The Bible speaks a great deal more
and a great deal plainer about the sins of the tongue than any of our
pulpits dare to do. In the Psalms alone you would think that the
psalmists scarcely suffer from anything else worth speaking about but the
evil tongues of their friends and of their enemies. The Book of Proverbs
also is full of the same lashing scourge. And James the Just, in a
passage of terrible truth and power, tells us that we are already as good
as perfect men if we can bridle our tongue; and that, on the other hand,
if we do not bridle our tongue, all our seeming to be religious is a sham
and a self-deception,--that man's religion is vain.
With many men and many women great talkativeness is a matter of simple
temperament and mental constitution. And a talkative habit would be a
childlike and an innocent habit if the heart of talker and the hearts of
those to whom he talks so much were only full of truth and love. But our
hearts and our neighbours' hearts being what they are, in the multitude
of words there wanteth not sin. So much of our talk is about our absent
neighbours, and there are so many misunderstandings, prejudices,
ambitions, competitions, oppositions, and all kinds of cross-interests
between us and our absent neighbours, that we cannot long talk about them
till our hearts have run our tongues into all manner of trespass.
Pages:
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242