is as the guardian of the natural life of man, examining food as it is admitted into the mouth, and rejecting that which would be injurious to health or life. In a spiritual sense, and used in accordance with the laws of divine order, it corresponds to the affection of truth; and he who is progressing in the path of regeneration, has tasted, as well as seen, that the Lord is good. The tongue, also, as an organ of speech, has correspondence with doctrine, and is significative of doctrine; and in this sense the Psalmist declares, "My tongue shall speak of thy Word, for all thy commandments are righteousness." (cxix. 172.) But when the tongue is deceitful, it has a signification opposite to that in the passage just cited: then, instead of tasting the goodness of the Lord, instead of delighting in truth and appropriating it as the aliment of the soul, it admits it but to pervert and falsify it.
The tongue of the deceitful is compared to an arrow shot out. An arrow is a weapon of warfare, and is intended, when shot out, to wound, injure, and destroy life; and when the deceitful tongue is compared to an arrow shot out, how plainly does it symbolize those poisonous and destructive words with which the wicked are ever attempting to destroy the good. The deceiver or hypocrite is not actuated by one motive, or confined to one class of wicked men. The covetous, the ambitious, the envious, the vain, and the ill-natured are all tainted with the vice of deception, and, to a greater or less extent, all clothed in the garments of hypocrisy. Go into what company or society you may there are to be found men who vend malicious tales, and fasten odious imputations upon the character of others. Do we not even behold some having a form of
