into the most sacred department of another’s life—­that namely, which lies between himself and God?  Did you never say that “it was to be wished he should go to Rome,” until at last life became intolerable,—­until he was thrown more and more in upon himself; found himself, like his Redeemer, in this world alone, but unable like his Redeemer, calmly to repose upon the thought that his Father was with him?  Then a stern defiant spirit took possession of his soul, and there burst from his lips, or heart, the wish for rest—­rest at any cost,—­peace anywhere, if even it is to be found only in the bosom of the Church of Rome!

 II.  The guilt of this license.

The first evil consequence is the harm that a man does himself:  “so is the tongue among the members, that it defiles the whole body.”  It is not very obvious, in what way a man does himself harm by calumny.  I will take the simplest form in which this injury is done; it effects a dissipation of spiritual energy.  There are two ways in which the steam of machinery may find an outlet for its force:  it may work, and if so it works silently; or it may escape, and that takes place loudly, in air and noise.  There are two ways in which the spiritual energy of a man’s soul may find its vent:  it may express itself in action, silently; or in words, noisily:  but just so much of force as is thrown into the one mode of expression, is taken from the other.

Few men suspect how much mere talk fritters away spiritual energy,—­that which should be spent in action, spends itself in words.  The fluent boaster is not the man who is steadiest before the enemy; it is well said to him that his courage is better kept till it is wanted.  Loud utterance of virtuous indignation against evil from the platform, or in the drawing-room, do not characterize the spiritual giant:  so much indignation as is expressed, has found vent, is wasted, is taken away from the work of coping with evil; the man has so much less left.  And hence he who restrains that love of talk, lays up a fund of spiritual strength.

With large significance, St. James declares, “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.”  He is entire, powerful, because he has not spent his strength.  In these days of loud profession, and bitter, fluent condemnation, it is well for us to learn the divine force of silence.  Remember Christ in the Judgment Hall, the very Symbol and Incarnation of spiritual strength; and yet when revilings were loud around Him and charges multiplied, “He held His peace.”

2.  The next feature in the guilt of calumny is its uncontrollable character:  “the tongue can no man tame.”  You cannot arrest a calumnious tongue, you cannot arrest the calumny itself; you may refute a slanderer, you may trace home a slander to its source, you may expose the author of it, you may by that exposure give a lesson