The Bridling of the Tongue.
Consider the large class of sins to which an unbridled tongue renders us liable.
I. One of the commonest employments of the human tongue is that of lying, and liars are among those to whom is specially reserved the blackness of darkness for ever; in fact, it is the devil's own primeval sin. "He is a liar," said the Lord, "and the father of it." With certain qualifications, deceit is thought little of, and may therefore be easily indulged in without giving much cause of alarm to a man who seems to be religious, and who is yet, perhaps, deceiving his own heart. The tongues of all professing Christians are not so bridled as to guide them in the narrow path of sincerity; and though lying in its gross forms may be scouted from respectable society, yet pure, unadulterated truthfulness is not always left behind.
II. So in the case of blasphemy and profane swearing. These are also sins of the tongue, which in their coarser and most revolting forms are driven out of decent company; and yet there may be milder forms of the same kind of sin, which may be much more easily committed, and with respect to which the proper management of the tongue may be a matter well worthy of the consideration of many who might fancy that no such caution is needed by them. Slander is another sin which may be avoided by the bridling of the tongue. The management of the tongue is not, of course, the only Christian virtue, but it is a plain, manifest, practical duty, omission to perform which at once puts the stamp of spuriousness upon a man's religion. An unruly tongue, an envious tongue, a lying tongue, are all indications of something being rotten in the heart of a man's religious system; and until he has put a bridle upon his tongue and brought it into subjection to the law of Christ there can be no hope of that man's religion being such as God can approve.
Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,vol. iii., p. 319.
Reference: James 1:26. J. Keble, Sermons from Easter to Ascension,p. 416.