The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-06-01
What the Church
Doing.
The International sunday school Les
SON for June 9th is, The Power OF
the TOn2ue.' James ;: liz.
IN IiIIS.

Ia NILiiAN ELLIS.
The peace societies are campaigning
against the building Of more battle
ships of the ""Dreadnaught' type,
which has so aroused Europe. All the
international politics OF our time IS
beng powerfully affected by the cTea-
ton Of this new and mOnStrous en-
CINE Of death. Worse than the
.Dreadraught" is the peril against
which James wrote in his practical and
spoke letter to the early Christian
church.. He reached out for all the
strongest images he could imagine to
express the h~urtfulness of this evil,
and had "Dreadnaughts' existed in
his time, doubtless they, too, would
nave been utilized as a figure Of ma
lign power. For that unruly mem
Der, the human tongue, has wrought
more harm to humanity than all the
swords and guns and WarshlpS that
have ever been manufactured h
truth seems too obvious to be dWelt
upon, yet nothing needs more emphasis
in our own time. We could afford to
go Without, for a generation to come.
some of the new discoveries of our
Wizard-like scientists, if only instead
we cou'd devise a way of brldllng Deo-
pies tOngueS.
James came to the subject by way
of the tendency of the new Christians
to assume places of instruction. The
Shl VI oAiiiII NAASAA- oAhN
the were prone to allow their words
to Outrun their knowledge fashion
which did not cease With James time.
The danger Of becoming a babbler in
stead of a profitable teacher led up to
this famous passage upon the tongue.
One is sometimes tempted to send a
marked copy of this letter by James
to some of our p~reSent-day distinguish
ed college professors, who are as prone
as the early Christian converts to
speak unadvisedly with their lips.
The Tameiess Member.
The bride, the ships rudder, the
fire, the vial of deadly poison-all
We're employed as figures by James
to indicate the potentiality of the
tongue. He gives his pen full license
to depict the seriousness of the
tongues offending. There is not a
sin or a crime that mars the fair page
of human endeavor that may not
spring from the unbridled &
Anacharsis said that the tongue is
at the same time, the best part Of man
and his worst; with good government,
none is more useful, and without it.
none is more mischieVous." Justin
carried the thought farther when he
said: by examining the tongue of q
patient, the physicians find out the
disease of the body, and philosophers
the disease of the mind
A simple method of getting at pres
ent day social conditions-much
simpler than to read the numerous
volumes on sociology that are stream
ing from the preSS-iS to take ones
ears to any place where men and Wo-
men foregather, and simply listen. on
the highways, in public c~Onyeyances.
where persons are gathered socially,
listen to the nature of the Snatches
of conversation that come u~nintended
to your ears. so much of the talk is
frivolous and amntN and l9noN and
thoughtless and gossipy that a per
son wonder where to look for words
of soberness and discretion. If the
common talk that one is a
fair indication of the thinking of the
time, there is need for rinting his
paragraph from James ancient letter
in display type upO the front page of
every newspaper of the land. For the
evils which James saw in dc Jerusa-
lem are affecting modern Americans
to even an exaggerated degree.
The Good Persons Failing.
The highly correct person., who
would be Mortified at the thought Of
hurting a stone through a plate glass
window, often does not hesitate to
send a ruinOus sentence smashing into
a neighbours reputation. There is the
graVest danger that Christians who
stand appalled, at the grosser sins, will
yet give full play to the more iniu-I
rlous offences Of the tongue. It is a
much less serious matter to get into
a fist fight than to stab a persons fair
name.
The habit Of censor-ous speech is a
particular peril Of good people. The
Pharisees fell deeply into this sin in
the time of Jesus. They assumed that.
somehow, their own prObity and out
ward conformity to matters of the law
gave them the privilege of sitting in
Judgment upon all the rest of thei
world. Everybody who has mingled
With various types of Christian gath
trlnss can relate experiences of almost
u~nthlnkable bleness on the
part OF sincerely pious persons Tha
1ongoe OF the Christian. and not of the