Proverbs 11:12-13

He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour.

Types of character in social life

Four distinct types of character.

I. The insolent. Men destitute of all true respect for their fellows. They are uncivil and rude, sneering, saucy, abusive.

II. The respectful. He is neither precipitant in the judgment he forms of men, nor hasty in his language. He is the true gentleman of society: cautious, prudent, polite.

III. The tattler. A tale-bearer is one who will take in your secrets, and hasten to his neighbour to pour them into his greedy ears. He has a witching ear to know your concerns. He is not always malicious in spirit, but he is always dangerous. He is always defending friendships, starting suspicions, and creating animosities.

IV. The trustworthy. The antithesis to the tale-bearer. He is a dependable friend; he will listen to your secrets as things too sacred for speech. You can trust him with your life, he will never betray you. (Homilist.)

Tale-bearers unloading refuse

“It was told me in the strictest confidence, but you won’t tell I” “No,” was the quiet reply; “I prefer not to hear it. What right have you to tell what you virtually promised not to communicate; I am sure I have no right, and I have no desire to know what does not belong to me to know.” There are people who use their friends as dumping-grounds, and unload on them any choice bits of scandal they may chance to pick up, as though they were conferring a favour. As long as human nature is what it is, there will be plenty of such unloading to be done; but what noble mind wishes to be put to such ignoble uses, and to have made in any part of his spiritual domain a scavenger heap? The perfect character, like the perfectly kept house, has no dark and dusty corners. It is kept sweet and pure in every part. There is no place where a foul garment or a malodorous rag may be tucked away and hidden. Fire and water and the broom and duster in a modern house keep all things clean. There is no more reason why there should be nesting-places of evil in the soul than why there should be dust upon our furniture. The pure sunlight of God let into dark places cleanses and keeps them clean. The person who in confidence would taint another is not a friend, but an enemy. (Christian Age.)

Tale-bearers traders in scandal

The word means “a hawker,” or “travelling-chapman”; and the tale-bearer is a trader in scandal, an itinerant busybody. A. shrewd heathen was wont to say, “Tale-bearers should be hung up by the tongue, and tale-hearers by the ears.”