Some people are intemperate in
drink, some are morphine
slaves, and some are merely gossipers.
Of course, the person who
gossips is apparently not hurting himself so much as in the drinker or the drug
user, but like them, he is a slave to a debasing habit.
Gossip may begin in all
innocence and truth, but it seldom stops there.
It grows with a small exaggeration by the third person, a worse
exaggeration by the fourth or fifth person, and it soon is beyond all
bounds—destroying reputation and happiness and often rousing the most deadly
passions. And the person who started it
is never able to vanquish the foul beast he has created.
Whatsoever is prejudicial to
truth or injurious to our own or our neighbor’s good name is forbidden by the
ninth commandment.
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