TEMPERANCE IN SPEECH

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 24, 1904

TEMPERANCE IN SPEECH.

WE talk much of freedom of speech. As in the matter of action, so in the matter of speech, too many have mistaken liberty for license, and go with tongue whetted or pen sharpened ready to thrust mercilessly everything in sight. When will men learn that there is the assault of speech, and that speech is a deadly weapon? that mental anguish is not a creature of the imagination—a something to be laughed at—but a reality, the tragedy of which can only be known by one who suffers, often in silence, the awful invective of a merciless persecutor?

St. James gives a very accurate description of the tongue turned loose in its riot of ruin: "The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. . . . It is set on fire of hell. . . . It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." Knowing the power of the tongue as an instrument of death, and having seen the awful results of the unbridled riot of speech, one can well appreciate the apostle's conclusion, "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body."

Let him who aspires to any place of permanent usefulness or leadership, look well to the regulation of this member, whether it be in the matter of verbal or written utterance. Moreover, let no one delude himself by clamoring for freedom of speech who is known to riot in the license of hasty and inflammatory utterance. —Selected.