In teaching a multitude, Jesus warned, "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man" (Matthew 15:11).

Alluding to unduly rigid adherence to ritual, the Savior was cautioning His hearers not to neglect weightier matters. Later, when chief apostle Peter asked Him for an explanation, the Master replied:

"Do ye not yet understand that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?

"But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man" (verses 17-18). These, He said, include evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

Here, it seems, the Savior is saying that many physical impurities, when ingested, are eliminated by natural course; impure speech, by contrast, has a lasting and deleterious effect on one's character.

It is a concept later expressed by James, who wrote that "the tongue...defileth the whole body" and "is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison" (James 3:6, 8).

Earlier in his epistle, James gave this sobering warning: "If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain" (James 1:26). Those who succumb to this fault denigrate themselves — as the above parable from the Savior illustrates — and drive the Spirit from their hearts.

This counsel from the New Testament is particularly timely when an ever-increasing coarsening of language seems to be pervasive in our age.

For more than a generation now, the prevalence of profane and vulgar language in motion pictures has been so commonplace that movies carry a content rating as a warning to potential viewers.

More recently, the occurrence of such language in the broadcast media in the United States, once strictly proscribed by government regulation, today is tolerated. Conversation that in an earlier day would have been considered shocking and offensive has become acceptable on the nation's airwaves.

This, of course, reflects what is commonly heard on the street and in the workplace and marketplace, where foul language has nearly ceased to be regarded as unacceptable.

Apart from vulgar or profane language, a general lack of civility in public discourse seems to be growing. The Worldwide Web, otherwise a boon to society in many ways, has contributed to this growing tendency by making it easy for anyone with a computer and Internet connection to publish to a global readership under cloak of anonymity. Many, it seems, take license from the attendant lack of accountability for what they say. In message boards, chat rooms, blogs and anonymous reader responses to on-line publications, hostility, personal attacks and cheap shots have become standard.

The late President Gordon B. Hinckley, in his book Standing for Something, included a chapter in which he decried "Our Fading Civility."

"How very much of it we have lost in our contemporary society," he wrote. "In some respects, it truly is 'a jungle out there.' The absence of civility creates the jungle" (p. 61).

This may be symptomatic of the prophesied perilous times in the last days, when people would be "proud, blasphemers,... unholy,... false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good" (see 2 Timothy 3:1).

As Latter-day Saints, though, we need not — indeed, must not — succumb to such a trend. In our verbal discourse, as in all other aspects of personal and collective behavior, we can be as the proverbial "city that is set on an hill," providing a luminous example so that others "may see (our) good works" and, one would hope, emulate them (see Matthew 5:14, 16).

As custodians and bearers of the message of the restored gospel of Christ, we have the responsibility to speak the truth with boldness, plainness and authority but, insofar as is reasonably possible, in a manner that avoids giving offense or occasion to reject truth because of the tone in which it is presented.

Before a faltering world, let us set a standard, if need be, of decency, civility, grace and purity in our spoken and written words.