So much of the association of humanity is carried on through conversation that there is, now and always, great need that one's speech should be carefully watched lest it prove a prolific source of evil; for whereas the tongue should proclaim only good, it may become the advocate of all that is false and harmful. James tells us that "the tongue . . . is an unruly evil;" and he also says, "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body."
A story is told of one who had reported an evil tale of his neighbor. He later repented and went to a teacher to ask how he might stop the mischief he had thus set in operation. The teacher instructed him to gather all the thistledown he could find and bring it to him. This the man did. The teacher then said, "Go, scatter it broadcast." Having obeyed, the man returned and was told to gather again the thistledown he had scattered. The evident impossibility of accomplishing this was made an object lesson to show that evil words once spoken might fly abroad even as the thistledown, and no one could know where they might settle and drop their seed of evil-sowing.
On page 230 of "Miscellaneous Writings," Mrs. Eddy tells us there are "three ways of wasting time, one of which is contemptible," and then she indicates that "gossiping mischief" is the contemptible one. With such positive teaching it would almost seem as though none but the utterly foolish would ever indulge in evil speaking; and yet on page 126 of the same volume Mrs. Eddy further states, "Most people condemn evildoing, evil-speaking; yet nothing circulates so rapidly: even gold is less current." And why is it that ordinary conversation is to-day so largely made up of the recountings of all sorts and modes of wrong thinking and acting? There is only one reason why evil ever seems to be, and to continue,—it is because mortal mind always argues that there is satisfaction not only in the performance of evil, but also in the contemplation of it; that it can bring some sense of pleasure to the one who dwells with it. The world is slowly but surely coming to acknowledge that evil must end in evil. Reason must admit that evil added to evil can never eliminate evil, but will only seem to increase its claims to entity and power. Then mortals must learn that by contemplating, rehearsing, reporting evil they are simply magnifying their belief in it.
