MORALITIES FOR HOME. GOSSIPING. "THOU shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock in the way of the blind," says the ancient Jewish law; and if the spirit of that law were well regarded in this day, much mischief would be avoided, and much misery spared. A practice of gossiping about the absent, of making free with their characters, of ridiculing their peculiarities, of dragging to light their imperfections and past slips, and thus undermining their reputation,-what is all this but cursing the deaf, and casting stumblingblocks in the way of the blind? But the tongue is an unruly member, wild and untameable; and, because of this, offences will come. Ay, they do come; many a lamentable history has been recorded, and many more might be, in which the fair prospects of life have been irretrievably blasted by the abominable gossiping propensities of silly men and women, who would tell you that they meant no harm-oh no! many, also, in which 'chief friends' have been separated by the whisperings of tale-bearers ; and many, in which it would be seen that the happiaess of entire families and communities has been sacrificed to a love of scandal. But this is too wide a B field for us now to venture upon in our 'moralities for home.' Let us contract the circle of vision. If any place in the world ought to be free from the curse of gossip, surely that place is one's own home. Within that charmed circle, all, or nearly all things, should be held sacred. From it, not a whisper should go forth to the world, injurious to the fair fame of husband, wife, child, friend, or fellow-inmate. Once within that circle, each should feel in perfect security from even the possibility of betrayal, and should be able, fearlessly, to throw open the shutters of his heart, to talk unreservedly of joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, pleasures and cares, to give free utterance to wishes, doubts, and opinions. In effect, home should be a temple dedicated to discretion as well as to love and family affection, and from which no echo should ever go forth. We hold it to be a cruel thing for parents to speak aloud of the faults of their children; utterly indefensible in wives to complain-however much they may have to bear-of the conduct of their husbands to neighbours and friends, or to make known to the world the private affairs of their own families. A wife who can do this is not such an one as Solomon describes when he says, "The heart of her husband doth safely trust her, so that he shall have no need of spoil; she will do him good and not evil all the days of her life." Despicable, too, is the conduct of that husband who dishonours his wife, while he degrades himself, by unmanly gossip about her failings in temper or conduct. As to the stranger within the gates," the casual visitor, the more permanent inmate, or the blood-relation, against whom the door cannot be shut, but who cannot enter a peaceable home without attempting to sow the seeds of discord, or be admitted into the privacy of domestic life without carrying off some precious piece of information concerning the strange habits and opinions, or the private affairs of which some insight is thus surreptitiously obtained: -if such gossips had their deserts they would be |