The right use of speech

L I B K ^ I^ Y

(IF THE

Theological Seminary,

PRINCETON, N. J.

, BV 4501 .S28 1863

' savage, Sarah Chauncey^

^ The right use of speech

B

THE

RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

BT THE AUTHOR OP

"THIS ONE THING I DO," AND "THE FORMATION OF
CHRISTIAN BELIEF."

>. '.' a. ',1

•"'^'

If it add nothiug to your -well-instracted knowledge, it may bring somewhat to
your well-disposed remembrance : if either, I have my end, and you my endeavour.—

Q0AKLES.

PHILADELPHIA:

G. W. CHILDS, BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER,

Nos. 628 AND 630 Chestnut Street.
1863.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, hy

GEOKGE W. CHILDS,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Henry B. Ashmead, Printer,

No3. 1102 and 1104 Sansom St.

CON^TEE^TS.

INTRODUCTION,

CHAPTER I.

THE INTELLECTUAL INFLUENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF

THE TONGUE, 11

CHAPTER II.

THE EXAMPLE OF DAVID IN RESPECT OF THE GOVERNMENT

OF THE TONGUE, 15

CHAPTER III.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE ON

CHRISTIAN PROGRESS, . . . " . . . 20

CHAPTER IV.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE ON

PERSONAL HAPPINESS, 31

CHAPTER V.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE CONSIDERED IN ITS

RELATION TO THE DISCIPLINE OF AFFLICTION, . 40

IV CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VI.

THE DUTY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE OBLIGA-
TORY IN PUBLIC AS IN PRIVATE AFFLICTION, AND
SPECIALLY URGED ON THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, . 52

CHAPTER VII.

THE RIGHT USE OF THE TONGUE, ..... 99

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

The common practice of recommending any moral
quality of action independently of its relation to the
Gospel scheme of reformation, is, in the writer's
judgment, of doubtful value. Virtues, as they were
called under the old philosophy. Christian graces, as in
their fuller manifestation they are styled by the truer
modern theory, are but the partial expression of a
change of mental condition — a development in special
directions of Christian faith and love. It was the
fashion of the essayists of the last century to discourse
freely and, for ourselves we must admit, wearisomely,
concerning candor, sincerity, prudence, fortitude, and
the like. We much question whether by the many
labored tributes to these excellent qualities, though

1*

6 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

rendered often in a cliasteness of style and harmony of
period and with a propriety of illustration unsurpassed
in later days, and which still in a measure constitute
the standard of good writing, — one reader has become
even temporarily more sincere, patient, or truthful.
As well might we trim and train the branch while we
neglect the root, and neither dig about nor water the
soil that covers it. The human philosophy of morals
is the offspring of Christian truth. It cannot teach
but by Gospel method, nor exist without Gospel
nourishment. It is reserved to later times, to the
more perfect application of the Christian theory — to
the regulative advance of which alone it is capable, to
discover the initiatory step in all moral training. No
intellectual conviction of the value of moral excellence,
no fastidious taste as to the unity and proportion of
moral exhibition, no good desire or well directed pur-
pose will of itself conduct moral education or ac-
complish moral reformation.

We find a confirmation of these sentiments in an
address of Dr. Chalmers to the people of his parish
of Kilmany. " I cannot but record the efiect of

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 7

an actual though undesigned experiment which I
prosecuted for upwards of twelve years among you.
For the greater part of that time I could expatiate on
the meanness of dishonesty, on the villany of falsehood,
* * * * and could I upon the strength of these warm
expostulations have got the thief to give up his steal-
ing, and the evil speaker his censoriousness, T should
have felt all the repose of one who had gotten his
ultimate object. * * * * / am not sensible that all
the vehemence 10 ith lohich I urged the virtues and pro-
prieties of social life, had the loeight of a feather on
the moral habits of my parishioners.'' He goes on to
say in substance, that it was not till he became im-
pressed with the utter alienation of all the heart's
desires and affections from God, and took the Scriptural
way of laying the method of reconciliation before his
people, that he ever heard of the subordinate reform^a-
tions which were the ultimate object of his earlier
ministrations.

A popular author, discussing the art of essay writ-
ing, describes two opposed schools in Essay. The one
argues for a specific proposition ; the other places

8 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

before the reader the thoughts and sentiments of an
individual mind. To the many gradations in which
both modes are more or less exhibited, he gives the
name of Mixed Essay. We are inclined to believe
that in this class of writing the mixed essay would be
generally more available for the estimate of truth, if
the logical system of the one school, and the person-
ality or subjective character of the other, could be
brought, as it has scarcely yet been, into a well-
adjusted balance. No attempt has been made in the
following pages to conform to any such precedent, or
to adhere to a formal method of discussion. The
statement of the writer's views with regard to the
mode of urging any portion of Christian duty, may
however account for, and possibly justify, some seem-
ingly wide departures from the strict line of argument.
Truth, more especially religious truth, which indeed
in its fullest sense comprehends all truth, is but a
succession of links, and we cannot take up one without
discerning and handling another. The enlightened
philosopher, in pursuit of one class of facts, will not
reject the occurrent signs that indicate or interpret

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 9

some new phenomenon. It is not invariably over the
high road and beaten track that we arrive most surely
at the end of our journey. If we but keep our special
object in view, we may enter at will into shaded and
unnoticed by-paths, refresh ourselves at springs hidden
from ordinary wayfarers, and gather many a flower set
in no human classification, but known and cared for
by Him who arrayed it in all its beauty. With
softened hearts and expanded minds, with new desire
and elastic step, we shall go forward on our way, and,
it may be, reach the end sooner than by a dull, listless
plodding along a less diversified though shorter path.
Human history, as also man's unwritten experience,
combines with all material creation to furnish the
philosophy we have need to learn — the lesson of
wonderful adaptation in all physical and spiritual being,
and thence of its Author's wisdom and benevolence. In
natural as in moral science the most diverse and appa-
rently opposing facts reveal similar principles. Laws
that regulate the motions of the heavenly bodies, are
traced also in the instinctive operations of the bee and
the beaver ; and the most wonderful mysteries of

10 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

animal life are shadowed forth in the origin and de-
velopment of the plant.

The subject is offered to the consideration of the
reader with the sentiment of an old author, altered in
two or three words the better to express our feeling :
" If I could light you but the least step towards the
happinesse you ayme at, how happy should I be ! Goe
forward on the right way, wherein, if my hand cannot
lead you, my heart shall follow you ; and where the
weaknesse of my power shews defect, there the earnest-
ness of my petition shall make supply."

CHAPTER I.

THE INTELLECTUAL INFLUENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT
OF THE TONGUE.

Language is to thought what life is to the body.
This may be perfect in structure and in functional
adaptation, but without the animate principle it is
inert and useless. Without words thought perishes.
Inadequate as it often proves, no other mode of
expression can at all compare with speech. Coun-
tenance and gesture are vehicles of thought, but
their capacity and scope are limited. The power
of language is in proportion to the development of
conception, or, to speak more simply, consists in
the perfectness of the correspondence between
the sign and thing signified. Singularly, there is
an inverse working of language on the thought of
which it is the creature. There is necessarily in

12 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

words an analysis and generalization of concep-
tions ; and the more subtile the analysis, the more
accurate the generalization, and the more perfect
become the ratiocination and induction.

