this influence stands alone.
Look at the Elder Brother--moral, hard-working, patient, dutiful--let
him get all credit for his virtues--look at this man, this baby,
sulking outside his own father's door. "He was angry," we read,
"and would not go in." Look at the effect upon the father, upon the
servants, upon the happiness of the guests. Judge of the effect
upon the Prodigal--and how many prodigals are kept out of the
Kingdom of God by the unlovely character of those who profess to
be inside. Analyze, as a study in Temper, the thunder-cloud itself
as it gathers upon the Elder Brother's brow. What is it made of?
Jealousy, anger, pride, uncharity, cruelty, self-righteousness,
touchiness, doggedness, sullenness--these are the ingredients of
this dark and loveless soul. In varying proportions, also, these
are the ingredients of all ill temper. Judge if such sins are of
the disposition are not worse to live in, and for others to live
with, than the sins of the body. Did Christ indeed not answer the
question Himself when He said, "I say unto you that the publicans
and the harlots go into the Kingdom of Heaven before you"? There
is really no place in heaven for a disposition like this. A man
with such a mood could only make heaven miserable for all the people
in it. Except, therefore, such a man be
Born again,
he cannot, simply CANNOT, enter the kingdom of heaven.
You will see then why Temper is significant. It is not in what
it is alone, but in what it reveals. This is why I speak of it
with such unusual plainness. It is a test for love, a symptom, a
revelation of an unloving nature at bottom. It is the intermittent
fever which bespeaks unintermittent disease within; the occasional
bubble escaping to the surface which betrays some rottenness
underneath; a sample of the most hidden products of the soul dropped
involuntarily when off one's guard; in a word, the lightning form
of a hundred hideous and un-Christian sins. A want of patience, a
want of kindness, a want of generosity, a want of courtesy, a want
of unselfishness, are all instantaneously symbolized in one flash
of Temper.
Hence it is not enough to deal with the Temper. We must go to the
source, and change the inmost nature, and the angry humors will die
away of themselves. souls are made sweet not by taking the acid
fluids out, but by putting something in--a great Love, a new Spirit,
the Spirit of Christ. Christ, the Spirit of Christ, interpenetrating
ours, sweetens, purifies, transforms all. This only can eradicate
what is wrong, work a chemical change, renovate and regenerate,
and rehabilitate the inner man. Will-power does not change men.
Time does not change men.
Christ does.