The intense practicalness of James as a religious teacher leads him directly to this topic of the taming of the tongue.
Here he sees, what every man to whom behaviour is a chief concern must see, one of the pivotal points of character. The religion that does not rule the speech is a failure and a fraud. The tongue, in the figure of James, is a wild beast that needs taming--fierce, reasonless, uncontrollable. A good part of the evils of life arise from its depredations.
1. First, of course, is the lying tongue. Of all the evils of speech falsehood is central and seminal.
2. Next to the lying tongue we must put the reviling tongue.
3. After the reviling tongue the foul tongue must be reckoned--the tongue that is the channel through which the impurities of a bad heart discharge themselves; the tongue that deals in indecent speech.
4. Next we think of the passionate tongue; the tongue that hastens to give voice to the anger and the hate that arise within. Anger, the Latin poet said, is a brief insanity; and when it begins to rage within the breast it needs to be chained and kept under till its paroxysm is past. But the mischievous tongue sometimes sets it loose and becomes its servitor--to hurl missiles of hot and stinging words right and left, doing damage that it is hard to repair.
5. The sarcastic tongue is another kind that needs taming. Sarcasm has its uses, no doubt; in our warfare with incorrigible evil-doers we must sometimes resort to it; but in the common intercourse of life it is scarcely more legitimate than the cudgel or the rapier. The arrows of sarcasm are barbed with contempt; that is what makes them rankle so; and contempt is a feeling that a good man cannot afford to indulge.
6. The scolding tongue is another kind that calls for a curb. Reproofs must be spoken, but sometimes there are too many of them, and their tone is too impatient, or too harsh, or too loud. Reproof must sometimes be severe, but it may be severe without being petulant.
7. The flattering tongue is a tongue that needs the bit. Honest and hearty praise is not to be avoided; we do not have half enough of it. Many are toiling on, heartsick and hopeless, to whom such a word of recognition would be as cold water to a thirsty soul. But this is not flattery. Flattery is either false praise, or praise addressed, not to the quality of our actions so much as to our excellences of person or that which is external to us. To praise your child’s looks, and so stimulate his vanity, that is flattery, a most nauseous exhibition of it; and the tongue that indulges in it ought to be bridled. But the worst kind of flattery is that which seeks to please, and so to entice, by artful and insincere praises. This is a species of lying, of course; but it is a species so mean and dangerous that it needs to be singled out and denounced.
8. The chattering tongue is another kind that needs restraint and discipline. A few people are too taciturn; a great many are too talkative. Such endless prattle is an encroachment on other people’s rights. How much time is consumed in attending to words that are utterly destitute of thought, that convey no ideas and impart no benefits! How many things we might have done that were worth doing, how many things we might have thought of that were worth thinking of, while we were listening! But what is worse, it is debilitating to the one who indulges in it. He talks so much that he has no time to think. “Set a watch, C God,” prayed the psalmist, “before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.” The trouble with some of these constant talkers-seems to be that there is no door to their lips, nothing but a doorway.
9. The last kind of tongue I shall mention that needs taming is the slanderous tongue. To speak evil of their neighbours is to some men and women a positive luxury. You would use harsh words about a man who got his living by retailing scandal, orally, for five cents a customer; what have you to say about the man who spices his newspaper with such items to make it sell? “But the tongue can no man tame.” So much the more need, then, that a power stronger than man’s should be invoked to subdue its unruliness and mitigate its fierceness. Such a Divine power the fables of all the peoples have celebrated; the power that tames the wildest beasts, and makes the tiger as gentle and docile as a lamb. The mythic song of Amphion is but a prelude of the triumph of the Prince of Peace, under whose blessed reign all savage and noxious creatures shall learn obedience and service. He at whose word the demoniac ceased his ravings, and the savage seas hushed their tumult--He who has the power and the purpose to subdue all things unto Himself--can cause the lying tongue to speak verities, and the reviling tongue to praise and bless, and the passionate tongue to be silent when the anger rises, and the foul tongue to utter purity, and the sarcastic tongue to temper its severities, and the scolding tongue to learn gentleness, and the flattering tongue to speak with sincerity, and the chattering tongue to be more discreet, and the talebearing tongue to be still. (W. Gladden, D. D.)
