Slander

Of all things contemptible to the feelings of good people, slander is the most to be despised. It blights hope, destroys happiness, propagates family feuds, lowers the standard of morality. Slandering is found in all grades of society. None are free in certain degrees from its contaminating influence. In all the catalogue of human evils, none are so widespreading, malignant and peacedisturbing as those growing out of slander. While other evils may affect only a limited class, all suffer alike from the miseries produced by the demon slander. Long is the list of those who are injured. The minister of the gospel, the poor, the rich, the high and low, of every country and language; all bear the sad testimony against this agent of wickedness and bitter enemy to God. Oh that the slanderer would view his fiendish work, and consider the ruin he has wrought in the happy homes of mankind, homes where sacred happiness has been transformed into a habitation of despair and wretchedness. Hope and happiness that were high as the morning star, at thy baneful touch have fled as the evening's beauty before midnight darkness. Thy foul breath is as fatal in its effects as the samiel that issues from the Arabian desert and sweeps over the land on its mission of death.--Anon