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.
To be angry or impatient is always wrong, no matter whether the error be some trivial fault or some great crime. An impatient and irritable teacher is not a good instructor. In the realm of spirituality and morals, he is not a teacher at all who does not himself practise and so exemplify what he professes. Literally taken, the Scripture, "Be ye angry, and sin not," is paradoxical, for to be angry and not sin is impossible. The great Teacher's point of vision was distinctive, and not in harmony with the teachings of the world. He never attempted to apply forceful means or anger in order to make people better; human law might inflict punishment upon the evil-doer, but this was a mere expedient until the fulfilling of God's perfect spiritual law. To this end he must needs regard compassionately those who were bound by sin as victims unwillingly bound by chains, and whenever possible he sought to free them. To the hardened hypocrite, wilfully indulging in evil, Jesus pointed out the sin in language that could not be mistaken but without yielding to any personal feeling or anger. Strong language was, however, the exceptional method when striving with sin in others and it is probable that there are none who are so saintly as to be able to use the language of accusation and denunciation, such as the Master is reported to have used upon several occasions, without doing more harm than good.
To correct evil without arousing resentment is a problem at which most of us have worked and for which we have needed constant instruction, and it is safe to say that those most in earnest have even yet many lessons to learn through self-examination, humility, consecration, and divine grace, before they will be able to meet the requirements of the situation. To attempt to correct sin by arousing resentment in the sinner—and nothing is more certain to do this than a manifestation of impatience and anger—is the lamentable mistake which many good people and people with right motives have made. The Christian Science text-book encourages the practitioner to speak vigorously and with authority to error only when it is necessary to awaken the patient from a mesmeric or dormant mental condition. If we sincerely desire to stand in God's holy hill, make His tabernacle of holy thought our abode, we shall constantly endeavor to overcome the temptation to undertake to help others to be pure and gentle by turning upon them the sword of severity and condemnation. The temptation to yield to "a sense of the odiousness of sin" (Science and Health, p. 366) is weakness, and needs to be uncovered and resisted. And this accords with what the record says of Jesus the Christ, "who, when he was reviled, reviled not again."
From impatience to scorn, from scorn to anger, from anger to hate, the steps are easy. When we have been so far regenerated that we love every individual on earth so that no weaknesses of others are able to provoke us to censure, then we shall maintain the same temper towards all alike, we shall feel and act towards those whom we esteem great sinners in just the same loving, kind way as we do towards those whom we call our best friends, and whom, we are constantly striving to free and make happy. The impersonal Word of God is kindness itself, and if sweetly and dispassionately spoken, it gives the best and only rebuke necessary in the great majority of cases, no matter what the type of error to be corrected. The expression of this Word of God will, moreover, save us from appearing to be busybodies in other men's matters.
