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Category Archives: Slander

The Right Way to Shake off a Viper.7 How God uses the defamation of others.

22 Sunday Mar 2020

Posted by memoirandremains in Cotton Mather, Slander, Uncategorized

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Cotton Mather, Defamation, Slander, The Right Way to Shake off a Viper

The previous post in this series may be found here.

But it shines with a most heavenly luster in that the preparation of heaven which is marvelously promoted in us by defamations on earth. The dirt of reproaches is as the martyr said of it (and there never was a martyr without a share of it!) only to scour you and make you bright, that a high shelf in heaven may be assigned to you. You must have a name reviled on earth; ’tis that so you may be the fitter to find a name written in heaven.  There will be a resurrection of names as well as bodies in the day when God shall raise the dead. All the Good that you have done; all your prayers, all your alms, and the steps of you watchful walk with God[1]; all the brave efforts of your self-denial; all the continual contrivances to serve Christ and his people, and your neighbors in which you have been swallowed up every day [not one Day without them!] for many, many years together; they being sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb shall be found in the Lord’s Book of Remembrance[2]: They shall be proclaimed in the golden streets of the City of God. That you may be prepar’d for what shall be done for the man whom the King of Heaven will honor[3] in the world to come, you must be abased in this world, be abased with quite another sort of things reported and believed of you and be patient under it. God will first have you lie in the dust, first thrown in the dungeon and willing that it should be so, before he sets upon with the princes of his people in the heavenly places.[4]

 

God knows what is done to their names; and will have them willing to go by other names; to be called by very mean and vile and ill names, before he takes them to shine among the stars. How sweet, how sweet will be your arrival among of the angles of God, going from a world which you found a place of dragons! A world where your complaint was, My soul is among lions and I lie among them that set on fire!

 

Yea, and who can tell, but you may yet shine more as lights in the world[5] for the snuffing which your defamations have bestow’d upon you? While the snuffing was a-doing, it threatened wholly to put out the lamp, or it was a lamped despised; presently it shines the more for it. How often have you seen it, that cruel defamations have been but forerunners of a greater and brighter serviceableness for God first chastens and instructs and humbles his dear servants. By and by, they see rest from the days of defamation; they prove more serviceable than ever they were in their lives before; and a pit is digged for the wicked[6], they are cut off in their own wickedness.[7]

 

A man is never fit for serviceableness until he be humbled and broken and grieved and made of nothing and willing to be so. Then, then he is fit for the Master’s use.[8] Defamations do contribute unto it admirably! A Joseph must be flouted as a dreamer[9]; the basest person in the world must go to fix a character of baseness upon him; and this only because Hell could not obtain its ends upon him. He outlives the rage of them that hated him and vexed him. He shone brighter, and he did more afterwards a thousand times than ever in his life before: The God of his Father helped him.

 

The intent of Satan and of your enemies, may be by defamations forever to spoil your serviceableness. God over-rules them; God disappoints them; your opportunities to be serviceable do not lie at their mercy. God is perhaps fitting you to some good, which at present you little think or know of. You know not now, but you shall know hereafter. In the meantime, Oh! Glorify the faithfulness of God.

 

[1] Acts 10:1–4 (AV)

1 There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, 2 A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. 3 He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. 4 And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.

[2] Malachi 3:16 (AV)

16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.

[3] This is an allusion to the language, though not the circumstance of Esther 6:6 (AV)

6 So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself?

[4] This theme of reversal is common through-out the Scripture:

Mark 10:31 (AV)

31 But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.

Luke 1:51–53 (AV)

51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 52 He hath put down the mighty from theirseats, and exalted them of low degree. 53 He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.

[5] Philippians 2:15 (AV)

15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

[6] Psalm 94:12–13 (AV)

12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law; 13 That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked.

[7] Psalm 94:22–23 (AV)

22 But the LORD is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge. 23 And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off.

