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Show THE POWER OF WORDS GOLDEN TEXT: . "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be ' acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and sdmemri4 ! Lesson Text: James 31-8; 4:7-12 i I Continuing our study of thei i Epistle of James, we are remind-1 ed of the significance of oun kj words. Just as a doctor can di-j agnose a great many of the ills j of his patients by a look at the I patient's tongue, so the world knows the condition of our i minds and hearts by the words j which come from our mouths. : The tongue only reveals symp- -' toms of disease, which must be r treated if the patient is to enjoy full physical health. So must the cause of evil speech be removed if the speech itself is to be cleaned clean-ed up. James declares that if a min rnn rnnlrnl his tonSUG. lie will be able to control his whole body, and how true that is. Self- control, or the lack of it, is evident evi-dent by the speech of a person. Cato declared, "I think the first virtue is to restrain the tongue." i A stanza, found in St. Nicho las Magazine, expresses the thought of the first part of our text: "You may keep your feet from slipping, - And your hands from evil deeds, But to guard your tongue from tripping, What unceasing care it needs! Be you old or be you young, O beware, take good care, Of the tittle-tattle, tell-tale tongue! We should remember that all sins come under the head of thought, word and deed; and that faults in word are the most common and often the most dangerous. dan-gerous. Sins of thought only in-Ijure. in-Ijure. oneself and give no scandal or evil example to others. God alone sees and is displeased with them. But sins of the tongue go further. The evil word, once ut- tered, can never be completely recalled.. One might apologize for it, but its effect will still remain. Notorious acts of sin are liable to public punishment, but evil speaking, unless it be grossly gross-ly slanderous, is subject to no check. James -reminds us that man has so much of God in him that to curse a man is to curse a being made in the image of God. To speak harsh, bitter and ugly things about man is thus an offense of-fense against what is great and holy in the estimate of God, his creator. Charles E. Jefferson, in Under Twenty, says: "Here are three things to be remembered: "First. Words are deeds. You do things with your tongue. When a word goes forth it keeps working, and being like fire, it spreads, and not until you reach the world when all things are known will you ever know what you have done with your tongue. "Second. You are responsible for your words. You are not responsible re-sponsible for all you think. Satan can shoot evil thoughts into your mind. You are not responsible for all you hear. The ears take in what is said in their presence. They have no means of self-protection. But you are responsible for all you say. The tongue does not repeat what is heard, or what is thought, unless the soul issues a permit. "Third. One of the greatest tasks in life is the education of the tongue. It must be sent to school the schoolof Christ. It must be disciplined, and trained.-It trained.-It must be held in vigorous subjection. sub-jection. You must make yourself your-self master of it. It is not an easy thing to do, and you will have to work at it more or less all your life. Begin today." |