THAT “PLAIN-SPOKEN” PERSON.
Once in a while—not often, I am glad to say—we run across that thirsty sort of person who prides himself upon what he calls his frankness and honesty of speech and conduct. “There’s nothing underhanded or deceitful about me. I’m not the one to ‘make a fuss’ over people. If I don’t like them, I let them know it,” he says with flashing eyes and a proud toss of his head. But is this spirit one of real frankness and honesty? Is it not one of arrogant cruelty and envious temper, which heartlessly tramples upon the feelings of others because of some fancied slight or wrong? Have we ever a right to say just what we think unless our thoughts are kind and true? No one in the world can be a law unto himself, but every one is subject to all with whom he has to do. After all, the “plain-spoken” person is the one who has the hardest time of it. His method reacts, hurting himself more than any one else. The blows which he deals strike him back with cruel force; the lashes he gives fly back with a sting. Enmity and dislike are aroused, and even little children shun him. To bridle one’s tongue is one of our strongest obligations, and our example was set by Him who “pleased not Himself.”—Union Signal.