XLVIII.

EVIL AND IDLE SPEAKING.

Words are mighty, words are living:
Serpents with their venomous stings,
Or bright angels, crowding round us,
With heaven's light upon their wings!
Every word has its own spirit,
True or false, that never dies;
Every word man's lips have uttered

Echoes in God's skies.

A. A. PROCTER.

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

May I never hear with pleasure, nor ever repeat, such things as dishonor God or injure my neighbor. — Wilson.

Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, and keep the door of my lips.

Speak not evil one of another.

A froward man soweth strife; and a whisperer separateth chief friends.

Lay not to my charge what, by an angry spirit, by vain and idle words, by foolish jesting, I have committed against thee. Wilson.

Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.

The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.

Every beam of reason and ray of knowledge checks the dissolutions of the tongue. Taylor.

By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.

Preserve me, O God, from a vain conversation. Give me grace never to be ashamed or afraid to speak to thee, or of thy law. Wilson.

Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

Shun profane and vain babblings; for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker.

MORNING.

UR Father which art in heaven, thou hast set

OUR

before us again a fresh, new day. The sun rises, the land is full of thy light, and the earth is vocal with thy praises. Birds and beasts, winds and waters, through all ages have lifted up the everlasting song to Him that made them. But far above all the lowest whisper sounds to heaven out of the heart of every man thy child. In the awful power of human speech, faint and broken though it be, thou hast folded more than in all the sounds of

wind and sea. Father, we shall go out into the world to-day bearing this great gift of the word, the crown and glory of our life. O help us to weigh its mighty worth, and to hold it for the holiest uses. May the word we utter this day be a pure transcript of the truth as we know the truth, whether it bring us loss or gain, sorrow or joy. Fill us with a great sense and conviction that the words we speak this day will live to bring their own harvest of honor or shame, to set the seal of Christ on our forehead in the last day, or to brand us with the mark of the beast. Lord, we are in the world, -keep us, we beseech thee; hold us fast in a true, sweet temper to all men, in a strong, clear sense of our real duty; save us from harsh words, from petty words, from unfair and from foolish words, and may we be so full of thy good spirit, so open and free, that some man or woman, sad and weary from the burdens and sorrows of life, may gather new power out of some word of cheer that may fall from our lips, and be able to cry, "Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us by the way?" This in the spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen.

WE

EVENING.

E pray, Heavenly Parent, for wisdom to form our characters after the pattern of our Master, and to guide our lives according to the

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lines of thy law. We pray to thee for help to order our thoughts in accordance with truth, and to frame our speech to issues of purity and good. May no word of falsehood or hatred drop from our tongues, but abundant words of wisdom and kindness, sound admonition and blessed encouragement. Make us slow to blame, quick to praise, even as we would have others be to us. Lead us also to cultivate the listening ear and the improving heart, that no words of usefulness from our fellow-men, or from thy providence, may pass us unheeded, Speak unto us ever, O God, the counsels we need, and give us the will to obey. We would remember that we must give an account of every idle word, and be inspired by the thought to live with a discreet oversight of ourselves, purifying the heart, curbing the tongue, aiming at thine approval here and thine acceptance hereafter. Amen.

XLIX.

REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS.

Times without number have I prayed,

"This only once forgive,"
Relapsing when thy hand was stayed,
And suffered me to live.

Yet now the kingdom of thy peace,
Lord, to my heart restore;
Forgive my vain repentances,

And bid me sin no more.

COWPER.

If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live.

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

Turn us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.

Repentance begins in the humiliation of the heart, and ends in the reformation of the life. Mason.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man