Ecclesiastes 9:18

Personality In Evil

Ecc 9:18

We have often taken occasion to point out how easy it is to destroy. The illustrations which instantly crowd around the subject are as obvious as they are innumerable. One touch may damage what it would require hours to repair. A child can pluck a flower, but no angel can put it in its place again. A frightful illustration that of some of the great moral processes which men may accomplish! To pluck the soul out of God really means to destroy the soul; because it is then cut off from the currents of vitality, and dispossessed of all that sustenance which is essential to the maintenance of the spiritual life. No man can put himself back again into God, so to say; nor can any angel do this work of reunion: but in the gospel of Christ it is distinctly declared that by the power of grace dead men may live, and even those who have committed spiritual suicide may rise again in the power of God. We need not hesitate to describe this as a miracle, for we gain nothing by lowering our terms, or robbing them of all their highest meanings, merely to please the carnal reason; regeneration must be regarded as the supreme miracle of God, and spoken of as such with thankfulness and reverence. We all know how true is the doctrine of the text in material things. It is the same in all social relations. For example, ask about a man's commercial standing in a doubtful tone, and that very doubtfulness has fastened a stigma upon the reputation in question; not a word may have been spoken which if put into print could be regarded as otherwise than respectful and even reasonable, but the whole meaning was twisted by the suggestive tone in which the inquiry was put. For this reason we can never understand any mere report of proceedings; we must ourselves have been present and noticed the spirit and attitude and tone of every speaker. This is the great advantage of examination and cross-examination in a court of law. Judge and jury see the witnesses, form an opinion of their appearance, hear the tone in which questions are asked and answered, and thus are able to bring living evidence to bear upon that which is merely verbal. The soul is the man. Bring an accusation against any one, and the charge may be remembered when the defence is forgotten; years after an enemy may feel himself entitled to ask whether once a very serious accusation was not brought against this or that man. This he may pretend to do with the utmost innocence; he may find it convenient to forget the reply which was made, it being enough for his malign purpose to suggest the existence of the accusation, though at the time it was overwhelmed and destroyed. Say that a man is "not sound in the faith"; nay, it is unnecessary to go so far as to make a positive assertion, inquire whether a man is not sound in the faith, and irreparable injury is inflicted upon that man's reputation. The accuser has always a great advantage over the vindicator. The human heart, explain it as we may, is predisposed to believe evil. We seem to like to hear evil of one another: it touches our love of gossip; it excites our curiosity; it appeals to our imagination; it slakes the thirst of our depravity. You will find it to be true in human life that a wicked report is more freely circulated than a good one. Send about the report that such and such a friend is a good man, and the report may be listened to inattentively, and circulated with extreme reluctance, if circulated at all. The information that a man is good often goes in at one ear and passes out at the other. On the other hand, circulate a report that the very same person is far from what he ought to be in point of moral character, and the report will seem to take the wings of the wind, and to fly in every direction; again and again it will come up against the man like a hot blast; questions will be asked, attitudes will be assumed, inferences will be drawn from the most unsuggestive circumstances, and around the man an atmosphere will be created in which he can hardly breathe.

A fact so melancholy as this ought to teach us something. A fact so malignantly influential ought not to be lost, especially upon those of us who profess to follow Christ. Such a fact should supply us with a test by which to judge evil reports. We shall know ourselves to be in Christ, and to be breathing his spirit, when we encounter all evil reports with severe suspicion. We should never present a listening ear to the man who has evil to speak of his neighbour; simply because we know that evil exaggerates itself, and is exaggerated by its reporters, and that cruel and even murderous words are easily spoken, and are often lightly remembered by the man who speaks them. It is an excellent rule in social life instantly to believe every good thing that is said of any man; set it down, magnify it, illuminate it, repeat it everywhere; for it is certain to be true, otherwise it could hardly have been conceived by one man of another. Never let a good action, as done by some other man, perish for want of reputation. On the other hand, distrust every statement against a man's character; give the reporter to feel that he is doing what to you is a most disagreeable business; when he tells you that he was obliged to hear the report, instantly assure him that he was not obliged to repeat it. Do not be a thoroughfare through which all evil may circulate freely; never consent to be the common sewer of the society in which you live and move; let every talebearer feel that in you he certainly will not have an attentive listener, but rather an adverse and determined critic.

