Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-04-11
K4lN BABBLFNGS.

| apostle when men nave become lovers OF
their own selves, covetous, boosters, proud,
blasphemers, unthankful, unholy." Where
we have been accustomed to look for excep-
tional virtue we very frequently encounter
the gravest sins. Men who profess to teach
morality frequently do not practice 1t them
selves. Wearing the livery of heaven, they
secretly do service for the devil. Making
loud professions of unusual godliness, they
are in reality far worse than their neighbors
-hypocrites and unsafe men. Scarcely a
week passes but the criminal annals contain
the particulars of the downfall of some
person who has been prominent in church
work. Incidents like these very naturally
bring the cause of religion into disrepute
though religion is in reality not in the least
responsible.
| The commencement of all wrong doing is
generally trivial. A white lie very often
leads to career of falsehood and deceit.
The careless appropriating of the slightest
article belonging to another may lead to
thefts of a greater magnitude, and eventually
to prison cell. The trustee of other peo-
pies money seldom misappropriates funds
deliberately. He is first tempted to borrow
small sums with the intention of returning
them within q few days, and he generally
does 80. But the moral disease is 'lnsiduous
and soon takes deep root. The borrowing
increases in frequency and in amount, and
finally the man loses ali regard for the prop
erty of others, and uses it as if it was his
own. 1t is not long ere he is discovered,
and he is obliged to become fugitive from
the country or suffer the penalty for his evil
doing.
The vain babbling with which our churches
are filled is, we have no doubt, responsible
for many of the faults to which reference
has been made. A trifing remark made
with regard to the character of another may
be the beginning of a perfect deluge of
Islander and scandal that will convulse q
whole community or disrupt a church. A
jocuIar tone employed by minister of the
gospel in speaking of some of the serious
concerns of life paves the way for sneers at
holy things, for food Of irreligion, and for
downright blasphemy. Little foxes spoil
the vines, and there are no more destructive
foxes than the babblers and gossips who in
fest every church community to a greater or
less extent. There are babblers in the pull
pit and the pews. A minister who utters q
sentence on serious matters, designed simply
to provoke smile at the cost of religion,
does infinitely more harm than he can ever
repair by earnest Christian effort. A church
member-we do not call them Christians
who speaks of a neighbor sligbtingly does an
injury that can never be repaired.
Babblers are the cause of nearly all the
church quarrels of the times. They are
busybodies who interest themselves in other
peoples affairs, criticise and comment upon
them, are always ready with q
remark disparaging to some one else,
and ready to fly to arms when they
themselves are assailed. They stick their
noses into every household in the parish,
interfere in the most private affairs of the
family, and seem to delight in the quarreling
they foment. Whether they are clerical or
lay members of the flock, they are an unmit-
igated nuisance, and should be abated, no
matter what the cost.
1t is not the present trouble that these
babblers cost that is the worst. The con-
sequences of their gossip live long after
they have gone to their rightful home
in Hades. Words spoken carelessly or
with malicious purpose find an echo
in the animosIties and feuds that are en-
gendered by them. 1t is not true that the
evil that men do "lies encoffned in their
tomb" 1t more frequently lives long after
they have ceased to live, and the mischiefs
created in the course of few minutes keeps
up its course for half century, embittering
the lives of scores or hundreds of people.
Babblers are a source of annoyance in
many other respects. They not only spread
pernicious doctrines and scandals, but sue
coed in making of the church byword and
a reproach in many respects. People do
not relish the idea of being made the talk of
the town, and they therefore avoid all inter
course with those addicted to such practices.
They charge upon the church and upon re-
ligion the faults that are only individual.
The church is only responsible for them in
so far as it lends encouragement or tolerates
the talking of scandal in the social gather
ings of the congregation. A little missionary
work seems to be necessary in this direc-
ton.