"A good governance of speech is a strong evidence of a good mind; of a mind pure from vicious desires, calm from disorderly passions, void of dishonest intentions."-Isaac Barrow.

"If good men with the liberty of an honest zeal opposed and reproved all profane and immodest freedoms in conversation, veneration and respect would attend them, and religion would soon improve itself into a fashion. The libertine would retire to the stews, and profaneness be confined to the brothel. Joy and peace and esteem would bless the dwellings of the righteous; and the purity and holiness of his conversation now, would prepare him for that heavenly society, into which nothing unclean can enter."Rogers.

"There is so much correspondence betwixt the heart and the tongue, that they will move at once; every man therefore speaks of his own pleasure and care; the hunter and falconer of his games; the ploughman of his team; the soldier of his march and colours. If the heart was as full of God, the tongue could not refrain to talk of him. The rareness of Christian communication argues the common poverty of grace. If Christ be not in our hearts, we are godless: if He be there without our joy, we are senseless; if we rejoice in Him, and speak not of Him, we are shamefully unthankful ;— every man taketh, yea raiseth occasion to bring in speech of what he liketh. So I will think of thee, always, O Lord; so it shall be my joy to speak of thee often; and if I find not opportunity, I will make it.”—Bp. Hall.

Deus propitius esto mihi peccatori !

EPHES. iv. 29.

"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers."

SEVERAL times in the book of Psalms we find the tongue of man designated his "glory." For example, "I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth'." "Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; to the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent 2." "Awake up, my glory 3." Or, as it is more fully expressed in the hundred and eighth Psalm, "O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise, even with my glory+;" in the Prayer

66

1 Ps. xvi. 9; LXX. † yλwooá μov. 3 Ibid. lvii. 7.

2 Ibid, xxx. 11, 12.

4

' Ver. 1.

Book, or Old Version, "I will sing and give praise with the best member that I have." The tongue, that is, declares that the reasonable soul subsists, and the highest office of reason is to praise the God who gave it. There is nothing so comely as praise and thanksgiving, a blessing rests upon that tongue which utters it out of a "pure heart fervently." By this do all discern and know "the spirit of a man that goeth upward," from "the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth 5."

"the

But if the tongue be granted to us for our "glory," we must see that it is such. If by it we are distinguished from the beasts that perish, we must see that we become not what the Psalmist calls, beasts of the people ","—boisterous, that is, wild, and violent,-like to those beasts "after the manner of men,” with whom St. Paul fought at Ephesus'. For, by the tongue, we are not only distinguished from the lower orders of the creation, but also one from another. He that useth it well guides his words with discretion; he that useth it ill is foolish and "ignorant, even as it were a beast," before his God 8.

And because all talents are to be accounted for, and for all gifts severally God will bring a man into judgment, our blessed Lord, in his exceeding care and great anxiety for the souls of men, has left behind him these words for Christians in all ages, to

6 Ps. lxviii. 30.

5 Eccles. iii. 21.
Ps. lxxiii. 21.

7 See 1 Cor. xv. 32. 'Eccles. xi. 9.

"read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest." You will find them in St. Matthew. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. Bnt I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." Of such consequence is it to "put a bridle upon our lips ;"-to keep our tongue from evil, and our lips that they speak no guile. Needs must he look to it that "lusteth to live, and would fain see good days 2."

Natural, therefore, was it that the great Apostle of the Gentiles, in addressing his Corinthian converts should tell them, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal3;" natural that he should exhort the Ephesians, saying, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers." Far other, in all likelihood, was that of which they of Ephesus were used to hear, for Ephesus was a great city and an idolatrous, and we know that lasciviousness and all uncleanness ever accompanied idolatry,

1 Matt. xii. 34-37.

VOL. I.

2 Ps. xxxix. 1; xxxiv. 12, 13.

31 Cor. xiii. 1.

D d

even as now, in the darker places of the earth, where the light of the Gospel has not shone. It was here that "the temple of the great goddess Diana" stood, one of the reputed seven wonders of the world, and here it was likewise that there "arose no small stir" at Paul's presence amongst them, and they feared for the "magnificence" of their goddess, and "were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians." They were a people also that were given to magic and divination, for we find that many of their hearts were turned.-"many of them also," says the sacred penman, "which used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men"." To such a people as this, therefore, we might well expect that St. Paul would urge his converts to set forth the brightest copy of Christian holiness. For, as he elsewhere says, "what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols 6?"

And now, Christian brethren, having introduced the subject, we may examine the text in its parts. And may the Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son be with us, and give us a right judgment in all things, and direct and rule our thoughts, our words, and actions!

Acts xix. 28.

5

Ibid. 19.

2 Cor. vi. 14—16.