---

As in the physical, so in the moral, the tongue is the criterion of the hidden and eternal man. Self-government alone can conform men to Christ, and there is no self-government where the tongue is untamed.

I. THE TONGUE IS A GREAT BLESSING. The gift of speech is a valuable boon. The animal creation have it not. In man's case, mind utters itself through matter. Spirit speaks through clay. Blessed boon, the gift of speech! — the richest melody of creation, the music of nature, the life of poetry, the vehicle of common sense, the incarnation of the soul's contemplations.

II. THE TONGUE IS THE SERVANT OF THE HEART. Strictly, the tongue never speaks at random. The tongue is the criterion of the moral man. A diseased or healthy heart is thereby truthfully advertised. While the mind is the standard of the man, the tongue is the standard of the mind. The apostle James regarded a wholesome tongue in so important a light that he came to the conclusion, "if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body." With him it involved such mortification of nature, such growth in goodness, and such constant self-government, that he regarded the man who had mastered his lips as not far from perfection. Idle words betray a mind waste, worthless, and uncultivated; severe words, a mind savage and malicious; angry words, a mind set on fire of hell; whispering words, a mind cast in the mould of Judas; boasting or disparaging words, a mind stuffed with self-conceit; false and deceitful words, a mind which he who was a liar from the beginning has usurped as his pleasure-ground. Thus our daily sayings are our daily selves, and our words testify our inmost thoughts.

III. THE TONGUE SPOILED BY SIN IS EMPHATICALLY THE STRONGHOLD OF SATAN. No member of the body has done Satan more service than the tongue. Through all generations, how many of the best and most useful men have been assailed by calumnies. The sensual tongues, the flattering tongues, the sceptical tongues of bad men, and the strife of tongues among good men, have shown Satan to be the lord of language. The tongue is God's organ, but beware lest the devil play upon it till in death it cyphers and is heard no more.

IV. THE TONGUE CAN ONLY BE CURED BY THE HABITUAL CONTEMPLATION OF CHRIST. It is by looking unto Him, the author and finisher of our faith, by closely studying His excellences, and getting full of His Spirit, that we effectually keep the door of our lips against every ungodly and unamiable intruder. The tongues of Christians should be eminently instructive. They should also be comforters. And they should be, at proper times, reprovers. Keep the door of your lips. Be slow to speak, slow to wrath.

(Mortlock Daniel.)

---

---

KJV: Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

WEB: Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit.