224. Jealousy

Jealousy

Pro_6:34 : ’93Jealousy is the rage of a man.’94

Some subjects a religious teacher touches a thousand times, now coming on them from one direction, now from another. But here is a Bible theme that for some reason is left totally alone. This morning, asking your prayers, and in the strength of God, I want to grapple it.

There is an old sin, haggard, furious, monstrous, diabolical, that has for ages walked and crawled the earth. It combines all that is obnoxious in the races human, quadrupedal, ornithological, reptilian, and insectile; it is horned, tusked, hoofed, fanged, stinged; it has the eye of a basilisk, the tooth of an adder, the jaws of a crocodile, the crushing folds of an anaconda, the slyness of a scorpion, the tongue of a cobra, and the coil of the worm that never dies. It is in every community, in every church, in every legislative hall, in every monetary institution, in every drawing-room levee, in every literary and professional circle. It whispers, it hisses, it lies, it debauches, it blasphemes, it damns. My text names it when it says, ’93Jealousy is the rage of a man.’94 It is grief at the superiority of others; their superiority in talent or wealth or beauty or elegance or virtue or social, professional or political recognition. It is the shadow of other people’92s success. It is the shiver in our pocket-book because it is not as fat as some one else’92s pocket-book. It is the twinge on our tongue because it is not as eloquent as some one else’92s tongue. It is the flutter in our robes because they are not as lustrous as some one else’92s robes. It is the earthquake under our house because it is not as many feet front and deep as our neighbor’92s house. It is the thunder of other people’92s popularity souring the milk of our kindness. It is the father and mother both of one-half of the discontent and outrages and detractions and bankruptcies and crimes and woes of the human race. It was antediluvian as much as it is postdiluvian. It put a rough stick in the hands of the first boy that was ever born, and said to him: ’93Now, Cain, when Abel is looking the other way, crush in his skull; for his sacrifice has been accepted and yours rejected.’94 And Cain picked up the stick as though to walk with it, and while Abel was watching some bird in the tree-top, or gazing at some waterfall, down came the blow of the first assassination, which has had its echo in all the fratricides, matricides, uxoricides, homicides, infanticides, and regicides of all ages and all nations.

This passion of jealousy so disturbed Caligula at the prominence of some of the men of his time, that he cut a much-admired curl from the brow of Cincinnatus, and took the embroidered collar from the neck or Torquatus, and had Ptolom’e6us killed because of his purple robe, which attracted too much attention. After Columbus had placed America as a gem in the Spanish crown, jealousy set on the Spanish courtiers to depreciate his achievement, and aroused animosities till the great discoverer had his heart broken. Urged on by this bad passion, Dionysius flayed Plato because he was wiser than himself, and Philoxenius because his music was too popular. Jealousy made Korah lie about Moses, and Succoth depreciate Gideon. Jealousy made the trouble between Jacob and Esau, that hurled Joseph into the pit, that struck the twenty-three fatal wounds to Julius C’e6sar, that banished Aristides, that fired Antony against Cicero. Tiberius exiled an architect because of the fame he got for a beautiful porch, and slew a poet for his fine tragedy. That passion set Saul in a rage against David. How graphically the Bible puts it when it says: ’93Saul eyed David.’94 It seems to take possession of both eyes and makes them flash and burn like two port-holes of perdition. ’93Saul eyed David.’94 That is, he looked at him as much as to say: ’93You little upstart, how dare you attempt anything great? I will grind you under my heel. I will exterminate you; I will, you miserable homunculus! Crouch, crawl, slink into that rat-hole. I will teach these women to sing some other song instead of ’91Saul has slain his thousands, but David his tens of thousands.’92’93 When Voltaire heard that Frederick the Great was forgetting him, and putting his literary admiration on Baculard D’92Arnaud, the old infidel leaped out of his bed and danced the floor in a maniacal rage, and ordered his swiftest horses hooked up to carry him to the Prussian palace. That despicable passion of jealousy led Napoleon the First to leave in his will a bequest of five thousand francs to the ruffian who shot at Wellington when the victor of Waterloo was passing through Paris. That stationed the grouty elder brother at the back door of the homestead when the Prodigal Son returned, and threw a chill on the family reunion while that elder brother complained, saying: ’93Who ever heard of giving roast veal to such a profligate?’94 Ay, that passion rose up, and under the darkest cloud that ever shadowed the earth, and amid the loudest thunder that ever shook the mountains, and amid the wildest flash of lightning that ever blinded or stunned the nations, hung up on two pieces of rough lumber back of Jerusalem the kindest, purest, lovingest nature that heaven could delegate, and stopped not until there was no power left in hammer or bramble or javelin to hurt the dead Son of God.

