Article April 8, 1950 Issue

PUTTING AWAY ANGER

SONIA SMITH

In the Bible is recorded the progressive unfolding to humanity of clearer views of Deity. The advancement is most clearly seen in the difference between the Old Testament and the New. For instance, in the Old Testament there are many references to "the anger of the Lord," whereas in the New Testament God is shown to be loving, and the Apostle Paul exhorts us (Eph. 4:31, 32), "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

This truer concept of God and man unfolded to a student of Christian Science through the following experience. At the head office where she worked she had to deal with papers submitted by outstations. She was very busy and found apparently unnecessary hindrances caused by mistakes made at the outstations more and more irksome. The student was aware that she was failing to demonstrate the truth which she had learned in Christian Science, but she seemed unable to let go the feeling of tension and to think rightly. In this plight she turned prayerfully to the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. The book opened at page 369, and these words stood out: "It is error even to murmur or to be angry over sin."

At once the student recognized that she had been "angry over sin," and that if it was error to be so, she as a child of God was not subject to this error. This recognition brought a sense of peace and freedom to think. If it was "error even to murmur or to be angry over sin," was she then to be content with and condone sin? The answer to that must be "No," because sin is to be overcome, just as much as disease and death, for it is a challenge to God's allness. She also saw that the way to overcome it is not be treating it as if it were real, something to cause discontent or anger, or something to cause contentment or deserve commendation. To overcome sin it is necessary to replace the suggestion of sin with the realization of the truth of the sin's opposite.

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