1912 Watch Tower - A2Z.org

the new creature, can then use the lips to show forththe praises of God and to bless his fellowmen.PRAISING GOD--INJURING MENBut note that the Apostle calls our attention to thefact that some who have become people of God, somewho do Him reverence, fail to take note of the fact thatthe same tongue with which they sing Divine praisesand tell Divine mercy they use to backbite, slander,defame, crush, mortify, scathe, flay their fellowmen!Alas, we realize the truth of the charge! And to realizemeans to correct on the part of those who are seeking todo the Divine will and to be true disciples of the Redeemer.A fountain cannot send forth at the same openingpure water and brackish. Hence we may know thatif with our tongues we are doing injury to our fellowmenwe are deceiving ourselves with respect to our realattitude toward God. We may know that God will rejectthe prayers and worship coming from a heart full of bitterness,anger, malice, hatred, envy, strife, and manifestingitself in acrimonious speech.It was Carlyle who described sarcasm as being "thenatural language of the Devil." It was Faber whowrote, "No one was ever corrected by sarcasm; crushed,perhaps, if the sarcasm was clever enough, but drawnnearer to God, never." Robertson wrote, "Love is theremedy for slander." Surely the Golden Rule needs to beapplied to our speech as well as to our actions. TrulyBishop Jackson wrote: "From being the messenger ofpeace and love, the tongue has become the fomenter ofjealousy and ill-will, the lash of uncharitableness and theweapon of hatred."====================R5021 : page 149PRAYER A GREAT PRIVILEGE--JUNE 2.--MATTHEW 6:1-18.--"Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men to beseen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father whichis in heaven."--Matt. 6:1. (R.V.)THE MASTER in today's lesson tells of properand improper giving of charity. He extendsthe subject and explains proper andimproper prayers and finally proper and improperfasting. In all these He denounceshypocrisy, theatrical display. His followersare to be actuated solely by a desire toplease the Heavenly Father and have Hisapproval. There may be times and placeswhere the giving of charity in the presence