That passion of jealousy, livid, hungry, unbalked, rages on, and it now pierces the earth like a fiery diameter and encircles it like a fiery circumference. It wants both hemispheres. It wants the heavens. It would, if it could, capture the palace of God, and dethrone Jehovah, and chain the Almighty in eternal exile, and after the demolition of the universe would cry: ’93Satisfied at last, here I am! Alone! the undisputed and everlasting I, Me, Mine, Myself.’94 That passion keeps all Europe perturbed. Nations jealous of Germany, of England, of Russia, and those jealous of each other, and all of them jealous of America.

In our land this passion of jealousy keeps all the political world a-boil. There are at least five hundred people who are jealous of New York’92s Governor and would like to be his successor, about five thousand who are jealous of the President and would like to relieve him of his cares of office; and after the Presidential nominations have been made a whole pandemonium of defamation, scurrility, hatred, revenge, falsehood, profanity, and misrepresentation will be turned upon this land. The tariff, about the raising or lowering or reformation of which many of them care nothing except as to its effect on votes, will be discussed from a thousand platforms; and the people of Louisiana will be told that the tariff must be arranged for the advantage of American sugar, the people of Virginia will be told that the tariff must be arranged for the advantage of American tobacco, and the people of Pennsylvania will be told that the tariff must be arranged for the advantage of American iron, and the people of Kentucky will be told that the tariff must be arranged for the advantage of American whisky, and the people of Ohio that the tariff must be arranged for the advantage of American wool, while Massachusetts and Connecticut will be promised protection for manufacturers; and all the monetary interests, North, South, East and West, will be told in each neighborhood that the taxes and tariff will be fixed to suit them, irrespective of anybody else; and the Presidential election over, all will settle down as it was before. If you think that all this discussion in public places is from any desire for the welfare of the dear people and not for political effect, you are grievously mistaken.

Go into all occupations and professions, and if you want to know how much jealousy is yet to be extirpated, ask master builders what they think of each others’92 houses, and merchants what their opinion is of merchants in the same line of business in the same street, and ask doctors what they think of doctors, and lawyers what they think of lawyers, and ministers what they think of ministers, and artists what they think of artists. As long as men and women in any department keep down and have a hard struggle, they will be faintly praised, and the remark will be: ’93Oh, yes; he is a good, clever sort of a fellow.’94 ’93She is rather, yes, somewhat, quite’97well, I may say, a tolerably nice kind of a woman.’94 But let him or her get a little too high, and off goes the aspiring head by a social or commercial decapitation.

Remember that envy dwells more on small deficits of character than on great forces; makes more of the fact that Domitian amused himself by transfixing flies with his penknife than of his great conquests; of the fact that Handel was a glutton than of the fact that he created imperishable oratorios; more of Coleridge’92s opium habit than of his writing ’93Christabel’94 and ’93The Ancient Mariner’94; more of the fact that Addison drank too much than of the fact that he was the author of ’93The Spectator’94; more of a man’92s peccadilloes than of his mighty energies, more of his defeats than of his victories.

Look at the sacred and heaven-descended science of healing, and then see Dr. Mackenzie, the English surgeon who prolonged the life of the Crown Prince of Germany until he became Emperor. Yet so great are the medical jealousies that Dr. Mackenzie dare not walk the streets of Berlin. He was under military guard. The medical students of Germany could hardly keep their hands off him. The old doctors of Germany were writhing with indignation. The fact is that in saving Frederick’92s life Dr. Mackenzie saved the peace of Europe. There was not an intelligent man on either side the ocean that did not fear for the result if the throne passed from wise and good old Emperor William to his inexperienced grandson. But when, under the medical treatment of Dr. Mackenzie, the Crown Prince Frederick took the throne, a wave of satisfaction and confidence rolled over Christendom. What shall the world do with the doctor who saved his life? ’93Oh,’94 cried out the medical jealousies of Europe, ’93destroy him; of course, destroy him!’94