[8] 2 Timothy 2:21 (AV)

21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.

[9] Genesis 37:18–20 (AV)

18 And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. 19 And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. 20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

The Christian Origin of Reasonable Doubt and the Need to not Bear False Witness

01 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by memoirandremains in Slander, Uncategorized

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Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, False Witness, Slander

Christians, like all people, have been far too quick to believe the worst about others. The internet and social media have only made this vicious trait even easier to indulge. This excellent sermon by Mike Ricardi, “How to Kill Your Neighbor” discusses the Christian’s obligation in this area.

https://www.gracechurch.org/sermons/14945

A related concept has to do with the potential sin of condemning another human being — particularly another human being to serve punishment or death. In our law, we require at least preponderance of the evidence for civil and require “beyond a reasonable doubt” for criminal convictions. While we think of that rule as protecting the accused (it does), the basis for that rule was to protect the juror from sin (because, even though it is a neglected doctrine, in Christian theology it is far worse to sin than suffer; Christ suffered death, but never sinned; suffering can only lead to death which is met by resurrection, but sin leads to eternal death).

This article by James Q. Whitman explains: 

At its origins, as this Article aims to show, the familiar “reasonable doubt” rule was not intended to perform the function we ask it to perform today: It was not primarily intended to protect the accused. Instead, it had a significantly different, and distinctly Christian, purpose: The “reasonable doubt” formula was originally concerned with protecting the souls of the jurors against damnation. Convicting an innocent defendant was regarded, in the older Christian tradition, as a potential mortal sin. The purpose of the “reasonable doubt” instruction was to address this frightening possibility, reassuring jurors that they could convict the defendant without risking their own salvation, as long as their doubts about guilt were not “reasonable.”

And this:

As John Adams reminded the jurors in the Boston Massacre trials in 1770, repeating language of moral theology that dated back to the Middle Ages: “[w]here you are doubtful never act: that is, if you doubt of the prisoner’s guilt, never declare him guilty; that is always the rule, especially in cases of life.”

Some Quotations on Slander From the Puritans

28 Friday Sep 2018

Posted by memoirandremains in Puritan, Slander, Uncategorized

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Puritan, Slander

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What is required to the conserving of our neighbours good name?

First, an internal disposition, care, and study of preserving it: which we shall shew by these fruits. First, when we are glad of it, and rejoyce in it; (Rom. 1:8; Col. 1:3, 4.) and are grieved when as it is blacked and blemished.

What other fruits are there of it?

They respect either our hearing, judgment, or reports.
Our hearing; First, when as we shut our ears to wisperers and slanderers, for their detractions and slanders cannot hurt our neighbours good name, if we will not hear and believe them. Prov. 25:23. And this is a note of a Citizen of heaven. Psal. 15:3.
Secondly, when as we willingly and chearfully hear the praises of our neighbours: which is a sign of an honest heart, that is free from self love and envy.

What is required in the judgment?

A candid and ingenuous disposition to preserve our neighbours same, and in all things doubtful to judge the best of his words and deeds.
James Usher, A Body of Divinity: Or, the Sum and Substance of Christian Religion, Eighth Edition. (London: R. J.; Jonathan Robinson; A. and J. Churchill; J. Taylor; J. Wyatt, 1702), 341.

Day by day their malice is fed with a spring, with a malicious heart. A malicious heart and a slanderous tongue alway go well together. The devil, that was the first grand slanderer, hath communion with a malicious heart, and he foments malice, and cherisheth that malicious, poisonful disposition; and a malicious disposition never wants malicious words. As one saith of anger and fury, it ministereth weapons (c), so we may say of malice and hatred, it ministereth words alway.

Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, “The Sword of the Wicked,” ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 1 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1862), 111.