It is not possible, even in the case of a mind
disciphned to careful observation of its trains of
thought, to review the mental process of an hour
without wondering at the variety, irrelativity, and
even incongruity of its constituting conceptions.
The laws of association, — resemblance, contrast,
and contiguity, extend over so wide a sphere, that
many even of such conceptions as are distinctly
referable to them are lost from the series, beyond
hope of recovery. When, as is often the case, the
application of the law is too delicate for analysis,
there is presented a mass of disconnected and un-
available conceptions. But so far as language^
can effect — itself the gathered product of thought
since the creation — these scattered materials are
collected and adapted. It is for speech to take and

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 13

apply of them what is suited to our own and others'
needs. How much for intellectual discipline and
for moral obligation is to be reserved — nay, how
much is it wholly impossible to reproduce ! Some
one says, "Man is greatest by his unuttered things;"
and we believe he is also by them meanest and
worst, for the act never fully developes or measures
the mental operation that occasioned it. The
cultivation of the power of analysis and its in-
creasing facility of application to our own thoughts,
is then the intellectual result of that control over
language which is commonly called government of
the tongue. To language is given the influence
over thought which Quintillian ascribes to the
pen, when he urges the importance of revision and
correction. " It is not without cause that the
pen is deemed not least effective when it erases.
Its office indeed is to add, remove, change. What
is pufl'ed up is to be compressed ; what is humble
to be elevated ; the overrunning is to be bound

14 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH,

together, the unsystematized arranged, the excess-
ive restrained, and solved questions set aside. For
both things are to be condemned even though
they please, and seized when they would escape.*"
It will be readily perceived how extensive and
important is the influence of a right use of speech
on our purely intellectual operations. But it is
a moral and religious influence which we chiefly
propose to discuss. In presenting our views, we
turn, as both in the formation and expression of
opinion we would ever do, to the word of God,
there to find example and precept for the duty
which we urge upon the conscience of the reader.

* De Emendatione, Lib. x. Cap. 4.

CHAPTER II.

THE EXAMPLE OF DAVID IN RESPECT OF THE GOVERN-
MENT OF THE TONGUE,

"I WILL take heed to my ways," said David,
"that I sin not with my tongue :" and again, " I
am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress."
The moral nature of this King of Israel was deve-
loped by most singular and opposite influences.
Hence it presents to us such diverse aspects that
we seem to behold in him two dissimilar indivi-
duals, or, at least, as in a Roman consul, the
manifestation in the same man of a double and
differing being.* These contrasts are discernible
not only in the record of his actions, but in that
which he has himself left of his thoughts and

* in eodem homine duplicis ac diversissimi animi conspi-

ceretur exeniplum.

16 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

feelings. In those compositions full of gracious
tempers, heavenly meditations, and intensest de-
sires after holiness and God, we find in strange
and rapid alternation exultant outpourings of his
inward peace, and expressions of deepest self-
humiliation and anguish of spirit. We observe his
determination to wash his hands in innocency, and
his boast that the Lord hath recompensed him ac-
cording to his righteousness, and to the cleanness
of his hands. But soon that confidence is changed
into the penitence of "a broken and contrite
heart;" for those hands are stained with the blood
of an injured and innocent man, and the sinning
monarch, like the humble disciple in after time, has
need to seek more than a partial cleansing, — to
be washed throughly from his iniquity, and to be
purged from a pollution far more pervading and re-
volting than the ceremonial uncleanness of a Jewish
leper. Again, his hot indignation against him that
maketh deceit, worketh mischief, and telleth lies.

THE RIGHT USE OP SPEECH. 17

and his just reprehension of Doeg who loved "lying
rather than to speak righteousness," give place to
the almost despairing and seemingly much needed
petition : " Take not the word of truth utterly
out of my mouth." At one period we mark him
following hard after God, waiting on him all the
day, and receiving in Divine guidance and teach-
ing the blessing promised to the meek ; at another,
we find that he had sunk into the horrible pit and
miry clay of transgression, his soul for the time
being gathered with sinners, and his life with
bloody men.

But from the particular form of human frailty
in which he was determined not to indulge,
David's history indicates that he was singularly
exempt. Under the persecution of Saul, the re-
bukes of Nathan and Gad — and that these were
deserved does not affect unless to confirm the
position, for men generally most angrily resent
the merited censure — under the bold dealing of his

2*

18 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

faithful Joab, the curses of Shimei, the taunts of
the daughter of Saul, the rebellion of Absalom,
the defection of Ahithophel and Hushai, he ex-
hibits, as the occasion demands, a calm dignity, a
patient, humble demeanor, and a penitent readi-
ness to acknowledge his error and submit to the
imposed penalty. We observe scarcely a token of
what might seem a pardonable resentment, much
less the breaking forth of his well-bridled lips into
any retaliatory utterance. The announcement of
Ahithophel's desertion, elicits only a prayer for
the defeat of his counsel. Tolerating not only,
but excusing the invective of Shimei, he makes
this touching appeal to his indignant attend-
ants : " Behold my son which came forth of my
bowels seeketh my life : how much more now
may this Benjamite do it ? let him alone, and let
him curse ; for the Lord hath bidden him." And
again, his " eyes ever toward the Lord" look to
him with the trusting expectation that "may be the

THE RIGHT USE OP SPEECH. 19

Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day."
In the matter of speech, as in all the "ways"
of that early manhood during which he won the
heart of Israel, we cannot resist the conclusion that
he " behaved himself wisely," and that " the Lord
was with him" no less in the carrying out of
this "purpose" of his soul, than in girding him
with strength to battle, and subduing under him
them that rose up against him. Perhaps it is not
to be excepted to the usual moderation of his
practice that he said in his haste, "AU men are
liars," and again, " I am cut off from before thine
eyes ;" for singular experience had been appointed
to him of human faithlessness and ingratitude, and
of the mysterious and often apparently conflict-
ing dealings of Providence.

CHAPTER III.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE ON
CHRISTIAN PROGRESS.

" So great a way," remarks Matthew Henry,
" does keeping the tongue from evil go in religion,
that ' if any offend not in Avord, the same is a per-
fect man;' and so little a way does religion go with-
out this, that it is said respecting him who hridles
not Ms tongue, ' his religion is vain.' " Elsewhere,
he presents the same thought in slightly varying
form, remarking how great an attainment is this
government of the tongue, since the man who
secures it is a "perfect" man; and ]\o^N needful,
since without it all other religion is " vain." If
we may analyze our notion of Christian training,
considering it without reference to the agency of
the Holy Spirit, we should say it begins with self-

THE RIGHT USE OF SrEECH. 21

acquaintance and is carried on by Christian action.
The heathen philosophers seem to us to have had
the germ of this view when they pronounced their
first maxim, " Knoiv thyself ;' and when they made
moral rectitude to consist in Iking according to
nature, understood by some, nature in general, or
the eternal fitness of things, and by others, the
nature of man in its most perfect model or con-
ception. Applying the doctrine in his own mode,
the Christian philosopher understands Christian
rectitude to be in theory a conformity to the
nature of man as it came from the Creator, com-
plete in all physical, moral, and intellectual en-
dowments— man in the image of God. But as by
the introduction of sin into the world that standard
could no longer exist, another was provided in the
new if fainter type of Divine excellence which is
displayed in the regenerate nature of man.

