The tongue can blacken a reputation and drive a man into poverty or death. Small as it is, the tongue can do vast harm. Used in harmony with the will of God to bless and to cheer or to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom, the tongue can do great good. Those who love the tongue, who pamper it, who give it free reign, will do much harm, but the harm will return upon themselves (see Matt. 12:36; James 3; Ed 235; 5T 57).