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. GOSSIPING.
"Tell no tales about friend or foe;
unless silence makes you an accomplice never betray
a man's secret... Have you heard a rumour? Let it die with you.
Never fear, it will not make you burst. A fool with a secret goes through agony
like a woman in childbirth. As painful as an arrow through the thigh is a
rumour in the heart of a fool."
(From Eccus 19:8 "To delight in wickedness is to court condemnation, but evil loses its hold on the man who hates gossip." (Eccus 19:5 NEB). "A scoundrel repeats evil gossip; it is like a scorching fire on his lips." (Prov 16:27 NEB). "A rogue gives a ready ear to mischievous talk, and a liar listens to slander." (Prov 17:4 NEB). 'Do not flatter yourself that your thoughts are under due control, your desires properly regulated, or your dispositions subject as they should be to Christian principle, if your intercourse with others consists mainly of frivolous gossip, impertinent anecdotes, speculations on the character and affairs of your neighbours, the repetition of former conversations, or a discussion of the current petty scandal of society; much less, if you allow yourself in careless exaggeration on all these points, and that grievous inattention to exact truth, which is apt to attend the statements of those whose conversation is made up of these materials. (R. Ware Jr). "Avoid empty and worldly chatter; those who indulge in it will stray further and further into Godless courses, and the infection of their teaching will spread like gangrene." (From 2 Tim 2:16,17 NEB).
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