dissentions and animosities in a town, there are some secret whisperers who separate near friends, and some talebearers going up and down to scatter the sparks of discord. If there be mutual slanders and criminations in a neighborhood, some tongue set on fire of hell has imparted its fire to other tongues, and the flame fanned by every breath, as it passes, runs swiftly and spreads widely, until it involves all in a general combustion. If there be divisions in churches, and brethren hereticate and cepsure one another for trivial faults, or imaginary errors, some tongue full of deadly poison has infused into them the venom of its own pride, bigotry and malice. If principles subversive of the doctrines and virtues of the gospel, are diffused and received, some mischievous tongues are busily at work, that by evil communications they may corrupt good manners. If there be a perversion of justice in a state-if iniquity be framed by law-if truth stand afar off, and equity cannot enter, the evil tongues of unprincipled and imperious men have wrought the mischiefs. If nations send forth armies for mutual carnage-if they spread desolation in each other's territories-if peaceable inhabitants are driven from their possessions and robbed of the means of subsistence, in all this horrible work the tongues of men act a distinguished part. Justly therefore might the Apostle say, "The tongue is a world of iniquity.

IV. The Apostle calls the tongue a fire.

In the virtuous tongue there is a cheerful and refreshing warmth; but in the evil tongue there is a scorching and destructive heat. As fire, so the tongue is a good servant, but a bad master. Under just direction and restraint, it is highly beneficial; but let loose, and left to its own impetuosity, it works every kind of mischief.

The lawless tongue, like fire, makes no discrimi. nation of objects, but devours promiscuously whatever comes in its way. Fire, when it breaks out, consumes not only the worthless shrubs, but the stately oaks--not only the vile rubbish, but the precious treasure-not only the nauseous filth, but the necessary food: So the wanton tongue assails the virtuous character as freely as the vicious, and prostrates the well deserved reputation of public benefactors, as readily as the assumed and unmerited honor of self seeking boasters.

Fire, when it breaks forth in combustible materi. als, will naturally spread; and the means used to repress or extinguish it, will often scatter its sparks and augment its fury. So it is with the fiery tongue, The man who has maliciously uttered a slander, or impudently asserted a falsehood, will repeat it, that he may be believed; and will grow more bold in his assertions, that his wickedness may be less suspected. Opposition makes him more violent, and contradiction awakens new confidence, until he works himself into a partial belief of that, which at first he knew to be totally false, and into a real hatred of the innocent man, whom at first he slandered in a pet, Solomon observes, that "a wise man feareth and departeth from evil; but a fool rageth and is confident." He has another observation full to our purpose: "A lying tongue hateth him, that is afflicted by it." His meaning is this: If a man, in order to afflict his neighbor, tells a malicious lie about him, he will endeavor to persuade himself, that this neighbor deserved the slander; and, by conjuring up in his imagination evil surmisings and groundless suspicions, he will bring himself to believe, that this neighbor is as bad a man, as he ever represented him to be. Thus his own lie becomes the occasion of his hating the man, whom his lie has afflicted,

Destruction by fire is not easily repaired; nor is the mischief done by a malicious and backbiting tongue. When once you have uttered a slander, it is gone from you forever. It is no longer under your command; you cannot recal it, if you would. You have set an hundred tongues in motion, and you cannot stop them. If you can stop your own, it is well. You may contradict the report, which originated in your passion; but you cannot oblige all to contradict it, who have taken it from your mouth, and circulated it on your credit. You may as well stop the progress of a fire, which you have kindled in a dry thicket, as stop the progress of a slander, which you have uttered in bad company. You may as well restrain the wind from spreading your fire, as restrain mens' tongues from propagating your falsehood. You may as well restore the verdure, which the flames have consumed, as restore the reputation, which your calumny has blasted. The mischief is done speedily; the reparation, if made at all, must be a work of time.

With little pains you may propagate licentious opinions; but with all your pains you cannot extirpate them. They have gotten possession of many corrupt hearts, and have taken deep root in them; and how much scever you may detest them now, you cannot pluck them out of the soil. They have been received, at second hand, by many, whom you never saw, and never will see. And those whom you see, though they have been corrupted by your evil communication, yet perhaps will never be reclaimed by your sound reason and good advice. Your evil words, like poisoned arrows, have struck the venom deep into their hearts, and it will eat as doth a canker. The untameable violence and irrevocable mischief of the evil tongue James describes in the words following our text. Every kind of

beasts and of birds is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind; but the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God even the Father, and therewith curse we men, who are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be."

V. There is one observation more, which, though not mentioned by our Apostle, yet naturally arises from our subject; namely, that this infernal heat, which usually sets the tongue on fire, and renders it very voluble and loquacious, sometimes causes a swell and stiffness, which is accompanied with a sullen taciturnity. This symptom, though not so extensively mischievous, as the inflammation, which we have described, may be as painful to the patient, and as vexatious to the bystanders. We read of some, who were brought, by their friends, to our Savior to be cured of their dumbness.Whether their dumbness was caused by the impotence of the organ, or by the wilfulness of the mind, it is not said: But whatever might be the immediate cause, there was a satanical operation at the bottom. The patients are expressly said to be " possessed of the devil"-to have a dumb spirit"And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake." If there was real disability in their case, as probably there was, yet in some other cases there is mere crossness and obstinacy. If the patient like old Ahab, vexed at an unexpected contradiction, or mortified at a worldly disappointment, carries a thick gloom in his brow, affects sickness, takes to his bed, turns away his face from his friends, and refuses to eat bread, we may conclude, that the mal, ady lies deeper than the tongue.

There are some who have no rule over their spirits, and no command over their tongues. They are often angry without cause, and they often speak without consideration, and bluster without restraint. These, while the storm lasts, greatly disturb the peace, and disquiet the feelings of those, who stand near them. The violent gust, however, soon blows itself out, and leaves a more pleasant sky. But they who indulge a sullen gloom-a silent discontentwho brood over their selfcreated afflictions, and will never say, what has offended them, or what will please them; who take a perverse satisfaction in ruminating on their grievances, and in thinking that they vex others by keeping their grievances to themselves are more troublesome to their friends and more unhappy to themselves than the former. They are like a close, muggid atmosphere, which obscures the sun for days together, and in which one feels a continual depression of spirit, and enjoys not an hour of cheerfulness. A fire which puts the tongue in motion, though it may do much mischief, yet is the less dangerous, because it is visible, and means may be used to check or divert it. But if the fire burns secretly and silently within, the flame may burst forth, when it is too late to apply a remedy. It is like hidden fire in a building. It works unperceived, consumes the solid substance, and before it breaks out, it has made too great progress to be extinguished.

To these observations we will subjoin two or three reflections.

1. It appears that the government of the tongue is an essential part of religion.

The tongue has so much to do in all the duties of life, and actually does so much in all the wickedness of the world, that without a sober government of it, no man can pretend to possess the temper, and ex