lame is cast without there being some cause for
it. It may be attributed unjustly, but it is sometimes just, though
excessive. Everything casts a shadow, and if you see a shadow you may
be sure there is some body to cast it, though the shape and size of the
shadow may be wholly unlike and out of proportion to the object which
throws it. A tree casts a shadow, a house casts a shadow, a needle
casts a shadow, even a hair--where the shadow is, there is some
substance to fling it; where great blame is cast, there is some
occasion for it. You may have stood on a rock, and seen your shadow
thrown all down a valley and up the side of an opposite hill, an
enormous figure, and a ridiculous caricature of yourself. So the blame
cast on you is often excessive and altogether unreasonable and
monstrous. Nevertheless it would never be cast at all unless there
were some little fault to cast it. Stick up a pin on a table when the
sun is low, and it will throw a shadow from one end of the table to the
other, four feet long, and the pin is only an inch in height. So is it
with faults: little faults throw long shadows, cause great talk, but
there would be no talk at all if the little faults were not there.

II. What then is it that you should do? Examine yourselves whenever
you are blamed, and do your utmost to correct what is amiss in you.
"Blessed are ye," said our Lord, "when men shall revile you, and shall
say all manner of evil against you falsely." Why? Why when falsely?
Because it will make you all the more watchful that you give no
offence, that you avoid even the appearance of evil. Blessed are ye
when men revile you, and say all manner of evil against you, for then
you will examine yourselves, and if you see there is any ground
whatever for what they say, you will amend your ways; and blessed are
ye when they speak evil against you falsely, for then, though their
blame be exaggerated and lying, yet it will make you infinitely more
particular to live a blameless life, and to have a conscience void of
offence toward God and men.

CONCLUSION.--If you do not use for your self-correction any blame you
may undergo, then you may be sure that more and more will attach to
you. You may surmount one calumny, but others will follow at its
heels. In Revelation we hear that an angel cried, "One woe is past;
and behold there come two woes more hereafter." So will it be with
you, if the first woe does not profit you to make you