GUARD THOUGHT AND WORD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2589, 28 October 1903, Page 61

GUARD THOUGHT AND WORD.

Not uiin' to judge another's deed In phrase severe and harsher thought; But mine with constant care to heed What action by myself is wrought. Perhaps no other innovation would so revolutionise society, so quickly usher in

the much-talked-of millennium, as would the acting out in every-day life of the gentiment expressed in the above lines. Just imagine a whole community more ready to watch with critical eye their own thoughts, their own actions, their own motives than those of their neighbours, more ready to condemn wrong in themselves and to find out all that could excuse or palliate it in another, instead of, as is too often the case, blaming surroundings, circumstances, pressing trials, anything rather than the weakness, want of faith, of stability — of whatever may have been the so-called cause of their lapse from light to wrong, — yet all the while measuring out severest censure to any other mortal who may have likewise slipped. So many, especially of the young, are apt to be driven to recklessness or despair by over-hard judgment or by harfeh censure of some failure or sin, when perhaps wise and tender dealing might have the effect of winning them to the right path once more. Once they lmve erred it is &o hard to retrieve the past, when every eye looks askance at them, every mouth condemns, and every heart is steeled against them. Few of us know under what circumstances another sinned, what chain of events led up to their fall. For aught we know they may have wrestled with fiercest temptation — wrestled, with none to hold out a helping hand, no voice to utter one word of cheer or encouragement, and even now be enduring all the torture that a sense of wrongdoing can inflict upon a tender conscience. We can see «o short a distance into other lives, and even what sight we have is apt to be blurred and dihtorted by prejudice or by a too great liability to judge hudly. It might appal us could we know how many we have caused to cry out from the depths of an anguished heart — Oh, that men could s?e a little clearer. Or juJge less haishly — how many we cau«e to go mourning and in shadow, shut out from the fulness of joy, as it were, because we deem them untrustworthy, and how few have climbed to greater heights or lived purer, better lives

because we believed the best of them. It might not only appal us, but change .the state of complacency as regards ourselves and of sharp and cruel criticism as regards others to the anguish of remorse and bitter self-upbraiding. But the strange thing is that we not only presume to Judge another's deed With phrase severe and harsher thought, but, going further still along the path wo were bo long ago forbidden, "Judge not,that ye be not judged," and giving looser 1 , rein to the evil and hardness within us, we dare to ascribe to them thoughts, motives, actions, of which they may not eveni have dreamed, and which, perchance, would! scorn quite as much as would we. We may place such a restraint upon our speech as will free our souls from the guilt either ofi wounding by words those our thoughts malign, or of, by the same method, instiHmg into other breasts our poisoned thoughts, but, ah, my friends, an evil thought finds so many ways of doing ita cruel work. For instance, Mrs White remarks delightedly to you concerning Mrs Black : "Is not Mrs Black a grand woman? I count it an honour to have her acquaint tance." You have settled in yoijr mind, without any justifiable warrant, certain/ things not to her credit, so of course you cannot endorse your friend's opinion, andl you take refuge in sileuce. Now, it is im the power of many to convey more hy\ silence than by speech, and your silence gives Mrs White clearly to understand than you at least do not consider Mrs Black a "grand woman," with the result that s'le leaves your presence oppressed by a seme that you could, if you would, say something against the noble-hearted friend" whose good influence she was beginning to feel in har own life ;Eo yOUy OU Uave t h e ii Onoiu o f ss e t .. tine, the first gnawing worm to the work o£ undermining a good woman's influence — a triumph for you, to be sure. It seems passing strange that while we have it in our power to ascribe to any a. good and noble motive, we should do tho reverse ; that when circumstances permit ofi good and kindly surmises where we do nob know we should deliberately cherish evil ones. The same spirit rulesin lesser matters as in greater. "Have you any acquaintance with Mrs Sunderland? You have? Well, do you not think there is something) rather peculiar about her? She is so veryreserved concerning herself and her relations: you may depend upon it she has good reason to "be. She is just as silenfe about their precious status in society, her husband's occupation — in fact, about everything. I hope they are respectable, I'm sure. One never knows what's what with those very reserved people." Thus speaks, with a mingling of excitement and mystery, a woman gifted with a capacity for talking far in excess of her faculty of penetration) or her measure of charity, while almost ab the same moment one of the opposite sex, about whom little good was" known/ia paying to a knot of companions around him, "Have you noticed that young Gregory, how altered he js of late, both in appearance and otherwise — getting quie seedy, in fact, and often looks as if he's been up all night. Afraid he's taking to gambling, drinking, or something of that kind. Think I'll give those Finchleys a hint to keep an eye on hini; they've been precious friendly to the young chap, and it's a pity to have them taken in." The reserved lady was so became she had moved in. a sphere so far above those with whom her lot was now cast and enjoyed a social standing so much more desirable that ehe feared to speak freely of her earlier life lest shC might appear to parade it before those lesf favourably circumstanced. The young man was made of hero stuff, and bowed beneath a burden lovingly, gladly borne, 'but which necessitated late hours and rigid selfdenial. Nothing was known in either case. Why, then, think evil in place of goodi This might not be a bad moltto to adopt: We nono of us know one another, And oft into error may fall; Then let us speak well of our biother, Or not speak about him at all. It would at least be a safeguard against many a remorseful thought, fdr whilst there* are only a few cases where we might regret speaking af the evil that is in anyoua^ there are so many, so very many, where th» having done so might cause us life-long sorrow and regret, for who caa estimate all the woe and heart-burning caused by the harbouring of evil thoughts and harsh judgments or the speaking of those thought* and judgments. We can never know the full measure of misery caused — at least not? here — to those whose goodness far exceeds our own. Were all to become as eager to search out and bring to ii/,hfc the redeeming points in some seemingly dark and hopeless case, they would often find that they would pity where now they blame, ov perhaps be even compelled to admire and esteem. How base a thing is slander, yet how common. -^ How seldom do many friends meet and part without having said something which, if heard by some individuals, would most certainly inflict a wound, and, as it is, cannot fail to do mischief, to say nothing of the stain it leaves behind. There can be few things baser than to set in motion a slanderous report or to keep one rolling that has already been started on its banlful round, for, once started, it is sure to move onward and downward, ever gaining in cruelty and wrong, till it is large enough to hruise the stoutest heart and crush the most dauntless courage. Well, then, may we pra}\ "Keep thou the door of my fips" — and heart. Well may we wrestle with ourselves till we overcome the smallest tendency to think or speak evil or to encourage others to do so by levling them a ready ear. Letus one and alf* strive to attain to the possession in our inmost soul 1 : of that "charity which thiaketh no evil," for blest mtTeeo! will be the community whose members ara so endowed.

— Tl.-e inhabitants of Burmah object to occupying buildings of more than one storey, and consequently every town- in that country covera an immense area, comparatively.