The young Jonathan Edwards penned a number of his Resolutions around this theme. They are worth noting:
31. Resolved, Never to say anything at all against any body, but when it is perfectly agreeable to the highest degree of Christian honor, and of love to mankind, agreeable to the lowest humility, and sense of my own faults and failings, and agreeable to the golden rule; often, when I have said anything against any one, to bring it to, and try it strictly by, the test of this Resolution.
34. Resolved, In narrations never to speak anything but the pure and simple verity.
36. Resolved, Never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call to it.
70. Let there be something of benevolence in all that I speak.
How easily the failure to master the tongue can destroy the effect of every grace that had taken years to build into our lives! Introduce poison here and we endanger everything.
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