One self-approving hour whole years outweighs And more true joy Marcellus exiled feels, The friendship of the world is enmity with God.James, iv. 4. He that hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal. John, xii. 25. Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world (2 Tim. iv. 10.), in conformity with our Lord's warning in the parable of the sower. See Matt. xiii. 22. This world is full of unrighteousness.-2 Esdras, iv. 27. The whole world lieth in wickedness.-1 John, v. 19. Infra lunam nihil est nisi mortale. Mortalis mundus.- Cicero. CONCLUSION. THEME LXXXI. Anger is temporary Madness. INTRODUCTION. 1ST REASON. Because the mind in anger is beyond the control of reason and judgment. 2ND REASON. It is infatuated with an insane passion. 3RD REASON.-Many unreasonable things are done, and words spoken in anger, which can be referred only to the hallucination of temporary derangement. 4TH REASON. The world, and even the law, in some measure, deals with a man in anger as if he were non compos mentis. 5TH REASON. Even the angry man himself will consider it sufficient apology for the most unseemly blow or word to say, "He did not mean it; it was done or said in a passion." 6TH REASON. Both the angry and the insane exhibit the following symptoms, which prove the two diseases to be analogous : (1.) A pulse high and feverish. (2.) Eyes restless, staring, and glistening. (3.) Skin hot and dry. (4.) Hair bristling and dishevelled. (5.) Speech rapid, inarticulate, and irrelevant. (9.) Hands unquiet and contracted. SIMILES.-A man in anger is like a chariot without a driver; or a ship in a storm without a pilot. Anger is like a ruin, which breaks itself upon what it falls. Seneca. An angry man may be compared to a tornado; Or to a conflagration. Passionate men, like fleet hounds, overrun the scent. An angry man may be likened to a scorpion, which stings itself as well as others; Or to a raging fever, in which the mind of the patient wanders, and his limbs are convulsed. Anger, like a wild horse, overthrows its rider. HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. QUOTATIONS.-Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous. -Prov. xxvii. 4. An angry man is beside himself. Anger is the weakness of the understanding.-Maunder's proverbs. A passionate man rides a horse that runs away with him. Maunder's proverbs. Anger begins with folly, and ends with repentance.Maunder's proverbs. An angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes.Cato. Rage is the maniac of the mind.-Maunder's proverbs. A passionate man scourgeth himself with his own scorpions. Ray's proverbs. The maxim which Periander of Corinth, one of the seven sages of Greece, left as a memorial of his knowledge and benevolence, was xoλov кратε (Вe master of thy anger).-Dr. Johnson, Anger is certainly a kind of baseness, as it appears well in the weakness of those subjects in whom it reigns, children, old folks, sick folks.-Lord Bacon. A passionate man is a downright drunkard.-Spanish proverb. When passion enters at the foregate, wisdom goes out at the postern.-Fielding's proverbs. Anger and haste hinder good counsel.-Fielding's proverbs. No man is free who does not command himself.Pythagoras. An angry man is again angry with himself when he returns to reason.-Publius Syrus. These shall the fury Passions tear, The vultures of the mind.-Gray. Iratus ab insano non nisi tempore distat.-Cato the Elder. Insania omnes nos habet, cum irascimur.-Philemon. Quidam a sapientibus viris iram dixerunt brevem insaniam: æque enim impotens sui est, decoris oblita, necessitudinum immemor, in quod cœpit pertinax et intenta, ratione cosniliisque præclusa, vanis agitata causis, ad dispectum æqui verique inhabilis, ruinis simillima, quæ super id quod oppressere franguntur.-Seneca. Ut furentium certa indicia sunt, audax et minax vultus, tristis frons, torva facies, citatus gradus, inquietæ manus, color versus, crebra et vehemens acta suspiria; ita irascentium eadem signa sunt. . . . Flagrant et micant oculi, multus ore toto rubor, exæstuante ab imis præcordiis sanguine, labia quatiuntur, dentes comprimuntur, horrent ac subriguntur capilli, spiritus coactus ac stridens, articulorum se ipsos torquentium sonus, gemitus, mugitusque: et parum explanatis vocibus sermo præruptus, et complosæ sæpius manus, et pulsata humus pedibus, et totum conatum corpus, magnasque minas agens, fœda visu et horrenda facies depravantium se atque intumescentium.— Seneca. Præ iracundia non sum apud me. CONCLUSION. THEME LXXXII. Be merciful. INTRODUCTION..... 1ST REASON.-Because we have all sinned, and come short of the glory of God.-Rom. iii. 23. See also Ps. xiv. 1-3. 2ND REASON. We all stand in daily need of mercy, and (as the Psalmist says), "If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand ?"—Ps. cxxx. 3. 3RD REASON. With the merciful, God also will show himself merciful.-2 Sum, xxii. 26. 4TH REASON. They shall have judgment without mercy that have showed no mercy.-James, ii. 13 5TH REASON. Mercy has a fine moral influence : Solomon says, "The merciful man doeth good to his own soul."-Prov. xi. 17. 6TH REASON.-Man is most like God when he shows mercy: "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful."-Luke, vi. 36. 7TH REASON.-Every good and righteous man is merciful.-Ps. xxxvii. 21. 26. 8TH REASON.-Iniquity is purged by mercy.-Prov. xvi. 6. 9TH REASON. He that followeth mercy findeth life.Prov. xxi. 21. SIMILES.-Mercy is like. the sunshine it cheers wherever it shines, and "is glorious everywhere." It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes. Shakspeare. wine to As the oil and wine of the good Samaritan emolliated the wounds of the man from Jericho who fell among thieves; so mercy is an oil of gladness, and as them that are of a heavy heart."-Luke, x. 33, 34. Mercy to the guilty is like the return of spring after a bleak winter. The parable of the prodigal son.-Luke, xv. 11–24. Mercy may be called the royal purple of the heart. As rain is to the thirsty earth, as dawn to him that watcheth for the morning, as a sail to a shipwrecked mariner, as health to the sick, or life to the condemned, even so grateful and so gracious is the voice of mercy. HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. . . QUOTATIONS.-With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.-Matt. vii. 2. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.— Matt. v. 7. Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.-Matt. vi. 14. |