What a brutal scene of jealousy we had in this country when President Garfield lay dying! There were faithful physicians that sacrificed their other practise and sacrificed their health for all time, in fidelity to that deathbed. Doctors Bliss and Hamilton and Agnew went through anxieties and toils and fatigues such as none but God could appreciate. Nothing pleased many of the medical profession. The doctors in charge did nothing right. We who did not see the case knew better than those who agonized over it in the sick-room for many weeks. I, who never had anything worse than a run-round on my thumb, which seemed to me at the time was worthy all the attention of the entire medical fraternity, had my own ideas as to how the President ought to be treated. And in proportion as physicians and laymen were ignorant of the case, they were sure the treatment practised was a mistake. And when in postmortem the bullet dropped out of a different part of the body from that in which it was supposed to have been lodged, about two hundred thousand people shouted: ’93I told you so!’94 ’93There, I knew it all the time!’94 There are some doctors in all cities who would rather have the patient die under the treatment of their own schools than have them get well under some other pathy.

Yea; look at the clerical profession. I am sorry to say that in matters of jealousy it is not better than other professions. There are now in all denominations a great many young clergymen who have a faculty for superior usefulness. But they are kept down and kept back and crippled by older ministers, who look askance at these rising evangelists. They are snubbed. They are jostled. They are patronizingly advised. It is suggested to them that they had better know their place. If here and there one with more nerve and brain and consecration and divine force go past the seniors, who want to keep the chief places, the young are advised, in the words of Scripture: ’93Tarry at Jericho till their beards are grown.’94 They are charged with sensationalism. They are compared to rockets that go up in a blaze and come down sticks, and the brevity of their career is jubilantly prophesied. If it be a denomination with bishops, a bishop is implored to sit down heavily on the man who will not be molded; or if a denomination without bishops, some of the older men with nothing more than their own natural heaviness and theological avoirdupois are advised to flatten out the innovator. In conferences and presbyteries and associations and conventions there is often seen the most damnable jealousy. Such ecclesiastical tyrants would not admit that jealousy had any possession of them, and they take on a heavenly air, and talk sweet oil and sugar plums and balm of a thousand flowers, and roll up their eyes with an air of unctuous sanctity, when they simply mean destruction of those over whom they pray and snuffle. There are cases where ministers of religion are derelict and criminal, and they must be put out. But in the majority of cases that I have witnessed in ecclesiastical trials, there is a jealous attempt to keep men from surpassing their theological fellows; and as at the Presidential elections in country places the people have a barbecue, which is a roasted ox, round which the people dance with knives, cutting off a slice here, and pulling out a rib there, and sawing off a beefsteak yonder, and having a high time’97so most of the denominations of Christians keep on hand a barbecue in which some minister is roasted, while the Church courts dance around with their sharp knives of attack, and one takes an ear, another a hand, another a foot, and it is hard to tell whether the ecclesiastical plaintiffs of this world or the demons of the nether world most enjoy it. Albert Barnes, than whom no man has accomplished more good in the last hundred years, was decreed to sit silent for a year in the pew of his own church while some one else occupied his pulpit; the pretended offense that he did not believe in a limited atonement, but the real offense, the fact that all the men who tried him put together would not equal one Albert Barnes.

Yes: amid all professions and businesses and occupations and trades, and amid all circles, needs to be heard what God says in regard to envy and jealousy, which though not exactly the same, are twins: ’93Envy is the rottenness of the bone;’94 ’93Where envy and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work;’94 ’93Jealousy is the rage of a man.’94 My hearers, if this evil passion is in any of your souls, cry mightily unto God for its expulsion. That which has downed kings and emperors and apostles and reformers, and ministers of religion and thousands of good men and women, is too mighty for you to contend against unaided. The evil has so many roots, of such infinite convolution, that nothing but the enginery of omnipotence can pull it out. Tradition says that when Moses lifted up his hand to pray, it was all encrusted with manna; and no sooner do you pray than you are helped. Away with the accursed, stenchful, blackening, damning crime of jealousy! Allow it to stay, and it will eat up and carry off all the religion you can pack into your soul for the next half-century. It will do you more harm than it does any one it leads you to assail. It will delude you with the idea that you can build yourself up by pulling somebody else down. You will make more out of the success of others than out of their misfortunes. Speak well of everybody. Stab no man in the back. Be a honey-bee rather than a spider; be a dove rather than a buzzard. Surely this world is large enough for you and all your rivals. God has given you a work to do. Go ahead and do it. Mind your own business. In all circles, in all businesses, in all professions there is room for straightforward success. Jealousy entertained will not only bedwarf your soul, but it will flatten your skull, be-mean your eye, put pinchedness of look about your nostril, give a bad curl to the lip, and expel from your face the divine image in which you were created. When you hear a man or woman abused, drive in on the defendant’92s side. Watch for excellences in others, rather than for defects, morning-glories instead of nightshade. If some one is more beautiful than you, thank God that you have not so many perils of vanity to contend with. If some one else has more wealth than you, thank God that you have not so great stewardship to answer for. If some one is higher up in social position, thank God that those who are down need not fear a fall. If some one gets higher office in Church or State than you, thank God there are not so many to wish for the hastening of your obsequies. The Duke of Dantzig in luxurious apartments was visited by a plain friend, and to keep his friend from jealousy, the Duke said: ’93You can have all I have if you will stand twenty paces off and let me shoot at you a hundred times.’94 ’93No, no,’94 said his friend. ’93Well,’94 said the Duke, ’93to gain all my honors, I faced on the battlefield more than a thousand gunshots fired not more than ten paces off.’94 A minister of small congregation complained to a minister of large congregation about the sparseness of his attendants. ’93Ah,’94 said the one of large audience, ’93my son, you will find in the Day of Judgment that you had quite enough people for whom to be held accountable.’94

