Lesson 14: Control of the Temper
By G.R. Balleine
[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]
LESSON FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT.
PASSAGE TO BE READ : St. John xviii. 1-11.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT : " He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty ; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city " (Prov. xvi. 32).
HYMNS : " We are but little children weak," and " Do no sinful action." COLLECTS for St. Stephen and Third Sunday after Easter.
Aim : To teach the class " to fight a battle for our Lord " on the lines laid down by verses 5 and 6 of " We are but little children weak."
I. THE PURPOSE OF ANGER.
(a) During Lent we are thinking about—? Self-control. We have thought of some parts of our nature which need to be kept under strict control. Name them. To-day we are going to think about another—our temper.
(b) Do not think that temper is a wholly bad thing. It is part of the animal nature that we have inherited from the past, and it was put there for a good purpose. Many things in Nature are provided with something to warn off enemies. If a cow eats a buttercup, it gets such a horrible bitter taste in its mouth, that it says to itself, " Never again ! " The sting of the nettle, the spikes of the thistle, make animals that would destroy these plants keep at a safe distance.
(c) What the bitter taste does for the buttercup and the sting for the nettle Anger does for animals. The growl of the dog, the hiss of the snake, the lashing of the lion's tail, say " Touch my food, interfere with my babies, and it will be the worse for you." If animals had been limp and lazy creatures, who never grew angry when wronged, they would have been exterminated long ago. Anger is one of Nature's protective devices.
(d) Man has inherited this faculty of anger ; and there are still occasions when it is right to use it. Nehemiah was working hard to re-establish the Jews in Jerusalem after their captivity, when he found that the rich Jews, instead of helping him, had been taking advantage of the poverty of their poorer brethren, and lending them money, and then, when they could not repay, selling their sons and their daughters as slaves. He says, " I was very angry (v. 6). And he gave them such a scolding that they promised at once to set free all the slaves.
(e) Our Lord was very angry on the day He cleansed the Temple. He found what should have been a House of Prayer turned into a noisy market. And it was in the Court of the Gentiles that this market was held, the only part of the Temple to which " all nations " were allowed to come, and there worship had been made impossible by this noisy rabble. A strong indignant protest was needed. Our Lord made a scourge of cords and scourged the traders out. He overthrew their tables, and strewed the floor with their money.
(f) To-day sometimes a brutal crime causes a great out-burst of righteous anger. A little girl is foully murdered, and everybody stops work, and the whole country-side turns out to hunt for the murderer. And criminals know this, and they hesitate to do anything that may arouse the anger of the whole community against them.
II. A LOW FLASH-POINT.
(a) But the trouble is that most of us get angry far too easily. There is a cheap and dangerous kind of oil known as Low Flash Oil. It explodes very easily. Sometimes we hear of people being injured by the explosion of a lamp. They were using this cheap oil. As the lamp grew warm, it reached a point too warm for this oil to stand. Then came an explosion. The flash-point was too low. They should have used an oil that could stand a very much higher temperature.
(b) All good oil has a flash-point somewhere, and so have all good people ; but it is fatal to have the flash-point too low. Moses was a good man, but his flash-point was too low. When he came down from the mountain, and found that the people had made a golden calf, it was quite natural that his " anger waxed hot " (Exod. xxxii. 19), but it was merely silly to relieve his feelings by smashing the precious tables of the commandments, which had not done any harm. Another flash of anger, " Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock ? " (Num. xx. 10) brought down the terrible punishment that he was not allowed to lead the people into the Promised Land.
(c) St. Columba was the missionary who made Scotland Christian, and this was how he came there. He had been an Irish monk, and he had borrowed a Psalter from another monk, and copied it. The owner of the Psalter said that he had no right to have made a copy, and so they quarrelled. The monks belonged to different tribes, and their tribes took up the dispute, and there was a fight in which three thousand people were killed. So Columba was banished from Ireland, until he should have made as many converts as men had been killed in his quarrel. His silly little squabble about a Psalter was regarded as responsible for the death of thousands. No one knows to what evil the loss of temper may gad.
(d) Henry II was in some ways a strong and wise king ; yet, when things upset him, he would fall into such fits of passion that he would roll on the ground and gnaw the rushes on the floor, and bite at those who came near him. And all the disasters of his reign, including the murder of Becket, were directly due to these fits of rage.
(e) Peter the Great was one of the best of the Czars of Russia. In a rough homely way he did a lot of good to his country. Among other things he made a law that any noble who ill-treated his serfs should be imprisoned. The next day he noticed that a stupid gardener had spoilt a favourite rose-bush, and he struck the man such a blow that he died. " Alas," he cried, " I have conquered the nations in war. I have civilized my wild subjects. But I cannot control my own unruly temper."
III. A HIGH FLASH-POINT.
(a) The best oil has its flash-point so high that you can put a lighted match into it, and the match will go out. And there are lives with the flash-point so high that they can bear great provocation without flaring up. Pericles was Ruler of Athens. One day, as he was judging cases in the market-place, a bystander began to abuse him, and continued to revile him in the presence of the people all the afternoon. When the court closed, he followed Pericles to his house, shouting false and cruel accusations. All that Pericles did was to call a servant, and say, " Bring a torch, and light this gentleman home."