Take heed, therefore, we entertain not rash conceits of others upon the entertainment they find abroad in the world, or among those that have a standing in the church, for so we shall condemn Christ himself. How was he judged of the priests, scribes, and pharisees in his times? And this hath been the lot of the church in all ages. The true members thereof were called heretics and schismatics. The veil was taken off. It is the poisonful pride of man’s heart that, when it cannot raise itself by its own worth, it will endeavour to raise itself by the ruin of others’ credit through lying slanders. The devil was first a slanderer and liar, and then a murderer, John 8:44. He cannot murder without he slander first. The credit of the church must first be taken away, and then she is wounded. Otherwise, as it is a usual proverb, Those that kill a dog make the world believe that he was mad first; so they always first traduced the church to the world, and then persecuted her. Truth hath always a scratched face. Falsehood many times goes under better habits than its own, which God suffers, to exercise our skill and wisdom, that we might not depend upon the rash judgment of others, but might consider what grounds they have; not what men do, or whom they oppose, but from what cause, whether from a spirit of envy, idleness, jealousy, and pride, or from good grounds. Else, if Christ himself were on earth again, we should condemn him, as now men do the generation of the just, whom they smite and wound, and take away their veil from them.

Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 2 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet And Co.; W. Robertson, 1862), 120–121.

For of all grief that God’s people suffer in the world, there is none greater than reproach, disgrace, and contumely. Movemur contumeliis plus quam injuriis, we are more moved with reproaches than injuries. Injuries come from several causes, but disgrace from abundance of slighting. No man but thinks himself worthy of respect from some or other. Now, slanders come from abundance of malice, or else abundance of contempt; and therefore nothing sticks so much as reproaches, specially by reason of opinion and fancy, that raiseth them over high.

Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 2 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet And Co.; W. Robertson, 1862), 492.

As Doeg the Edomite first accused, and then, by the command of Saul, slew Abimelech the high priest, and all his family, destroying the whole city of the priests called Nob, as you may see 1 Sam. 22:9. David, when he professeth the uprightness of his government, would allow no such in his court, but would severely punish them: Ps. 101:5, ‘Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off.’ These ways of whispering and detraction, by which men are wont to gain confidence, favour, and employment from princes, should not only miss of their aims with him, but be severely punished when he met with them.

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 2 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1871), 279–280.

Defamation. Infamy is the forerunner of more trouble, and the showers of slander are but presages of grievous storms of persecution. The devil is first a liar and then a murderer, John 8:44. When the children of God are represented as criminal, they are more easily destroyed. It was a fashion in the primitive persecutions to invest Christians with a bear’s skin, and then to bait them as bears. And it is a usual practice of Satan and his instruments to blast the repute of religious persons, to clothe them with the livery of reproach, and then prosecute them as offenders: Ps. 5:9, ‘Their throat is an open sepulchre.’ The slanders of the wicked are preparatives to death, as the sepulchre when opened is prepared to receive the dead carcase. Men first slander and then molest. The devil is afraid to meddle with unstained innocency. A good report is a great security against open violence.

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 7 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 385.

To slander and accuse is the devil’s property; we should be more tender in divulging the infirmities of the saints; it is the devil’s work. Christ, when he prayeth for his enemies, he mollifieth their crime, and softeneth it with a gentle interpretation: Luke 23:34, ‘Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.’ Christ excuseth, Satan accuseth.

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 10 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 217.

Self-love makes men envious and slanderous. When men would shine alone, and would have all the world else to serve for their foils, to set them off, therefore they blast their gifts with censure, aggravate their failings, and load them with prejudice, that upon the ruins of their good name, they might erect a fabric of praise to themselves. Self-lovers are always bitter censurers; they are so indulgent to their own faults, that they must spend their zeal abroad.

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 15 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1873), 263.

