Don't snub him. Don't depreciate his ability. Don't talk
discouragingly about his future. Don't let Miriam get down off the
bank of the Nile, and wade out and upset the ark of bulrushes. Don't
tease him. Brothers and sisters do not consider it any harm to tease.
That spirit abroad in the family is one of the meanest and most
devilish. There is a teasing that is pleasurable, and is only another
form of innocent raillery, but that which provokes, and irritates, and
makes the eye flash with anger is to be reprehended. It would be less
blameworthy to take a bunch of thorns and draw them across your
sister's cheek, or to take a knife and draw its sharp edge across your
brother's hand till the blood spurts, for that would damage only the
body, but teasing is the thorn and the knife, scratching and
lacerating the disposition and the soul. It is the curse of
innumerable households that the brothers tease the sisters, and the
sisters the brothers. Sometimes it is the color of the hair, or the
shape of the features, or an affair of the heart. Sometimes it is by
revealing a secret, or by a suggestive look, or a guffaw, or an
"Ahem!" Tease! Tease! Tease! For God's sake quit it. Christ says: "He
that hateth his brother is a murderer." Now, when you, by teasing,
make your brother or sister hate you, you turn him or her into a
murderer or murderess.