Self-acquaintance is not acquired as the child
acquires the knowledge of the objects of per-

22 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

ception. Mutable alike in aspect and relation,
self demands an ever new adjustment of focus, an
ever prompt and pursuant attention. Even those
natural traits of character which are in a sort per-
manent, are powerfully modified by continually
supervening influences, and the self of one period
is scarcely recognizable at another. The whole
system of conceptions, reasonings, and consequent
desires, will, and emotions, changes frequently in
the formative processes of life ; and he is a sagacious
as well as honest seeker after self-knowledge who
marks with accuracy the varying aspects of his own
mental horizon, and discerns now in shadow, now
in light, the undulating surface of the world, to him-
self so vast, of his own thought and emotion. Man's
self-acquaintance is a series of observations, experi-
ments, and we might add of mistakes and failures,
except that these apparently negative results con-
duce also to the desired end. It is not possible,
we believe, to secure or preserve such needful

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 23

knowledge of self without a habit of thought-
fulness, of introversion, as it is often called,
without a watchfulness over the effect of all new
outward influences, without a mental measuring
line held ever ready in the hand. The attention
so employed cannot be expended on objects which
bear no relation to self-culture ; and such a habit
of mind precludes the expression of imperfect
conceptions and of immature or undisciplined
thought. Next to reliance on Divine grace, the
most perfect aid to self-acquaintance is this watch-
fulness over the inner as well as the outer man,
this frequent withdrawing of one from the com-
panionship of the other, this survey, as from the
hill-top of consciousness, of both internal economy
and external conduct. Scarcely less careful should
be the scrutiny to which the mental operations of
others, so far as they can be traced, are subjected.
The mature man may learn much wisdom from
observing the usually natural and therefore true

24 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

conditions of the child's utterance. In many in-
stances, the most inexplicable moral phenomena to
him, are considered in wondering silence, and the
stronger emotions, or rather those not subject to
frequent excitement, remain without expression,
often vrithout any form of exhibition. Thus are ga-
thered within the soul the seeds of after-thought
which would perish scattered unskilfully and in
unselected soil. A hasty, unthinking communica-
tion of the mysteries of his consciousness is more
rare in the thoughtful child than in the man ; and
how serious an evil does it introduce into the moral
being of the man ! The dew, the blush, the down —
illustrate as you will the simplicity and purity of
many involuntary sentiments — is dried, faded,
brushed away by this exposure to the glare of
day and the touch of each passer-by. In all that
pertains to Christian self-examination — that ex-
amination which is not simply the result of a few
minutes or even hours of thought, nor merely an

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 25

interval employment of the mind, but its unremit-
ted side-work, prosecuted through all occupations,
in all scenes — how little is there which is suitable
for expression ! Could we invariably present to our
fellow-man the ripe, instead of, as commonly, the
immature fruits of our self-culture ; could we from
our inward searching bring forth without fail
that hid treasure of practical wisdom which were
available to human progress, there would be a
reason and value in free expression and even in
full self-revelation. But, as it is, those fruits are
perfected only after long, careful, assiduous culti-
vation; and we may not, in our digging for the
pure gold, pause to discuss either the wearisome-
ness of our toil or the prospect of reward. That
which is good for moral instruction is best con-
veyed by actions, which are as much the re-
sult of thought as are words. Recent impressions,
no matter how well defined, must bear the friction
of other influences before they can be deemed in-

26 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

effaceable, or remain permanent signs in plastic
and developing minds. Some Christian graces
are only moderately dependent for their growth
and vigor on intercourse with men. Others perish
without such nurture as active, human, or social
life perpetually affords. Bodily exercise in this
sense often profiteth much. Humility towards
God is the state of mind which ensues on a com-
parison of self with God and the standard of his
law ; and Avhat has man to do with this portion of
our Christian work? Humility with regard to
man is still the same mental act — a comparison of
self with a standard of human excellence — and
still what have men to do with the personal result
which is thus worked out? Long-suffering, gen-
tleness, meekness, may be called silent virtues,
and are displayed rather by what is left unsaid
and undone.

Plainly, in this world, which is our sphere of
action if only partially that of thought, a plan is

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 27

needed, a well ordered system by which we can
best do good to man and glorify God. To form
and maintain this scheme of life needs some such
continuousness and earnestness of attention as the
commander of a fleet, in dangerous seas, gives alike
to the stormy sky and the tossed and straining barks
which his watchfulness and skill alone can guide
into the desired haven. To know self for the pur-
pose of using self in the mode appointed by God —
to use it by action and inaction, by silence and
speech, in all intellectual operations, in all emotional
excitements, to the end of his glory and the good
of our fellow men — this is what is given us to do.
We are, therefore, to walk with our God softly —
carefully, considerately, reverently concerning him
and the eternal truths which he has revealed. We
are to walk as those who have an earnest purpose,
who " seek a country," not as those who saunter
along in a pleasant path, intent only on repose
and recreation. Neither a ready, frequent, noisy

28 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

mirth, nor the vain babblings that belong to the
idiot or child, rather than to the man whose nature
and destiny are so wonderfully mysterious and
solemn, whose being extends to unknown modes
of existence, and whose relations are chiefly to
the Infinite and Divine ; neither the wrangling of
envy, the boasting of jDride, nor the repining of
discontent, can characterize the utterance of the
Christian disciple who apprehends what is in-
volved in his relation to the great Teacher. To
learn fully, that he may see clearly, and communi-
cate rightly, describes his duty and his mission;
and his reward of successful working is in pro-
portion to his perseverance of endeavor to obtain
the knowledge and perform the will of God. The
varying practice of Christians — the flickering and
dimness of that light which should diffuse itself
abroad as well as penetrate the dark corners of
their own hearts, is, if we do not mistake, largely
owing to a forsaking of the humility and docility

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 29

of discipleship, an aspiring to teach what is not
fully learned, an incautious handling of weighty
truths, and a rash utterance of thoughts unsys-
tematized by prayer or study of the Scriptures.
Words conveying some already current, approved
train of thought, take the place of new inquiry, of
continuous and laborious investigation into the in-
exhaustible storehouse of truth ; and that which
in its own sphere would be significant and valu-
able, becomes in other and unsuitable application
incorrect and injurious. If progress in Christian
knowledge and in self-culture is thus retarded by
an imperfect apprehension and careless utterance
of Scripture doctrine, no less do these diminish
the efficiency of Christian effort. By thoughtful
observation, by cautious comparison alone, do we
gain any available acquaintance with our fellow
men. It is only by an accurate, a /mz'r line mea-
suring, so to speak, of their impulses, motives,
abilities, and of all forming influences, physical,

3»

30 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

moral, social, and educational, so far as they can
be discovered, that we form any estimate of the
magnitude and resistance of that fabric of false
opinions and sinful practice which we seek to over-
turn by the mighty lever of Christian teaching
and example. From communion with our own
souls and with God springs the self-acquaint-
ance which humbles but to elevate, which reveals
only to remove the corruption within, and refines
a base and earthly mixture into the pure gold of
a God-seeking, loving, and trusting spirit. From
the same communion with self and with our
Maker springs also a right judgment and com-
passionate consideration of others which discovers
their need, stimulates to efforts after its suj^ply,
and cherishes the yearning to be in regard of our
fellow men co-workers with God, and, in confir-
mation of the Saviour's test, to evince our love to
him by a faithful and abiding love to one another.

