THE TONGUE.

"You promised me, dear papa," said Harry Maitland, "that you would give me some account of the tongue. I was lately reading in the Epistle of James, (iii. 5-10.), where the evils of the tongue are so strikingly described.

"I will attend to your request, very readily, my dear boy, and hope your own reflections upon the subject, will be useful to you through life. The word tongue seems to be derived from the Dutch. Our forefathers, the Saxons, spelled it tung. The tongue is one of the principal instruments of speech. It is to be lamented that so useful a member should be so greatly abused by the swearer, when he profanes the name of God; by the sycophant, when he deals out his portions of flattery; by the angry and passionate, when they utter their terrible invectives, and breathe out threatenings and slaughter;' by the envious, when they depreciate the virtues and talents which they cannot command or imitate; by the common defamer and tale-bearer, when they invent, or retail, reports injurious to their neighbours; by the trifler, when he speaks without sense, without reason, without profit, without credit to himself, and to the great annoyance of his hearers."

"Excuse me, dear papa, for interrupting you; but there are several texts of Scripture that I have examined relative to the tongue, or rather speech, and if you please, I will refer to them." "Certainly, Henry. I always wish Scripture to be connected with our remarks."

"The first is Ephesians v. 4. Neither foolish talking nor jesting, which are not convenient.' In writing to the Colossians, the apostle says, 'Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt,' (ch. iv. 6.) Upon which a commentator remarks, 'Salt, on account of its use in preserving men's food, and rendering it palatable, was anciently made the emblem of wisdom and virtue. The apostle exhorts the Colossians to season their speech with the salt of wisdom and virtue, to preserve it from the corruption condemned in Ephesians iv. 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth."'

"You have passed over one or two texts, which are very pertinent to the subject. A man, full of talk,' or a man of lips. (Job. xi. 2.) The talk of the lips tendeth only to penury."

(Prov. xiv. 23.) Which seems to apply to persons who waste their own time and that of others in retailing news, and often bring themselves to poverty, by neglecting their domestic or commercial affairs."

"Thank you sir, for these quotations, I have two others. There are many unruly and vain talkers, and deceivers.? (Titus i. 10.) And Diotrephes is described as "prating with malicious words.'" (3 John 10.)

"All these passages of Scripture apply to the different talkers I have endeavored to represent. Indeed the tongue is, very strikingly, an unruly member; and, it is surprising that persons are not more concerned to exercise a proper government over it. It is not for want of caution and exhortation; for every part of the sacred volume abounds with sentences that ought to produce a powerful and practical effect."

"I have some further quotations respecting the tongue, which I will, with your permission, repeat."

66 Your are quite at liberty, my dear boy. I am happy to find that you have made so profitable a use of your Bible."

"Job calls the tongue 'a scourge,' (ch. v. 21.) and speaks of 'the tongue of the crafty,' (xv. 5.) David refers to a flattering tongue,' (Ps. v. 9.) A backbiting tongue,' (xv. 3.) The tongue is a sharp sword,' (lvii. 4.) 'A lying tongue,' (cix. 2.) 'A false tongue,' (cxx. 3.) The Scriptures furnish also a variety of examples of the improper use of the tongue. Israel, in the wilderness greatly offended God by their murmuring and complaining tongue. Rabshakeh by his slanderous insulting tongue."

"I think, Henry, you have a striking illustration of the following expressive language of James, which you first mentioned. "The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell.' Lions, tigers, wolves, and many other animals, have been subdued by man. Witness the exploits of Van Amburgh, and his contemporaries. But the tongue!—the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil; full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, and therewith curse we men.'"

"When the tongue is sanctified, and employed in that which is good, how different is the effect."

Yes, my dear Henry; then the tongue is the glory of the

frame.' How sweet are its strains, when praising and blessing God. When it utters the cheerful notes of gratitude and joy, or the plaintive desires of the soul in the language of the publican, 'God be merciful to me a sinner,' When it expresses its desires (Ps. xlii. 1,) ‘As the hart

after God in these touching words. panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God,' or when it thus proclaims its ardent and sincere affection, and delight in him, Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.' Then the tongue is truly melodious when it hymns the praises of the Almighty, and calls upon the soul and all its powers to magnify his name."

"Then it appears, papa, that the tongue is the best and yet the worst thing in the world."

"I perceive, my dear Henry, that you are thinking upon Esop's fable. Can you repeat it?" "I have not read or heard it for a long time." "Try what you can do."

