Anger
119
easily persuaded or convinced. They are not sane; Satan for the time
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has full control. Every one of these exhibitions of wrath weakens the
nervous system and the moral powers and makes it difficult to restrain
anger on another provocation.—
The Youth’s Instructor, November 10,
1886
. (
Sons and Daughters of God, 142
.)
Intoxicated With Wrath—How Satan exults when he is enabled
to set the soul into a white heat of anger! A glance, a gesture, an
intonation, may be seized upon and used as the arrow of Satan to
wound and poison the heart that is open to receive it.—
The Signs of
the Times, September 21, 1888
When one once gives place to an angry spirit, he is just as much
intoxicated as the man who has put the glass to his lips.—MS 6, 1893
Christ treats anger as murder... Passionate words are a savor of
death unto death. He who utters them is not cooperating with God to
save his fellowman. In heaven this wicked railing is placed in the same
list as common swearing. While hatred is cherished in the soul there
is not one iota of the love of God there.—Lt 102, 1901. (HC 235.)
Petulant Man is Seldom Content—No one else can lessen our
influence as we ourselves can lessen it through the indulgence of
uncontrollable temper. A naturally petulant man does not know true
happiness and is seldom content. He is ever hoping to get into a more
favorable position or to so change his surroundings that he will have
peace and rest of mind. His life seems to be burdened with heavy
crosses and trials, when, had he controlled his temper and bridled
his tongue, many of these annoyances might have been avoided. It
is the “soft answer” which “turneth away wrath.” Revenge has never
conquered a foe. A well-regulated temper exerts a good influence on
all around; but “he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city
that is broken down, and without walls.”—
Testimonies for the Church
4:367, 368
(1879).
Easier to be Uninhibited Before a Crowd—It is worse, far
worse, to give expression to the feelings in a large gathering, fir-
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ing at anyone and everyone, than to go to the individuals who may
have done wrong and personally reprove them. The offensiveness of
this severe, over-bearing, denunciatory talk in a large gathering is of as
much more grave a character in the sight of God than giving personal,
individual reproof, as the numbers are greater and the censure more
general. It is ever easier to give expression to the feelings before a