CHAPTER IV.

THE INFLUENCE OP THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE ON
PERSONAL HAPPINESS.

Few virtues were in the ancient ethics more in-
sisted on than patience, or, in its highest exercise,
fortitude. In Roman speech, he only was a man
who had strength or bravery, and this was dis-
played by both Greek and Roman models of
human excellence, as much by endurance as by
action. The good soldier, both in heathen and in
Christian times, must " endure hardness," as well
as be valiant in conflict. The Lacedemonian and
American Indian received a severe training in
varied modes of bodily torture ; and suffering of
any sort had few terrors for those who in extremes
of hunger and thirst, by burning brand, rack, and
thong, had trained their flesh to an unwincing,

6Z THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

unquivering submission, and their spirits to an
imperturbable composure. To suffer and be still, is
the dictate of common sense, the counsel of human
experience, and the teaching alike of philosophy
and of Christianity. The precept of patience and
the promise of its reward, run an unbroken thread
through the history and the doctrine of Scripture.
" I was dumb, I opened not my mouth because
Thou didst it," — seems the practice of most of the
holy men whose record has reached us, and is one
of the first instincts of the renewed heart. Swift
on the performance of the duty ensues the reward,
— a reward not of the heart's desire, perhaps, but
of inward healing, of calmness and confidence, of
the peace that proceeds only from trust in God
and submission to his will, and which is beyond
question a peace which passe th all understanding.
The unbelieving may cavil at the possibility of
such a peace, or recklessly reject the hope of it;
the fearful may shrink from appropriating the

THE RIGHT USE OF SrEECH. 33

fulness of its blessing; but there is a credible testi-
mony that the gift divine is freely proffered, and
a sure witness within, that it brings down to this
cold and sad, this dark and empty world the
glorious light of God's love, the heaven of never-
ending fellowship with him and his Son Jesus
Christ.

The affliction whether of body or mind, for
which no immediate relief can be obtained, should
be, if what we have urged has force, sparingly
discussed with our fellow-men, and fully commu-
nicated only to God. From him the sufferer may
receive a s]3eedy relief — the undelayed bestowal,
According to your faith he it unto you ; and will re-
ceive, if it be rightly sought, the grace sufficient
for a calm and even cheerful endurance. Abstract
from the severer forms of affliction, blind, dis-
trustful apprehension, undue or false sympathy,
imperfect or groundless consolation, unsuitable
comment, and exaggerated estimate, and you

34 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

diminish in no small measure their rigor. There
are minor evils which suffer a like aggravation in
the process of unrestrained or otherwise indiscreet
communication. The surprises of ill temper,
anger, or inordinate joy; the irregularities of the
more ordinary mental states, produced not only
by physical conditions, but largely by scarcely
recognizable influences which do not come within
range of our watchfulness, or under the rule of
our self-discipline ; the rash judgment, the incon-
siderate action which has discouraged and morti-
fied us by its unfortunate results, and lessened
our reputation for prudence and sagacity; the
smaller sins, — if any can be small — of continual
besetment and almost unconscious allowance,
which are sources of ever-recurring spiritual de-
clension and humiliation, — little foxes which spoil
our vines and hinder us from gathering the tender
grapes of our long culture and earnest desire ; —
these and kindred causes occasion us a distress

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 35

in which we are restless with an uneasiness which
sometimes exceeds that of graver troubles. Most
men take refuge from such tormenting anxieties
in vehement self-exculpation, in detailed narration
of all circumstances that contributed to their
temptation or failure, in complaints of their luck^
their friends, their health, or their early teaching.
They lay themselves open to the not always atten-
tive, just, or kind observation of uncaring fellow-
men, and intensify the effect of their one error by
a weak, vague declamation in relation to it, which
evinces small acquaintance with its real cause,
and still less energy of purjDOse to guard against
its recurrence. But it is better that with the
dead past should be buried, so far as the tongue's
office of revival is concerned, its mistakes, misfor-
tunes, and sins. Better that into the inner place
of the soul none but the Sanctifier and Comforter
should enter ! Restored by his heahng, refreshed
and gladdened by his presence, we shall be re-

36 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

newed in tlie spirit of our minds, shall mount in
our Christian flight as on eagles' wings, shall walk
and not faint in these earthly paths, aye, 7'un and
not be weary in the "way of God's commandments.
But in urging the strict government of the
tongue, we would not be understood to argue
against the indulgence of a legitimate desire, or to
object in any measure to the exercise and enjoy-
ment of that sympathy, the accordance of which
is no less an injunction of Scripture than the in-
satiable craving of our nature. Who can fully
describe, how few can adequately estimate the
preciousness, the solace, the culture, the spii'itual
sustenance of that rarely acquired treasure, a
friend! We use not the word in its ordinary, still
less, in its poetical and usually fanciful significa-
tion. We use it to denote the impersonation of
some measure of the same truth and faithfulness,
the same wisdom, patience, charitableness, and
tenderness which characterized the best of friends

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 37

— Him who more than all others deserves the
name. And if in the orderings of our heavenly
Father the fulness of such blessing be denied, —
if we never find or claim the heart which answer-
eth to our heart, if the " electric chain wherewith
we are quickly bound" kindle from our burning
thought and emotion no spark within those who
stand around us ; still how sweet is the commonest
fellow-feeling, how does the heart swell at the
most ordinary tones of kindness, and how do the
nerves thrill at the slightest pressure of the sym-
pathizing hand ! God, if we have read his word
aright, made us not for himself alone, nor for our-
selves, but for each other. Bear ye then one
another's burdens of sin, of sorrow, and of toil, and
so fulfil not only the law of Christ, but the evident
intention of your being : — "The Lord God said. It
is not good that the man should be alone ; I will
make him an helpmeet for him." But beware lest
you add to these burdens, lest you endeavor to

38 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

relieve yourself of your appointed portion, by
transferring it in the form of complaint, exaggera-
tion, recrimination, foreboding, or distrust. You
think that you cannot bear your wounded spirit,
and with singular inconsistency you tear open the
bleeding gaps, and subjecting them to unskilful
human handling, too often cause them to pour out
afresh and in A^ain the current of your life. Rather
sustain your infirmity with the blessed aid and
healing that God imparts, and which is to be ob-
tained by study of his word, and prayerful, sub-
missive application of its teaching and promises.