(b) When our Lord was arrested in Gethsemane, St. Peter was the man with the low flash-point. He was so indignant that he drew his sword, and began slashing wildly around him. But our Lord showed no sign of anger. He healed the man whom St. Peter had wounded. He quietly allowed Himself to be led before the High Priest. Read Passage.
IV. SELF-CONTROL.
(a) Clearly temper is something that needs being kept under control. Quote Text. Another text says, " A fool uttereth all his anger, but a wise man keepeth it back and stilleth it " (Prov. xxix. 11).
(b) Every religious teacher has recognized that he must train his followers to control their tempers. Mohammed did. There is a great deal about temper in the Koran. Husain, the grandson of Mohammed, was a great man in the East. One day a slave spilt some boiling water over Husain's knee. He gave a cry of rage, but the slave fell at his feet, and quoted a verse from the Koran, " Paradise is for those who bridle their anger," and Husain forgave him. Another passage in the Koran describes how Mohammed visited Paradise. He saw beautiful palaces standing on a height overlooking the whole country. " These," he was told, " are for those who keep down their anger, and pardon insults.
(c) Buddha said : " He who holds back his rising anger, as a chariot-driver reins in his horses, he alone can be called a man. All others are feeble babies."
(d) And the New Testament is full of teaching on the subject of temper. There are texts which tell us to use our wills to keep our anger in check. " Let all bitterness and wrath and anger be put away from you " (Eph. iv. 31) ; " Put off all these, anger, wrath, malice " (Col. iii. 8). Putting off, putting away, is an act of the will.
(e) There is a text which tells us not to let anger last too long, never more than a single day : " Let not the sun go down upon your wrath " (Eph. iv. 26).
(f) There is the example of Christ, " Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again, when He suffered, He threatened not," " leaving us an example that ye should follow His steps " (1 Pet. ii. 23, 21).
(h) Above all there is the promise of Grace, God's strong help to stiffen our feeble wills : " The fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, long-suffering, gentleness " (Gal. v. 22). In as famous chapter St. Paul told the Corinthians that love is the best of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and love "-is not easily provoked " (1 Cor. xiii. 5).
(i) When sorely tempted to lose your temper, there is always time to send up one short ejaculatory prayer : " Help, Lord " ; " O God, make speed to save me " ; " Jesus, defend me " ; and God's grace will come and save you from making a fool of yourself.
By G.R. Balleine
[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]
LESSON FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT.
PASSAGE TO BE READ : St. John xviii. 1-11.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT : " He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty ; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city " (Prov. xvi. 32).
HYMNS : " We are but little children weak," and " Do no sinful action." COLLECTS for St. Stephen and Third Sunday after Easter.
Aim : To teach the class " to fight a battle for our Lord " on the lines laid down by verses 5 and 6 of " We are but little children weak."
I. THE PURPOSE OF ANGER.
(a) During Lent we are thinking about—? Self-control. We have thought of some parts of our nature which need to be kept under strict control. Name them. To-day we are going to think about another—our temper.
(b) Do not think that temper is a wholly bad thing. It is part of the animal nature that we have inherited from the past, and it was put there for a good purpose. Many things in Nature are provided with something to warn off enemies. If a cow eats a buttercup, it gets such a horrible bitter taste in its mouth, that it says to itself, " Never again ! " The sting of the nettle, the spikes of the thistle, make animals that would destroy these plants keep at a safe distance.
(c) What the bitter taste does for the buttercup and the sting for the nettle Anger does for animals. The growl of the dog, the hiss of the snake, the lashing of the lion's tail, say " Touch my food, interfere with my babies, and it will be the worse for you." If animals had been limp and lazy creatures, who never grew angry when wronged, they would have been exterminated long ago. Anger is one of Nature's protective devices.
(d) Man has inherited this faculty of anger ; and there are still occasions when it is right to use it. Nehemiah was working hard to re-establish the Jews in Jerusalem after their captivity, when he found that the rich Jews, instead of helping him, had been taking advantage of the poverty of their poorer brethren, and lending them money, and then, when they could not repay, selling their sons and their daughters as slaves. He says, " I was very angry (v. 6). And he gave them such a scolding that they promised at once to set free all the slaves.
(e) Our Lord was very angry on the day He cleansed the Temple. He found what should have been a House of Prayer turned into a noisy market. And it was in the Court of the Gentiles that this market was held, the only part of the Temple to which " all nations " were allowed to come, and there worship had been made impossible by this noisy rabble. A strong indignant protest was needed. Our Lord made a scourge of cords and scourged the traders out. He overthrew their tables, and strewed the floor with their money.
(f) To-day sometimes a brutal crime causes a great out-burst of righteous anger. A little girl is foully murdered, and everybody stops work, and the whole country-side turns out to hunt for the murderer. And criminals know this, and they hesitate to do anything that may arouse the anger of the whole community against them.
