The Goodland republic., 1907-03-22
> V. c. T. z. COLUMN. =
A LENTEN SERMON.


son. pastor OF Broadway Tabernacle,
New York;
shan speak 10 you about the in
/ dignatiOn OF Jesus; the anger. the
scorn- The study OF his character
! would not be complete Il we did not
i put this down as one Of his most char
I acteristic traits Possibly, It may come
/ to you with something like surprise
I TO hear that there should be a com
! pleL element in his character. We
/ have always thought OF him as the
I Lamb OF Cod as gentle, and love to
I think Of him as being tender, very
merciful and very loving Therefore,
/ because that has been said OF his na-
ture. to which your attention has been
most frequently called in sermons, in
tracts, in books, you have possibly
overlooked certain other phrases such
as the Lion Of the tribe OF judah" ="
and wrath Of the Lamb and other
things which we shall note.
We had better revise our notion Of
what an ideal character is IL we have
allowed the element Of anger to drop
out Of it The StOics would not allow
anger a legitimate place, but they~did
not understand.
They made q great mistake in for
getting that anger is one OF the sinews
Of the soul; that anger is a passion
created by God. As Plutarch says, It
IS zone OF tFIe wings by means OF
which the sa Ills OF the soul are filled,
driving it on towards its destined har-
bOr." And IL you viii look deep, I
think, we viii shall discover that
anger and love must always go to-
gether. 70 u cannot have perfect love
without a. tremendous capacity for
anger Wr apped up in the passion OF
love lies al so this passion OF indigna-
ton For instance, here is a lover in
love with a certain maiden, towards
whom his love goes out in great tides
OF affection Now, suppose some enc
my comes along and attacks her, does
her wrong, what viii the heart Of the
lover do 2 Blaze. He is no lover IL
he does not blaze. Take another IL
lustratiO- a; a mother and her child.
She love her hid; loves it as only a
mother { wan love her child And some
friend omes along and tempts her
boy; ten lDts him to do wrong; leads
him astr ay. What viii the mother dc?
VIII sh6 oe calm, placid? Never; not
II she Il ives. If she loves her heart
viii DART out Iightnings. There is
nothing 50 hot as love, and just in pro-
portion as we love goodness we viii
also hate that which is not good
If we loved goodness with our whole
burn o ut against the outrages OF Or
time. How difficult it is to find hearts
that 'olaz with Indignation On the
contrary men smile and laugh and
think it is a good joke Why, don't
you know that just in proportion as
man loves wickedness he hates good
ness2 IN st the reverse is also true. IF
they love goodness they hate wicked
ness
We shall never clear the atmos-
phere Of America until we get this in
dignatiCln which burned suoremely in
the heart OF Jesus. No man ever
hated a s he did, or grew SO indignant
as he grew, or hurled such thunder
bolts as he hurled. You have missed
the SOS pei if you have missed that
fact This makes the gospel glOri-
us.
It was not because they did not lis
ten to him that Jesus was indignant
No; when people misused him ne was
very gentle; when they lied about him
he wasi very kind, when they killed
him on the cross ne said: Father,
forgive them; they know no what they
do" That was the way he treated
people who misused him. "Rut when
he looked in the face Of a little child
this is what he said: ''VhOsoever
causes one Of these little ones to
stumble-tO go astray, to sin-iJ were
better for him that a milestone were
hanging around his neck and he were
cast into the dephs Of the sea- That
is the difference lis indignation is
caused by wrong done to others, to
little children, to poor people. to igno-
rant people; people beWildered and
trying to find their way to God; the
wrong done to Gods people stirred
him and his soul blazed with indigna-
50 gentle rendered his Indignation all /
the more terrible.
And now what does all this have to /
do with our conception Of God? 1t /
has much to do with it. There are a /
great many Of US, I'm afraid, who /
have never got the right conception /
Of the Almighty, because we have been ]
so imperfect in our conception Of Je-
sUs OF Nazareth. The wrath Of the Il
Lamb is q phrase that ought to be \
often in our minds and hearts.
There is something superb in the
New Testament, in the way in which I
the lines are run straight All bad 1
men come at last to grief; all injus-
tice is some day punished; all ingrat-
itude and irreverence is some day
overwhelmed with shame. That is the
New Testament; nothing habby, moth
ing soft, but everything fine and true
You feel when you read the book, that
there is q heaven and that God is on !
his throne, and that bad men, wicked N
men, dishonest men, impure men are N
outside the city whose gates are pearl
and whose streets are gOld--The Ad- m