Editorial May 9, 1914 Issue

Giving No Offense

John B. Willis

No habit is more easily acquired than that of speaking without knowledge respecting the character and purpose of others, and yet those who thus thoughtlessly contribute to the circulation of unloving and unfair if not slanderous comment, are guilty of an offense which receives quite as much attention at the hands of the Mosaic decalogue as does the crime of homicide. "Thou shalt not bear false witness" is a definite and absolutely uncompromising mandate of divine law, and its violation would find legitimate place on the list of sins concerning which, in his counsel to professed Christians, St. Paul has said, "Let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints."

Very often the making of unwarranted statements or insinuations regarding men and motives and movements, is simply an ignoble byplay of thoughtlessness, but none the less surely does it result in a dissemination and growth of distortion, if not downright falsity, which effects an outrageous wrong and which is as harmful to the defamer as to the defamed. Those who thus give a lease of life to unsavoriness, may not be actuated by personal enmity, and would resent the intimation that they merit classification with liars and thieves; nevertheless, they are certainly committing the crime described by Iago when he said:—

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Among the Churches
May 9, 1914
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