Do no wrong to their names; next to their persons this is to be valued. A slanderer is worse than a thief; the one is publicly odious, but the other robs us of our better treasure: Prov. 22:1, ‘A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches,’ and more conducible to our usefulness for God than wealth. A wrong done to the estate is sooner repaired than a wrong done to the name of others, for a reproach divulged is hardly recalled; when the wound is cured, yet the scar remains; and therefore this is a very great evil to do wrong to their names; especially when you reproach the godly, and do wrong to them, because their discredit lights upon religion. God is much concerned in the credit and honour of his servants. You hinder their service, and lay them open to the rage of the world. A blemished instrument is of little use. Num. 12:8, saith God, ‘Were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?’ To speak against persons eminent and useful for God in their age is to render them suspected to the world; and who would drink of a suspected fountain? You hinder their use and serviceableness. And the wrong is greater when one christian blemisheth another, for one scholar to speak against another, and one lawyer against another; so for one christian to speak against another, it aggravates the injury. Therefore, when there is cause to speak against a man, it should be with grief.

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 16 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1874), 145.

Quest. How many ways may we be unmerciful to the names of others?
Ans. Divers ways: 1. By misreporting them, a sin forbidden, Exod. 23:1. ‘Thou shalt not raise a false report.’ Eminency is commonly blasted by slander, Psal. 64:3. ‘Their tongues are as arrows shot out.’ The tongue of a slanderer shoots out words to wound the fame of another, and make it bleed to death: The saints of God in all ages have met with unmerciful men, who have fathered things upon them that they have not been guilty of. Surius the jesuit reported of Luther, that he learned his divinity of the devil, and that he died drunk; but Melancthon, who wrote his life, affirms that he died in a most pious, holy manner, and made a most excellent prayer before his death: It was David’s complaint, Psal. 35:11. ‘They laid to my charge things which I knew not.’ The Greek word for devil signifies slanderer, 1 Tim. 3:11. ‘Not slanderers;’ in the Greek it is, not devils. Some think it is no great matter to defame and traduce another; but know this is to act the part of a devil. O how many unmerciful men are there, who indeed go for Christians, but play the devil in venting their lies and calumnies! wicked men in scripture are called dogs, Psal. 22:16. Slanderers are not like those dogs which licked Lazarus’s sores to heal them; but like the dogs which did eat Jezebel, they rend and tear the precious names of men. Valentinian the emperor did decree, that he who was openly convicted of this crime of slander, should die for it: And pope Gregory did decree, that such a person should be excommunicated, and not have the communion given him; I think it was a just decree.
2. We are unmerciful to the names of others when we receive a slander, and then report what we hear, Lev. 19:16. ‘Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people.’ A good man ‘doth not evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour,’ Psal. 15:3. We must not only not raise a false report, but not take it up. To divulge a report before we speak with the party and know the truth of it, is unmercifulness, and cannot acquit itself of sin. The same word in the Hebrew, to raise a slander, signifies to receive it, Exod. 23:1. The receiver is even as bad as the thief; it is well if none of us have, in this sense, received stolen goods; when others have stolen away the good names of their brethren, have not we received the stolen goods? there would not be so many to broach false rumours, but that they see this liquor pleaseth other men’s taste.
Thomas Watson, “Discourses upon Christ’s Sermon on the Mount,” in Discourses on Important and Interesting Subjects, Being the Select Works of the Rev. Thomas Watson, vol. 2 (Edinburgh; Glasgow: Blackie, Fullarton, & Co.; A. Fullarton & Co., 1829), 199–200.

Some injure others in their good name, by reproaching them, or speaking evil of them behind their backs. Abundance is done in this way. No injury is so common as this. The iniquity which is committed by men in all our taverns3 by what they say of one another behind their backs is beyond account. Some injure others by making or spreading false reports of others, and so slandering them. And others, although what they say is not a direct falsehood, yet a great misrepresentation of things, represent things in their neighbors in the worst colors, and strain their faults, and set them forth beyond what they are, and speak of them in a very unfair manner.

Jonathan Edwards, Ethical Writings, ed. Paul Ramsey and John E. Smith, vol. 8, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1989), 187.

