The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1900-01-26
INTEREST In OTHERS
DR.. Talmage Portrays Two Kinds
of Busy bodies.
The Gift of Evil Speech of Some PEG.
pIe-How We May Have IA Ben-
evoIent Interest in the At
fairs of others.
copyright, 1900, by Louis Klopsch.]
-llt crtor1 q

InlS DISCOURSE Ii. ulILldS &c SllOWS
how we should interest ourselves in
the affairs of others for their benefit,
but never for their damage. Text,
/ Peter, 4:15: ga 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
teenth century, the only difference be-
ing that they had the characteristics
for a longer time. 1t was $50 years
of goodness or 500 years of meanness
instead of goodness or meannesS for
40 or so years. Well, Simon Peter,
who was a keen observer of what was
going on around him, one day caught
sight of man whose CHARACTERISED
were severe inspection and blatant
criticism of the affairs belonging to
people for whom he had no RESPONSE
bility, and with the hand once Drowned
and hardened by fishing tackle drew
ahis portrait for all subsequent ages:
"a busybody in other mems matters"
That kind of person has been a
trouble maker in every country since
the world stood. Appointing himself
TO the work of exploration and detec-
tion, he goes forth mischief making.
He generally begins by reporting the
infelicity discovered. He is the adver-
Using agent of infrmities and domes-
tic inharmony and occurrences that
but for him would never have come
TO the public eye or ear. He feels that
che secret ought to be hauled out into
light and heralded. If he can get one
line of it into the newspapers, that he
feels to be a noble achievement to
start with. But he must not let it
stop. He whispers it to his neighbors,
and they in turn whisper it to their
neighbors, until the whole town is
a-buzz and agog. You can no more
catch it or put it down than you can
a malaria. 1t is in the air and on the
wing ard afoat. Taken by itself it
seems of little Importance, but after
q hundred people have handled it and
each has given it an additional twist
it becomes a story in size and shape
marvellous. If it can be kept going,
GtNIlIlC IL Will NC NlIOu5i W
call the attention of the courts or the
presbyteries or conferences or associ-
ations. The most of the scandals
abroad are the work of the one whom
Peter in the text styles "a busybody in
other mems matters"
First, notice that such a mission is
most undesirable, because we all re-
81 h. ~ tolr
care of our own affairs. To carry owl
selves through the treacherous straits
of this life demands that we all the
time keep our hand on the wheel of
cur own craft While, as / shall show
you before I get through, we all have
- mission of kindness to others, we
have no time to waste in doing that
which is damaging to Others
There is our worldly calling which
must be looked after or it will become
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,
either as to health or their fortune.
They 60 on until they pay ten 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
low 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-
ifs hammer smite his counter our
own affairs are getting mixed up and
endangered, While we are critieising
our neighbor for his poor crops we
are neglecting the fertilization of our
own fields or allowing the weeds to
cholt cur own corn. While we are try
ing to extract the mote from our
neighbours eye we fall under the |
weight of the beam in our own eye. |
Those men disturbed by the faults of |
others are themselves the depot at
which whole trains of faults arrive
aid from which whole trains of faults
start. The men who have succeeded
i'll 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 a firm in
the same line of business was in trou-
bic, ard they said: Sorry, very sOr-
ry," hu, they went in rnd sat doTn
at their table and opened the book
containing full statement of their
affairs to see if they were in peril cf
being caught in a similar 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. Chris
tan men and women who go round
with mouth and looks full of interro-
CATION points to find how some other
church member is given to exaggera-
ton or drinks too much or neglects
his home for greater outside attrac-
tons have themselves so little grace
in their hearts that no one suspects
they have any. In proportion as people
are consecrated and holy and useful
they are lenient with others and dis
posed to say: ''Wait until we hear the
other side of that matter. cannot