Christ came to call out all the principles and powers of human nature, to restore the natural equilibrium of all our faculties; not to call us back to our own individual selfish nature, but to human nature as it is in God’s ideal—­the perfect type which is to be realised in us.  Christianity is the regeneration of our whole nature, not the destruction of one atom of it.

Now the nature of man is to adore God and to love what is god-like in man.  The office of the tongue is to bless.  Slander is guilty because it contradicts this; yet even in slander itself, perversion as it is, the interest of man in man is still distinguishable.  What is it but perverted interest which makes the acts, and words, and thoughts of his brethren, even in their evil, a matter of such strange delight?  Remember therefore, this contradicts your nature and your destiny; to speak ill of others makes you a monster in God’s world:  get the habit of slander, and then there is not a stream which bubbles fresh from the heart of nature,—­there is not a tree that silently brings forth its genial fruit in its appointed season,—­which does not rebuke and proclaim you to be a monstrous anomaly in God’s world.

4.  The fourth point of guilt is the diabolical character of slander; the tongue “is set on fire of hell.”  Now, this is no mere strong expression—­no mere indignant vituperation—­it contains deep and emphatic meaning.

The apostle means literally what he says, slander is diabolical.  The first illustration we give of this is contained in the very meaning of the word devil.  “Devil,” in the original, means traducer or slanderer.  The first introduction of a demon spirit is found connected with a slanderous insinuation against the Almighty, implying that His command had been given in envy of His creature:  “for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

In the magnificent imagery of the book of Job, the accuser is introduced with a demoniacal and malignant sneer, attributing the excellence of a good man to interested motives; “Doth Job serve God for naught?” There is another mode in which the fearful accuracy of St. James’s charge may be demonstrated.  There is one state only from which there is said to be no recovery—­there is but one sin that is called unpardonable.  The Pharisees beheld the works of Jesus.  They could not deny that they were good works, they could not deny that they were miracles of beneficence, but rather than acknowledge that they were done by a good man through the co-operation of a Divine spirit, they preferred to account for them by the wildest and most incredible hypothesis; they said they were done by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of the devils.  It was upon this occasion that our Redeemer said with solemn meaning, “For every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account in the day