passion than holy purpose. The fuel that feeds it may be envy, and
jealousy, and spite, and not a big desire for the good of men and the
glory of God. Worldly anger "is set on fire of hell"; holy anger borrows
flame from the altar-fires of God.

Our anger reveals our character. What is the quality of our anger? What
kindles it? Is it incited by our own wrongs or by the wrongs of another?
Is it set on fire by self-indulgence or by a noble sympathy? Here is a
sentence which describes the anger of the Apostle Paul: "Who is made to
stumble and I burn not?" Paul's holy anger was made to burn by oppression,
by the cruelty inflicted upon his fellow-men. His fire had nothing unclean
in it; it was pure as the flame of oxygen.

This is the anger we must cherish. We cannot "work ourselves up" into it.
We must seek to be "baptized with the Holy Ghost _and with fire_."

JANUARY The Twenty-ninth

_NOBLE REVENGE_

"_I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy._"
--PSALM vii. 4.

That is the noblest revenge, and in those moments David had intimate
knowledge of the spirit of his Lord. "If thine enemy hunger, feed him!"

_Evil for good is devil-like._ To receive a favour and to return a blow!
To obtain the gift of language, and then to use one's speech to curse the
giver! To use a sacred sword is unholy warfare! All this is devil-like.

_Evil for evil is beast-like._ Yes, the dog bites back when it is bitten.
The dog returns snarl for snarl, venom for venom. And if, when I have been
injured, I "pay a man back in his own coin," if I "give him as good as he
gave," I am living on the plane of the beast.

_Good for good is man-like._ When I requite a man's kindness by kindness!
When I send presents to one who loads me with benefits! This is a true and
manly thing to do, and lifts us far above the beast.

_Good for evil is God-like._ Yes, that lifts me into "the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus." Then I have "the mind of Christ." Then do I unto others
as my Saviour has done unto me.

JANUARY The Thirtieth

_IRRESISTIBLE ARTILLERY_

"_When I cry unto Thee, then shall mine enemies turn back._"
--PSALM lvi.

But it must be a real "cry"! It must not be an idle recitation which sheds
no blood. It must be a cry like the cry of the drowning, a cry which
cleaves the air like a bullet. Said a man to me some while ago, "Assault
the heavens with cries for me!" That is the cry which takes the kingdom by
storm.