MINDING OTHER PEOPLE'S BUSINESS.
PAUL wrote to the Philippians, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." But in his letters to the Thessalonians and to Timothy he denounces busy-bodies, and Peter puts "busy-body in other men's matters" in the same category with murderers, thieves, and evildoers. 1 Peter 4:15. How shall we reconcile these passages? Evidently each of us is to take an interest in the affairs of our neighbor. We are, in a certain sense, to make them our own, because we are to love him as ourself. And yet we are not to be officious and meddlesome. We are not to make ourselves his conscience-keepers, to obtrude our advice unasked, to assume the right to control his affairs as we control our own. Busybodyism is the perversion of the law of love. It is the Satanic interpretation of the second of those two commandments into which our Saviour condensed the decalogue. If I really love my neighbor as myself I will respect his rights. If I esteem him as highly as I esteem myself, I will give him credit for the ability to manage his own affairs without any outside dictation or suggestion. I am to look on the things of others only as I want others to look on my things. I am to take a benevolent interest in them and in theirs. I am to manage my own business so as not to injure them, and I am to be ready to help them if my help is needed. The good Samaritan was not a busybody. But he would have been if he had stopped that man before the robbers met him and had insisted upon telling him just what he ought to do. The man had a right to go down from Jerusalem to Jericho if he chose. He probably had some good and sufficient reason for going. That was his business and none of the Samaritan's. But when the man was wounded, and needed help, then it was the Samaritan's business to help him. Then it was time to pause in looking at his own things in order to look on the things of that suffering fellow-man. This parable illustrates the principle. Love draws the line between an impertinent and a benevolent attention to the affairs of others. When we are sure that our interference is prompted solely by the spirit of the good Samaritan, we know that it is right.—Interior.