Pious friends may, by their own fuller experience
and riper self culture, stay us in the day of failing
strength and courage ; but their only available
sources of consolation spring from the one great
fountain whence we must draw for ourselves or
thu'st forever. And in their offered draughts
there is too often the admixture of worldly
cordials which are poison to the soul, even if they

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 39

yield a temporary cooling and alleviation. In the
day of your weakness, " cease ye from man ;" or if
you lean on him, let it be but lightly, as on the
reed which at any moment may fail under the
pressure and pierce the hand that rests on it.

CHAPTER V.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE CONSIDERED IN ITS
RELATION TO THE DISCIPLINE OF AFFLICTION.

We are not of those who hold that all sufFering
is, in a spiritual view, punitive. It may have no
retrospective bearing, and be in the way of train-
ing and warning. Again, the laws of our being
are other than moral, and the infraction of any one
law incurs a penalty correspondent with the class
to which it belongs. Physical penalties guard
physical laws, and intellectual confusion is the re-
sult of want of accordance with ascertained laws
of mind. Sin, it is true, pervades every part of
our nature, and to no portion of that nature are its
consequences confined. But we claim that much
of the sufFering which seems, in its universality and
continuance, almost our normal condition, cannot

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 41

reasonably be viewed as the expression of God's
indignation. Nor need we, by an unwarranted and
strained interpretation of his orderings, add weight
to burdens which already are heavier than, without
his special aid, we are able to bear.

The benefit of that which the sense of sin —
"the law of God written in our hearts," or the ap-
plied tests of Scripture pronounce to be punitive
suffering, is mainly dependent on the mode in which
it is endured. No advantage, or, at most, an ex-
traneous and irrelevant one, accrues to the child
from punishment, simply considered. It is only
when the child recognizes the affection of the
parent, the wisdom of his law, and the folly and
danger of opposition to it, that the proposed end
of punishment is gained, and the work of reforma-
tion commenced in the heart. Let us dwell awhile
on the process which, from childhood under pa-
rental, and through manhood to old age, under
social and divine law, we continually pass through.

42 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

till death frees us from a body of sin and a world
of imperfection and corruption.

In the natural state of man, the objects of moral
perception are unperceived and unarranged. The
mind, inert from this ignorance or indifference and
only stimulated by the false and flitting light of
its own instincts, cannot struggle forward through
a clogged and obscure pathway to the distant
opening which reveals the space and brightness
beyond. But when it is once brought by the
agency of the Holy Spirit within the radiant
circle of truth, all things assume to it their real
position, and consequently their true proportion ;
and there arises a sense of ignorance and delu-
sion which expands into a consciousness of sinful
indifference to truth and right. Hence ensues
a never ending conflict with that wilfully blind
and perverse self, which has so long held the
mastery, an agreement with the true lav/ of being
and internal confirmation of its justice, and a

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 43

readiness to undergo the penalty it imposes. By
this willing submission and patient endurance,
there are obtained a leisure time of the soul, a
separation from the scene of its mad riot and
tumult, a calm, careful examination of past acts
and estimate of their consequences, which induces
a disinclination to return to the darkness — the
" mire and slime " of worldly and godless life, and
a turning of mind from error to truth, and from sin
to purity. By the blessing of the Enlightener, the
soul is taught to discern the source of all truth and
purity, and, from abstract and not always fully per-
ceived qualities, to go on to the apprehension of
a personal, living, eternal, and unchanging repre-
sentation of their character and fulness. Thus it
is led from sin to God; thus begins the work of
submission ; thus proceeds the work of knowledge
and sanctification ; thus is the creature's weakness
made perfect in the Creator's strength.

If we have accurately represented this mental

44 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

change which is essential to all permanent outward
reformation, we have also inferentially presented
the duty of a careful use of all means which God
has appointed to the end, and more definitely the
use of the discipline of suffering for sin. The na-
tural instinct is a shrinking from it, an impatience
to escape from it, or to shorten the term of its en-
durance. The mouth vents the abundance of the
heart in meanings and complaints, laments, at first
naturally and not sinfully, the adverse and pain-
inflicting agency, and finally gives utterance to
railings against the conduct of others, the appoint-
ments of Providence, and of course to self-assertion
and justification. Thus, we have the inverse work-
ing of the law of punitive discipline. Self is ele-
vated, not abased, and rebellion and ingratitude
hold with tumultuous and exhausting occupancy
their dominion over the heart. Such is not always,
perhaps not commonly, the primary state of the
suffering sinner; but the brooding of the spirit

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 45

over the evil, the morbid and inconsistent discus-
sion of its every particular, the self-exaltation to
a pre-eminence in grief, to a claim to a victim and
martyr-due commiseration, in time turn the mind
from considering the origin of its distress, and
from seeking the only provision for relief. We
have touched on this subject while considering the
influence of the government of the tongue on per-
sonal happiness ; and as we find ourselves brought
to the same point in pursuing our examination of its
influence on spiritual discipline, we are constrained
to conclude with a commentator on the passage,
" the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,"
that " we have reason to praise God that the matter
is so well contrived, that our reverence of him and
obedience to him are as much our interest as they
are our duty." The best comfort, the most perfect
help and healing, is then the greatest faithfulness
in thought, word, and deed to the service of God
our Father. His law, " added because of trans-

46 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

gressions," is designed to bring us to Christ ; and
if we are thus brought, and obtain blessed faith in
him, we need no more our " school-master," but
are " the children of God." Plain, precious doc-
trine, profitable alike for our instruction and con-
solation ! Infinitely precious Saviour, who hath
brought this life in him by faith to light through
the Gospel!

In whatever evil, therefore, we receive from God,
especially in such as we deem the recompense for
transgression, the resulting benefit is only secured
by a careful viewing of our sinfulness and alienation
from God, of his right to deal with us according
to his own pleasure, and of our utter absence of
any self-originating claim to his forbearance.
Thus are formed the humility and patience which
constitute the true dignity of man, and the know-
ledge is imparted both of his worth and meanness,
his suffering and its remedy, his want and its
supply. In our controversies with men, there is

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 47

ever an imperfect settlement, a residue of embit-
tered feeling, of wounded pride, of uneasy recol-
lection. But the account, if we may so speak, is
squared in our transactions with God. Submission
and repentance are the terms of pardon, and the
grace bestowed is measureless in itself and bound-
less in its scope. If you have the spirit of the
child of God, not only will you submit but rejoice,
not after the natural man nor carnally, but after
the spiritual mode we have endeavored to disclose
to you. It is the rejoicing of the renewed man,
and, by a beautiful reflex action, the more joy, the
more strength. Here then, give wings to your
spirit ! Soar higher and higher yet ! No fear of
failing strength, of shadows of earthly darkness,
for still purer, and freer, and brighter that atmos-
phere through which you rise to the source of light
and joy ! And as the bird, which has furnished
our illustration, is ever singing in its heavenward
flight, so let your life be a hymn of praise, a con-
tinual outburst of thanksgiving and love.

48 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

As we contemplate these blessed possibilities —
nay, these often realized delights of Christian sub-
mission and trust, how do we, from our inmost
souls, repel the alternative of a sullen murmuring,
or of outspoken rebellion against the wise and
merciful decrees of our Father in heaven ! There
are workers of iniquity who boast themselves,
who utter and speak hard things ; but " blessed is
the man whom thou chastenest, 0 Lord, and teach-
est him- out of thy law !"

