One of the greatest crimes practiced in, or known to, the ages, is mental assassination. A mind liberated from the beliefs of sense, to do good, by perverting its power becomes warped into the lines of evil without let or hindrance. A mind taught its power to touch other minds by the transference of thought, for the ends of restoration from sickness, or,—grandest of all, the reformation and almost transformation, into the living image and likeness of God, —this mind by misusing its freedom reaches the degree of total moral depravity.
Does the community know this criminal? He sits at the friendly board and fireside; he goes to their places of worship; he takes his victim by the hand, and all the time claims the power and carries the will to stab to the heart, to take character and life from this friend who gives him his hand in full trust, and has perhaps toiled and suffered to benefit and bless him.
What are some of the methods of this evil, this satan let loose? What are some of the means through which these mental assassins effect their purposes? To alienate friends, to divide households, to make people sick and sinners; these are their common instrumentalities.