We must not take up a rash prejudice, or entertain a sinister apprehension of any, upon slight grounds. Do not represent any man, his words or actions, at a disadvantage. Make the best of every thing. A man’s good name is like a looking-glass; nothing is sooner cracked, and every breath can sully it. Handle every man’s reputation with the same tenderness thou wouldest have every man use towards thine. Do not slander or defame any man, or rejoice to hear other men’s miscarriages ripped open. Do not account it an entertainment to censure and backbite all the world.

 James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 203.

Observe that good old rule, of doing to others as you would be done to.—You would have others to bear with you; and why will not you bear with others? You would have the best sense put upon your words, actions, and carriages; and why will not you put the best sense on their words, actions, and carriages? You would not be imposed on, censured, reproached, backbitten, slandered; no more should you impose upon others, or censure them, or reproach or backbite or slander them.

James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, vol. 4 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 251.

We must not injure another in his name. “A good name is a precious balsam;” it is a great cruelty to murder a man in his name. We injure others in their name when we calumniate and slander them. ’Twas David’s complaint, Ps. 35:11., “They laid to my charge things that I knew not.” The primitive Christians were traduced for incest, and killing their children, as Tertullian, Dicimur infanticidii, incestus rei. This is to behead others in their good name; this is an irreparable injury; no physician can heal the wounds of the tongue.

 Thomas Watson, The Select Works of the Rev. Thomas Watson, Comprising His Celebrated Body of Divinity, in a Series of Lectures on the Shorter Catechism, and Various Sermons and Treatises (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1855), 307.

1st. Slandering our neighbour. This is a sin against the ninth commandment. The scorpion carries his poison in his tail; the slanderer carries his poison in his tongue. Slandering is to report things of others unjustly. Ps. 35:11., “They laid things to my charge which I knew not.” It is usual to bring in a Christian beheaded of his good name; they raised a slander of Paul, that he should preach, men might do evil, that good might come of it, Rom. 3:8., “We be slanderously reported; and as some affirm that we say, let us do evil, that good may come.” Eminency is commonly blasted by slander. Holiness itself is no shield from slander. The lamb’s innocency will not preserve it from the wolf. Christ was the most innocent upon earth, yet was reported to be a friend of sinners; John Baptist was a man of a holy austere life, yet they said of him, “he hath a devil,” Mat. 11:18. The scripture calls slandering, smiting with the tongue, Jer. 18:18., “Come, and let us smite him with the tongue.” You may smite another and never touch him. Majora sunt linguæ vulnera quam gladii, AUG. The wounds of the tongue no physician can heal; and to pretend friendship to a man, yet slander him, is most odious. St. Hierom speaks thus: “The Arian faction made a show of kindness; they kissed my hands, but slandered me, and sought my life.” And, as it is a sin against this commandment, to raise a false report of another, so it is a sin to receive a false report before we have examined it, Ps. 15:1., “Lord, who shall dwell in thy holy hill?” Quis ad cœlum? v. 3., “He that backbiteth not, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.” We must not only not raise a false report, but not take it up. He that raiseth a slander, carries the devil in his tongue; and he that receives it, carries the devil in his ear.

Thomas Watson, The Select Works of the Rev. Thomas Watson, Comprising His Celebrated Body of Divinity, in a Series of Lectures on the Shorter Catechism, and Various Sermons and Treatises (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1855), 329.

 

 

Context Matters

18 Tuesday Sep 2018

Posted by memoirandremains in Culture, Leviticus, Slander, Uncategorized

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gossip, Homeless, Leviticus, Slander, Social Media

The meaning of an event depends upon the context. The facts before and after an event can greatly affect the meaning.  A string of events relate to one-another to form a story: the meaning of the event comes from the story. Where you begin and end a story matter. What facts you admit and what you reject matter.

A section of Proverbs 18 speaks to this issue:

Proverbs 18:13–17(ESV)

13  If one gives an answer before he hears,

it is his folly and shame.

