Facing Life

A news item, some while ago, told of a man who became so violently angry with his neighbor that he temporarily lost his mind, and before he could recover himself ended his life by shooting himself with a rifle. It was over a very trivial matter that he became so enraged--because his neighbor drove a tractor over a water pipe in his yard and crushed it.

Another news item, about the same time, told of another man who, in a fit of temper, shot and killed a neighbor, for no more serious offense than taking a few apples from one of his apple trees.

Both of these men were wealthy farmers, owning many acres of land. They both started out as poor men. For years they had worked hard, economized and saved, until they had enough accumulated to take life easy and enjoy themselves. But, in a moment of heated passion, the satisfaction and joy they might have had out of their accumulations were thrown away. "He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly"  (Proverbs 14:27). It was more than a foolish thing these men were driven to do by their anger, it was a tragic thing.

The tragic deeds of these men, as I said, were committed in a moment of heated passion. But back of that awful and fateful moment were years of uncontrolled temper. These men were given to outbursts of anger upon the slightest provocation. This weakness might have been easily overcome in earlier years, but they made no effort to do so.

Anger is a dangerous passion. Solomon calls it cruel and outrageous. "Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry" (Ecclesiastes 7:9). The man who has not learned to hold his anger in check, is never safe against himself; nor are his neighbors safe against him.

In our daily contacts we are almost bound to have many little encounters and conflicts that will vex and irritate us, that will excite our temper and cause us to flare up at one another. If we can't avoid such unpleasant experiences, we ought at least to learn how to pass them by and forget them with the setting of each day's sun.

"Wife and I sometimes had our little disputes, but we always made it a rule never to close our eyes in sleep until we made up with a good-night kiss." An old sea captain said that to me at the graveside of his wife, whose funeral I had just conducted. I commend the rule to all husbands and wives. Never let the sleep of night fall upon your wrath, and when the sleep of death has fallen upon one or the other of you there will be no bitter regrets to add to your sorrow.

On board ship the bugle sounds "Making sunset," and at that moment the men salute the flag. If you have ever traveled on ship, you know how that event stirs one's emotions. It is inevitable that emotions should be stirred within the heart, and no emotion could be more acceptable than one of serenity. "Making sunset," with the mind clear of all the day's irritations, at peace with other people, with oneself, and with God, is a truly enviable condition of mind. The storms of the day are stilled, and peace comes with twilight. This is peace that makes sleep sweet.

"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath" (Ephesians 4:26).