you knew their crosses and their miseries, you would probably think them heavier than your own. James v. 9; Ecc. v. 12.

If you are rich, beware of despising the poor. In so doing you reproach your Maker. Prov. xvii. 5.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE NINTH COMMANDMENT,

THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY NEIGHBOUR.

HE tongue is, at the same time, the best part of

THE

man, and his worst: with good government, none is more useful; and without it, none is more mischievous.—Anacharsis.

A wound from a tongue is worse than a wound from the sword.-Pythagoras.

There is nothing so delightful as the hearing or speaking of truth.-Plato.

Truth is the object of our understanding, as good is of our will; and the understanding can no more be delighted with a lie, than the will can choose apparent evil.-Dryden.

There are but ten precepts of the law of God, and two of them, so far as concerns the outward organ and vent of the sins there forbidden, are bestowed on the tongue (one in the first table, and the other in the second table,) as though it were ready to fly out, both against God and man, if not thus bridled.-Leighton. Truth, like light, travels only in straight lines.Colton.

Truth will be uppermost, one time or other, like cork, though kept down in the water.-Sir William Temple.

Truth is the foundation of all knowledge and the cement of all societies.—Casaubon.

Truth and Falsehood, travelling one warm day, met at a well, and both went in to bathe at the same place. Falsehood coming first out of the water, took his companion's clothes, leaving his own vile raiment, and went on his way. Truth, coming out of the water sought in vain for his own proper dress-disdaining to wear the garb of Falsehood. Truth started, all naked, in pursuit of the thief, but not being so swift of foot, has never overtaken the fugitive, and has ever since been known as naked truth. —Anon.

"Let us remember that not our actions only, but the fruits of our lips are to be brought into the solemn account, which we must give to the great Judge of all the earth; and that the day is coming when all our idle and unprofitable talk which has proceeded from the evil treasure of a depraved heart, will undergo a strict examination. . . . And if foolish and wicked speeches are to be accounted for in the day of judgment, let us set a watch on the door of our lips to prevent them, and labour daily to use our tongue so that it may indeed be, as it is in Scripture called, our glory."—Doddridge.

Tale-bearing is as bad an office as a man can put himself into, to be the publisher of every man's faults, divulging what was secret, aggravating crimes, and making the worst of everything that was amiss, with a design to blast and ruin men's reputation, and to sow discord among neighbours. The word used for a

tale-bearer signifies a pedler or petty chapman, the in terlopers of trade; for tale-bearers pick up ill-natured stories at one house, and utter them at another, and commonly barter slander by way of exchange."-M. Henry.

"When we are not able wholly to separate from the wicked, we should double our watchfulness, and especially impose a strict restraint upon our tongues, lest we should be betrayed into boasting, reviling, slandering, flattering, or trifling conversation; remembering that they will criticise every expression, and turn it, if they can, to our disadvantage, and to the discredit of religion. Sometimes it may be necessary to keep silence even from good words, when they are likely to excite profane contempt or rage; yet in general we run into an extreme when we are backward to engage in edifying discourse."-T. Scott.

He said, surely they are my people, children that will not lie so he was their Saviour.-Isaiah.

Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour.-Zechariah.

Perhaps on no one point of morals has so much been written or spoken as on the use of the tongue. Ancients and moderns, heathen and Christians, have alike said many excellent things.

The pen is subject to the same laws as the tongue. It is an artificial tongue, speaking to those at a distance in time or place. What a man may not speak, he should not write. Indeed, writing evil things often does more harm than speaking them. Sir T. Brown: "Scholars are men of peace; they bear no arms, but their tongues are sharper than Actius' razor; their pens carry further, and give a louder report than

thunder. I had rather stand in the shock of a basilisk, than in the fury of a merciless pen."

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We may sin not only by the words used, but also by the tones with which they are spoken, and by looks and gestures. The language of pantomime is universal, vigorous, and easily perverted. "A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth. He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers." Prov. vi. 12, 13.

In many ways we may sin with our tongues. Laurentius enumerates as many sins of the tongue as there are letters in the alphabet. In his Christian Directory, Richard Baxter gives a list of thirty sins of speech, beginning with blasphemy. In expounding the third and ninth commandments, the Westminster Assembly makes the number still larger. There is, therefore, no want of matter on such a theme.

Some speak too fast. Merely rapid articulation is not here intended. But statements made without reflection, though not designed to mislead, are a great evil. "Seest thou a man hasty in his words? There is more hope of a fool than of him." Prov. xxix. 20. The intellect of such is in a state unfriendly to accuracy of knowledge or statement. He seldom improves in mind or manners. He jumps at conclusions, and wishes others to do the same.

Others speak too often. When awake and in company they are seldom silent. "From morn to night the ceaseless larum rings." In the absence of things weighty, wise or true; trifles, folly, or falsehood serve their turn. It is a mark of intolerable self-conceit to be continually offering unsolicited opinions. Even