woman!" and another, "He
has stolen some meat!" and another, "He has knocked over a child!"

Now all this arose from one boy throwing a stone at a harmless dog.
And all the things said about the dog were untrue. The proverb was
verified, "Give a dog a bad name, and you may hang him."

Is not this very much like what takes place among men? Someone throws
blame on a poor harmless person for no cause in the world but out of
sheer malevolence, or love of mischief, and at once others join in.
Everyone has something to say, everyone joins in the general abuse. No
lack of blame. No lack of unkind things said. And--all untrue, all
unjust!

I do not mean to say that when a person has done what is wrong we are
not to speak of it at all; but what I do say is, that we should be very
careful indeed not to cast blame till we are quite sure that we are
justified in doing so. "As for this way, we know that it is everywhere
spoken against," was what was said of Christianity. All sorts of bad,
lying things were said of the early Christians, that they killed and
ate children, that they practised horrible idolatries: the stories were
not true, but they were believed, simply because everyone said these
things were done.

III. Now this is the advice I give you:--

_a_. Be sure that blame is just before you cast it.

_b_. Be merciful in attributing blame even when it is deserved.

First:--Be sure that you have real cause to cast blame, be sure that
you are not committing a great injustice, and doing another a grievous
injury which is unmerited.

"Do to others as you would they should do to you." Consider how
miserable you would feel were you the subject of unmerited blame.

Secondly:--Be merciful in attributing blame even when it is deserved.
Remember that you yourself are not guiltless. There are things that
you have done which deserve censure quite as much as those things you
blame in others. One day a woman, taken in adultery, was brought
before Christ, and the Jews desired to stone her to death because of
her sin. Then our Lord said, "He that is without sin among you, let
him first cast a stone at her." And when they heard it, being
convicted by their own consciences, they went out, one by one,
beginning at the eldest even unto the last.

I say to you: when you are inclined to cast blame, even when just,
think, "Am I without sin, that I should judge and condemn another?"

XLVI.

_PETTY DISHONESTY._