The record-union., 1899-02-13

of the cross-examining propensities OF
the attorney? Can we bring lying tes-
timony without calling upon God? How
about the person who puts malicious
information in the printed page, or
who scatters a prejudicial report in an
oral way, or who spreads suspicious
and deceptive reports before the bar OF
society, without any intention of hurt
ing ones feelings? I wish to prove that
you need not be in a certain place or
take prescribed form of oath to come
under the condemnation of the Ninth
Commandment There is no objection
to an oath, as such But he who cam
not tell the truth without bolstering up
his word by an appeal to heaven. or
without a stereotyped form, would
hardly be truthful under any circum-
stances An oath never made an hon
est man. Our commandment now un-
der consideration contemns all lying
statements, with or without so heip
me-. God.'' Oath or no oath, false re-
mark, calculated to injure our ne1gnDor
in the opinion of others, is vicious; and
no words are too strong to castigate
SO contemplate and nefarious prac-
tice. In our judgments of others we
must be as careful of the truth as If
we actually did appeal to Jehovah-as
if we really sat before men of author
ity in a witness chair.
Thus interpreted, our commandment
is violated, (a) by a printed lie, called
libel; (b) by an oral lie, called SANDER;
(c) by a written, spoken or intimated
statement that is not lie but has a
tendency to be construed unjustly and
unfavorably to our neighbor, called
senseless gossip, innuende, detraction,
back-biting, 7ete.
OF the crime of libel I cannot say
much that is new, yet little emphasis
on important though understood details
will not, I take it, be amiss. Here let
us lay most stress on the following
three points:
(a) Our good name is the most
precious treasure we have. Shrewd
Iago spoke a golden word when he
said:
Who steals my purse steals trash,
But he that filches from me my good
name ~
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed. a
Those who have little aught to leave
their children find supreme delight in
good and untarnished reputation
which they can bequeath them.
Even those who rejoice in all
that the world esteems wealth
are not yet content unless they,
too, can transmit to their dear ones
the spotlessness of a life undefiled. The
Biblical proverb, "A good name is ratf1-
er to be chosen than precious pearls,
contains more of homely truth anc
practical wisdom than we would at
first care to acknowledge. What is the
real difference between wealth in
dollars and cents and wealth in good
name. Clearly this: Your money, pos
sessions, gems, stocks, bonds are yours,
and are in your hands. No one can
take them from you. But your repu-
tation. that which cannot be tied up
with a blue ribbon and held up to the
curious and admiring gaze of the
world. your reputation, alas! is in our
hands, your friends and your enemies.
By shrug of the shoulders, by word
in the press, by a flea in our neigh
bor's ear, we can poison it, can ruin
it-aye, can, as it were, tear it into
thousand tatters, impossible OF
restoration to its pristine condition.
(c) These two facts make libel SO
loathing. You cannot undo the mis-
chief once done Libel has wings; it flies
to all corners of both continents. The
printed word has life; it overleaps
mountains; it flies with the wind; it
traces the path of the submarine cable
with electric flash, and e'er you are
aware the whole world is aware of it.
Now go and take it back! Visit the
untold numbers who have read that
libel Inject the anti-toxin poison in
the veins of the millions whose minds
have been tainted with the venomous
virus! Impossible. False testimony
has been borne; it's mischief may be
recalled, but never undone. Forgive
ness is weak; pardon is feeble; nor
prayers nor tears can heal the wound
which the serpents fang has made.
Christian science has no faith cure
potent enough to dislodge the germs
sfrom the hearts of those who have been
poisoned by the mere reading of the
report
These three considerations lead US to
feel that oft the pen is mightier than
the sword If our regulations are so
of our friends and enemies, if a mere
shrug of the shoulder can gangrene
them, if the injury done is well nigh
irreparable, oh, then, let us think twice,
thrice and a thousand times e'er we
permit in time to come, in an unguard-
ed moment or fit of passion, one false
and malicious syllable to flow from
our pen against any one. The Ninth
Commandment stands as an eternal
protest against libel, Thou shalt not
bear false witness against thy neigh
bor''; nay, against thy bitter enemy.
What is true of libel, the written
falsehood, is none the less true OF
slander. the spoken falsehood. The one
is sin of the pen; the latter sin of
the tongue; yet both are sins of the
heart, and both are violations of our
commandment. l scarcely know which
of the two is the worse, whether libel
kills it's thousands or slander it's tens