and a concern for our duty, would not have failed to have produced in us. And it is no answer to

this crimination to say, that we entertained no evil design."

Some signs of the disease called tales, or slanders, are as follow:

First suspicion.

"But he was foul, ill favoured, and grim,
Under his eye brows looking still askance ;
And ever as dissemblance laugh'd on him,
He lower'd on her with dangerous eye glance:
Shewing his nature in his countenance.
His rolling eyes did never rest in place,
But walk'd each way, for fear of hid mischance;
Holding a lattice still before his face,

Through which he still did peep, as forward he did pass."

Spencer.

Behold a room, arrray'd in pride,
As each sits up a target shield;
Where angled eyes the weak deride,

And chase them through the coquette field.
The vain embattled fops engage,

In nods, and laughs, and peeps, and puns';
With slowjaw'd spleen, and envious rage,
As langrage, rockets, grape, and guns.

Never did a kicking horse or mule shew a greater propensity for a side kick, by turning back the tale of the eye, than does a talebearer, when he gives the same sign of a crooked heart, by a back glance from his angled eye.

2d. Winking is another "hell spot" of a talebearer.

"A naughty person, (saith Solomon) a wicked

E

man winketh with his eyes, speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers; frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord." Prov. vi.

Take care of all those finger teachers, and feet speakers, for they are sowing discord.

Whispering is another death spot tinged upon the lips of a talebearer.

Whisperers are called haters of God. Romans i. 29, 30.

They divide chief friends, saith the wise man.

3d. Asking questions with an inquisitorial aspect, the answering of which opens a wide field of infamy, upon which the slanderer would feast his eyes, and feed his malicious heart, proves us to be calumniators of a very deep die. Some twisting, cackling, skipping, sipping, shuffling young twitterers, have a sarcastic way of squeaking their throats to each other, with a scream of contempt and ridicule, indicative of obloquy against some person or persons present, terminating their turgidity by a guinea hen cackle.

Another "hell spot," or full proof of a slanderer is, his sheepish, hidden smile at the narration of calamities having happened to his competitors, and upon the prostration of a man who transcended him in virtue, talents, success, and public opinion, to rejoice like those who divide the spoil.

Again, when we call up the name of an absent, or shew honor to a person who is present, or expose one who is obnoxious to a third person, and that third person wrinkles the nose, tosses the upper lip, kindles and winks the eye, lowers the eye brows, lolls out the tongue, or twists the mouth to the one side, like the handle of a high seasoned teapot. O! man of God, there is death in the

pot!

A very evident sign of a slanderer is, the inward gall which boils out by a stamping foot, a bear grunt, screwed up eye, frowning eye brow, biting lip, shrugging shoulders, shaking head, haughty and menacing mien, when a back biter is turned in side out by an ingenious and ingenuous delineation.

Another mark of a talebearer is, when they oppose those who stand up like men for universal charity, watching every word of their mouths, blackening their motives, joining their enemies, envying their success, slighting their persons, and weakening their arguments; thus fulfilling our Lord's words, he that is not with us is against us, and he that gathereth not with us, scattereth abroad.

Ignorance of what evil speaking is, is a certain evidence of our being upon the slandering side of the question. For if we do God's will, by search. ing the Scriptures, we shall know of the doctrine of love, which is of God, and hatred, which is of the devil. Why, and whence is it that so few know, as that great scholar and divine, John Wesley saith, what evil speaking is? “What is evil speaking?" (saith he). All a man says may be as true as the Bible, and yet the saying it is evil speaking. Suppose I have seen a man drunk, or heard him curse or swear, I tell this when he is absent: it is evil speaking. In our language, this is also, by an extremely proper name, termed backbiting. If a tale be delivered in a soft and quiet manner, then we call it whispering. Still it is evil speaking; still this command, "speak evil of no man," is trampled 'under foot, if we relate to another the fault of a third person, when he is not present to answer for himself. We speak thus out of a noble, generous, (it is well if we do not say) holy indignation against

these vile creatures! We commit sin from mere hatred of sin! We serve the devil out of pure zeal for God. It is merely to punish the wicked, that we run into this wickedness. So do the passions justify themselves, and palm sin upon us under the veil of holiness."

Where is one amongst a hundred of Mr. Wesley's admirers, who does not err from the closeness of his Catholic arguments, and come under the denomination of those who, when they see a man drunk, or hear him curse or swear, serve the devil out of pure zeal for God, by blabbing it out? And out of mere hatred to sin, thus commit sin? Where, we ask again, is one in five hundred of all the religious world, who comes up to this great, and for two hundred years inimitable, reformer's injunctions? "Resolutely (saith he) refuse to hear, though the whisperer complain of being burdened till he speak. Burdened! thou fool, dost thou travail with thy cursed secret, as a woman travaileth with child? Go then and be delivered of thy burden, in the way the Lord hath ordained." Matt. xviii.

And we may add that those who, as Mr. Wesley enjoins, do not resolutely oppose slanderers, are also, with the back biter, out of the holy hill, according to the Hebrew margin of Psalm xv. 3. wherein it is said, or receiveth, or endureth; that is, he that receiveth or endureth the backbiter without reproof, or the taker up of the reproach which the backbiter drops, is in the devil's right, is out of the tabernacle and the holy hill.

Having, we hope, proved to the conviction of the impartial inquirer, that tales, in the original Hebrew, mean slanders, and also that slander means any kind of evil speaking, or detracting from the

reputation of another, either by lies or truth, by malicious truths, or malicious falsehoods; as also having given a few of the "hell spots" of slande rers: We proceed next to prove, that backbiting means to speak against a person, and not lies, as some imagine, not malice alone, not misrepresentation alone.

2dly. That backbiters are, as such, incorrigibly incapable of telling the truth, their minds being biassed by the devil.

3dly. That, when in a backbiting manner, they tell a slanderous truth, it is a moral lie against revealed truth.

And first, backbite-This word, according to the great Dr. Adam Clarke, is derived from two. Greek words, one of which is against, the other, I speak, literally to speak against a person; so that the word don't mean, as Wesley saith, to speak behind the back barely, but any kind of railing, reviling, or evil speaking of, or against a person, either to the face, or behind the back. What then will the new's carrier do to keep up his or her trade of telling upon all those wicked sinners, whom they have been in the habit of insulting before company, and to preachers, and all others behind their backs? We know what they ought to have had long ago for backbiting, namely the penitentiary. 2dly. We were to prove, that a backbiter is, while continuing in that spirit, incapable, as such, of telling the truth, his mind being bent upon high coloring. To accomplish which, we ask, with Pilate-What is truth? Jesus saith, "I am the truth." John xiv. 6. What example did He, who is the truth, set before us? Why mercy, pity, forgiveness, and covering the sins of Mary, at the table of whispering Simon, the Pharisee. Luke vii.