Yet there is a kind of anger that is righteous.  We speak of the wrath of God, and in God there can be no sin.  Christ himself was angry at the sight of the vendors in the temple.  Holy Writ says:  Be ye angry and sin not.  But this passion, which is the fruit of zeal, has three features which make it impossible to confound it with the other.  It is always kept within the bounds of a wise moderation and under the empire of reason; it knows not the spirit of revenge; and it has behind it the best of motives, namely, zeal for the glory of God.  It is aroused at the sight of excesses, injustices, scandals, frauds; it seeks to destroy sin, and to correct the sinner.  It is often not only a privilege, but a duty.  It supposes, naturally, judgment, prudence, and discretion, and excludes all selfish motives.

Zeal in an inferior and more common degree is called indignation, and is directed against all things unworthy, low and deserving of contempt.  It respects persons, but loathes whatever of sin or vice that is in, or comes from, unworthy beings.  It is a virtue, and is the effect of a high sense of respectability.

Impatience is not anger, but a feeling somewhat akin to it, provoked by untoward events and inevitable happenings, such as the weather, accidents, etc.  It is void of all spirit of revenge.  Peevishness is chronic impatience, due to a disordered nervous system and requires the services of a competent physician, being a physical, not moral, distemper.

Anger is a weakness and betrays many other weaknesses; that is why sensible people never allow this passion to sway them.  It is the last argument of a lost cause:  “You are angry, therefore you are wrong.”  The great misery of it is that hot-tempered people consider their mouths to be safety-valves, while the truth is that the wagging tongue generates bile faster than the open mouth can give exit to it.  St. Liguori presented an irate scold with a bottle, the contents to be taken by the mouthful and held for fifteen minutes, each time her lord and master returned home in his cups.  She used it with surprising results and went back for more.  The saint told her to go to the well and draw inexhaustibly until cured.

For all others, the remedy is to be found in a meditation of these words of the “Our Father:”  “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  The Almighty will take us at our word.

CHAPTER XIII.  GLUTTONY.

Self-preservation is nature’s first law, and the first and essential means of preserving one’s existence is the taking of food and drink sufficient to nourish the body, sustain its strength and repair the forces thereof weakened by labor, fatigue or illness.  God, as well as nature, obliges us to care for our bodily health, in order that the spirit within may work out on earth the end of its being.

Being purely animal, this necessity is not the noblest and most elevating characteristic of our nature.  Nor is it, in its imperious and unrelenting requirements, far removed from a species of tyranny.  A kind Providence, however, by lending taste, savor and delectability to our aliments, makes us find pleasure in what otherwise would be repugnant and insufferably monotonous.