Year: 1875


-1ennySon.


Words, though lighter than the air
we breathe, are capable of wounding
deeper than the sharpest steel of
sword or spear A malicious thought
of some evil-minded individual is
often cast upon the current of CONVEX
sation by hint conveyed through
word, q shrug or some pantomimic
action; and as it flies from lip to lip,
at Madame Rumor's bidding, the gos-
sips who have had the pleasure of
rolling this disgusting morsel under
their tongues add little by little until
it is lost IN the terrible monstrosty of
scandal. Many a man and woman
mourns over the wreck of soiled repu-
tation, which few gossip-mongers
have attempted to ruin; perhaps they
may have had the truth of an impru-
dent or thoughtless, though not an
unchaste, action to start upon; and a
lie that is part of truth is harder to
meet and fight with outright than n
lie that Is all of lie.n There are
women, say it with shame for the
sex, who pretend to follow in the steps
of the meek and lowIy Jesus, who
have forgotten that he sat down with
publicans and sinners; they have for
gotten that the touch of Mary Magda-
lene did not soil the robe of the i'm
maculates Son of God. It was His
voice that said, "Judge not that ye be
not Judged" again he said: 81 come
not to bring the righteous, but sinners
to repentance Is it to be wondered
at, then, that earth's weary children,
turning to the church with the Ques-
tion of What and where Is truth ?"
should see only the


"Hollow creed and ceremonial


Whence the ancient life hath fed,


Idle faith, unknown to action,


Dull and cold and dead"


This thing of gossiping has become
SO common among women, that it Is
almost impossible for five or six to
gather without somebody's character
being torn to pieces. They sit in
Judgment upon their victim without
giving the Individual the last chance
of testimony, when even word would
remove the mountain Of unwarranted
suspicion.


Now, I appeal to you, my sister
woman, even although you may find
one in the legion you are cOndemning
who has strayed from "straight and
narrow path" would 1t not be better
to 'speak gently Of the erring one, for
is it not enough that innocence and
peace hath fled, without thy censure
rough?" Surely, 1t will never draw
the wanderer back. The clanishness
Of church members Is an admitted
fact. How many are there to-day
who would have received Mary Mag
dalene into their homes They cast
away the prodigal never thinking
that, perhaps, had the same tempta-
ton been planted In their path of life,
they to-day might have been classed
among the daughters of wrong and
strife. There Is little virtue in being
good where there is no temptation to
do otherwise.


We have heard of men so base as to
try to soil woman's character when
they had no real reason to suspect
aught against them; and we have
wondered that the sacred name of
mother, If not of wife and daughter,
had not chained their tongues into
silence. Many will bring up that old
wOrn-out excuse that 1--WE should keep
ourselves from evil.n Perhaps there
may be some regulations so easily
soiled that the touch of a garment
would disarrange some well regulated
virtue. If so, it is we'll for them to
wrap themselves in their hypercritica
garments of select Christianity, and
never reach hand to the "droOping
flowers and bleeding hearts which the
world hath trampled down." There
is no doubt there are times when 1t is
necessary to speak earnest words;
"But, by all natures weakness
Hidden faults and follies known
Be thou, IN rebuking evil,


Conscious Of thine own.n


For


"He above, whose hand is bounding
Human power and human will,
Looking thro' each souls surrounding,