The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1898-09-16

ters Tor things commendatory and moi
damnatory. If you would rub your OWE
eye little more vigorously, you would
ind mote in it, the extraction OF
which would keep you so busy you
would not have much time to shoulder
your broadax and go forth to split uI
the beam in your neighbours eye In a
Christian spirit keep on exploring the
characters of those you meet, and | am
sure you will find something in them
bit for foundation of friendliness.
You invite me to come to your coun-
try seat and spend few days Thank
you! | arrive about noon Of beautiful
summer day. What do you do? AS soon
as l arrive you take me out under the
shadow of the great elms. You take me
down to the artificial lake. the spotted
trout floating in and out among the
white pillars of the pond lilies. You
take me to the stalls and kennels where
you keep your fine stock, and here are
the Durham cattle and the Gordon set
tiers, and the high stepping steeds, by
paving and neighing, the only language
they can speak, asking for harness or
saddle and short turn down the road.
Then we go back to the house, and you
get me in the right light and show me
the Kensetts and the Bierstadts on the
wall and take me into the music room
and show me the birdcages, the cana
rles in the bay window answering the
robins in the tree tops. Thank you l
never enjoyed myself more in the same
length Of time Now, why do we not
do so with the characters of others, and
show the bloom and the music and the
bright fountains? No. We say: "Come
along, and let me show you that mans
character. Here is green soummed
frog pond, and there's a filthy cellar,
and l guess under that hedge there must
be black snake. Come and let us for
an hour or two regale ourselves with tho
nuisances,"
ExtO1 the Virtues.
Oh, my friends, better cover up the
faults and extol the virtues, and this
habit once established Of universal
friendliness will become as easy as it is
for syringa to flood the air with
sweetness, as easy as it will be further
on in the season for quail to whistle
up from the grass, When we hear some
thing bad about somebody whom we
always supposed to be good, take out
your lead pencil and say "Let me see /!
Before accept that baleful story against
that mans character | will take off
from it % per cent for the habit Of ex-
aggeration which belongs to the man
who first told the story. Then will
take off % per cent for the additions
which the spirit of gossip in every COM
munity has put upon the original story.
Then will take off % per cent from
the fact that the man may have been
put into circumstances of overpowering
temptation. So have taken off rs per
cent. But l have not heard his side of
the story at all, and for that reason 1
take off the remaining % per cent. Elk
cuse me, sir, don't believe a word of,
lit. Y N
But here comes in defective maxim,
so often quoted, "Where there is SO
much smoke there must be some fire"
Look at all the smoke for years around
Jenner, the introducer of vaccination,
and the smoke around Columbus, the
discoverer, and the smoke around Mar
tin Luther, and Savonarola, and Galilei,
and Paul, and John, and tell me where
was the fire. That is one of the satanic
arts to make smoke without fire. Sian
der, like the world, may be made out
of nothing. If the Christian, fair mind
ed, commonsensical spirit in regard to
others predominated in the world, we
should have the millennium in about
six weeks, for would not that be lamb
and lion, COW and leopard, lying down
together? Nothing but the grace of God
can ever put US into such habit OF
mind and heart as that. The tendency
is in the opposite direction. This is the
way the world talks: l put my name on
the back of mans note, and l had to
pay it, and will never again put my
name on the back of any man S note. |
gave beggar 10 cents, and five minutes
after l saw him entering a liquor store
to spend it. 1 will never again give
cent to beggar. l helped that young
man start in business, and, 10, after
awhile he came and opened store al
most next door to me and stole my Gus
toners. Twill never again help a young
man to start in business. l trusted in
what my neighbor promised to do, and
he broke his word, and the psalmist
was right before he corrected himself.
for "all men are liars. So men become
suspicious and saturnine and selfish,
and at every additional wrong done
them they put another layer on the
wall of their exclusiveness and another
bolt to the door that shuts them out
from sympathy with the world. They
get cheated out of $1,000, or misinter-
preted, or disappointed, or betrayed,
and higher goes the wall, and faster
goes another bolt, not realizing that
while they lock others out they lock
themselves in, and some day they wake
up to find themselves imprisoned in a
dastardly habit. No friends to others,
others are no friends to them. There's
an island half way between England,
Scotland and Ireland, called the Isle of
Man, and the seas dash against all sides
of it, and l am told there is no more
lovely place than that Isle of Man, but
1r-ban a man haoOmaS ineular in his dis