your hearts, forgive not every one his brother their trespasses."

said,

Oh that we participated largely in the feelings of her whom Jesus himself commended when he Her sins which are many are forgiven; for she loved much."-" Love I much ?--I have much forgiven"-may every christian say, while he examines the frame and temper of his spirit, and reflects on the vastness of his obligations. Surely if there dwelt in our hearts more of grateful love to Him by whose redeeming blood we obtain the forgiveness of our sins, it would become an easy and even a delightful task to extend forgiveness to others. In connexion with these remarks, I would add,

Finally, Let us reflect much, with a view to constant imitation, on the perfect and glorious example of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

"Dost thou well to be angry?"-is a question which you are sometimes, perhaps, disposed, like the petulant prophet, to answer in the affirmative, alleging the greatness of the provocation. At such a moment, call to mind the provocations offered to our divine Redeemer. Think of the base ingratitude and the perpetual insults he endured. Think of the contradiction of sinners, and the revilings of blasphemers, he had to encounter, throughout the entire course of his suffering life, and especially when it was hastening

to a close. Think of the irritating language with which he was assailed in the palace of Caiaphas, and in the hall of Pilate, and in the presence of Herod; and then yield your minds to the force of the touching representations of the Apostle Peter:-" If when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." Let, then, that mind and that temper be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and honour and ever-during praise!

J

LECTURE X.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE.

JAMES III. 2.

If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

"THE tongue," affirms this Apostle, "can no man tame." Animals the most fierce and the most formidable have been subjected to the rule of man, and by his sagacity rendered tractable and docile. But it transcends all human power to impose an effectual curb on the tongue of unregenerate man, or entirely to counteract the venom emitted from his lips. Hopeless, however, as might be the effort to control the tongue of another, not so is the attempt to control our own. It is confessedly difficult, but it is indispensably requisite; for the same Apostle has said “ If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain." The Govern

ment of the Tongue, then, it is absolutely necessary to attain; and he who acquires it in the highest degree, is the christian of most distinguished eminence :-" If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body." The human body is here represented, by the Apostle, as a complex system of members and organs, designed to be subject to the authority, and subservient to the purposes, of the indwelling mind. Of these organs there is one, over which it is peculiarly difficult to obtain a due ascendancy. If then that control be acquired, much easier will be the task of duly restraining the rest; so that the man who has acquired the government of his tongue, may be supposed to have attained a correspondent dominion over all the organs, over all the senses, and over all the appetites, of the corporeal frame. If any man, therefore, could be found, who, since the acquisition of that power, had never in any instance abused, or failed to improve, the faculty of speech, he might be regarded as a perfect man: and, in so far as there is an approach to this exalted attainment, there is acquired, by the controlling mind, a facility in bridling and governing the complex system of " the outer man."

Let me, then, engage your fixed attention, FIRST, To the peculiar importance of the Government of the Tongue; and

SECONDLY, To the principles by which this Government is to be acquired and maintained.

FIRST, Let us reflect on the importance of attaining this control.

Consider, first, The dignity and excellence of the faculty of speech.

He who delights to gather materials for admiration and praise, out of the curious and wondrous economy of man's living frame, will find much to repay his researches in the contemplation of the faculty of speech. Think of the delicate and difficult articulations which intelligible speech requires. Think of the combination of a few simple and elementary sounds, denoted by a small number of alphabetical characters, so as to form all the thousands of words which we employ in the conveyance of thought. Think of the power acquired in early life of connecting with these sounds the ideas which they are employed to express; so that even before the formalities of education have commenced, there has been an admirable progress made in the knowledge of the arbitrary symbols of thought, by means of which we converse. Think of the power of memory which the use of language involves. Think of the influence of words in aiding and guiding all our processes of thought, even when no sentence escapes our lips. Who gave us this power of articulate speech, which raises us so far above the

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