Stray Thoughts [pp. 230-232]

THE LADIES' REPOSITOR r.
STRAY 7HOUGHTS.
CYNICAL.-Some people find apparent satisfaction
in the discovery and proclamation of slighter defects
in the habits of good men and the conduct of public
institutions. They can not talk about the benefits
conferred by a great hospital without lamenting some
insignificant blot in its laws, and some trifling want
of prudence in its management. Speak to them
about a man whose good works every body is ad miring, and they cool your ardor by regretting that
he is so rough in his manner, or so smooth, that his
temper is so hasty, or that he is so fond of applause.
They seem to hold a brief requiring them to prove
the impossibility of human perfection. They detect
the slightest alloy in the pure gold of human goodness. That there are spots in the sun is with them
something more than an observed fact-it takes rank
with a priori and necessary truths.
There are people who, if they hear an organ, find
out at once which are the poorest stops. If they
listen to a great speaker, they remember nothing but
some slip in the construction of a sentence, the consistency of a metaphor, or the evolution of an argument. While their friends are admiring the wealth
and beauty of a tree whose branches are weighed
down with fruit, they have discovered a solitary
bough, lost in the golden affluence, on which nothing is hanging. Poor Hazlitt was sorely troubled
with such people in his time. "Littleness," he said,
"is their element, and they give a character of meanness to whatever they touch. They creep, buzz, flyblow. It is much easier to crush than to catch these
troublesome insects; and when they are in your
power, your self-respect spares them."
Suppose that this habitual depreciation of character never sinks into actual falsehood and slander,
and that every fault alleged, or hinted, or suspected,
can be proved; suppose that this ignoble criticism
is not ignorant blundering, and that every imagined
imperfection is real-is this carping, cynical temper
much less censurable, or are the words it prompts
much less injurious? The influence of talk of this
kind is gradually to lead people to believe that there
is nothing in this world which it is safe to trust,
honorable to love, or discriminating to admire. Reverence for saintly goodness vanishes; gratitude for
kindness is chilled; and that enthusiastic admiration
of great genius, which communicates to common
men something of the strength, and inspires them
with something of the dignity, belonging to genius
itself, is ignominiously quenched.
It is a Christian grace to have pleasant and affectionate thoughts about men, to rejoice in their excellencies, and charitably to forget as fat as may be
their shortcomings. It is the attribute of a pure and
beautiful nature to have an eye quick to discern, and
a heart warm to honor, all that is fair, and bright,
and generous in human nature. The words which
discourage the charity that "thinketh no evil," and
give keenness, if not malignity, to the discovery of
imperfection, are "corrupt" and unwholesome; they
are not to be spoken by ourselves, and are not to be
listened to when spoken by others.-Good Words.
WHAT THE LORD JESUS DID NOT REVEAL AND
TEACH.-It has been often said that the very silence
of Scripture is suggestive. May we not profitably
apply this thought to the words of Jesus when he
was on earth? The four Gospels are selections from
what the Savior said; but let it be observed that
they are selections made by the Holy Spirit himself.
No doubt they contain the substance of all that the
Savior taught; no important truth is omitted; yet
what a silence is there concerning many things which
have, in all ages, caused much controversy!
Christ was silent respecting the sublime system
of astronomy. What the stars are-whether inhabited, or to be inhabited, he never says. He ever
aimed to carry his audience far beyond the stars, up
to the heaven of heavens.
He is silent as regards the origin of evil. How
many have disputed on this point age after age!
Christ does not utter a single sentence on this awful
theme.
He is silent as regards any attempt to reconcile
man's responsibility and God's sovereignty. He
freely and fully preached them both, and would have
us believe, and imitate him in loving and fearless
testimony and filial submission. These remarks are
not made with a view to deter from contemplating
God's works with an admiring eye, or to hinder from
scientific investigations. No book encourages devout
meditation on creation more than the Bible, and
happy are those who study the book of nature and
the volume of revelation together. We are all deeply
indebted to Science, and some of her best sons have
been humble learners at the feet of Jesus; but certainly the silence of the Lord Jesus on the points
referred to, and other similar ones, teaches some
important lessons.
We learn how much more important things invisible are than those which are seen. The heaven
beyond the stars is much more to us than the starry
heavens. It is much more desirable that we should
acquaint ourselves with God's thoughts and purposes, which were before the foundation of the earth
were laid. We should do well to learn to turn a
deaf ear to the utterances of professed scientific persons, when they not only leave out Him by whom all
things were made, but contradict that book which is
full of Him.
How sadly does such scientific and often contradictory garrulity contrast with his silence! and how
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