June 10

Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.—Psalms 141:3.

DO I keep in mind the startling declaration of God's word, that "the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, setting on fire the course of nature, and that it is set on fire of hell"? And do I strive, habitually, to govern my tongue, that I may not be surprised into idle, or foolish, or sinful words—words dishonoring to God, or unkind or injurious to man? Do I endeavor always to speak for good, or else be silent?

If used aright, there is nothing better than the tongue: it is the organ of truth and reason; the bond of civil society; the medium of sympathy and kindness and love to our fellow-men, and the instrument of our praise and worship of God. But if used improperly, there is nothing worse than the tongue: it is the instrument of all strife and contentions; the source of division, and bitterness, and wars; the organ of error, and falsehood, and slander and blasphemies.

Words are mighty, words are living;

Serpents with their venomous stings,

Or bright angels, crowding round us,

With heaven's light upon their wings,

Every word has its own spirit,

True or false, that never dies;

Every word our lips may utter,

Sounds in God's ear in the skies!

—A. PROCTER.