Brought to this point by our examination of the
influence of the tongue on the temper of mind
with which afflictive, including punitive, dispensa-
tions of Providence are to be received, we shall
pause in the discussion to glance at the prospect
which here outspreads itself, — to view the hope
set beyond the suffering, the rest of forgiveness
and reconciliation remaining to the toil-worn people
of God, and, daring to refuse the admission of the
Apostle, to plead that the grievous chastening of

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 49

our Father may even in the present thne seem
joyous if we bear in mind its intent, — " that we
might be partakers of his holiness." Glorious des-
tiny ! Immeasurable recompense for this life of
darkness and trial ! Can thought figure forth an
excellence or bliss beyond ? Can language express
a nobler condition, a vaster inheritance? Par-
takers of God's holiness ! Our minds stagger as
they would reach that height. We veil our faces,
unable to bear this ray of the divine effulgence.
Still on this low earth, with this body of natural
and spiritual death, we must prostrate ourselves
and cry. Unclean, unclean ! before with rapturous
emotions of gratitude and love we can swell the
chorus of the church on earth : — For thou only art
holy, thou only art the Lord, thou only, 0 Christ,
with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory
of God the Father !

Reader, has the sin of your nature been revealed
to you ? Has no self-deception concerning it been

50 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

tolerated, no false excuse admitted ? Have you
gone with it to God and, sorrowfully showing it to
him, have you asked that he would take it away
on account of Jesus Christ who came into the
world to save sinners ? Do you believe, though
you do not comprehend, that, as in symbol his
blood-shedding could wash away an outward stain,
so his life, his teaching, his both attesting and ex-
piatory death are the means appointed for your
deliverance from guilt and your conduct to heaven ?
If so, then the " gift by grace" has abounded to
you, and your repentance is accepted, the pardon
is granted, the strength promised, and the deliver-
ance pledged. The gift is complete and absolute.
No half-way measure, no imperfect consolation, no
covering over of your guilt, no offer of a temporary
reconciliation. God "giveth liberally," — in the
far more emphatic original, giveth simply — with-
out reserve, without recall, without upbraiding.
"All things are yours," if you will but accept

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 51

them, and — mark the climax — "ye are Christ's
and Christ is God's." You are then to receive
through Christ of the fulness of the Godhead !
In expectation of this " unspeakable gift," what
remains but that you cleanse yourself from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness
in the fear of God ? You have as ground of en-
couragement to persevere — " God is able to make
all grace abound toward you ;" and the fulfilment
of his purpose as your obligation to a faithful ser-
vice— " that ye, having all sufficiency in all things,
may abound to every good work."

CHAPTER VI.

THE DUTY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE OBLIGA-
TORY IN PUBLIC AS IN PRIVATE AFFLICTION, AND
ESPECIALLY URGED ON THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

An upheaving of the solid ground, a convulsion
of the elements, a sweeping away of ancient land-
marks, a darkening of the lights of heaven, and a
pouring down on our devoted heads of the deluge
of God's indignation, are now experienced in this
once prosperous country. Late events in their
rapid progress and startling character seem to be-
long to remote, chaotic periods of man's history
rather than to the order, the civilization and diffu-
sion of knowledge which belong to later times.
Nor have we escaped the fierce passions, the lust of
dominion, the occasionally brutal struggle for mas-
tery which characterized semi-barbarous ages ; as

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 53

if there had not been a dawning of light on their
darkness, as if a multitude of the heavenly host had
not proclaimed peace and good will to men, as if
we had not beheld a Divine " example of suffering
affliction and of patience," and as if from a chosen
follower of our meek and lowly Saviour there had
not come the persuasive pleading : " Let all bitter-
ness and wrath, and anger and clamor, and evil
speaking be put away from you with all malice ;
and be ye kind one to another, tender hearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you !" Oh the clamor of this
war ! Far above the hoarse tones of command,
the cannon's roar, the bursting of shells and many-
shaped instruments of destruction ; far above the
shrieks and groans of the wounded and dying,
and the combined din of battle, we hear a noise of
tongues set on fire of hell, hissing, roaring in awful
explosions of hatred and vengefulness. Are you
who thus utter forth your rage civilized men, and

54 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

have some of you — alas for your Master's name ! —
called yourselves Christians ? To our own ears has
been borne the imprecation upon an enemy of de-
struction both in this life and in the next. You
could not then leave your brother to the disposi-
tion of your common Father in heaven ! It was
not enough to doom him in your heart to a ruined
life and hopeless death, but usurping the province
of Divine justice and refusing that of ever accom-
panying Divine mercy, you would consign him to
irretrievable woe ! When once the glittering sword
is whet, on whom, think you, shall fall its edge ?
" If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither
will your Father forgive your trespasses."

But we come to a calmer discussion of this sub-
ject. We are deeply impressed with the need of
arousing the Christian conscience of the whole land
in regard to the prevalent abuses of speech. We
are not without our opinions, sympathies, perhaps
our prejudices. But into the question before us

THE RIGHT USB OF SPEECH. 55

they are not suffered to intrude. We are not now
pleading to establish such principles of govern-
ment, interpretations of national charters, or
applications of precedent as may have recommended
themselves to our adoption. We examine not now,
our Northern and Southern brother! into the right
of your cause. We neither dispute the statement
of your grievances, nor question the correctness of
your resulting conclusions. We are pleading that
as one great brotherhood in a Christian land we
stand together on the platform of religious obliga-
tion, if not of political concordance. If the writer
mistakes not — and our view does not lack confir-
mation— there comes to us from political addresses,
and commemorative orations, from the periodical
press, and — must we say it? — to a large extent from
the pulpit, atone of denunciation which, considering
our very recent union and our progress in the high-
est civilization, is not called forth by the circum-
stances of the conflict, and is utterly discordant with

56 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

the teachings of Christianity. We observe by these
organs of public sentiment an immoderate setting
forth of individual opinion and estimate of indi-
vidual judgment; a rejection of long established
safeguards of demeanor and intercourse ; a use of
epithets and terms, which in themselves contemp-
tible, and at first, even to the ordinary mind,
merely ludicrous, acquire an influence by iteration,
and conduce largely to the relaxation of self-re-
straint, both in the formation and expression of
belief. Ordinary conversation is but the reduced
impress of public sentiment, exceeding its type
in want of caution and accuracy, in vehemence
and rancor, as personal passions and prejudices
lash and urge each other into more inordinate de-
velopment.

