"Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking guile." (Psalm 34:13)
This is a test that ought to be repeated over and over with increasing emphasis, for evil speaking has come to be the bane of society, and the curse of the church. With many, even professed Christians, it is so easy to listen to and circulate an evil report against their fellowmen. It may or it may not be true, but whether true or false it has the same blighting effect.
Evil speaking emanates from the "father of lies." (John 8:44)
He is the "accuser of the brethren." (Revelation 12:10)
Not so Christ. Though persecuted and slandered and insulted, He uttered no retaliatory word in reply. "When He was reviled, He reviled not again." (1 Peter 2:23)
How restful and satisfactory it is, when one at the close of day, can look back over it and feel that in his intercourse with the people, no word of censure or criticism or evil speaking has passed his lips.
As the flesh which the children of Israel ate in the wilderness was to them a momentary gratification, but with it came leanness of soul, so while it no doubt does afford a morbid pleasure to gossipers to revel in the weaknesses of a brother, yet the one who indulges in it is soon shorn of his spiritual strength.
If one cannot speak well of a person, it is best to say no ill of him, at least. An evil-speaking tongue is a sure index to a low state of religion. The apostle James says, "If any man among you seems to be religious and bridles not the tongue, but deceives his own heart, that man's religion is vain." (James 1:26)--Present Truth, March 1, 1900--Psalm 34:13.