"With pleasure, papa, I hope I shall be always anxious to please you."

"Esop was once ordered by his master, Xanthus, who was about to entertain a large party, to go and purchase the best things he could find in the market. He went, and bought a large supply of tongues, which he desired the cook to serve up with different sauces. When dinner came, the first and second courses, the last service, and all the made dishes were tongues ! 'Did I not order you,' said Xanthus, in a violent passion, to buy the very best provision that the market afforded?' 'And have I not obeyed your orders,' said sop. Is there any thing better than tongues? Is not the tongue, the bond of civil society; the key of science? and the organ of truth and reason? By means of the tongue, cities are built, and governments established and administered; with that, men instruct, persuade, and preside in assemblies; it is the instrument by which we discharge the chief of all our duties,-religious worship.'

"Well then,' rejoined Xanthus, thinking to entrap him, 'go to market again to-morrow, and buy me the worst things you can find; this same company will dine with me, and I wish to diversify my entertainment.' Æsop, the next day, provided nothing but the very same dishes, telling his master that the

tongue was the worst thing in the world. 'It is,' said he, "the instrument of all strife and contention, the inventor of law-suits, and the source of division and wars; it is the organ of error, of lies, calumny, and blasphemies.""

"Very well; the anecdote is at once entertaining, instructive, and quite to the point. What reason have we to pray in the language of David, 'Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.' And what heed should we take to our ways, that we sin not with our tongue. It is a wise injunc tion, 'Think twice, before you speak once.' How many quarrels in families, how many divisions in churches, and how many ruinous litigations would have been prevented, had this proverb been observed! Rash and hasty words are soon spoken; but their evil effects continue for a long period, and perhaps are never altogether removed.

"The tongue, that most unruly power,

Requires a strong restraint;

We should be watchful every hour,

Penryn.

And pray, but never faint.'

WATER.

R. C.

"AND whosoever shall give to drink, unto one of those little ones a cup of cold water, only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.” (Matt. x. 42.)

Water in the east was highly valuable. In the desert, the few springs of water are often at four, six, or eight days' journey from each other. The water is generally salt or bitter, so as to excite thirst, instead of allaying it. But when a well is found dry, the misery is inconceivable. The camels are too thirsty to be urged on; and if the travellers kill them, to obtain the little moisture that remains in the stomachs of these animals, they themselves have then no means of proceeding. In such situations many perish, the victims of the most horrible thirst. It is then, that the value of "a cup of cold water" is really felt. R. C.

PERSECUTION.

A PERSECUTION may produce martyrs, but the gates of hell are never to prevail against the church of God.

R. C.

SUBLIMITY OF THE BIBLE.

"THE Jewish legislator," says Longinus,-"no ordinary person, having conceived a just idea of the power of God, has nobly expressed it in the beginning of his law-And God said What? Let there be light, and there was light! Let the earth be; and the earth was!"

"There is a particularity," observes a commentator on this remark," in the manner of quoting this passage by Longinus, which, I think has hitherto escaped observation. God saidWhat? Let there be light! That interrogation between the narrative part, and the words of the Almighty himself, carries with it an air of reverence and veneration. It seems designed to awaken the reader, and raise his awful attention to the voice of the Great Creator."

Huet and Le Clerc, both able critics in other respects, have denied that there is any sublimity in these words of inspiration; but they have entirely misunderstood the question. The sublimity is in the conception-the mind of the passage, and not in the words. Did ever an uninspired writer suppose such omnipotence in Deity? Their gods do great things, but they make a mighty flourish about it; "they sound a trumpet before them;" and after all, accomplish them amidst great misgivings, and by immense labor, even though they have all appliances and means perfectly astonished,

to boot." And then they are astonished, that they got through them so well. Listen to the "divine" Plato himself. When his Supreme Being "saw the system in motion, and considered the beautiful image of the eternal gods, the generating father rejoiced, and was glad, and thought to make it more to resemble the pattern." What a pitiful caricature! It is the mere picture of a Dutch clock-maker felicitating himself over the success of some new machine, and deliberating how he can still farther improve upon it.

"I SHOULD LIKE TO SEE THE INSIDE."

NATURALISTS may amuse themselves with counting the teeth of beasts, the scales of a snake, the threads of a flower, or the microscopical feathers upon the wings of a moth, and amaze the ignorant with a grand display of superficial literature, which may