Precept and Practice – SEPTEMBER 5 – Slander

The second license given to the tongue is in the way of persecution:  ‘therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God.’ — ‘We!’  men who bear the name of Christ-curse our brethren!

Christians, persecuted Christians.   Thus even in St. James’s age that spirit had begun, the monstrous fact of Christian persecution;  from that day it has continued, through long centuries, up to the present time.

Love is the only remedy for slander:  no set of rules or restrictions can stop it;  we may denounce, but we shall denounce in vain.   The radical cure of it is Charity – ‘out of a pure heart and faith unfeigned,’ to feel what is great in the human character;  to recognise with delight all high, and generous, and beautiful actions;  to find a joy even in seeing the good qualities of your bitterest opponents and to admire those qualities even in those with whom you have least sympathy…..   This is the only spirit which can heal the love of slander and of calumny.   If we would bless God, we must first learn to bless man, who is made in the image of God. 

(The Reverend F. W. Robertson)

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW