The tongue, the tongue, with all its powers,
Is Thine who made it, Thine, not ours;
Lord, teach us early to controul,
That tameless tell-tale of the soul.
'Twas with the tongue, the serpent's wile
Did Eve's simplicity beguile;
'Twas with the tongue fall'n Adam tried,
His guilt behind her sin to hide.
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The tongue's a sword, a two-edged sword,
To kill or quicken with a word;
A key to ope and shut the heart,
To lock out knowledge or impart.
With it God's glory we proclaim,
With it blaspheme His holy Name;
Here good and evil strangely meet,
Hence bitter waters flow with sweet.
Lord, such confusion should not be;
Thou art all truth, all equity;
Pure from Thine hand the creature sprung,
But lost Thine image through the tongue.
Through it that image be restored;
Let tongues of fire that preach Thy Word,
Call, by Thy Holy Spirit's might,
Souls out of darkness into light.
Be this our lot:--may heart and tongue
To heavenly harmony be strung,
Till every tone Thy love record,
And every pulse praise Thee the Lord.
Sacred Poems and Hymns
James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >
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