Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1907-02-22
CONTROL OF THE TONGUE
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BV Rev Henry

by Rev. Henry M. Barbour.
II any man offend not in word the
same is a perfect man and able also
10 bride the whole body-St. James,
ILL., 2.
81. James presents the duty of ruling
our speech as one of the greatest mo-
ment. He says that man who can
govern his tongue can govern his whole
Dody, even as the bits control the horse
and as the rudder guides the ship. He
says that If any man seems to be re-
ngious and bridleth not his tongue,
that mans religion Is vain And wax
Ing fervid with his theme. he declares
of the ungoverned tongeu that it defil-
eth the whole body and setteth on fire
the course of nature.
In considering some of the most COM
mon forms Of the offense to which the
apostle refers we must surely name
extravagant speech as open to grave
objection. The possibilities of han
guage are pressed to the utmost for
strong words. The simplest things are
declared to be horrible" and awful"
and people constantly assert that the
most ordinary events are the greatest,
or the best, or the worst that they
ever knew in all their lives.
Aside from the utter absurdity of
this habit, it begets carelessness in
other things and leads to general levi
ty and flippancy So that it Is not a
suNrfuous thing to lay down these
precepts:
Be accurate in the use Of language.
Guide your words with discretion.
DO not say a million when you mean
five or six; be thoughtful; be exact
and you will avoid trouble for yourself
and for others. And when you do have
occasion to use strong words people
will know that you mean just what
you say.
Irreverent speech is another very
common sim There are few who do
not at times speak lightly of sacred
things Something connected with re-
ligion has struck them as comical. Or
they have devised some brilliant pun
On a passage from holy writ. Or
child has innocently made some BIAS
phemous remark. or they know story
which, as they say, is very wicked, but
which they still proceed to relate. And
50 for the sake of being as they i'm
agine it. witty or entertaining, they
make a jest Of their Maker or of the
awful verities of worlds unseen.
And how much of slanderous speech
there is among u.s. We bear no malice,
we mean no harm, but we say things
that wound and sting. Or, if we have
no unpleasant comments Of our own to
make on others. we repeat something
that has come to us. We did not orig
mate it, we only echo what we hear"
but the story, like the rolling snow
ball, gathers as it goes. The little fire
creeps and spreads and "kindleth a
great natter And some fair charac-
ter, perhaps is ruined
Whenever we have an opportunity
to spread an injurious report about an
other let us ask ourselves these two
questions Is the report true, and is
it our duty to spread it? And if the
answer to both or to either Of these
questions be a negative one let Us drop
the miserable business at once.
There are many other classes Of evil
speaking that might be named. There
are angry words and deliberately mali
cious words and profane words and
false words But if we are on our
guard with reference to the three class
es just considered we shall not be like
ly to speak amiss in other ways.