The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-08-27

the live coals of the RlhUtee'A0 W
 lying tongue and the lewd. tongue scaa- m the voorl, that proceeds from Christs | eross They will scatter and burn up | cbrfst,s church and Christ's Bible and mans immortal hope Blaspheny IS the natural outcome of mans tongue pois- oned with evil in his dealings with man.
 pepraved Tongue.
 sI2u+ cannot close this line of my talk without declaring that the blasphe= l mons tonpue inevitably becomes the l toneue of a human beast of carrion. AS 1 soon as man gets out of touch with l God be inevitably acquires a depraved idea of the human race. Like the bug gard which circles about in the heavens over the hills and the valleys and the prairies of southern California waiting l for the horse or the COW or the sheep to dron dead in his tracks that he may bounce upon 1t. so the evil tongue of man seems to glory in the banquet of dead I reputa+ions of evil reports and Of de- basjnr rumors which affirm that men and women have gone astray and be- come as bad as or even worse than 1 ourselves.
 sinfulv suggestive than when a party of men and women get together to discuss the overthrow of fellow man. Have I you heard the news?' asks one evil 1 tongue "No' answers another evil tongue. "Tell 1t me. What Is it?" why you know Mrs. So-and-so, the daughter of our pastor. We'll she Is being sued for divorce by her husband "1s that soE We'll I knew it would comet never did 1 like her father He always pretended to be so good that I felt there was some 1 thing wrong about him. If that father ! had only lived as good a life as he pre- tended to live his daughter would not have turned out as she did Good TOT him. never did like that daughter any how Sle always thought she was bet ter than anyone else. and now to think she is nothing but a hypocrite" Have you heard the news?" again asks the evil tongue NO. what is it?' MT. So- and-so has just failed" Anal He has? Nnl I always thought he was living beyond his means. These men who send their bills are nothing but thieves. Yes, he has got Just what he deservesf' on, svil tongue, ready to put the worst in- l term citation upon your neighbours actions, are ycu here today? Vile serpent. with thy deadly poison. thou art not destroy. lnt- thy neighbor nearly as much as with hiss and rattle thou art proving to God thy own infnmy and thine own depravity | of heart. CT Q tongue can no man tame It is an unruly evil. full of deadly poison" Is that your tongue. needless man?
 Tanning the Tongue.
 But, though man cannot tame his sin , ful tongue thank God. the Lord God AL mighty can tame 1t, and will tame 1t by the power of the Holy Spirit, if we will only let him. He will make the vindic- tive tongue the tongne of forgiveness; the tongue of vlleness the pure tongue; the tongue of deceit the truthful tongue; the tongue of blasphemy the praying tongue. and the tongue of condemnation the tongue of charity. It Is said that many years ago In a hotel dining room the late pr. Annesley heard some men enrsing God and their fellow men at an adjoining table The good doctor bade the waiter carry a glass of water to the blasphemers with his compliments. "what is that for?" they asked. "I thought said Dr. Annesley gravely. that you would like to cool your tongues in It. after the fiery language you were uttering" That may have been just rebuke But If we today will thrust our evil tongues into the water of life we shall not only cool them but by the power of the Holy Spirit we shall change them. Oh my friend, will you not today let God change your evil tongue into the tongue of purity, the tongue of prayer. the tongue of love and the tongue of gentleness?
 But" says some one. "how can God make this changer" do not know how 1t is done but I do know he can do 1t ! and he will do 1t, If you will only talk with him and ask his help. He can change your evil tongue in the same way that your Christian mother used to change 1t. You remember when you look back to your boyhood life, how angry you used to get I can see you now In of vuffh hrOthar Your little fists were clnched. Your eyes were flashing. Your breast was heaving You had raised your arm to strike a blow when you looked up and saw your mother. She looked at you so tenderly and penrovnglv as she said Charley!" At first you could not answer Then the muttered imprecation left your lips Your hand was lowered. Then you burst Into tears as you said NMotheri Oh motheri Forgive me, motherr So with this evil tongue of ours. If we only use it to daily talk with God if we only use it 10 pour out our desires into his ear instead of being the organ of gen. tleness and forgiveness and mercy and love. Oh, my friends, will you not let God today conquer your evil tongue?
 Would that this daily habit of talking with God might become ours! once read of a mother who tried to stop the evil tongue scattering its poison by her fireside by writing down, day after day, every evil saying which she heard her children speak. Then. in the evening hour. she would read to her family the evil words of the day. That may be one wa to halt the evil habit of a sinful tongue. but believe the best way to conquer the tongues evil deeds is not to make a record of it's faults and errors but to get our tongues in the habit, every hour of every day. of having private con- versations with God. When we are about to do something we should lift up our voices involuntarily and say Lord, would you like me to do this?'' When we are about to sneak we should ash. Lord shall say this?" When we arc about to rebuke brother, we should say. Lord shall denounce this evil deedY" Then. with the close touch of our tongues with Gods ear. Gods tongue will become our tongue. Lord God Almighty, may we never tire of talking with theei In Chrst's name. We ask thee to govern our speech, and then we know thou shalt rule our lives. Tame them. God Tame our evil tongues for thy divine service.
 Copyright, 1905. by Louis Klopsch.)