PERSONAL CRITICISMS

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 10, 1881

PERSONAL CRITICISMS.

THE tongue, girls, is an unruly member, and has to be held in tight rein, lest it get the better of us. Don't get in the habit of gossiping about each other; frown down from the beginning all attempts at personal discussion and criticism. Indulgence in gossip leads in most cases to mischief. There is no happy medium; the line cannot be drawn safely at any point. There are many subjects to talk about quite as interesting, if not more so, as people. Besides being wrong, it is a cowardly thing to speak ill of a person who is not present to offer a defense. If we must discuss each other, let it be only in praise. We scarcely realize what a fearful magnitude this evil has attained. People unconsciously drift into it, only waking up to the fact that they have been slandering their neighbor by having some word they have dropped, in an unguarded moment, brought to their door, the beginning of a vile slander.

In your judgment of each other, be careful to find out the motives which prompt an action. Do not condemn without being sure there is ground for condemnation. Many a life is blighted or made morose and sour by being misunderstood, by having motives supplied which do not exist. Remember, "we are our brother's keeper," and it behooves us to be watchful that what we may do or what we may say will in no wise obstruct another's pathway.—Christian at Work.