14  A man’s spirit will endure sickness,

but a crushed spirit who can bear?

15  An intelligent heart acquires knowledge,

and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

16  A man’s gift makes room for him

and brings him before the great.

17  The one who states his case first seems right,

until the other comes and examines him.

We often do not know all the facts, and so we judge falsely.  And often such false judge can be wicked a cruel. A recent example form social media demonstrates such cruelty. A man was videotaped shaving on a New Jersey. The effect of the video was to mock the man. However, once we understand the context, the cruelty of the mocking becomes apparent:

The truth, Torres said, is that the video captured him at a vulnerable moment. He had been homeless and staying in a shelter in New York City. He’d reached out to his family for help. A brother gave him money for a train ticket, which he was using to get to another brother in southern New Jersey.

Torres grabbed the Northeast Corridor train from Manhattan’s Pennsylvania Station around 7 p.m. Thursday, headed toward Trenton, New Jersey.

He said he left the shelter before having a chance to shower and clean up and wanted to look “presentable.”

“I don’t want to say that I’m homeless, let everybody know,” he said. “That’s why I was shaving.” There are many such things which are presented to us on the Internet.

We see or read or hear something and assume we understand. We judge cruelly and falsely. We use gossip and slander and accusation as weapons to prove our point. Most often we cannot and do not know the entire context. We tell ourselves and others false story.

As an attorney, I have repeatedly seen instances of one more fact changing the meaning of an accusation, a defense, a claim. On one occasion, my friend was in court prosecuting a seemingly valid and substantial claim. All was going well until the opposing party provided a document which proved that the client had already settled this seemingly valid claim.

We repeat claims, make accusations, and act as if we know and can judge, we being fools; often cruel wicked fools:

 ‘You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor; I am the LORD.

Leviticus 19:16 (NASB95). Think about that slander, gossip is an equivalent of murder. To spread a tale is to act against another’s life.

The Deadliness of Slander

18 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by memoirandremains in James Denney, Slander, Uncategorized

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James Denney, Slander, The Deadliness of Slander

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Using the instance of Jesus’ good works being attributed to Satan, Denney gets at the basis of why some slander those who do good. While one may take exception to his statement that this is essence of “blaspheme of the Holy Spirit”, he does get at the spiritual and psychology root of much (if not all) slander:

You may think, perhaps, that in this case it is a sin which has very little interest for us—less even than that of speaking a word against the Son of Man. But consider the sin in its nature, as distinct from the particular form in which it was committed by the scribes. They were confronted by the appeal of God’s goodness in Jesus, and rather than yield to it they contrived a hideous explanation of it which should render it impotent both for themselves and others. Is this a sin which is so very uncommon? Or is it not common enough to hear men who are annoyed and reproved by the good deeds of others ascribe these good deeds to base and unworthy motives, so as to relieve the pressure with which they would otherwise bear on their own consciences? This is the essence of the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It is the sin of those who find out bad motives for other people’s good actions, so that goodness may be discredited, and its appeal perish, and they themselves and others live on undisturbed by its power. Take one of the most ordinary instances. When a selfish or mean man is confronted by the generosity of another, there is a spontaneous reaction in his moral nature. It is a reaction of admiration. Conscience tells us instinctively that such generosity is good; it is inspired by God; it is worthy of admiration and imitation. But something else in us may speak besides conscience. Perhaps we do not like the man who has done the generous thing; we grudge him the honour and the good will it brings; we would not be sorry to see him discredited a little. Perhaps we are naturally grasping and mean, and our selfish nature resents the reproof of another’s generosity. We should be pleased to think he is no better than he need be. We hint at ostentation and the love of praise; we think of ambition, and of the desire to have a party, which is to be conciliated by such gifts; and the generosity of the man is perverted or ignored. It ceases to be a thing which speaks with power for God to us. This, I repeat, is essentially the sin against the Holy Spirit. It is the sin of finding bad motives for good actions, because the good actions condemn us, and we do not want to yield to their appeal. It is the sin of refusing to acknowledge God when he is manifestly there, and of introducing something Satanic to explain and discredit what has unquestionably God behind it. When this temper is indulged, and has its perfect work, the soul has sunk and hardened into a state in which God appeals to it in vain. The presence of Jesus Himself does not subdue it; it only evokes its virulent, rooted, implacable dislike. This is the sin against the Holy Spirit as it is presented to us in the Gospels.