Taming the tongue
1. The tractableness of the beasts to man, and the disobedience of man to Isa_1:3). Fallen man may go to school to the beasts to learn mildness and obedience; and yet God hath more power to subdue, and we have more reason to obey,
2. The greatness of man’s folly and impotency in governing his own soul. Though he tameth other things, he doth not tame himself.
3. The deepness of man’s misery. Our own art and skill is able to tame the fiercest beasts, and make them serviceable; beasts as strong as lions and elephants; fishes that do, as it were, inhabit another world; birds as swift almost as a thought; serpents hurtful and noxious. But, alas! there is more rebellion in our affections; sin is stronger, all our art will not tame it.
4. Art and skill to subdue creatures is a relic and argument of our old superiority. The heathens discerned we had once a dominion, and the Scriptures plainly assert it (Gen_1:26). (T. Manton.)
The taming of the tongue
Here is a single proposition, guarded with a double reason. The proposition is, “No man can tame the tongue.” The reasons--
1. It is “unruly.”
2. “Full of deadly poison.” As the proposition is backed with two reasons, so each reason hath a terrible second. The evil hath for its second unruliness; the poisonfulness being deadly.
It is evil, yea, unruly evil; it is poison, yea, deadly poison.
1. In the proposition we will observe--
(1) The nature of the thing to be tamed.
(2) The difficulty of accomplishing it.
2. The insubjectable subject is the tongue, which is--
(1) A member; and--
(2) An excellent, necessary, little, singular member.
1. It is a member. He that made all made the tongue; he that craves all must have the tongue. It is an instrument; let it give music to Him that made it. All creatures in their kind bless God (Psa_148:1-14). They that want tongues, as the heavens, sun, stars, meteors, orbs, elements, praise Him with such obedient testimonies as their insensible natures can afford. They that have tongues, though they want reason, praise Him with those natural organs. Man, then, that hath a tongue, and a reason to guide it, and more, a religion to direct his reason, should much more bless Him. Not that praise can add to God’s glory, nor blasphemies detract from it. As the sun is neither bettered by birds singing, nor battered by dogs barking. Yet we that cannot make His name greater can make it seem greater; and though we cannot enlarge His glory, we may enlarge the manifestation of His glory. This both in words praising and in works practising. They that before little regarded Him may thus be brought to esteem Him greatly; giving Him the honour due to His name, and glorifying Him, after our example. This is the tongue’s office. Every member, without arrogating any merit, or boasting the beholdenness of the rest unto it, is to do that duty which is assigned to it. The tongue is man’s clapper, and is given him that he may sound out the praise of his Maker. Infinite causes draw deservingly from man’s lips a devout acknowledgment of Gods praise.
2. It is a member you hear; we must take it with all its properties; excellent, necessary, little, singular.
(1) Excellent. First, for the majesty of it. It carries an imperious speech, wherein it hath the pre-eminence of all mortal creatures. Secondly, for the pleasantness of the tongue, No instruments are so ravishing, or prevail over man’s heart with so powerful complacency, as the tongue and voice of man. If the tongue be so excellent, how, then, doth this text censure it for being so evil? I take the philosopher’s old and trite answer, Than a good tongue, there is nothing better; than an evil, nothing worse. It hath no mean; it is either exceedingly good or excessively evil. If it be good, it is a walking garden, that scatters in every place a sweet flower, an herb of grace to the hearers. If it be evil, it is a wild bedlam, full of madding mischiefs. So the tongue is every man’s best or worst movable. A good tongue is a special dish for God’s public service. The best part of a man, and most worthy the honour of sacrifice. This only when it is well seasoned. Seasoned, I say, “with salt,” as the apostle admenisheth; not with Col_4:6). But an evil tongue is meat for the devil, according to the Italian proverb: The devil makes his Christmas pie of lewd tongues.
(2) It is necessary; so necessary that without a tongue I could not declare the necessity of it. It converseth with man, conveying to others by this organ that experimental knowledge which must else live and die in himself. It imparts secrets, communicates joys, which would be less happy suppressed than they are expressed. Lastly, it speaks our devotions to heaven, and hath the honour to confer with God. It is that instrument which the Holy Ghost useth in us to cry, “Abba, Father.” It is our spokesman; and he that can hear the heart without a tongue, regardeth the devotions of the heart better, when they are sent up by a diligent messenger, a faithful tongue.
(3) It is little. As man is a little world in the great, so is his tongue a great world in the little. It is a “little member,” saith the apostle (verse 5), yet it is a world; yea, “a world of iniquity” (verse 6). It is little in quantity, but great in iniquity. What it hath lost in the thickness it hath gotten in the quickness; and the defect of magnitude is recompensed in the agility. If it be a talking tongue it is a world of prating. If it be a wrangling tongue it is a world of babbling. If it be a learned tongue it is, as Erasmus said of Bishop Tonstal, a world of learning. If it be a petulant tongue it is a world of wantonness. If it be a poisonous tongue, saith our apostle, “it defileth the whole body” (verse 6). It is “little.” So little that it will scarce give a kite her breakfast, yet it can discourse of the sun and stars, of orbs and elements, of angels and devils, of nature and arts, and hath no straighter limits than the whole world to walk through. It is a “little member,” yet “boasteth great things” (verse 5). Though it be little, yet if good, it is of great use. A little bit guideth a great horse to the rider’s pleasure. A little helm ruleth a great vessel, though the winds blow and the floods oppose, yet the helm steers the ship. Though little, yet if evil, it is of great mischief. A little sickness distempereth the whole body. A little fire setteth a whole city on combustion. “Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth” (verse 5). It is little in substance, yet great to provoke passion, to produce action. It either prevails to good, or perverts to evil; purifieth or putrefieth the whole carcase, the whole conscience. It betrayeth the heart when the heart would betray God; and the Lord lets it double treason on itself when it prevaricates with Him. It is a little leak that drowneth a ship, a little breach that loseth an army, a little spring that pours forth an ocean. Little; yet the lion is more troubled with the little wasp than with the great elephant. Many have dealt better with the greater members of the body than with this little one.
(4) It is a singular member. God hath given man two ears; one to hear instructions of human knowledge, the other to hearken to His Divine precepts; the former to conserve his body, the latter to save his soul. Two eyes, that with the one he might see to his own way, with the other pity and commiserate his distressed brethren. Two hands, that with the one he might work for his own living, with the other give and relieve his brother’s wants. Two feet, one to walk on common days to his ordinary labour Psa_104:23); the other, on sacred days to visit and frequent the temple and the congregation of saints. But among all, He hath given him but one tongue, which may instruct him to hear twice so much as he speaks; to work and walk twice so much as he speaks (Psa_139:14). Stay and wonder at the wonderful wisdom of God! First, to create so little a piece of flesh, and to put such vigour into it; to give it neither bones nor nerves, yet to make it stronger than arms and legs, and those most able and serviceable parts of the body. Secondly, because it is so forcible, therefore hath the most wise God ordained that it shall be but little, that it shall be but one. That so the parvity and singularity may abate the vigour of it. Thirdly, because it is so unruly, the Lord hath hedged it in, as a man will not trust a wild horse in an open pasture, but prison him in a close pound. A double fence hath the Creator given to confine it, the lips and the teeth; that through these mounds it might not break. And hence a threefold instruction for the use of the tongue is insinuated to us. First, let us not dare to pull up God’s mounds; nor, like wild beasts, break through the circular limits wherein He hath cooped us. “Weigh thy words in a balance, and make a door and bar for thy mouth.” Let this be the possession thou so hedgest in, and thy precious gold thou so bindest up. “Beware thou slide not by it, lest thou fall before him that lieth in wait.” Commit not burglary by breaking the doors and pulling down the bars of thy mouth. Much more, when the Lord hath hung a lock on it, do not pick it with a false key. Rather pray with David (Psa_51:15). It is absurd in building to make the porch bigger than the house; it is as monstrous in nature when a man’s words are too many, too mighty. Let thy words be few, true, weighty, that thou mayest not speak much, not falsely, not vainly. Remember the bounds, and keep the non ultra. Secondly, since God hath made the tongue one, have not thou “a tongue and a tongue.” It is made simple; let it; not be double. Thirdly, this convinceth them of preposterous folly, that put all their malice into their tongue, as the serpent all her poison in her tail; and as it were by a chemical power, attract all vigour thither, to the weakening and enervation of the other parts.
3. We see the nature of the thing to be tamed, the tongue; let us consider the difficulty of this enterprise. No man can do it. Which we shall best find if we compare it--
(1) With other members of the body.
(2) With other creatures of the world.
1. With other members of the body, which are various in their faculties and offices; none of them idle.
(1) The eye sees far, and beholdeth the creatures in the heavens--sun, and stars; on the earth--birds, beasts, plants, and minerals; in the sea--fishes and serpents. That it is an unruly member, let our grandmother speak, whose roving eye lost us all. Yet this eye, as unruly as it is, hath been tamed. Did not Job “make a covenant with his eyes, that he would not look upon a maid” (Job_31:1)? The eye hath been tamed, “but the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil.”
(2) The ear yet hears more than ever the eye saw; and by reason of its patulous admission, derives that to the understanding whereof the sight never had a glance. It can listen to the whisperings of a Doeg, to the susurrations of a devil, to the noise of a Siren, to the voice of a Delilah. The ear hath been tamed, “but the tongue can no man tame,” &c.
(3) The foot is an unhappy member, and carries a man to much wickedness. It is often swift to the shedding of blood; and runneth away from God, Jonah’s pace. There is “a foot of pride” (Psa_36:11), a saucy foot, that dares presumptuously enter upon God’s freehold. There is a foot of rebellion, that with an apostate malice kicks at God. There is a dancing foot, that paceth the measures of circular wickedness. Yet, as unruly as this foot is, it hath been tamed. David got the victory over it Psa_119:59). “But the tongue can no man tame,” &c.
(4) The hand rageth and rangeth with violence, to take the bread it never sweat for, to enclose fields, to depopulate towns, to lay waste whole countries. Yet it hath been tamed; not by washing it in Pilate’s basin, but in David’s holy water--innocence. “I will wash my hands in innocency, and then, O Lord, will I compass Thine altar.”
2. With other creatures of the world, whether we find them in the earth, air, or water.
(1) On the earth there is the man-hating tiger, yet man hath subdued him; and (they write) a little boy hath led him in a string. There is the flock-devouring wolf, that stands at grinning defiance with the shepherd; mad to have his prey, or lose himself; yet he hath been tamed. The roaring lion, whose voice is a terror to man, by man hath been subdued. Yea, serpents that have to their strength two shrewd additions, subtlety and malice; that carry venom in their mouths, or a sting in their tails, or are all over poisonous; the very basilisk, that kills with his eyes (as they write) three furlongs off. Yea, all these savage, furious, malicious natures have been tamed.
(2) In the sea there be great wonders (Psa_107:23-24). Yet those natural wonders have been tamed by our artificial wonders--ships.
(3) In the air, the birds fly high above our reach, yet we have gins to fetch them down. Snares, lime-twigs, nets, tame them all; even the pelican in the desert, and the eagle amongst the cedars. Thus far, then, St. James’s proposition passeth without opposition. “The tongue can no man tame”; the tongue is too wild for any man’s taming. It would be foolish to infer that, though no man can tame the tongue, yet a woman may. Woman, for the most part, hath the glibbest tongue; and if ever this impossibility preclude men, it shall much more annihilate the power of the weaker sex Pro_7:11; Pro_9:13). “The tongue can no man tame.” Let us listen to some weightier exceptions. The prophets spake the oracles of life, and the apostles the words of salvation; and many men’s speech ministers grace to the hearers. Yield it; yet this general rule will have no exceptions: “no man can tame it”; man hath no stern for this ship, no bridle for this colt. How then? God tamed it. God must lay a coal of His own altar upon our tongues, or they cannot be tamed. And when they are tamed, yet they often have an unruly trick. Abraham lies; Moses murmurs. Peter forswears his Master, his Saviour. If the tongues of the just have thus tripped, how should the profane go upright?” The tongue can no man tame.” The instruction hence ariseth in full strength; that God only can tame man’s tongue. First, to open our lips when they should speak is the sole work of Psa_51:15). God must open with His golden key of grace, or else our tongues will arrogate a licentious passage. We had better hold our peace, and let our tongues lie still, than set them a-running till God bids them go. Secondly, to shut our lips when they should not speak, is only the Lord’s work also. It is Christ that casts out the talking devil; He shuts the wicket of our mouth against unsavoury speeches. Thus all is from God. Man is but a lock; God’s Spirit the key “that openeth, and no man shutteth; that shutteth, and no man openeth” (Rev_3:7). Away, then, with arrogation of works, if not of words. When a man hath a good thought it is gratia infusa, when a good work it is gratia diffusa. If, then, man cannot produce words to praise God, much less can he procure his works to please God. If he cannot tune his tongue, he can never turn his heart. Two useful benefits may be made hereof. First, it is taught us, whither we have recourse to tame our tongues. He that gave man a tongue can tame the tongue. Let us move our tongues to entreat help for our tongues; and, according to their office, let us set them on work to speak for themselves. Secondly, we must not be idle ourselves; the difficulty must spur us to more earnest contention. As thou wouldest keep thy house from thieves, thy garments from moths, thy gold from rust, so carefully preserve thy tongue from unruliness. Look how far the heart is good, so far the tongue. If the heart believe, the tongue will confess; if the heart be meek, the tongue will be gentle; if the heart be angry, the tongue will be bitter.
