Tit. 3:2
WHEN a child, I was one day talking very fast about some relative who did not stand very high in my esteem, and was about to speak further of her failings of temper. In a few moments my eyes caught a look of such calm and steady displeasure that I stopped short. There was no mistaking the meaning of that dark, speaking eye. It brought confusion and shame to my heart. I was silent for a few moments, when J. G.―asked, very gravely, “Dost thou not know any good thing to tell us of her?”
I did not answer, and the question was more seriously asked: “Think; is there nothing good thou cant tell us of her?”
“Oh, yes; I know some good things certainly; but—”
“Would it not have been better then to relate those good things than to have told us that which must lower her in our esteem Since there is good to relate, would it not be kinder to be silent on the evil? ‘Charity rejoiceth not in iniquity,’ thou knowest” (Prov. 25:23; 1 Cor. 13:6; Prov. 6:16-19).