Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-08-08
Birdie THE TONGUE.

prosperity.
Birdie THE TONGUE.
If any mon among you seem to be religious,
and bridleth not his tongue. but deceivetb his
own heart, this mans religion is vain.-JAMEs
1925.
More than half of the sorrow in the world
is caused by the inability of men and women
to control their tongues. The members of
the churches are no better than the rest of
mankind in this respect, but gossips tell
| tales and raise the mischief generally among
their associates, without SO much as a
thought of how grievously they are injuring
their fellow beings and offending deity.
A mans reputation is his individual pro-
perty and care. 1t is more valuable to him
than all the wealth of the Indies. A woman's
good name is above price. 1t is all she has
worth living for. Yet many man and
ton because of some thoughtless word spoken
by those who profess frendliness for them.
There are thousands of people, perhaps well
meaning, who seem to regard it as their es-
business of their nelghbors and to post the
rest of the world as to their outgoings and
mornings. They find man delayed in
reaching his home at night and his wife
an xious about him, and jump at the con-
clusion that he is in questionable company
and his wife contemplating separation from
him. Mole hills are magnifed into noun
tains, ano by the time the story has gone
the rounds it has reached the proportions of
the traditional three black crows. Many
clergymen have found their influence great
ly circumscribed by the gossips in their con-
gregations. Their best intentioned acts are
misconstrued and given false coloring, and
the "veracious" stories set afioat adown the
current of the sewing circle gossips, where
ey go about from mouth to mouth until
the most innocent word or act is male to
assume The proportions of a grave sin or
crime. Patience under such circumstances
is quality exceedingly rare and hardly to be
expected.
The SUNDAY GLOBE desires ell brethren of
the church to live together in peace
and unity, but this is not to be hoped for as
long as the professed followers of Christ
neglect the obvious duty OF bridling their
tongues. Many fall into the habit of re-
peating the gossip that may have dropped
from idle lips, seeming to forget that SLAM
der-that most insiduous and despicable of
all social vices, may be hidden beneath an
apparently harmless incident, and that by
giving currency to the fugitive remarks that
are passed hither and thither they may work
| incalc ulable injury to some one they would
sincerely regret to harm.
There are many virtues that tend to en-
noble mankind and especially the Christian
church, but none is more deserving of
praise than the faculty of attending to ones
own business and keeping close watch
upon ones tongue. If man will think
| over his utterances before expressing himself
he will not only save his neighbors and
friends from annoyance, but will contribute
largely to his own personal comfort. There
| is no safer rule to follow than this: If you
can say no good of your neighbor, say
nothing. All men have their faults, bat
none of them like to have them paraded be-
fore the world. AL men, too, have their
excellencies. Il is far better TO speak of
| the latter than the former. It pays in the
| long run.
By diligently attending to their own
affairs and letting the affairs of Others alone,
church members will assist in the spread of
religion very materially. They should
abolish the socalled social gatherings which
should be properly characterized as scandal
disseminasors. They should regard an as
sault upon private character as a sin more
heinous than heresy, for such it is in the
sight of God and man. They should exclude
gossipers from the sanctuary IS rigidly as
they exclude other vermin, for they ara the
worst breed of that noxious genus. They
should inculcate upon all the imperative duty
of letting 81 men and all women pursue
their own inclinations in their own way, and
repeat and re-repeat the statement that
the religion of him who bridleth not his own
tongue ia vain. Too little attention has been
paid to this matter in the past. SANDER has
run riot in the churches, and thousands of
regulations have been blasted by thoughtless
or malicious words. Let US have an end of
such debasing and disreputable state of af-
| fairs, SO that the church may no longer sui.
fer from the imputation of hasboring and
fostering scandal-mongers.
Pigeon Shooting.
The members of the st. Paul Sportsman's
Club had very pleasant meeting at their