make even the slightest exertion towards a filial trust for deliverance, or an humble wish to be resigned? And yet how multiplied are the passages of Holy Writ which enjoin and encourage the important lesson. :"The Lord, He it is that doth go before thee; He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed."*"The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms."+"Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord, mercy embraceth him on every side."‡ "The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord, shall be safe." "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee."|| Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may. exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you."¶ 66 Another argument urged on the behalf of anger is, that it is necessary as an impelling spring of action in the case of rulers, governors, teachers, and masters; and that without anger, authority would lose its power, and the abhorrence due to sin, and the readiness to * Deut. xxxi. 8. || Isaiah, xxvi. 3. + Deut. xxxiii. 27. Prov. xxix. 25. ¶ 1 Peter, v. 6, 7. meet and correct error, and the care to create and keep up exertion in the young, would each lose its best stimulant. But can this inference be made, in any degree, compatible with Scripture, or with our own experience and observation? The whole tenor of Scripture seems entirely at variance with it: "He that hath no rule over his own spirit, is like a city that is broken down, and without walls."* And we know that anger justified and indulged upon principle, very speedily becomes thus and habitually unsubdued. "A soft answer turneth away wrath : but grievous words stir up anger."+"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city."+" He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly."§ And we are most expressly told that one characteristic mark of the great and essential virtue of Christian charity is, that it "is not easily provoked." Moses, too, a man pure and holy before God, was punished for the expression of anger against the Israelites' sin. "They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips."|| + Prov. xv. 1. § Prov. xiv. 17. * Prov. xxv. 28. But what, moreover, is the experience of all mankind upon this important subject? Is it not that the business of rule and government, the task of instruction, of reproof, of correction, ever proceed with reciprocal profit in exact proportion as the passion of anger has been made to yield to the peaceful and better feelings of a subdued spirit? Do we not ever find that the kindlier, yet equally firm exercise of a calm and unruffled temper gives weight to authority, and efficacy to precept, reproof, and punishment, which violence, of any kind, seldom or never can permanently secure? The child, the servant, or the subject, who is hardened against punishment, and unimpressed by instruction and reproof from the angry man, is oftentimes subdued into real respect and voluntary obedience, when the influence of authority is used with gentleness and self-control. These are the chief grounds upon which those who think anger an unforbidden thing, rest their opinion. Other arguments, perhaps, of a lighter kind, they might also urge: such as, the necessity of strong mental susceptibility, very nearly approaching to anger, for great enterprize and splendid achievements; the very existence of the passion in the human mind, and the examples of great characters among men distinguished for their public use fulness to their fellow-creatures. But all these, in their excess, and when considered apart from the supreme care of the soul and attention to spiritual things, savour too much of earth and the interests of time; they all mount in the balance when put against those weightier concerns, of which the Redeemer Himself pronounced the infinite superiority: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteThat kingdom we all know not to be of this world; and they who would suggest the indulgence of any natural feeling for the sake of securing the power and grandeur of this life, can scarcely be accounted to have yet well considered and applied the immeasurable distinction between what is of time, and what is of eternity. ousness. But besides this kind of reasoning it hath been also said, that we have examples of anger in Holy Writ, related, too, without any mark of disapprobation; and that most especially we have the instance (with reverence be it spoken!) of the holy Jesus Himself, as under the justifiable influence of that feeling. With respect to the saints of old who are stated as having been subject to any sin or human infirmity, there need only to be remembered, that they were most manifestly "men of like passions" with ourselves; that their failings are written, not as an excuse for sin, or for our imitation, but for our warning against sin, and instruction in righteousness; that as they fell through temptation and natural corruption, so may we fall; that as they repented, were renewed and pardoned upon repentance and amendment, so will God also pardon and restore us, upon our repentance and forsaking the sin. In the case of human passions and infirmities, ascribed to God Himself in His dealings towards mankind, it must be very clear, that it can only be done in condescension to our weak understandings; that the measure and way of God's government over us may be signified in such terms only as the human mind, as yet conversant with human imagery and earthly things, can fully and practically comprehend. This applies to God, in whatever character He be revealed to us-whether as the great and eternal Jehovah, or in His more mysterious character of "God in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." If, then, the holy Jesus be described in the sacred history of His life as manifesting at any time a feeling of what we all understand by the name of anger, we are quite certain that it must have been wholly apart from every thing resembling the human passion of anger, if, as it has been stated, the passion be in itself sinful. It must not be inferred that because, in describ |
