godliness?—(alas! that the form should be all they do possess)—who backbite their brethren, bear false witness, insinuate false accusations, and seem to weary themselves to devise mischief, exercising the tongue but to speak falsehood. Can men who thus shoot out arrows from the tongue be really religious? Let the apostle James answer; "If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, this man's religion is vain." (i. 26.) But there is also covert slander, a kind of insinuation which the hypocrite uses, which does not absolutely charge evil, but which imputes it, so as to induce the hearer to believe that charity alone prevents, more open and explicit charges. In this manner, how many generous and hospitable men have been charged with prodigality! How many prudent and frugal men have been styled parsimonious! How many cheerful men, and men free and candid in conversation, have been called loose, vain, and frivolous! How many staid, serious, and reflective men, have been described as morose and sullen! Or, again, is a man modest and unassuming?—he is a sneak! Is he open and candid?—he is destitute of prudence! Is he exemplary in his devotional duties, and strict in his moral conduct?—he is superstitious! or does he, in all his duties, act from a principle of conscience?—it originates in selfishness! O let us be careful that we fall not into any of these degrees of slander! Let us beware how we suffer our tongues to shoot out such poisonous arrows as these. Let us set a watch upon ourselves, and let us love our neighbour, not in word or in tongue only, but also in deed and in truth. Love thinketh no evil. Love never slandereth. Love is the fulfilling of the law.
