Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-06-03
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
INTERESTING AND INSTRUCTIVE
.ss LESSON.
Reflections Of an Eievatinx Characters
Wholesome Food for Thought
Studying the ecriptursi Lesson In
telligentIy and Probably.


Tongue-James 3: 1-13. A more prac-
tical passage It would be hard to find. It
10 nevertheless not mere ethics, or pro-
verbal philosophy, for the warning
against sins of the tongue is grounded on
duty to God. The lesson would apply to
anybody, but with peculiar force to one
who processes to be serving Christ, and
to have submitted oneself to his control.
Soberness and self-restraint in speech
were commended especially by the
Greeks. While the heroes of Homer let
their tongues run away with them, and
made violent and insulting speeches to
their best friends on slight provocation,
the Greeks of later times deemed such ex-
cess to be dsgraceful. Poets and philos-
ophers of the fifth century, b. c., the
golden age of Greece, proclaim the praises
of the man who keeps his word under con-
troll and is known as a man of action rath-
,er than of words. Boosting and calumny
were discredited. But the Jews and
Christians of the first century A. ID. were
under different influences. The Jews
were extravagant of speech, as any one
may see by reading their Talmud. They
were profane, in their own fashion, swear
ing strange oaths like those which Jesus
rebuked in Matt. 5: 1887. All orientals
think it necessary to fortify their words
by some form of oath. The Arabs. fol-
lowing the practice of the Koran, swear
by almost every conceivable thing in any
way connected with the prophet, or with
the sacred places of their religion. Fur
ther. Eastern peoples are not by nature
truthful. They will go out of their way
to tell lie, just from force of habit. This
infrmity is found even in the Far East,
in some missionary countries, and does
not at once disappear with conversion to
Christianity. James knew what he was
writing about, therefore, and his admoni-
tons were aimed at a mark.
Explanatory.
"Be not many masters: the revised YER
sion has teachers" which is the modern
word for the now ambiguous masters"
The thought of course is plain do not all
of You set yourselves up as teachers Of
your brethren, for a good many Of you
are not qualified for that position and will
get into trouble.
"For in many things we offend ALL;
this translation obscures the sense. Of
fend is obsolete, and "all' is the subject,
not the object, of the verb. The verse
should read, ''For in many things we all
stumble. THE same is perfect
man.: he is not perfect in our sense Of
the word, but symmetrical, well-balanced,
self-controlled. If he can control his
tongue, that shows he is master of his
whole self.
The horse is guided by the bit and the
ship by the rudder. 1t is of course not
perfectly correct to say that man 10
guided by his tongue, that Is, by his words.
The guiding power is rather the will with
in, expressing the character of the man,
and that finds outward expression in
speech. But the point is sufficiently plain
that James makes-the contrast between
the little bit or rudder and the great
things they control, whose progress and
| direction they indicate.
Behold, how great matter a little
| fire kindleth": this also fails to convey
the meaning to a modern reader. The
word matter" is commonly understood to
| mean an affair, controversy, where as
| 1t is here used in its physical sense, and
means wood or fuel. The revised version
reads, show much wood is kindled by how
| small fire." OF course the sense is not
materially changed. Here again the new
version has a smoother rendering: "And
| the tongue is fire; the world of iniquity
among our members is the tongue, which
defileth the whole body, and setteth on
fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire
by hell" On the rather obscure figure Of
speech, "setteth on fire the course Of
nature" the Cambridge Bible says: "The
best Interpretation seems to be that
which sees in the phrase figure for the
whole of life from birth; the wheel which
then begins to roll on its course, and con-
tinues rolling until death. What is meant,
if we adopt this view, is that from the be-
| ginning of life to its close, the tongue 10
an ever present inhammatory element OF
evil 1t is possible that there may be q
reference to the potter's wheel, as in Jer.
| IS: 3. On this view, the tongue would be
represented as the flame, that by its I'M
tempered heat mars the vessel in the
hands of the potter"
| Herewith bless we God and
Herewith curse we men,: some have
thought that James means some of us
bless, others of us curse. 1t seems more
natural to suppose that the contrast 10
more striking; that James says the same
tongue, even the tongue of one who calls
himself disciple of Christ, is often found
blessing God and cursing men. That Is
indeed an anomalous and irrational state
| Oh tnlugs, Uut tnht 10 just tue pOiut
James makes. "A good conversation;
that is, jgood life. The word as here
used does not refer to speech but to char
acter and conduct.
| Teaching Hints.
The sin of garrulity is not the least Of
those which cause disorder and strife in
the world and even among Christians.
Most people talk too much-that is, too
much about the wrong sort of things. This
| Is true in the home, in the prayer meet
ing, in church. We are apt to attempt to
conceal poverty of thought by a profu-
sion of words; to hide lack of real spir-
itual experience under a well-turned SEN
| tence. The more pronounced sins of the
tongue such as lying and Boosting and
| profanity are not so common among the
class of people who will study this lesson,
except among boys classes in mission
schools or children of that sort. But ev-
cry pupil needs to be taught this simple,
fundamental lesson; that as the turning
of the bit or Of the rudder ever so little
! to right or left shows how the horse or
boat is going, so the apparently trif1ing
idle words" the little mean things that
children like to say, are noted by God and
are disple lsing to him.
Sins of the tongue are nearly all the
outgrowth of selfishness. The sin Of mere
ly talking too much about oneself, of
Boosting, of setting oneself up as Judge
of others, Is more lightly esteemed than II