We've been talking this week about a letter written by John Newton, the great English

himwriter, about 200 years ago. It's a letter about people whose problem is really that

they sing about amazing grace, but they haven't themselves become amazingly gracious. Newton

Newton has some clever Latin names for these people. Yesterday we talked about Mr. Austirus,

the austere Christian, who always seems to be right, but in a kind of loveless way.

Another person that Newton mentions is almost at the opposite end of the spectrum, and he

gives him a Latin name too. He's called Mr. Humanus. He's a people person. He's the

kind of person as is Mrs. Humanus, who is just all over new visitors to the church welcoming

them. So what is it about Mr. Humanus? He's gregarious, he's friendly, but here's the problem.

There's a kind of seam of inconsistency in his Christian life. John Newton captures it like

this. He says, if you trusted Mr. Humanus with your gold, there would be no risk at all. It

would be perfectly safe. With money he's a model of integrity. But writes Newton, entrust him with

a secret, and you put your secret into the public domain. He just can't keep it to himself.

Some time ago I was having dinner with some Christian friends, and at one point they were

interested in something that had happened in my life when I was a teenager, and I said to them,

I'll tell you what it is, as long as you promise never to tell anyone. Promise me?

You know none of them promised. They were all mature Christians. Most of them were pastors,

and come to think about it, I think most of them had read some of John Newton's letters.

And I wonder if they were thinking, you know, I don't think I can trust myself to keep

Sinclair's secret. I think I'd be tempted to share it. Now you see this was the problem with Mr.

Humannus. He trusted himself too much, but he had lost control of his tongue.

And that means he had actually lost control of his heart, because spiritually the tongue is

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