A WISE proverb says, "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him;" and in Psalms we read that those who shall abide in God's tabernacle, God's holy hill, are those who backbite not with the tongue, nor take up a reproach against a neighbor. The apostle James writes, "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body ;" and again, "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God."
In the whole category of human weaknesses there is no folly which is more absurd than the frequency with which men become offended and angry with each other's faults. The category of crime and woe has been tremendously augmented by this method of adding fuel to the flames. Evil is indeed shocking enough in its myriad manifestations, but its hideousness is only intensified by the mistaken method of giving way to irritability. Nothing touches or brings to the surface more quickly the latent animal propensities in human nature,—anger, hatred, malice, revenge,—than this; and in nothing does Christian Science throw clearer light than in its explanation of why this is so. and how to correct this evil habit.
It is a self-condemning parody upon our highest human sense of things that it should seem right and justifiable at times to show anger, but in Science it is made clear that evil will not destroy evil, and that anger is a human quality, not the manifestation of God. The divine attribute which destroys sin and heals the sinner is love. This love has no element of anger or hate, it is compassion and compassionate only. Anger fastens on to the error, and instead of reducing it to nothingness, it seems to magnify it, by giving it reality and power. Let those who are tempted sometimes to boast of the indignation they have felt at the sins and follies of others, examine themselves. Until they have eradicated this evil from their own lives, they cannot help their neighbor. It is foolish to attempt to correct the mistakes of others until we have learned the right method of correcting those mistakes in ourselves. Too ignorant to show others how to solve their problems, our efforts in this direction only complicate matters and add to their burdens.