We have said that the conflict subsisting between
two sections of the once united States, does not
sufficiently account for this excitement of feeling and
language. If you, reader, and ourselves, to whichso-

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 57

ever of the contending divisions we individually
belong, could come together to review the past and
discuss the probabilities ofthe future, our souls would
be filled with terrified amazement at the rapid pro-
gress of events, would kindle in indignation against
the destroyers of our prosperity, and melt also in
sorrow for national suffering, and, we trust, for
national sinfulness. If we could describe the com-
plication of opposing interests and theories which
has gradually brought about the separation ; if we
could expose the ambition and corruption which
stalk triumphant through all the land under the
semblance of patriotism ; if we could calculate the
millions of not only expended but squandered
money, and number the heaped-up bodies of our
slain, and the aching hearts of the bereaved ; if
we could behold the desolation of wide tracts of
country, of fertile estates and well loved homes,
the rapid wasting of toil-acquired competence and
closing of many avenues of employment, the

58 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

thronged hospitals of sick and wounded, the
family separations and estrangements ; if we could
estimate public and private anxiety and apprehen-
sion, the lowered position and influence of our
country in the congress of nations, the continually
arising questions and subordinate interests which
seem ever more hopelessly to divide us ; and if,
without unduly seeking to discover the future, we
consider the probable heritage to our children of
diminished fortunes, of a country impoverished by
civil war and without settled government ; if we bear
in mind the moral deterioration which is one of the
saddest results of the contest, the distraction of
mind from Christian contemplations, the time
taken from every elevating, enlightening, and
benevolent pursuit, and expended not only in the
exigent employments of the war, but in the innu-
merable connecting claims which hydra-headed
have sprung up to devour many a well devised
plan of financial, literary, or religious operation; —

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 59

if we sufficiently ponder these present, pressing,
and undeniable evils, we shall conclude that the
vial of God's wrath is now poured out upon our
land. But long as is our enumeration, and potent
as is the action of the agencies of this war, we
repeat our assertion that they do not explain the
bitterness and evil speaking which seem to us
especially to characterize it. Hundreds of thou-
sands among us have kindred and friends in the
opposing sections ; and can it be that the bond of
relationship, citizenship, and of a common Christ-
ian faith, can be severed as in a day by struggling
interests and jealousies, nay, by even wrong-doing
and injustice ? It is even so ; and what beside
unavoidable lamentation remains to the Christian
patriot? In pestilence, famine, or foreign attack,
he would submissively acknowledge the hand of
God ; and no less in this civil conflict is he bound
to discern the Divine ordering, and, in the careful
discharge of what he deems his duty, to exercise

60 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

self-watchfulness, moderation, and meekness. How-
ever men's mutual relations may vary, they never
vary with God. His rule is universal and en-
during ; his law has been promulged for all time
and all conditions, is laid down for the friend and
the enemy, extends to every thought of the heart, ,
casts down every self-exalting imagination, binds
every member of the body, and bridles even the
unruly and iniquitous tongue.

In regard to the duty which we have been con-
sidering in its application to the present condition
of our country, there seems to have come from the
pulpit an uncertain sound. With deep regret we
have failed to gather from its teachings at large,
the warning and instruction which it should have
been foremost to proffer. Through her mouth-
piece, the pulpit and religious press, the Church
has made no proper vindication of her rights, no
fearless assumption of her responsibilities. In-
deed, we have begun to fear that in our long pro-

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 61

tracted period of internal tranquillity, no just view
has become current of her relations to the State,
which though riveted by no political fastening,
unquestionably exist, and in no system of govern-
ment can be wholly ignored. To define them, is
to guard the State from lawlessness on the one
hand and ecclesiastical assumption on the other,
and the Church from arrogance and self-assertion,
from secular contempt and civil oppression. It is
to provide a system of checks and balances, which
in its efficiency indicates its Divine origin, and
therefore permanent adaptation. The Church is
honorable in her two-fold office of exponent of
God's will and of man's obligation. Her Founder
shall gird his sword upon his thigh and ride pros-
perously, because of truth, and meekness, and right-
eousness; and shall not she be all glorious with the
concentrated radiance of these principles of his
rule and highest attainments of his willing sub-
jects ? We regard the Church as a partial type of

62 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

the Saviour, "as, hypothetically, the impersonation
of his teachings, as like himself commissioned,
though only by his authority and to the letter of
his instructions, to declare in all time to man the
rule of life and way to heaven. If she be faithful
to her trust, she will not shun to make manifest
the whole revealed counsel of God, or to utter
her convictions as to truth and right, derived, as
they should be, from her infallible charter of in-
structions. Some of her disciples dictate to her
that she put her hand on her mouth in times of
national agitation or less momentous party strife,
or that she give expression to but one class of
truths ; that her ministers, in the garments of con-
secration, avoiding the high ways of life, their
shoes from off their feet on the holy ground of
professional labor, should wait the end of all
things in the restoration and consummation of
heaven. We, ourselves, have loved to liken the
Church to John the Baptist, crying in this wilder-

THE RIGHT USE OP SPEECH. 63

ness world, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord ;"
clothed not in the soft raiment of earthly luxury
and preferment, but in the self-denying virtues of
a messenger of Christ, girded ever for coming toil
and endurance, and sustaining herself not by ex-
travagant demands of large outlay and bestowal,
but by that simple provision of inward grace
which God by his power, which worketh mightily
in true believers, shall abundantly and continually
suppl3^ In her greatest temporal prosperity she
has often failed to maintain the singleness of her
trust in the all-sufficient declaration, " I am with
you alway." Leaning on an arm of flesh, which
could not uphold her, she has fallen from her
high estate. So manifest at times has been the
worldly and contentious spirit, the love of wealth
and power, the bigoted proscription of some who
were fairly under her protection, and the zeal for
conversion, not so much to Christianity as to a
sect, that it might well be asked of her. Which of

64 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

tlie two masters is the one whom you serve ?
" Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the
thmgs which I say?" And yet ofttimes in a
period of trial, the Church has experienced, like
her Founder, that though tempted sorely by Satan
and beset by wild beasts of infidelity, fanaticism,
and persecution, angels have ministered unto her,
and the voice of that Spirit which conducted her
into the desolate region has given sweet assurance
of tender filial relation and Divine complacency.

It is the office of the Church, as it was that of
John the Baptist, to announce a Saviour, — "Be-
hold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin
of the world," and to declare her own mission, —
" that he should be made manifest, therefore am I
come." * * * * But John walked elsewhere than
in the wilderness. Within the circle of court
splendor and influence he had seen a form of evil
triumphant, and, clad in robes of royalty, stalk
not only unrebuked, but legalized and honored

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 65

through the land. He contented himself with no
assertion of general principles, no supposition of a
case, no enunciation of a rule that could be applied
or not at pleasure. Without any timid or tortuous
approach to the subject, in form of direct address,
in words that could not be fewer or simpler, he
says to the king, " It is not lawful for thee to
have her." He speaks with authority, and the
conscience of Herod applies and confirms his
decision. John, doubtless, had cautious friends
among his disciples, who would argue that his
mission was to announce the coming and work
of Christ, and that in ^'baptizing and preaching"
he could find ample employment of his time and
powers ; that it was needless to expose himself to
the wrath of Herod, and useless ; for had not the
marriage been concluded, and might not questions
exist as to the new relations and obligations that
might arise from its illegal consummation ? Some
might urge that to wink at this already committed

6*

66 THE EIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

evil, would ensure for the new doctrine which the
coming Christ was to declare, a readier hearing
and more hearty reception. Truly, friends in
high places seemed wanting to the feeble band
that was the seed of the church ; and Herod, al-
ready obBerving John — the first point gained, —
fearing him, because he knew John to be that
which he would make others — a just man and an
holy — Herod, already hearing him, aye, hearing
him gladly, and doing many things — was not this
Herod almost a Christian? In like case could
minister's heart feel greater encouragement or an-
ticipate happier results ? Even to us, in the blaze
of Gospel light, the course of the matter seems
mysterious, and we are ready to conclude that but
for this reproof of the speaker he had gained the
soul of his hearer. How much more mysterious to
those who came and took up the headless corpse,
and, laying it in the tomb, seemed there also to
bury the mighty truths John came to promulgate.

