Evil-Speaking and the Injury of the Tongue
By Jos. Clarke
Who can tell its evils? Who can estimate the injury the tongue has effected in the earth? Great nations have engaged in war from the angry word of its chief ruler; families have been ruined by the idle rumor of thoughtless tattlers, whose imaginations have furnished food for the gossip of communities, and many fair reputations have been tarnished by its foul contact. The tongue is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Alas! that it should be so. People do not think of the reputation of their cotemporaries, nor do they generally care as they ought. Israel criticized Moses, which shows how natural it is to find fault with and criticize the best acts of the best of men. Dear reader, are you free from this charge? Is your tongue free from this kind of poison? Can you and I say we are free? I have no doubt there are those who will read this who are in a great measure, perhaps wholly, free from this sin; but they are few. The sin of evil-speaking is one of universal practice, and perhaps not one in a million of earth’s inhabitants is clear. None but those who have felt the poisonous tooth of slander can realize how much harm can be done by a word. You perhaps wish to be useful to your neighbor; but you find the slanderer has anticipated you, and your influence is injured, and you must give up for that time at least. Oftentimes good people speak unadvisedly, and the influence of those who could be useful is weakened and injured. I have often thought that in the church people are more free to speak evil than in the world, for this reason: If they speak evil of a man of the world, they would be in danger of the law; but they know their good brother will not sue. This is a strong assertion, but in very many cases it is certainly true. Oh! it is a great thing to bridle the tongue; it is also a good thing to put a good construction upon what we hear said by our cotemporaries, whether brethren or not. Some are trained to criticize; they look you from head to foot. If a button is off, these persons observe it, and make remarks; and in time, they grow to be disagreeable and unhappy; and their criticisms take on the same type. How different those who are trained in an opposite direction, and how different the influence. Jos. Clarke.