The Press., 1895-01-03
THE FRUITAGE OF EVIL SPEAKING.
A sermon preached at somers, Conn, october
 Hath, 1894.
BY REV. 0. H. RIoKErTs.

For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile."- Peter-3 10.
 One of the most cruel things in this world is the practice of evil speaking. It Is cruel because humanity at it's best is only a bundle of imperfections, that falls far short of ideal living. There are two general causes for this lack of upright living: First, we inherit great many things that do us no good. A child is not only apt to look like his father but to 6e like his father. He inherits not only physical, but mental and moral charac- teristics. From observation 1t would seen that there is far greater tendency in fhe human race to transmit, from gen. erasion to generation, bad qualities than good ones. At any rate there is far deeper impulse to reproduce Q fathers vices, than to initiate his virtues. And this is one general cause why the human family is in & condition to be talked about The other general cause is our OWL voluntary selection of the evil in- stead of the good. Relatively speaking, our reason is more or less poor, our iudg- ment more or less immature, our wills more or less weak, We say and do a great many things foolishly, and in 8 thousand ways put ourselves into very unfavorable light for public inspection. Now this fact produces the underlying, fundamental reason why five shouldsI frain our tongues from evil and our lips Ifrdm speaking guile." We are all Gin the same condemnation" says Paul, "for Ethere is none perfect, no, not one." When one person complains of another by in- Edulying in evil speaking, it is very much Hike tiger snarllng at leopard, for the Imam distinction between them is that the tiger is striped and the leopard spotted. They belong to the same family and have pSsetsely the same characteristics. When- le oyerhear one person gossipfng lae ilt smother, cannot help having this fst while you are airing the spots l0 Nnnr neighbours life, you are forget E that you are striped yourself, and K body else can see those stripes, even
 flatter yourself that you are free biemishes, or that they are con-
 solon no kind Of conversation Is 50 lcol mon as gossip, because itrequires tho I1 mental effort. Conversation that ei tes into mere drfvel about the lp1 afIalfs of others must be wholly { IT Ing I'd intellectual stimulus. Small,
 malicious talk is the classic liter
 small, cheap and malicious poo. fl pf6.Y They have no taste, Tor anything higher, because like water they never risel above their own level. I think nc onet will question the statement that com muhities having an unsavory reputation for jg0ssip are invariably those that are laoRing in intellectual strength and moral principle. The emptier one's head Is the better qualified he is to say nothing when The talks, and that is the grist of gossip land the other branches of this kindred human industry.
 Again, evil speaking is the easiest thing inNthe world, i, @, it is easy after our hearts have become calloused, when we forget that others have just claim to a little of our sympathy, when we forget that malicious, or even careless speech may act as asurgeon's probe to some sen- sitive nature, when we fail to remember that some people, unlike the rhinoceros, are not wholly insensible to injustice and base calumny. say, evil speaking be- comes easy the very moment you trample on St. Paul. You must wholly forget that words and deeds are but sounding brass and tinkling cymbals without love
 and must never hear the echo of those splendid words, faith, hope, love, but the greatest of these is love-" Now one must trample on all this before it is easy to speak evil. He must also fail to re. member that the God in Heaven exercis. es, perhaps, little patience with him.
 Forgive ye one another as God fol Christ's sake has forgiven you" This Is another pillar of mercy that the gossipe1 must tear from his heart before he car ply his nefaTious trade.
 Another reason why evil speaking, es. pecially in our smaller communities, is SC
 very common, is because there is always a text close at hand, and If 8 text is want i: ing it is quite easy to supply it's place
 with 9 pretext where one is so disposed The only absolute condition fol gossipine
 is the disposition of the gossiper. Where that disposition is strong, and the habit firmly established, it makes but little diff
 ference whether there has been just oc
 casion for the islander or not, there vii have to be about so much drivel anyway After person has acquired the unsavory
 reputation of being news monger, non, l will believe anything that comes iron such source, so that whether the repor is based on text or is mere pretext i
 will amount to about the same thing il P the end. And yet it is none the less crue T and malicious that one person should tak' [ the liberty to toy with the most sacred : rights of another person.
 t There is scarcely any doubt but tha :" the very best of people furnish sufflcien
 text to be talked about unfavorably
 Everybody has his whims, his oddities D his mistakes, yes, and his sins also. B, l adding little here, by touching up lit Society of Connecticut