The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1917-03-08


you have done cruel thing and
somebody is hurt, and it does you
good.
By the rules of justice, no man
ought to be ridiculed for any inn
perfection, who does not set up for
eminent sufficiency in that where
in he is defective. If you would
bare your neighbor's faults, cast
your eyes upon your own.
1t is easier to avoid a fault than
to acquire perfection. By others
faults wise men correct their own.
He that cOntemns a small fault
commits great one. The greatest
of all faults is to believe we have
none. Little minds ignore their
own weakness, and carp at the de-
fects of the great; but great minds
are sensible of their own faults,
and are largely compassionate to-
ward interiors.
When the absent are spoken of,
some will speak gold of them, some
silver, some iron, some lead, and
some always speak dirt; for they
have a natural attraction toward
what is evil and think it shows
penetration in them. As a cat
watching for mice does not look
up though an elephant goes by, so
they are so busy housing for de-
fects, that they let great excel
lences pass them unnoticed. l will
not say that it is not CHRISTIAN to
make beads of others faults and
tell them over every day; | will
say it is INTERNAL. If you want
to know how Satan feels, you DO
KNOW if you are such one.
There are no such disagreeable
people in the world as those who
are forever seeking their own i'm
provement, and disquieting them
selves about this fault and that;
while on the other hand, there is
an unconscious merit which wins
more good than all the theoretically
virtuous in the wide world.
What a world of gossip would
be prevented, if it were only re-
membered that person who tells
you the faults of others intends to
tell others of your faults. Every
one has his faults; every man his
ruling passion. The eye that sees
all things sees not itself. That
man hath an i'll life of it who feeds
himself with the faults and frail-
ties of other people. Were not
curiosity the purveyor, detraction
would soon be starved into tame
ness.
To pure, sensitive and affec-
tionate mind, every act of finding
fault, or dealing in condemnation,
is an act of pain. It is only when
we have become callous to the
world, and strangers to the senti-
ments of compassionate love, that
we are able to play with uncon-
cern the parts of prosecutors and
slanderers, and that we can derive
any pleasure from malignity and
revenge. He who is the first to
condemn, will be often the last to
forgive.
Let us be like the sunshiny
member of the family, who has the
inestimable art to make all duty
seem pleasant, all self-denial and
exertion easy and desirable, even
disappointment not 80 blank and
crushing; who is like a bracing,
crisp, frosty atmosphere through
out our home, without a suspicion
of the element that chills and
pinches. You have known people
within whose influence you felt
cheerful, amiable and hopeful,
equal to anything! Try for that
power, and grace to exercise it
rightly. l do not know of a more
enviable gift than the energy to
sway others to good; to diffuse
around us an atmosphere of
cheerfulness. truthfulness. gener-
osity. magnanimity. 1t is not a
matter of great talent; not entirely
a matter of great energy, but