p. 131 | Hints on Hearing

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 9, 1872

Hints on Hearing.

1. TURN a deaf ear to slanders; be sure never to mention them again.

2. Feed not the innate desire to hear ill of another.

3. Listen to no tale against another, that you are requested not to repeat.

4. Beware of conversation with a tale-bearer, or with one who reveals secrets.

5. Beware of the busy, self-important messenger; remember that “he that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbor cometh and searcheth him.”

6. If you should hear ill of another, remember that your informant may be mistaken or deceived; he may be misinformed, or prejudiced by party spirit.

7. In any doubtful case, communicate with the party before forming a judgment.

8. Ask counsel of God before mentioning a report again.

9. Prejudice distorts innocent and even praiseworthy acts; beware of even taking a fact from a prejudiced person. From other lips, matters might appear very different.

10. Charity puts the best—the want of it, the worst—construction on what is told to us.

11. “Meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.”—Prov. 20: 17.