The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1878-03-07
Our Young People
BY REV. R. H. RIVERS. D. d.
The Tongue-Its Use and Abuse.
LESSON FOURTH.

LESSON FOURTH.
By this time the readers of these
lessons must be convinced OF the
great importance OF the tongue.
That it can give pleasure or bring
pain; that it can promote virtue or
lead to vice, and that it can honor
God and exalt man, or degrade the
one and dishonor the other The
eloquent tongue welded in behalf
of country, truth and God has re-
formed governments, dispelled igno-
rante, lessened crime, built up
schools and colleges and elevated
our sinful race to a higher plane.
The same tongue welded in the
cause of wrong has destroyed ma
tons, increased vice, promoted wars
and bloodshed, aroused the fiercest
and widest passions and led both
individuals and communities to
sudden and inevitable ruin. A pru
dent tongue prefers wisdom to gain,
peace to strife, and silence to Cos
sip. Its utterances are quiet, calm
and true IL does no mischief; it
promotes no discord; it separates no
friends; it utters no SANDERS; it in
dulges in no vituperation. 1t Gre
ates no uneasihess in the minds of
the parents who know that their
sons or heir daughters never in
dulge in imprudent speech. The
possessor of a prudent tongue is
ever a welcome guest among the
wise and good. His company is
always source of pleasure, and his
conversation is both instructive and
pleasant. But an imprudent tongue,
who can bear? 1t is ever making
blunders. 1t is ever setting the
community in a broil. 1t is always
meddling with the business of 9TH
ers. Its interference is always for
evil and never for good. Its words
are forever spoken at the wrong
time and in the wrong place. Its
criticisms, however severe and I'M
just, are always so uttered as to do
the most harm. 1t keeps the fam
lily in a turmoil, the school in trou-
BILE and the community in most I'M
pleasant excitement. 1t needs bit
with a curb to restrain its move
ments, to hush its follies, to tame
its wildness and silence its clamors.
Then we have The murmuring,
complaining, fault-fnding tongue.
Every thing goes wrong. The times
are out of joint; the merchants are
all Srylocks, and the farmers are
still worse. The schools are all
humbugs, and the Church is a nest
of vile hypocrites. The old are
bad enough, but the young are a
thousand fold worse. The preach
ing lacks point, the prayers want
JUNCTION, and the singing is abomi-
nable. The organ sounds like a
broken tinpan, and the choir has
not a good voice in it. Every man
is an IshmaelIte with his hands
against every other man, or Jacob
trying to cheat his brother. In the
domestic circle such tongue is an
annoyance beyond measure. 1t de-
stroys all the pleasure of social in
tercourse, and breaks up the har-
mony OF the family. 1t complains
of the table; objects to the coffee,
finds fault with the biscuit, and de
clares the whole meal TO be execra-
bic. Such tongue in the mouth
of a wife makes the house of her
husband worse than a house filled
with smoke and more gloomy than
the famous cave of the Cyclops. |
Possessed by husband it makes |
poor nervous woman An object of |
real pity. 1t has no mercy. 1t is
harsh to her who, weary and worn,
feverish and sick, claims constant
sympathy and actually needs the
greatest tenderness and love. II
frets and scolds, storms and raves,
and converts that which should be
the happiest spot on earth to a bed-I
lam-to a place of wretchedness, of
shame and confusion. Such a
tongue in young persons sends out
words which burn like sparks of
fire, and whose pungency is so in
tense as to be repugnant to every
refined taste. 1t complains of a
patient loving mother and of an en-
ergetic devoted father. 1t is i'm
patient with br others and sisters,
with teachers and schoolmates, and
S as careless of the feelings of 9TH
srs as it is inconsiderate in the !
manner Of expressing its bitter and
complainings. In con- {
,lusion, on the use and sbuse of the
tongue, you will allow me to lay |
Town certain principles by which to +,
be governed in its use:
LIST. Determine 10 control the
,ongue. Never speak when in a
passion. A soft answer turneth
away wrath. 1t is SAID that q lady
whose husband was IN the habit of
using sharp and harsh eplthets to
ler applied to physician for some
'emedy. He gave her a vial of a
transparent liquid, calling it the
Elixir of love. and told her to fill =
Ter mouth with it and keep il filled
IS long as her husband INDUCED in a
abusive language. After a few
weeks she returned for more, stat b
ng that it had had a charming eff {
ect aud had almost broken her hus-