James Denney, The Way Everlasting: Sermons, “The Deadliness of Slander”  (London; New York; Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911), 250–252. Thus, slander is an instance of Romans 1:18.

More From James Denney on How to Profit From Slander

08 Monday May 2017

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, James Denney, Slander

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James Denney, Learning From The Enemy, Slander, The Way Everlasting

–What King so strong

Can tie the gall up in a slanderous tongue?

The Duke

Measure for Measure

Act III, scene 2, 190-191

“It is bitter to be charged falsely with vices which may be quite alien to our character, but it is rarely that even a false charge does not bring something to our remembrance to humble us in the presence of God. It is of no profit to us to be angered by slander, and to retort upon those who utter it; very likely the one may be as easy as the other. The real profit is when it brings us into contact with something in our life to which in our self-complacency we have been blind—something of which the slanderer knows nothing, but which we feel before God more deeply than any wound He could inflict—and when we give ourselves in God’s presence with penitence and humility to set it right with Him. There are such things, such memories, in the lives of all men; and perhaps in surveying the unjust and malignant things said about the Church or about Christians in general we have all been secretly reminded of some of them. It is good to be reminded. It is good to take them to heart. It is good to put resentment away, and with a contrite heart seek forgiveness and amendment from God. It is thus he brings good out of evil and requites blessing for the curse.

James Denney, The Way Everlasting, “Learning From The Enemy”.

How Slander Works

07 Sunday May 2017

Posted by memoirandremains in James Denney, Slander

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David, Shimei, Slander, The Way Everlasting

From one direction, slander should not land a blow: it is not true. But slander merely means our enemies do not know us well enough to disclose our real sins. 

James Denney explains one pang of slander, it hits us on our bruise:

“And David said … let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him.” 2 Samuel 16:11.

It would be hard to imagine a provocation more exasperating than that which David met in this chastened spirit. As the old King of Israel, once the darling of his people, was making his escape from Jerusalem, a man who had some family connexion with Saul came out to gloat over his downfall. “Come out, come out,” he cried, “thou man of blood, thou man of Belial; the Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul in whose stead thou hast reigned.” Nothing could have been more malignant and unjust. If David had exterminated the house of Saul when he came to the throne, he would only have done what was common in those times upon a change of dynasty; but in point of fact he had shown for his friend Jonathan’s sake a rare and distinguished generosity to the descendants of his predecessor. He was slandered in the very point on which he might well have prided himself, and we cannot wonder that the combined insolence and falsehood of Shimei provoked the soldiers in his escort. Abishai would have made short work of the malignant Benjamite if only David had allowed him. But David had other thoughts in his heart, and it was the words of Shimei that had roused them. He was not a man of blood, in general terms, but there was blood on his conscience for all that. He was not a man of Belial, in general terms, a worthless vicious character, but there was a hideous tragedy in which he was the villain. It was not the tragedy of the house of Saul, but of the house of Uriah the Hittite. The words of Shimei brought vividly to his remembrance things which touched him more deeply than any human malice could conceive—so deeply that in presence of them resentment could not live. David knew worse about himself than Shimei’s bitter tongue could ever tell. And it is the same with us. The most malignant taunts of our enemies wound us, not by what they are, but by what they remind us of. And in bringing our real sins to remembrance, they not only silence resentment on our part, but call us to reflection, to patience, to humility, to penitence”

James Denney, The Way Everlasting, “Learning From The Enemy”

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