arable. He made no defense, but he went out of that
room with an aching heart, humiliated and wronged. His friend had put a
great cloud over his sun. Years have passed, but the darkness of that
cloud has not yet all passed away. When he thinks of the injustice, there
is still a pang in his heart. He does not feel bitter toward the other; he
has forgiven; but the close tie has been broken. He has never since been
able to confide in the one who did him such an injury.

A faithful minister had labored for years for souls. He had been
successful; he had been a blessing to many. One day a certain person spoke
of him half jestingly in a manner that aroused the suspicions of some
others who were present. These suspicions grew until they became whispers,
and the whispers grew till they became open charges. The minister could
not prove them to be false. They hindered his labors. They bowed down his
head with sorrow. Some one had put a cloud over his sun and over his name,
and for years the dark shadow of it rested upon his life.

How easy it is to put a cloud over some one's sun, to make some life dark
that might have been bright! It may seem only a little thing, but
sometimes a little cloud can make a dark shadow. We may not see either the
cloud or the shadow, but the heart that is darkened both sees and feels.
How many times parents, by unkind words or actions, becloud their
children's sky! One way in which parents do this is by telling the faults
of their children to visitors, in the presence of the children. There is
scarcely anything more disheartening to a child than this. He feels
humiliated and hurt. He feels, and justly feels, that he has been
mistreated. It sinks down into his soul and rankles there. It discourages
him, and if it is often repeated he comes not to care if he is at fault.
Constant reproof and faultfinding make a child's life gloomy and sad. That
is not the way to cure faults; it is the way to make them worse.

I once knew a young saint who had a rich experience of salvation. A
certain relative who opposed her religion began finding fault with her and
kept doing so at every opportunity. The result was that that young life
was beclouded and a deep melancholy settled down over her. Her
cheerfulness gave way to sadness and moroseness. The song of joy, once so
often upon her lips, was stilled. Some one had put a cloud over her sun,
and her life was never what it otherwise might have been.

Children may dark