Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 271, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1911 — Christian Art of Getting Mad By Rev. INGRAM E. HILL" [ARTICLE]

Christian Art of Getting Mad

By Rev. INGRAM E. HILL"

Yanar «f Nortk Shore Baptist Cbardi. OifT

TEXT—Be y« angry and sin not.— IV ’* It is a great thing to know how t®> get real angry without making a fool of one’s self. Not everybody knows, how to do It It io an accomplished! art, the ability to get mad ifite a gentieman/ To know when to get angry? is a criterion of character. It is an. accomplishment which is not learned in the schools. It Is acquired in the relentless training of practical experience. It is not a sin to get angry. Any man with half an ounce of ginger in his system ought to get angry occasionally. Temper is the impress of God upon the soul. It is the mark of personality and intellectual stamina. The scriptures say that God is angry with the wicked every day. Jesus got angry. Can you not see him standing at the temple door? Can you not see the market scenes which were enacted there? Can you not see his eyes kindle? Can you not see his illujnined countenance blaze fierce and glorious? Can you not see the miraculous energy of his personality as he cast out all them that sold and; bought in the temple and said Unto, them: ‘My house shall be called a? house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.* Christianity is something more than, a religion of love. Jqsus said: ‘I came not to send peace, but a sword.’ Passivity may be all right for weaklings, but action is the birthright of heroes. The man who tries to be sweet with everybody will find some day that he is nothing but a lemon. It is very easy, however, to get angry foolishly. Sometimes it is proper to get angry, and sometimes it is not It may be proper at times for a: man to get angry with th<s. janitor. It may be proper at times for a. manto get angry with the umpire. It*

may be proper at times for a map get angry with the family upstairs. But it is never, never proper for a man to get angry with his Wife. There is many a man who will say nasy things to his wife that he . would not think of saying to his chauffeur. Temper is good. A bad temper Is what you have made of a good thing. A rifle is a good thing in good bands. But when it has become rusted and out of repair it Is going to explode some day in the hands of some cheerful idiot who did not know it was loaded. If your temper gets the best of you what you need is to go off to the repair shop and be made over. These fits of temper, this sour disposition, this iceberg atmosphere, this spiteful spirit are as contrary to the Christian as light is opposed to darkness. Tell me, what do you get mad about? That is the practical question. A man calls you a liar and you retort in similar language. But men are making God a liar every day and you do not get angry. Wherever there are wrongs to be righted, wherever there are evils to be trampled under foot, wherever there is Justice to be meted out, wherever there is iniquity in high places or low, there is your opportunity to show of what stuff you are made. Somebody treads on your corn and you get mad at him. This very night a courtly and attractive son* of perdition will lure a girt in her teens to one of the winerooms of this prodigal city. Re will give to her a drink that will inflame every passion and deaden every moral sense. He will lead her forth to her ruin and laugh like a devil over the havoc he has wrought. If you are going to get angry, in God’s name get angry at,something worth while. Wa are tn the midst here of a society which is fond of wine and joy rides and clandestine flirtations. A society that is rotten to the core. Gilded resorts or doubtftil character flaunt their disregard of high morality Fiends in human shape are stalking the streets and outrages are committed at our very doors. There Is a time to be angry. There is a time for Christian men to speak out, and that time is now. When the good people wake from their lethargy and begin to tackle something that Is really worth their mettle, then shall right be triumphant and justice win the day. . '