Verse 16
TALE-BEARING
‘Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer.’
I. Evil-speaking is a ready way of making ourselves agreeable to other people: ‘Scandal sweetens many a cup of tea.’ Also it is a sin indulged in by many otherwise excellent people, like the benevolent lady of whom Cowper wrote:—
‘Each precept of this chapter has a homiletical value so clear that no amplification of the text itself is necessary. Holiness is made to consist, not merely in the avoiding of sin and in the fulfilment of certain prescribed duties, but in a general course of life prompted by genuine love. The wants of the poor are to be regarded, the weak and defenceless are to be respected, justice is to be unwarped by either personal sympathies or influence, tale-bearing avoided, all magical arts and efforts to attain forbidden knowledge are to be shunned, and, in a word, man is to conduct himself in all things as one who is in communion with God, and therefore seeks to have his will carried out in all the length and breadth of his own daily life.’
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