Set A Watch Over It!

William Swan Plumer - Wikipedia

Posted at This Day in Presbyterian History:

“Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.” — Psalm 141:3. [KJV]

One of the jewels of 19th-century Presbyterian literature that seems to have been overlooked by many is the little set titled Presbyterian Tracts. These volumes were compiled beginning around 1840 and continued to be published into the 1860’s. There were ultimately at least 13 and perhaps 15 volumes. The PCA Historical Center has volumes 1 through 11 preserved as part of its research library. An author-title index has just been posted, here.

Among those many “tracts” [some were fairly lengthy treatments, particularly in the first several volumes], the seventh volume contains a 28 page treatise on “The Sins of the Tongue” by William Swan Plumer. In concluding that tract, Plumer offers these seven guidelines or resolutions for keeping the tongue:

1. I will steadily keep in view my latter end, and remember that soon I must stand before my Judge. I would not live a day or an hour in forgetfulness of the truth that all my thoughts, words, and deeds are to undergo the scrutiny of Him, who is so holy as to hate all sin, and so great as to know all things, and so just as never to clear the guilty.

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