MOST people think there are cares enough in the world, and yet many are
very industrious to increase them:--One of the readiest ways of doing
this is to quarrel with a neighbour. A bad bargain may vex a man for a
week, and a bad debt may trouble him for a month; but a quarrel with his
neighbours will keep him in hot water all the year round.
Aaron Hands delights in fowls, and his cocks and hens are always
scratching up the flowerbeds of his neighbour William Wilkes, whose
mischievous tom-cat every now and then runs off with a chicken. The
consequence is, that William Wilkins is one half the day occupied in
driving away the fowls, and threatening to screw their long ugly necks
off; while Aaron Hands, in his periodical outbreaks, invariably vows to
skin his neighbour's cat, as sure as he can lay hold of him.
Neighbours! Neighbours! Why can you not be at peace? Not all the fowls
you can rear, and the flowers you can grow, will make amends for a
life of anger, hatred, malice, and uncharitableness. Come to some
kind-hearted understanding one with another, and dwell in peace.
Upton, the refiner, has a smoky chimney, that sets him and all the
neighbourhood by the ears. The people around abuse him without mercy,
complaining that they are poisoned, and declaring that they will indict
him at the sessions. Upton fiercely sets them at defiance, on the ground
that his premises were built before theirs, that his chimney did not
come to them, but that they came to his chimney.
Neighbours! Neighbours! practise a little more forbearance. Had half a
dozen of you waited on the refiner in a kindly spirit, he would years
ago have so altered his chimney, that it would not have annoyed you.
Mrs. Tibbets is thoughtless--if it were not so she would never have had
her large dusty carpet beaten, when her neighbour, who had a wash,
was having her wet clothes hung out to dry. Mrs. Williams is hasty and
passionate, or she would never have taken it for granted that the carpet
was beaten on purpose to spite her, and give her trouble. As it is, Mrs.
Tibbets and Mrs. Williams hate one another with a perfect hatred.
Neighbours! Neighbours! bear with one another. We are none of us angels,
and should not, therefore, expect those about us to be free from faults.
They who attempt to out-wrangle a quarrelsome neighbour, go the wrong
way to work. A kind word, and still more a kind deed, will be more
likely to be successful. Two children wanted to pass by a savage dog:
the one took a stick in his hand and pointed it at him, but this only
made the enraged creature more furious than before. The other child
adopted a different plan; for by giving the dog a piece of his bread and
butter, he was allowed to pass, the subdued animal wagging his tail in
quietude. If you happen to have a quarrelsome neighbour, conquer him by
civility and kindness; try the bread and butter system, and keep your
stick out of sight. That is an excellent Christian admonition, “A soft
answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.”
Neighbours' quarrels are a mutual reproach, and yet a stick or a straw
is sufficient to promote them. One man is rich, and another poor; one
is a churchman, another a dissenter; one is a conservative, another a
liberal; one hates another because he is of the same trade, and another
is bitter with his neighbour because he is a Jew or a Roman Catholic.
Neighbours! Neighbours! live in love, and then while you make others
happy, you will be happier yourselves.
“That happy man is surely blest,
Who of the worst things makes the best;
Whilst he must be of temper curst,
Who of the best things makes the worst.”
“Be ye all of one mind,” says the Apostle, “having compassion one of
another; love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous; not rendering evil
for evil, or railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing. “To a rich
man I would say, bear with and try to serve those who are below you; and
to a poor one--
“Fear God, love peace, and mind your labour;
And never, never quarrel with your neighbour.”