Editorial March 30, 1918 Issue

"Take heed what ye hear"

William P. McKenzie

When Jesus was instructing his disciples, he gave them a reason for this admonition, "Take heed what ye hear," by saying further, "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given." If the measure of what we with desire listen to is to be continually increased, it certainly behooves us to be careful regarding what we hear. In that collection of Hebraic wisdom which is indeed wisdom for all humanity it is said: "A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends." Then one who values friendship and would keep his friends, and in order to do so would himself be a friend, must not lend his ear to the sibilant utterances of the whisperer. What is true can generally be spoken with full voice as if one expected general consent and approbation. It can at least be backed by courage and spoken in the daylight, and a man may utter it with full tones, standing face to face with his friends. But the whisperer seems to love the night and its recession from activity, when the worker is unguarded because he thinks that now his duty is over and there is no special call for him to continue thinking. The day's work ended, the curtain drawn, how easy it is for him to be a listener merely, hearing the innuendoes and hints of whispered talk, and submitting to a process of mental misguidance quite the opposite of the influence of "the spirit of wisdom and understanding." Of the divine messenger it is said: "The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him ... and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears."

This, however, is something which the Christian Scientist should never do. In Job we read: "The ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat. Let us choose to us judgment: let us know among ourselves what is good." So anyone who is in good mental health will naturally choose only wholesome food, and as carefully test the value of that which he listens to; but the self-satisfied saint, the Christian off guard, too often forgets the company to which the whisperer belongs, and lends his ear to his hints and arguments. Paul classifies together those who are "whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful."

They who love Truth are really loving true life, and they have a right to escape from what are termed "the snares of death," the subtleties of falsity and dishonor, which, like poison gas, pervert, corrupt, and destroy. Truth understood as Principle is eternal power; Love is endless beneficence, and Life enduringly unfolds good. But with all this the whisperer takes issue, making it his busy business to impregnate human minds with increasing falsity, unfaith, hatred, doubt. What saith he? Lies, of course. What power has the lie? It is just an imagination of the false heart, nothing more. The whisperer is just a lie carrier who would separate, if he could, man from God, his best friend. The proverb is surely correct which says: "Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight."

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