10. The tongue, says ÆSOP, is at once the best and the worst of things. So in a fable, a man with the same breath blows hot and cold. "Life and death are in the power of the tongue" (compare Ps 62:4).
brethren—an appeal to their consciences by their brotherhood in Christ.
ought not so to be—a mild appeal, leaving it to themselves to understand that such conduct deserves the most severe reprobation.