Words of prayer and words of cursing come from the same lips. No doubt these hot-tempered, and sometimes ferociously religious, Jewish Christians, to whom James speaks, had some among them whose portraits James is drawing here. Away with such a fellow from the earth!' is a strange sequel to Blessed be he, the God of our fathers.' But the combination has often been heard since. Te Deums and anathemas have succeeded one another m strange union, and religious controversy has not always been conducted with perfect regard to James's precepts.
Of course when the Apostle gibbets the grotesque inconsistency of such a union, he is not to be taken as allowing cursing, if it only keeps clear of blessing God.' Since the latter is the primary duty of all, and the highest exercise of the great gift of speech, anything inconsistent with it is absolutely forbidden, and to show the inconsistency is to condemn the act. Further, the assertion that salt water cannot yield sweet' implies that the cursing' destroys the reality of the verbal' blessing God.' If a man says both, the imprecation is his genuine voice, and the other is mere wind.
The fountain is deeper than the tongue. From the heart are the issues of life. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, and clear, pure waters will not well out thence unless the heart has been cleansed by Christ entering into it. Only when that tree of life is cast into the waters are they made sweet. When Christ governs us, we can govern our hearts and our lips, and through these our whole bodies and all their activities.
THE END