The tongue is but the hand without, to show how the clock goes within.
1. It is “an unruly evil.” The difficulty of taming the tongue, one would think, were sufficiently expressed in the evil of it; but the apostle seconds it with another obstacle, signifying the wild nature of it--unruly. It is not only an evil, but an unruly evil.
(1) To ourselves; “it is so placed among the members that it defileth all” (verse 6). A wild cannibal in a prison may only exercise his savage cruelty upon the stone walls or iron grates. But the tongue is so placed that, being evil and unruly, it hurts all the members.
(2) To our neighbours. Some iniquities are swords to the country, as oppression, rapine, circumvention; some incendiaries to the whole land, as evil and unruly tongues.
(3) To the whole world. If the vast ruins of ancient monuments, if the depopulation of countries, if the consuming fires of contention, if the land manured with blood, had a tongue to speak, they would all accuse the tongue for the original cause of their woe. Slaughter is a lamp, and blood the oil; and this is set on fire by the tongue. You see the latitude and extension of this unruly evil, more unruly than the hand. Slaughters, massacres, oppressions, are done by the hand; the tongue doth more. The hand spares to hurt the absent, the tongue hurts all. One may avoid the sword by running from it; not the tongue, though he run to the Indies. The hand reacheth but a small compass; the tongue goes through the world. If a man wore coat of armour, or mail of brass, yet the darts of the tongue will pierce it. It is evil, and doth much harm; it is unruly, and doth sudden harm. Saint James here calls it fire. Now you know fire is an ill master; but this is unruly fire. Nay, he calls it “the fire of hell,” blown with the bellows of malice, kindled with the breath of the devil. Nay, Stella hath a conceit, that it is worse than the fire of hell; for that torments only the wicked; this all, both good and bad. Swearers, railers, scolds, have hell-fire in their tongues.
2. “Full of deadly poison.” Poison is loathsomely contrary to man’s nature; but there is a poison not mortal, the venom whereof may be expelled; that is “deadly poison.” Yet if there was but a little of this resident in the wicked tongue, the danger were less; nay, it is full of it, “full of deadly poison.” It is observable that which way soever a wicked man useth his tongue, he cannot use it well. He bites by detraction, licks by flattery: and either of these touches rankle; he doth no less hurt by licking than by biting. All the parts of his mouth are instruments of wickedness. Logicians, in the difference betwixt vocem and sonum, say that a voice is made by the tips, teeth, throat, tongue. The lips are the porter, and that is fraud; the porch, the teeth, and there is malice; the entertainer, the tongue, and there is lying; the receiver, the throat, and there is devouring. I cannot omit the moral of that old fable. Three children call one man father, who brought them up. “Dying, he bequeaths all his estate only to one of them, as his true natural son; but which that one was left uncertain. Hereupon every one claims it. The wise magistrate, for speedy decision of so great an ambiguity, causeth the dead father to be set up as a mark, promising the challengers that which of them could shoot next his heart, should enjoy the patrimony. The elder shoots, so doth the second; both hit. But when it came to the younger’s turn, he utterly refused to shoot; good nature would not let him wound that man dead, that bred and fed him living. Therefore the judge gave all to this son, reputing the former bastards. The scope of it is plain, but significant. God will never give them the legacy of glory, given by His Son’s will to children, that like bastards shoot through, and wound His blessed name. Think of this, ye swearing and cursing tongues! To conclude, God shall punish such tongues in their own kind; they were full of poison, and the poison of another stench shall swell them. They have been inflamed, and shall be tormented with the fire of hell. Burning shall be added to burning, save that the first was active, this passive. But blessed is the sanctified tongue. God doth now choose it as an instrument of music to sing His praise; He doth water it with the saving dews of His mercy, and will at last advance it to glory. (T. Adams.)
