The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-01-26
The Divine Art of Getting Angry.

and expediency and self-interest have
so long dominated the counsel of our
safe and serene land that there has
been real danger that the nobler moral
qualities would be atrophied. Business,
which is always tinnid and craven and
compromiser, has so long been our
chief interest that it has threatened
us with worse form of paralysis than
that about which the press said SO
much last summer. Now, in the high
timeliness of Providence, there has
been apportioned to US this Interna-
tional Sunday school lesson which
shows Jesus, with a scourge of cords
in His hand. flaming with holy wrath,
discretion cast to the winds and utter
ing the biting words of a man virile
enough to show indignation.
Gentle as she who nursed Thee at her
breast
yet what a lash of lightnings once Thy
To scourge the hypocrite and Pharisee D.
Nerve Thou mine arm, o meek, mighty
Champion Of all who fail, 1 fly to Thee!
Chaste as the virginia. lily on her stem,
Yet in each hot, full pulse, each tropic
More filled with feeling than the flow'r
with sun:
No anchorite,-hale, sinewy, warm with
I come in youths high tide of bliss to
Thee.
This sublime figure of the angry
Christ is needed to put spine and spi-
rit into a land and day threatened
with nervelessness. Only this morn
ing a friend who has Just ended a
slow, careful and painstaking quest
from the Atlantic to the Pacific and
back again. and from Mexico to the
Canadian border, gave it to me as his
sober verdict that most of the people
in America are not greatly interested
in the war. or in the supreme moral is
sues involved in it. Their chief con-
Germ is that the United States should
be kept out of the war; and the west,
he added, is a bit resentful that it has
not shared in the war profits which
have been so richly harvested by the
east. OF deep passion over anything
connected with the war-the Staying
of the Armenians, for instance-this
man found none.
In social and political and CONNER
cial life we confess to finding a cynical
indifference to moral considerations.
The political corruptionist is a club
fellow and personal friend of the emf
nent churchman, and sure of his vote.
The notorious roue finds few men re-
fusing his hand. In many social cir
cles it is no impeachment to have had
a checkered career of scandal and di-
vorce. The financial crook and the
industrial oppressor lose none of their
luster as leading citizens" Politics
of a disreputable kind may ensconce
itself even in the highest places of the
church. but nobody minds enough to
| attack it openly.
Wanted: The Man With a Scourge.
All of which implies that there is
need today for a visit of the Spirit
of the Christ with whip of cords.
| Our youth should be taught the
Christlikeness of righteous indigna-
ton. Nobody is following in the
train of the Strong Son of God. who
| is not able and quick to express abb
horrence of evil-even concrete evil
| that would menace His own welfare.
Gods cause calls for good haters, to
whom sin and injustice and oppres-
| sion are odious. 1t is said of a GER
tain New England Christian that
when a notorious apostle of free love
appeared at his door one day he cried
out, BE gone. I abhor you! 1 alb
/ hor your Nowadays we would call
that shocking bad FORM even as all
| the correct Jews of our Lords day
stood aghast and reproving at His
outburst of indignation against the
temple grafters, when He drove them
from the sacred courts.
| Not long ago a printed criticism of
Philadelphia's men of the old fami-
lies and select social circles was made
| to the effect that they possess the
most charming manners in America
and count for least in the life of
their community. They have polish,
but no punch. Their famous urban
ity is not disturbed by the fact that
they live in a city and state notorious
for its shameless political corruption
and debauchery. Something of the
same sort of malformation of the
moral motors aff1icts a multitude OF
other persons, irrespective of geo.
graphical lines. Breaches of form
offend them more deeply than
breeches of Gods law.
We talk about the gentleness OF
Jesus: and we pass over the fact that
He was Gods great champion OF
right, who battled for truth clear uI
to the crest of Calvary. He was per
feet gentlemen-and showed by His
dauntless daring amid the traff1ckers
in the temple that He possessed the
courage which is a first quality OF
every gentleman.
In this spectacle of the blazing
eyed Jesus, driving before Him the
sacrilegious merchants like fright
Iened sheep, there is no warrant for the
infantile practice of getting mad
over trifles that displease US. Get
ting mad and righteous indignation
are very distant relatives indeed. A
Christian and a gentleman is not ex-
pected to 'lose his temper; he keep:
it for use on proper occasions
An Echo of Oberammergau.
Seven years ago 1 saw the won
derful Passion Play at Oberammer
gau, and it was a spiritual expert
ence New light was shed upon the
life of Christ for me by that drama
as enacted by those Bavarian peas
ants. Never before had l seen Sc
clearly the relation between the driv.
ing out of the money-exchanger
-
The big business of His day, who's,
enmity He incurred by that act
never let up on Jesus until it hat
slain Him. All thru the play the sin
lister plottings of Pharisee, priest ant
business man, against the Reformel
who had dared attack a vested inter
est ran like a thread of black; unit
ha tot tn