I. One special talent by which we may glorify God and our Saviour and edify one another is the gift of speech. The tongue is called in Scripture more than once man's glory. As the first duty of the heart is to God, so is the service of the tongue due to Him. Prayer and praise are the first duties of the tongue, its highest and holiest uses. How it is used it is awful to think: how much more in profaning God's holy name than in praising it, how much more in cursing and swearing than in blessing Him. To talk about religion may be easy to an irreligious person, but never at all to say an unholy thing, nor to speak in an irreligious tone, argues a holy and a truly religious mind.
II. This leads us to that second use of the tongue, which regards our communication with each other. God forbids all bad use of the tongue before He enforces its true use. He says, "I say unto you" as if to call our special attention to it "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment, for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." Can it be that Christians, talking as they do, ever think of that sentence, those who would fain persuade themselves that they speak without thinking and swear without meaning anything? Surely the tongue, which is the means by which we hold intercourse with each other, should be a means by which we edify one another.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times,"vol. vii., p. 184.
References: Ephesians 4:29. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxv., p. 355; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. v., p. 31; Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., p. 259.