The tongue hardly tamed
1. The tongue is hardly tamed and subdued to any right use. No human art and power can ever find a remedy and curb for it.
(1) Come before God humbly; bewail the depravation of your nature, manifested in this untamed member.
(2) Come earnestly.
2. There is an unbridled license and violence in the tongue (Job_32:19). When the mind is big with the conception, the tongue is earnest to utter it Psa_39:3). Meeken the heart into a sweet submission, lest discontent seek the vent of murmuring.
3. A wicked tongue is venomous and hurtful; us Bernard observeth, it killeth three at once--him that is slandered, his fame by ill report; him to whom it is told, his belief with a lie; and himself with the sin of detraction. Bless God when you escape those deadly bites, the fangs of detraction. (T. Manton.)
All kinds of creatures tamed by man
The assertion may seem at first somewhat hyperbolical, but the well-known cases of tame rats and tame wasps, the lion of Androcles, and the white fawn of Sertorius, furnish what may well be termed “crucial instances” in support of it. The story related by Cassian, that St. John in his old age kept a tame partridge, makes it probable that St. James may have seen, among his fellow-teachers, such an instance of the power of man to tame the varied forms of animal life around him. (Dean Plumptre.)
The tongue untamable
Men have gained the ascendancy over many evils which it has pleased God should be intermingled with the course of earthly things; they have been able to encounter and overcome them. Many poisons in minerals, plants, or animals, have been rendered harmless, or turned to beneficial purposes. But to tame the tongue, this most unruly of all evils, to neutralise this deadliest of poisons, to regulate this most refractory agent, has surpassed the power of mortals. The laws of nature have been partially ascertained, and are becoming every day more fully known to us, in proportion as the human mind succeeds in diving into the depths of nature, and investigating her counsels and mysteries. Hence there is a gradual development of intelligence and power, of patient and persevering investigation; hence each generation avails itself of the experience of the preceding; one nation extends the hand of brotherly union to another, and even inquiries apparently unsuccessful at the time, have in the end led to beneficial results. Oh, why has the result been so very different when attempts have been made to gain the supremacy over sin, and to bring under the law of the Spirit only a single member of our frame, that has been under the domination of sin! Oh, here are more profound depths, more hidden mysteries, than in “all the nature of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents.” Here are greater wonders than in all the wonders of the deep! This baffles the most acute understanding, the most powerful will, the most determined industry of man! (B. Jacobi.)
A “not-under-control” signal
When anything goes wrong with a ship at sea which prevents her from being moved or answering the helm, she is bound to put up a signal, so that other ships may keep at a safe distance. This, which is called the “not-under-control” signal, consists of three iron balls. It would be well if some of us could put up “not-under-control” signals at times when our tempers are not what they should be. Indeed, we know of one man who used to do this. He was an eccentric author, and when, owing to preoccupation of mind, or any ether circumstance, he was likely to be peevish and snappish to his family, he would stick on his forehead a red wafer. This was a danger signal, telling every one to keep out of his way. (Quiver.)
The malignant propensity of the tongue
It is an untamable, venomous beast. It combines the ferocity of the tiger and the mockery of the ape with the subtlety and venom of the serpent. (A. Plummer, D. D.)
Scandal a poison
Scandal, hydra-headed, poison-ranged, lives on the garbage of the world, and slays even after it is seemingly killed. There is a story of a cobra which got into a West Indian church during service. Some one saw it, went quietly out, procured a weapon, and coming back, cut off the snake’s head. After the service the people went to look at the animal, and a native touched the dead head with his foot. He drew it back with a cry of pain, and in an hour he was dead. The poison-fangs had power to kill, though their owner was dead. (Christian Age.)
“An unruly evil”
In the “Shepherd” of Hermas (ii. 2), calumny is described as a “restless demon.” (Cambridge Bible for Schools.)
