Connecticut western news., 1900-01-25
AFFAIRS OF OTHERS.
WE SHOULD EE INTERESTED IN
 THEM, SAYS Ca. TAlMAGE.

THEM, SAYS CR. TAlMAGE.
 The Bus body Has . Mission to Per-
 form When Hi. Motive Ia Good.
 search Out the Miserable and O6er Them Consolation.
 tCopyright, Louis Klopsch, 19OOl
 WASHINGTON, Jan. 2l.-In this dis course Dr. Talmage shows how we should interest ourselves in the affairs of others for their benefit, but never for their damage; text, Peter iv, 15, "A busybody in other mems matters"
 Human nature is the same in all ages. In the second century of the worlds existence people had the same characteristics as people In the nine tecnth century, the only difference be- ing that they had the characteristics for longer time. It was 500 years of goodness or 300 years of meanness in- stead of goodness or meanness for 40 or 50 years. Well, Simon Peter, who was a keen observer of what was go- ing on around him, one day caught sight of a man whose characteristics were severe inspection and blatant crit icism of the affairs belonging to people for whom he had no responsibility, and with the hand once Drowned and hard ened by fishing tackle drew this DOT trait for all subsequent ages, "A busy body in other mems matters"
 That kind of person has been a trou- ble maker in every country since the world stood. Appointing himself to the work of exploration and detection, he goes forth mischief making. He generally begins by reporting the infe licity discovered. He Is the advertis- ing agent of infirmities and domestic inharmony and occurrences that but for him would never have come to the public eye or ear. He feels that the secret ought to be hauled out into light and heralded. If he can get one line of 1t into the newspapers, that he feels to be a noble achievement to start with. But he must not let it stop. He whis- pers 1t to his neighbors, and they In turn whisper 1t to their neighbors, until the whole town Is abuzz and agog. You can no more catch 1t or put 1t down than you can a malaria. It Is In the air and on the wing and afloat. Taken by itself. 1t seems of little i'm portance, but after a hundred people have handled it and each has given 1t an additional twist 1t becomes a story in size and shape marvellous. If it can be kept going, after awhile 1t will be large enough to call the attention of the courts or the presbyteries or con ferences or associations. The most of the scandals abroad are the work of the one whom Peter in the text styles "a busybody in other mems matters"
 Mission of Kindness.
 1 First, notice that such a mission is most undesirable, because we all re- quire all the time we can get to take care of our own affairs. To carry our selves through the treacherous straits of this life demands that we all the time keep our hand on the wheel of our own craft. While, as shall show you before I get through, we all have a mission of kindness to others, we ;have no time to waste in doing that which Is damaging to others.
 l There Is our worldly calling, which must be looked after or 1t will become a failure. Who succeeds in anything without concentrating all his energies upon that one thing? All those who try to do many things go to pieces ei- ther as to their health or their fortune. They go on until they pay 10 cents on the dollar or pay their body into the grave. We cannot manage the affairs of others and keep our own affairs prosperous. While we are inquiring how precarious Is the business of an other merchant and finding out how many notes he has unpaid and how soon he will probably be wound up or make an assignment or hear the sher- iff's hammer smite his counter our own affairs are getting mixed up and en- dangered. While we are criticising our neighbor for his poor crops we are neglecting the fertilization of our own fields or allowing the weeds to choke our own corn. While we are trying to extract the mote from our neighbours eye we fall under the weight of the beam In our own eye. Those men dis turbed by the faults of others are themselves the depot at which whole
 
 whole trains of faults start. The men who have succeeded in secular things or religious things will tell you that they have no time for hunting out the deficits of others. On the way to their counting room they may have heard that firm in the same line of busi- ness was in trouble, and they said, "Sorry, very sorry" But they went in and sat down at their table and open ed the book containing a full state ment of their affairs to see If they were in peril of being caught in simi- lar cyclone.
 Gadders about town, with hands In pockets and hats set far back on the head, waiting to hear baleful news, are failures now or will be failures. Christian men and women who go round with mouth and looks full of in- terrogation points to find how some other church member Is given to ex- aggeration or drinks too much or neglects his home for greater outside attractions have themselves so little grace in their hearts that no one sus- poets they have any. In proportion as people are conSecrated and holy and useful they are lenient with others and disposed to say: "Wait until we hear the other side of that matter. I cannot believe that charge made against that man or woman until we have some better testimony than that given by these scandal mongers. guess 1t is lie."
 Worlds Worst Side.
 Furthermore, we are incapacitated for the supervisal of others because we cannot see all sides of the affair repre- hended. People are generally not SC much to blame as we suppose. It Is never right to do wrong, but there may be alleviations. There may have arisen a conjunction of circumstances which would have flung any one of us.