Year: 1861

Fer the LITCHFIELD ENQUIRER, COUNSELS TO YOUNG MEN. NEW SERIES. No. II.

 GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE. The two most turbulent domestic insurgents to be conquered, are the temper and the tongue He must be man of remarkable equanimity who has not learned this from his own painful experience. The foe that is harder to goverr than to take city, is none other than the re bellious spirit in mans own bosom. With re gard to the tongue, what mighty stress does the apostle James lay upon the difficulty of control ling. Iknow of nothing more terribly graphic than his description of its lawlessness and malig nty, in the third chapter of his Epistle, which earnestly commend to your prayerful reading. Il is enough to make one shudder, when he thinks that he carries an instrument in his own mouth which is more dangerous to himself and al about him, than sharp arrows of the mighty.

 Behold we put bits in the horses mouths that they may obey us, and we turn about theil whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven oi fierce winds, yet are they turned about by g small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth Even so the tongue is little member, and boasteth great things Behold how great mat ter little fire kindleth and the tongue is g fire, world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, aud setteth on fire the course of nature and is set on fire of hell. For every kind o beasts and of birds, and of serpents, and ol things in the sea is tanned, and hath been tanned of mankind but the tongue can no man tame It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poson."

 You will search in vain for parallel to this description in hundred volumes of the drama and other passages of scripture, fall but little short of it, in appalling truthfulness and power. For example that in the hundred and twentieth Psalm, Deliver my soul, oh, Lord, from lylng lips, and from deceitfu tongue" What shall be given unto thee or what shall be done unto thee, oh thou deceitful tongue? Sharp arrows S-

 Also that in the third chapter of Romans "Their throat is an open sepulchrs, and with their tongues they have used deceit, and the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood.

 These quotations are more than enough to prove, that nothing in the world is so hard te be governed as the tongue. No beast is so savage, no fire is so fierce, no occasion to des- troy is so sharp, no poison of asps is so conceH trated. no pestilence or famine or sword has in- aicted so many terrible evils upon the world, as this one little member, the tongue in the mad ness of it's revolt, it bids defiance alike to human power and divine thrcatenings. "The wicked set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.

 Did no man then ever tame and govern his own tongue and is it impossible? If this were so, then it would be in vain for anybody to try, and we might all sit down ill despair under it's inexorabs and tormenting despotism. take the meaning however to be, not that you1 tongues are absolutely beyond your own con- trol, but that you alone can govern them while no man has power to restrain his neighbor's tongue, and bring it into subjection to reason and the word of God, difficult as the task is, ev- cry man can, if he will, bridle his own tongue, and rule his own spirit. You my young friends can do it, by the following considerations and motives.

 In the first place; God has enjoined self government upon you as duty, and enforced it by the most terrible threatenngs, as in the fol- lowing scriptures. |" Put away from thee fro ward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying. Let all bitterness and wrath, and an- ger, and evil speaking be put away from you,with all malice. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou speakest against thy brother and slanderest thine own mothers son. These things hast thou done and 1 kept silence. Thou thoughtest I was alto gether such an one as myself, but will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes Now consider this all ye that forget God, lest tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver. Thy tongue deviseth mischief like sharp razor working deceitfully. Thou lowest all deyouring words, oh, thou deceitful tongue. He shall des- troy thee forever. He shall take thee away and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee ont of the land of the living. The Lord shall cut of all fattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things. All liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and birthstone"

 Now my young friends were God to utter all these terrible threatenings in your ears tonight would you not give the most earnest heed to his voice? Would you not keep down all your wrathfal passions? Would you not bridle your tongues? Would you ever utter another pro- fane oath to the day of your death Would you not fear Him, who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell? Would you try to excuse yourself by saying, I should be glad to govern my fiery spirit if could, but it is beyond my control?

 am sure yoH would not dare to say it. and ii you give loose to yonr passions, and license to your lawless tongues, God will just as surely call you to account, as if He were to rend the heavens and come down.

 If then, there was no other motives for self government, nay, if God had given you but ont distinct command to rule your own spirits, anG .an+roJ x,orp ouD ton0uoa if should hp onopeb