Substitute for jealousy an everlasting emulation. Seeing others good, let us try to be better. Seeing; others industrious, let us work more hours. Seeing others benevolent, let us resolve on giving a larger percentage of our means for charity. May God put congratulations for others into our right hand, and cheers on our lips for those who do brave and useful things. Life is short at the longest; let it all be filled up with helpfulness for others, work and sympathy for each other’92s misfortunes, and our arms be full of white mantles to cover up the mistakes and failures of others. If an evil report about some one come to us, let us put on it most favorable construction, as the Rhone enters Lake Leman foul and comes out crystalline. Do not build so much on the transitory differences of this world, for soon it will make no difference to us whether we had ten million dollars or ten cents, and the ashes into which the tongue of Demosthenes dissolved are just like the ashes into which the tongue of the veriest stammerer went. If you are assailed by jealousy make no answer. Take it as a compliment, for people are never jealous of a failure. Until your work is done you are invulnerable. Remember how our Lord behaved under such exasperations. Did they not try to catch him in his word? Did they not call him the victim of intoxicants? Did they not misinterpret him from the winter of the year 1 to the spring of the year 33; that is, from his first infantile cry to the last groan of his assassination? Yet he answered not a word! But so far from demolishing either his mission or his good name, after nearly nineteen centuries he outranks everything under the skies, and is second to none above them, and the archangel makes salaam at his footstool. Christ’92s bloody antagonists thought that they had finished him when they wrote over the cross his accusation in three languages, Hebrew and Greek and Latin, not realizing that they were by that act introducing him to all nations, since Hebrew was the holiest language and Greek the wisest of tongues and Latin the widest spoken.

You are not the first man who had his faults looked at through a microscope, and his virtues through the wrong end of a telescope. Pharaoh had the chief butler and baker endungeoned, and tradition says that all the butler had done was to allow a fly in the King’92s cup, and all the baker had done was to leave a gravel in the King’92s bread. The world has the habit of making a great to-do about what you do wrong and forgetting to say anything about what you do right, but the same God will take care of you who provided for Merlin, the Christian martyr. Hidden from his pursuers in a hay-mow in Paris, a hen came and laid an egg close by him every morning, thus keeping him from starvation. Blessed are they that are persecuted, although persecution is a severe cataplasm. Ointment may smart the wound before healing it. What a soft pillow to die on if when we leave the world we can feel that, though a thousand people may have wronged us, we have wronged no one; or, having made envious and jealous attack upon others, we have repented of the sin and as far as possible made reparation! The good resolution of Timothy Poland in his quaint but exquisite hymn, entitled ’93’91Most Any Day,’94 we might well unanimously adopt:

We’92ll keep all right and good within,

Our work will then be free from sin;

Upright we’92ll walk through thick and thin

Straight on our way.

Deal just with all; the prize we’92ll win

’91Most any day.

When he who made all things just right

Shall call us hence to realms of light,

Be it morn or noon or e’92en or night,

We will obey;

We’92ll be prepared to take our flight

’91Most any day.

Our lamps we’92ll fill brimful of oil

That’92s good and pure, that would not spoil,

And keep them burning all the while

To light our way;

Our work all done, we’92ll quit the soil

’91Most any day.

Autor: T. De Witt Talmage