II. A LOW FLASH-POINT.
(a) But the trouble is that most of us get angry far too easily. There is a cheap and dangerous kind of oil known as Low Flash Oil. It explodes very easily. Sometimes we hear of people being injured by the explosion of a lamp. They were using this cheap oil. As the lamp grew warm, it reached a point too warm for this oil to stand. Then came an explosion. The flash-point was too low. They should have used an oil that could stand a very much higher temperature.
(b) All good oil has a flash-point somewhere, and so have all good people ; but it is fatal to have the flash-point too low. Moses was a good man, but his flash-point was too low. When he came down from the mountain, and found that the people had made a golden calf, it was quite natural that his " anger waxed hot " (Exod. xxxii. 19), but it was merely silly to relieve his feelings by smashing the precious tables of the commandments, which had not done any harm. Another flash of anger, " Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock ? " (Num. xx. 10) brought down the terrible punishment that he was not allowed to lead the people into the Promised Land.
(c) St. Columba was the missionary who made Scotland Christian, and this was how he came there. He had been an Irish monk, and he had borrowed a Psalter from another monk, and copied it. The owner of the Psalter said that he had no right to have made a copy, and so they quarrelled. The monks belonged to different tribes, and their tribes took up the dispute, and there was a fight in which three thousand people were killed. So Columba was banished from Ireland, until he should have made as many converts as men had been killed in his quarrel. His silly little squabble about a Psalter was regarded as responsible for the death of thousands. No one knows to what evil the loss of temper may gad.
(d) Henry II was in some ways a strong and wise king ; yet, when things upset him, he would fall into such fits of passion that he would roll on the ground and gnaw the rushes on the floor, and bite at those who came near him. And all the disasters of his reign, including the murder of Becket, were directly due to these fits of rage.
(e) Peter the Great was one of the best of the Czars of Russia. In a rough homely way he did a lot of good to his country. Among other things he made a law that any noble who ill-treated his serfs should be imprisoned. The next day he noticed that a stupid gardener had spoilt a favourite rose-bush, and he struck the man such a blow that he died. " Alas," he cried, " I have conquered the nations in war. I have civilized my wild subjects. But I cannot control my own unruly temper."
III. A HIGH FLASH-POINT.
(a) The best oil has its flash-point so high that you can put a lighted match into it, and the match will go out. And there are lives with the flash-point so high that they can bear great provocation without flaring up. Pericles was Ruler of Athens. One day, as he was judging cases in the market-place, a bystander began to abuse him, and continued to revile him in the presence of the people all the afternoon. When the court closed, he followed Pericles to his house, shouting false and cruel accusations. All that Pericles did was to call a servant, and say, " Bring a torch, and light this gentleman home."
(b) When our Lord was arrested in Gethsemane, St. Peter was the man with the low flash-point. He was so indignant that he drew his sword, and began slashing wildly around him. But our Lord showed no sign of anger. He healed the man whom St. Peter had wounded. He quietly allowed Himself to be led before the High Priest. Read Passage.
IV. SELF-CONTROL.
(a) Clearly temper is something that needs being kept under control. Quote Text. Another text says, " A fool uttereth all his anger, but a wise man keepeth it back and stilleth it " (Prov. xxix. 11).
(b) Every religious teacher has recognized that he must train his followers to control their tempers. Mohammed did. There is a great deal about temper in the Koran. Husain, the grandson of Mohammed, was a great man in the East. One day a slave spilt some boiling water over Husain's knee. He gave a cry of rage, but the slave fell at his feet, and quoted a verse from the Koran, " Paradise is for those who bridle their anger," and Husain forgave him. Another passage in the Koran describes how Mohammed visited Paradise. He saw beautiful palaces standing on a height overlooking the whole country. " These," he was told, " are for those who keep down their anger, and pardon insults.
(c) Buddha said : " He who holds back his rising anger, as a chariot-driver reins in his horses, he alone can be called a man. All others are feeble babies."
(d) And the New Testament is full of teaching on the subject of temper. There are texts which tell us to use our wills to keep our anger in check. " Let all bitterness and wrath and anger be put away from you " (Eph. iv. 31) ; " Put off all these, anger, wrath, malice " (Col. iii. 8). Putting off, putting away, is an act of the will.
(e) There is a text which tells us not to let anger last too long, never more than a single day : " Let not the sun go down upon your wrath " (Eph. iv. 26).
(f) There is the example of Christ, " Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again, when He suffered, He threatened not," " leaving us an example that ye should follow His steps " (1 Pet. ii. 23, 21).
(h) Above all there is the promise of Grace, God's strong help to stiffen our feeble wills : " The fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, long-suffering, gentleness " (Gal. v. 22). In as famous chapter St. Paul told the Corinthians that love is the best of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and love "-is not easily provoked " (1 Cor. xiii. 5).
(i) When sorely tempted to lose your temper, there is always time to send up one short ejaculatory prayer : " Help, Lord " ; " O God, make speed to save me " ; " Jesus, defend me " ; and God's grace will come and save you from making a fool of yourself.
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