angry and sin not. Let not the
sun go down upon your wrath" That
means that there are times when we
have a right to be indignant. There are
times when we have right to strike
back There are times when you and !
must stand up for our rights. We are
not doing justice to others when we al
low others to be unjust to us. But
says my text, "there comes a time
when your anger must cool and wheI
your striking back must cease. Witt
the setting sun you must bear no maj
a hard, bitter or an angry though
or else that anger will do you NOR
spiritual damage than it can ever d.
your adversary" l hope / have mad
myself clear. hope 1 have not dis
.honored God by laying down the broa
premise-easy to be misunderstood
that 1t Is wrong to let others trampl
upon your rights, as it is wrong TO
you to trample upon the rights of 9th
ers.
A Practical Question.
This fact, then, think we may TAX
for granted. Now comes a practica
question, How are you and l goin
to treat those people who have bee
unjust to US in the past? There ar
scores of them who have done u
wrong. At the time we did all W
COuiu lO COuulCIdCl lllo CIVIL ousAl W
continue to bear them grudge? Shal
we continue to be unforgiving and t
bear malice toward them? Oh, nc
Having done our best to counterfeit tn
evil deeds they have done to us, w
should forgive and forget. Let eac
day that is dead bury the injustices O
the past. Twilight forgiveness" 4
the store, In the home, in the church
in our professional careers and on tn
playground and in the schoolroon
May God help me to show you that e,
cry resentment harbored will curse 20
as well as curse your fellow men. Pc.
haps when we attempt to pluck th
notes out of our brothers eyes W
overlook huge beams in our own.
There n so much bad IN the best OF US.
There - 30 much good In the worst OF a
II hardly bebooves any Of rs
To think II OF the rest of Us.
~Au1nv IN ffnolf "a No Gin oroo ,z-rr.