Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1902-08-15

brother was going down street, utterly
discouraged, when he met the village
minister. "What is the matter, JohnT"
said the pastor. "You look very blue"
''Well," answered the young man, 81
am blue. You know father died some
months ago and left Charley in my
care. It seems as though I can do
nothing with the boy. He becomes
more and more perverse every day. ]
whip and scold him. I punish him in
every way. 1t seems to do no good"
Then the old minister. with a twinkle
in his eye, placed his hand upon the
young mans shoulder as he said: "Aly
boy, have you ever tried the power of
love? Have you ever praised Charley
when he did we'll? Have you ever
kindly sat down by his side when he
did wrong? Instead Of scOlding him,
have you ever tried to be gentle with
him? Go home, my boy. and try the
power of praise and love. Perhaps
you have been too severe with your
tongue upon your younger brother"
So John went home and made up his
mind that he would try the power Of
praise and love. Instead Of scolding
Charley he tried to help him by kind
ness. He played with him in his
games; he helped him in his lessons;
he praised him when he did well. The
result was that Charley became a diff
ferent boy. One day the little fellow
looked up into the face of his big
| brother and said, with a happy smile,
"Why, Jack. | never knew until lately
that you loved me-" So by our harsh
words and censoriOus criticisms we
drive men farther and farther away
from God, but by loving. kind and gen
| tie words we can save men instead Of
destroying them; we can lift men up
| instead Of casting them down; we can
inspire men with hope instead Of rem
/ dering them helpless with despair; we
can bind the human race together by
ties Of holy affection instead Of an
tagonizing them as mortal foes.
1t is possible to criticise even the
best Of men. The story is told that
! Zeuxls, the famous Greek artist.
painted a wonderful picture of a boy
holding a dish Of grapes. The pic
ture was so wonderful that the birds
flew through the open window and
with their bills pecked at the grapes
| which the artist had drawn. But
though there We're thousands ready to
praise, there were still many censO-
riOus critics who condemned the pic.
ture. "For," said the evil minded
critics, "if the boy had been painted
Us perfectly as the dish of fruit the
birds would have been afraid to ap
proach the dish which the lad is sup
posed to hold in his hand" 1t is pos
sible to harshly judge the actions o.
even the best Of men. Therefore i
Is very easy by bitter criticism t
destroy thousands who might be saved
by the gentleness of a loving, fOrgiving
Christlike tongue.
Beware OF Unjust Criticism.
No man should condemn his neigh
Dor, because when he destroys hi
brother by evil criticism he also equal
ly destroys himself. Some people sup
pose that my text, "Judge not, tina
We be not judged" is only to be ap
piled in a temporal way; that 1t onl,
alludes to things Of this world; that
is to be interpreted in the sense tina
if we are unjust to others In our cen
serious criticism others will be unjus
TO us. The injustice which we d
70 others with the tongue will Away
ps a boomerang come BACK and strik
ourselves, As Or. Guillotin in his oil
age is said to have been executed up0
the fatal instrument which he had il
vented in his younger days; as tn
prime minister Of one Of the Frenc
J moparohs was confined in the yer
cage Of torture he had builded for hi
enemies, cage so short that the pri
oner in it could not lie down and s
! low that he could not stand uprigl
= in 1t; as Regent Morton was huge
. to death by the spikes of the fat
image of torture known as IL
Maiden" which he himself had intr
: duced into Scotland, and as a Hama
: was hanged upon the gallOws he ha
= erected for the despised MOrdecai,
= the unjust criticisms which we mete OF