Ver. 3.-Sins of the tongue. "Thou deceitful tongue." Describing this tongue, the psalmist adds, "It is as the sharp arrows of the mighty man, as coals of broom." The sin specially in the view of the psalmist is that of the slanderer. What shall be done to him? "The law of retaliation can hardly meet the case, since none can slander the slanderer, he is too black to be blackened; neither would any of us blacken him if we could. Wretched being I He fights with weapons which true men cannot touch. Like the cuttlefish, he surrounds himself with an inky blackness into which honest men cannot penetrate. Like the foul skunk, he emits an odour of falsehood which cannot be endured by the true; and therefore he often escapes unchastised by those whom he has most injured. His crime, in a certain sense, becomes his shield; men do not care to encounter so base a foe. But what will God do wit,h lying tongues? He has uttered his most terrible threats against them, and he will terribly execute them in due time 11 (Spurgeon). "From gossips, tale-bearers, writers of anonymous letters, forgers of newspaper paragraphs, and all lie mongers, good Lord, deliver us I " (1) ..A. man may sin with his tongue against himself, and seriously injure his own success in life. (2) A man may sin with his tongue against God, misrepresenting him, his truth., his working, or his people. Or (3) a man may sin with his tongue against his neighbour. Then his wrona doings and sayings may be classed under the term slander, the peculiarity of which is that it has enough truth in it to carry it, and enough lie in it to make it mischievous. L 'l'BE GENESIS OF SLANDER. .As a fixed disposition. It comes out of failing to teach the child always strictly to match statement with fact. It comes out of failing to gain full self-control It comes from letting feeling rule language. It comes from the disposition which finds pleasure in the suffering of others (see cruelty of children to animals). It comes from envy at the success of others. II. '!'BE occAsioNs oF SLANDER. These are often merely times of idle gossip. They may be times or jealousy or revenge. They may be only the delight a man has in mischief-making. III. THE PUNISBHENT oF SLANDER, It comes in the deterioration of the sl:i.nderer's own character; in the lost confidence and love of his neighbour; and in the just judgment of God.-B. T. Ver. 3.-The dueitful tongue. "Lips are soft; but when they _are lying lips they suck away the life of character and are as murderous as razors. Lips should never be red with the blood of honest men's reputes, nor salved with malicious falsehoods. Some seem to lie for lying's sake, it is their sport and spirit. . '-!-'he faculty ~f spce~h becomes a curse when it is dearaded into a. mean weapon for smiting men behind their backs. Those who fawn and flatter, and all the while have enmity in their hearts, are wicked beings; they are the seed of the devil~ an~ he worketh in them after ~is ?Wn deceptive nature." "Ungodly men will d? m1sch1ef to other_ me~ purely for m1sch1ers sake; yet when once mischief is done 1t proves most m1sch1evous to the doers of it; and while they hold their brethrcn'e heaviness e. profit, though they are never PS. C:U. 1-7,] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 183
the better, they' shall feel and find themselves In a short time much the worse" (Caryl). i I. 'l'IIE TONGUE IS SHABPEB THAN AN ABBOW, 1. It ls shot in privato. 2. It la tipped with poison. 3, It is polished with seeming kindne~ 4. It is 11imed at the tenderest part. II. THE TONGUE IS MOBE DEBTBUCJTIVE THAN nnE, 1. Its scandals spread with greater rapidity. 2. They consume that which other fires cannot touch. 3. They are less easily quenched. "The tongue," says an apostle, "is a fire ..• and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." A fiery dart of the wicked one. (Outline by George Rogers.)-B. T,