pitied or despised by those about him; and for the time, is hardly entitled to the rank of rational beings. It is much the same with him who is intoxicated with passion. Such a man cannot gain much influence over any but those who are necessarily his dependents. He may frighten his children or his servants; but, if his eyes were open, he might easily see that, while he tramples on those who cannot resist him, he is not revered for his virtue, but dreaded or despised for his brutality; and that he lives only to excite the contempt or hatred of society. He that has his hand against every man, need not wonder if every man's hand is against him. He lives in a state of war with mankind, as he is destitute of that meekness which is the cement of society, that love which is the bond of perfectness, that charity which covers a multitude of sins. In the present state of imperfection, mutual allowances are necessary to mutual usefulness. Without such allowances, variance, strife, and contention, will keep us perpetually at a distance from each other; and prevent us both from doing good to our fellow-creatures, and receiving good from them."

4. Anger usually makes a rapid progress. It resembles the torrent which rushes on with increasing impetuosity down a steep descent, spreading terror and devastation around. At first it may be only like "the letting out of

water;" but it soon acquires a heedless and resistless power. This idea is conveyed in the twelfth verse, "The king was angry, and very furious." He kindled as the debate proceeded, and he was wrought into incipient madness, as his will, however unreasonable, was counteracted. It is often found, that the less an angry man is in the right, the more enraged does he become.

5. Anger is productive of great unhappiness. Sometimes intemperate passion has led its victim to do a deed of mischief in one hour, or even in a single moment, which years have not been able to repair; and for the perpetration of which, the man himself, when reason has resumed her influence, has bitterly, but hopelessly repented. The inward disquiet to which it gives birth, the self-lacerations it inflicts, and the general desecration of character it occasions by its effect upon other habits of mind and thought, it would be difficult adequately to describe; but, on the other hand, the serenity and elevation of that spirit which is under due regulation, is beautifully depicted by a heathen moralist; "The upper and better ordered part of the world next the stars, is driven together into no cloud, hurried into no tempest, never tossed about in any whirlwind, but is ever free from any thing of tumult. Only the inferior regions throw about thunders and lightnings. So is

the sublime mind always quiet, in a state of undisturbed tranquillity, sober, venerable, and composed."

6. Anger is a most guilty passion. The pleas which the passionate man sometimes urges after a paroxysm of rage, and not unfrequently insinuates even at the moment, in extenuation of its violence, are merely the subterfuges of a mind conscio us, yet not willing to confess that it is in error.

But no provocation can justify such intemperate sallies. How disgraced, and how criminal does he appear, whatever his station, whose wrathful explosions alike wound the sensibilities of love, sever the bonds of friendship, and violate the decorum of society! Anger is denounced in the New Testament as one of the "works of the flesh." The late eminent Robert Hall, after adverting to the declarations of Scripture against the indulgence of the irascible and malignant feelings, adds: "Vindictive passions surround the soul with a sort of turbulent atmosphere, than which nothing can be conceived more opposite to that calm and holy light in which the blessed Spirit loves to dwell."

Unquestionably there are occasions, as some have pleaded, when anger is lawful; as, when it is employed against our own sins, the vices of others, the disorders found in the house of God, and the irregularities of

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our own families. The more appropriate appellation, however, in these instances, would perhaps be displeasure; meaning to express thereby a state of mind which supposes the exercise of judgment, in contradistinction to that which obviously precludes it.

With the New Testament in our hands, we cannot fail of perceiving the importance of a due regulation of the temper, to attest and to exemplify personal religion. Does not Christianity require that in this, as well as in other respects, we should differ from others, and "do more" than they? Ought we not constantly to represent to ourselves the "meekness and gentleness" of him whom we profess to love and to imitate; and whose example benignly irradiates every page of the evangelical narratives? His displeasure, indeed, was strongly manifested against flagrant impiety or base principle; but how exemplary were his forbearance, kindness, endurance of contradiction, and patience in suffering! With what a softened effulgence did his majesty shine through his meekness! In one instance, it is true, when the Pharisees endeavored to find an occasion of preferring an accusation against him, on the ground of his healing on the Sabbath-day," he looked round about on them with anger;" but he must possess little discrimination in reading the sacred narrative, who does not perceive the charac

ter of this display of feeling, as it is immediately intimated in the words, "being grieved for the hardness of their hearts." At another time, when "Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting," he drove them out, expostulated with these mercenary traders, and virtually chastised those of higher station by whom they were countenanced; but his solemn remonstrance, “make not my father's house a house of merchandize," evinces the motive of his proceeding, and its character is more than justified in the prophecy to which his disciples adverted," the zeal of thine house hath eaten. me up." Let, however, the entire life of our Lord be regarded in evidence that he was as far superior to the petty resentments, the mean jealousies, the unworthy passions of our nature, as the heavens are above the earth; nay more, that in all that is pure in principle, ennobling in character, and heavenly in spirit, he has left us an example, " that we should follow his steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously."