CHAPTER VIII

THE RADIANCY OF REBUKE

I WANT to radiate the ability to rebuke without offense, although this may appear to be a singular desire. One night I sat with a friend enjoying the exquisite music of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. During one of the most subtle and delicate passages a "lady" in the seat behind me began to whisper to her escort. It was as the thrusting of a bottle of sulphuretted hydrogen under my nose when I was enjoying the subtle essence of a violet.

Four times that evening did that "cultured" Boston savage outrage my susceptibilities by her rudeness, by her theft of my power and right of enjoyment.

I wanted to rebuke her, and I did not know how, without giving her offense. I used to offend such offenders and glory in my share of the offense. I hope I have learned better,- yet, all the same, I do wish to administer some rebuke, that will be effective. As I have said elsewhere, I want to do this so that my own serenity is preserved. Thus shall I radiate serenity and not offense. If I am disturbed, offended, outraged, I radiate those vibra

tions of unrest and disturbance. I would reprove kindly, but surely and effectively, and that is best done by bringing the offender into sympathy with the best that I desire for him as well as myself.

I would that I could rebuke every boy who keeps a seat in a car when an elderly or aged man or woman stands by unseated.

I would that I could rebuke every parent who fails to teach his or her child his duty in this regard.

I would that I could rebuke every parent who fails to require absolute and explicit obedience to authority his own and all other ties

proper authorion the part of his or her child.

I would that I could rebuke every irreverent person whether in Catholic Cathedral, Episcopal Church, Methodist Chapel, Congregational Meeting-house, Navaho Hogan, Hopi Kiva, or Chinese Joss House, who laugh, sneer, talk aloud, or in other vulgar way show their irreverence. All are sacred to some one all should alike be reverenced. I would that I could rebuke every haughty purse-proud woman or man who demands service, not through love, but by power of money or fear.

And my rebuke list would include the politician who uses his office for graft, the senator who sells his vote, the legislator who hesitates to give his interest and vote to all bills that seek the true welfare of the common people. It would include

every purveyor of adulterated foods for the people, every user of child labor, every employer of sweated labor, and every "bargain-counter" fiend who hunts for the product of the sweat-shop. It would include every newspaper owner who allows prejudice to control his columns rather than fairness, and makes himself a party to the willful deception of the people; every lawyer who values fees more than justice; every physician a case more than health; every preacher a fat salary more than truth.

And it might include you, reader, did I know you as well as I know myself, whom I rebuke constantly.

CHAPTER IX

WHAT I WOULD RADIATE TO THE WRONG DOER

FOR two years I was the chaplain for two homes

where women who had led evil lives were sheltered and cared for. During part of this time I helped organize and conduct a midnight mission in one of the most degraded parts of a large eastern city. I have had a large and varied acquaintance with criminals of both sexes, of all ages and conditions, and have been the recipient of many strange and startling confidences of men and women whose integrity has never been questioned, and yet who, if their inner life were known, would have been execrated and ostracized.

As a result of these varied experiences and the knowledge that has come to me I am compelled to assert that I believe our present system of treatment of wrong-doers is not only unchristian but unwise and foolish, and that it fosters and cherishes some of the very wrongs we seek to prevent.

The attitude we take that every evil doer loves his evil doing, sins because he wants to sin, is a criminal for his own pleasure — is absurd and foolish. And what wicked cruelties such an atti

tude leads us to commit. Socrates saw clearer than that centuries ago when he said: "It is strange that you should not be angry when you meet a man with an ill-conditioned body, and yet be vexed when you encounter one with an ill-conditioned soul!"

Most of us have a lot of maxims or rules that we apply to those wrong-doers who come under our ken, forgetful of the fact that the strange thing about human nature is that it doesn't fit your, or my, or any one's ideas or notions. It cannot be bounded, as you bound a sea or an island. It cannot be plotted or catalogued as you plot a lawn or catalogue a library. The only way you can read men and women is with sympathy and love-sympathy for their failures to measure up to your conceptions of manhood and womanhood; love for the undoubted good that you perceive.

All moral judgments must remain false and hollow that are not checked and enlightened by a perpetual reference to the special circumstances that mark the individual lot.

Christ did not in the least abrogate the Seventh Commandment when he said to the woman taken in the act of adultery: "I do not condemn thee. Go and sin no more." In my opinion He wished to teach the lesson that the self-righteousness and hypocrisy of her accusers were also crimes.

All men that are drunkards are not equally cul