1.    What does the ninth commandment forbid?

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour,” Exodus 20:16.

NOTE: The evident object of this commandment is to guard our conversation.

2.    What promise is given to those who fulfill its requirements?

“To him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God,” Psalm 50:23.

3.    How is such a man regarded?

“If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body,” James 3:2.

4.    To what double use is the tongue put?

“Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be,” verse 10.

5.    Can the tongue ever be brought where it will not need watching?

“For every king of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: but the tongue can no man tame; It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison,” verses 7, 8.

6.    What is one’s duty, under these circumstances?

“Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God,” Romans 6:13.

7.    Through whom may we find deliverance from this law of sin in our members?

“But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” Romans 7:23-25.

8.    Of what are one’s words the index?

“Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” Matthew 12:34.

9.    What will our words have to do with our standing in the judgment?

“For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned,” verse 37.

10.    What special sin is covered by the ninth commandment?

“Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people; neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor: I am the Lord,” Leviticus 19:16.

11.    What are the words of a tale-bearer like?

“The words of a tale-bearer are as wounds,” Proverbs 26:22.

12.    What is their effect?

“He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends,” Proverbs 17:9.

13.    What would follow if each attended to his own affairs only?

“Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no tale-bearer, the strife ceaseth,” Proverbs 26:20.

14.    What is that word like which is fitly spoken?

“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver,” Proverbs 25:11.

15.    To whom are our words all known?

“For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether,” Psalm 139:4.

16.    In view of the shortness of time, what should our conversation be?

“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God,” II Peter 3:11, 12.

This Savior soon is coming

To call us each one home.

He’ll gather us together and

We will no more roam.

He’ll gather Israel home once more,

To the holy promised land,

And there He’ll reign on David’s throne

With a high and holy hand.

Yes, now we pray for Thy return,

To call us each one home;

Where we can be with Thee ever more

Around the great white throne.

And then we’ll sing redemption’s song, `Twill ever be the same,

We’ll praise Him then through endless time,

O glory to His name!

_L. O. Van Nostrand

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