This fact should also diminish the influence of the mischief-maker. He must always be treated as a destructionist. Is it after all so very clever a thing to throw stones at a window? Is he to be petted and fawned upon as a genius of remarkable capacity and energy who scratches with a needle-point the silvered mirror? Is he to be listened to with respect, as a seer and a prophet, who tries by foul breath to dim the fine gold of a great character? Again and again let us teach that there should be no place in decent society for any man who disparages his fellow-men; he should not be listened to; he should be made to feel that tale-bearing is immoral, and that to take away a character is to take away a life. That is really the point to be fixed upon with moral intensity. What is life without character? The character is the man. Many a critic who would hesitate to injure a man's flesh, is almost eager to impair a man's reputation. The morality of the Church must undergo a thorough change in all these matters. To whisper that a man is not what he ought to be is really to put a knife to the man's throat. Let us, therefore, no longer hesitate to call the talebearer an assassin, an Iscariot, a murderer. At all events, we should insist upon having day and date down to the very moment of time at which certain things reported against the man are said to have occurred; living witnesses should be called for; every reference should be verified; and in this way the newsmonger would be made to feel that he cannot be permitted to go through and through society, scattering seeds of evil, but that everywhere he will be encountered with suspicion, judgment, and contempt. Good men should be stimulated to do their difficult part with more zealous diligence. It is easy to remove the bloom from a peach, but it is impossible to restore it. The great cathe-dial which is the work of centuries may be reduced to ashes in a night. How hard it is to build it! How easy to pull it down! As Christians, we have the difficult work to do. How difficult to reclaim a man from an evil habit! How earnestly he is to be persuaded, how carefully watched, how dearly defended! You must neither fear him nor hinder him; you must study his varying moods, and address yourself to his varying circumstances; you must watch for his soul as they who must give an account. Beasts trample down, man must build up; winter desolates, summer renews; war destroys, peace reconstructs: one day of war can overturn the civilisation of a millennium. How hard it is to do good! How difficult to save a soul! We have heard of the white ant which works such havoc in the woodwork of some lands. It is never known what mischief the little insect is doing until its work is completed. Take the door of a house for example: it looks in perfect order; not a single trace can be found in any part of the surface of any mischief having been done; but attempt to open that door, and instantly it will be found that there is nothing but a skin of paint; the white ant has eaten out all the wood, and left nothing which it could destroy. So it may be in our moral relations. Our social standing may appear to be just the same it ever was; not a solitary change may be traceable upon all the surface of our lives; so far as appearances are concerned there may be completeness and attractiveness in our position; but a deadlier enemy than the white ant may have eaten out our character, destroyed our best motives and ambitions, utterly wrecked everything that constituted our noblest manhood, and at a given signal a touch may reveal the real state of affairs, and prove us to have been but painted nothingness. Never forget how easy it is to destroy. Take the most beautiful painting ever executed by human hands, and one daub of paint drawn across it by a ruthless hand destroys all beauty and value. It would appear as if in proportion to the ease of doing harm is the temptation to do it. In this, as in all other things, as we have seen, there is but a step between man and death. To have the power to destroy, and yet not to exert that power, is a terrible temptation to some natures. We have heard of instances in which men could not reason themselves out of a temptation to commit suicide; they seemed to realise with a new and strange delight of consciousness that their lives were in their own power; theoretically they would always have admitted this and treated it as the simplest of commonplaces; but in some particular moment there has rushed upon them the consciousness that they could actually take away their own lives, and the temptation has been suddenly carried to the point of irresistible-ness. We are always within one step of suicide. There is but a word between us and utter destruction. One action of the pen, and our whole character is destroyed for ever. Whilst this is true with regard to the individual man, it may be said to be true in a peculiar sense with regard to social man, and to come upon us in that aspect with strong temptations and seductions; for whilst many men would hesitate to commit suicide, they almost feel delight in committing murder. Yes, we murder men, let me say it again, when we take away their character. Fear not them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do; but hold in deadliest fear the men who would throw a slur upon your character, or in any way filch from you your good name.

The text brings before us the figure of the sinner. Truly he is an old character in human history! We ought to be familiar with his aspect by this time. But our familiarity with him may have bred disregard of his influence. Our efforts are not to be directed against the sinner so much as against the sin. Herein it is that Jesus Christ comes before us as no other reformer ever appeared. He will not merely reason with the sinner, pointing out to him the consequences of his actions, and showing him the better way even from a political point of view; no; he will go further than this; he will address himself to the very springs of life. What he wants may be described not so much as good works as a good worker; therefore he proposes to regenerate the heart, to renew the innermost springs of vitality, and to make man "a new creature": "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold all things are become new." It is useless to reason with the sinner unless, behind our reasoning, there is the assurance that we can, by the grace of God, bring him to feel that he cannot heal or restore himself, but must be redeemed with an unspeakable price, and regenerated by the mighty energy of the Holy Ghost.