Have any of us ever had as much trouble with any other member of our body as we have had with our tongue? I have laid awake at night many a time grieving over words I wished I had never uttered. I would estimate that the majority of what I would call my "soul troubles" have been a direct result of words that have rolled off my tongue with perfect ease. They came out so easily, but then it was impossible to put them back in my mouth. Some of the words I have spoken have sprouted wings as soon as they left my tongue, and the next thing I knew they had flown hundreds of miles in all directions---with a little help from other tongues almost as unruly as mine. I don't suppose I have ever uttered an uncomplimentary word about anyone that did not sooner or later get back to them, usually with considerable embellishment, alterations and rearrangements. 

    Oh how hurtful our tongues can be, sometimes even when we mean no ill at all by what we say? How easy it is for our words to be misinterpreted or misunderstood, particularly by that class of people who wear their feelings on their sleeves and seem to almost wish to be offended. How careful we need to be to guard our lips, lest we needlessly offend one of God's little ones! 

    Great damage can quickly and easily be done to reputations by a loose tongue. What a dreadful evil is character assassination! Much of the good influence of many a worthy man has been maliciously weakened or destroyed by the unbridled words of liars and slanderers. There is ultimately, sooner or later, a just recompense that all such must pay, as surely as they live. 

    The tongue "boasteth great things", and how unbecoming! Boasting is a common fault of any unwise and unruly tongue. Everyone knows when it is being done, and no one cares to hear it. May we take great care to avoid this noisome sin. 

    There are a great many vices of the tongue, and many of them have issued in heartache, ruin and even death. Oft-times both blessing and cursing proceed out of the same mouths. "My brethren, such things ought not so to be" (James 3:10). Lord, help us to bridle our tongues. It is not necessary for everything that comes into our brains to come out of our mouths.