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 67

the long deferred prophetic fulfihnent, and to
quench in its darkness the light which had sprung
up in "the region and shadow of death" in which
for ages they had sat !

So far, then, as the history of John can convey
them, are represented the character and mission of
the Church. ' Primarily, she is to declare Christ's
coming, teachings, and requirements. Second-
arily, in view of these great considerations, this
" kingdom of heaven" now '^ at hand," she calls
on man to repent, and, in his every condition and
relation, to bring forth in the faithful discharge of
his obligations " fruits meet for repentance." She
is not infallible in her judgments, for she is not
that light " which lighteth every man that cometh
into the world," but was instituted to " bear wit-
ness of that light ;" not arrogant of power nor
boastful of influence, for her appeal is ever to One
standing among you whom ye know not, " whose
shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose ;" not

68 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

self-confident and relying, for on her banner — is
she not militant with the world, the flesh, and the
devil? — she has inscribed One mightier than I. But
on every question that may touch man's eternal
welfare — and what question touches it not ? — she
speaks as her Master would have spoken, in the
spirit which was his, keeping back no truth, sup-
pressing no claim, enforcing the one and urging
the other with undeviating regard to Gospel faith-
fulness and Gospel love. Rulers, masters, parents,
no less than subjects, slaves, and children, are
commanded, warned, and guarded. As indi-
viduals form the body ecclesiastical, so shall in-
dividual belief find appropriate expression from
the pulpit, and it may happen that that belief is
unsound ; but the advocacy of every opinion is to
be held in its mode and extent subordinate to
recognized supreme laws. No theories or measures
of civil or ecclesiastical organizations have any in-
herent value or self-sustaining principle unless

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 69

they are framed in obedience to the Christian law
and maintained and prosecuted in conformity to
the Christian spirit. Each will demand the occa-
sional surrender of will, the constantly, if not ex-
actly distrustful, yet humble and docile exercise of
judgment. In the history both of churches and
of nations, there has been recorded " a marvellous
work and a wonder," for the wisdom of their wise
men has often signally perished, and the under-
standing of their prudent men been hid. And
wherefore ? Their fear toward Me is taught hy
the precept of men.

To a dispassionate observer of the action of the
Church in relation to the contest between the
States, we think it would appear that the Church
throughout the land has, on the whole, exerted her
influence to maintain rather than to moderate the
vehement spirit in which it has very generally
been prosecuted, and especially, for peculiar local
reasons, in one section of the country. We have

70 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

already recounted the causes of this virulent ani-
mosity, and it will be acknowledged with due con-
sideration of their influence, that some check to
the frantic impulses of the more violent combatants
is, and would always, in like contingencies, be
needed. In the general disseverment of societies
and cessation of intercourse, we deem it to have
been not impracticable that the Church, though no
longer in corporate form, should preserve her pro-
per unity, and even with opposing action in rela-
tion to the national division, should still promi-
nently hold forth the principles on which she was
constituted, and which she is pledged to consider
as forever obligatory. But her course, if we mis-
take not, has been a prompt and eager partisan-
ship ; and it has been maintained with an ever
augmenting confidence and earnestness, which, in
some of their manifestations, cannot be reconciled
to the religion of the Bible.

We do not overlook the causes which have con-

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 71

duced to this result. Naturally, the spiritual
teacher would feel strong devotion to the sectional
views which on each side are supposed, for the
most part conscientiously, to be vital not only to
the existence of good government, but to the pros-
perity of the Church. We cannot justly ignore the
influence of individual temperament, the strong
sympathy of the pastoral clergy with the senti-
ments and interests of their people, the continual
attrition of mutual discussion, and the imj)ulse of
the sensational daily press. We would not forget
that high as is the standard for the character of
the Church as a body, that standard affecting
chiefly professional acts of her ministers, though it
can be maintained only by their inward spirituality,
can scarcely be applied to individual performance.
Ministers as well as other men can claim, accord-
ing to the Latin adage, that nothing human is re-
moved from their sphere of thought and emotion,
if, in their case, it be from that of their active par-

72 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

ticipation. But we fail to find in the personal
claims of patriotism, or in the more common and
plausible plea — the duty of wielding aright the
large influence of the Church, in the demands of
sympathy, or the propriety of diffusing through
church going hearers intelligent and just views
of the pending difficulties; — we fail, we say, to
find, even in these legitimate motives, justifica-
tion for the language and action, in reference
to the national crisis, of numbers of the clergy
belonging to various denominations, and to North-
ern and Southern States. An error, it is true,
was from the first committed by the community
at large, which, but for the ready tolerance of
the clergy, would have been a gross indignity
to their body. It was not needful, considering
their pre-existing local interests, nor admissible,
in view of their profession, to institute an inquiry
into their political opinions, or demand from them
an account of their private utterances. The test
question, if not always formally, has been actually

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 73

and rigidly applied to them. For an overt act
which by either party can be construed as injuri-
ous to the State, the ecclesiastic, as any other
man, is amenable to a civil tribunal. But on no
ground can it be denied to him to offer in proper
time and place, or to reserve, if deemed necessary
to either personal or Christian interests, the expres-
sion of his sentiments on public affairs. With as
much reason might we authoritatively investigate
his views on social, literary, or non-essential reli-
gious questions, demand from him conformity to a
humanly declared standard of dress, expenditure,
and intercourse with men, or make him run the
gauntlet of the ultra societies and novel practices
which are the rank overgrowth of our spiritual
vitality and liberty. Our ecclesiastical as well as
our civil republicanism is somewhat over sturdy
and vigorous ; or perhaps we should more correctly
say, each has been forced into much monstrous
and unfruitful developuient by injudicious tenders,

74 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

and ill a hot bed of miscalled progress and re-
form, of impracticable theories, and impatience of
legal, moral, and divine restraint. It has been
anoffenceagainstthereverenceduetothe office, and
in minor degree to the persons of the clergy, thus
to draw them into the arena of conflict ; and if the
dust linger on the " holy garments," the reproach
is in no small part with them who in effect " say
to the seers. See not, and to the prophets. Pro-
phesy not unto us right things ; speak unto us
smooth things," — the things which recommend
themselves to our desires — " prophesy deceits."

We said the reproach has in part fallen upon the
secular community. But " who is blind, but my
servant ? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent ?"
Submitting at first with scarcely a show of resis-
tance to the bold handling of their private judg-
ment on non-professional matters, numbers of the
clergy thus forsook their only tenable ground in
the rush and conflict around them, and allowed

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 75

themselves to be dragged from the eminence
whence throughout the length and breadth of the
land, a voice might have gone forth and rung in
every ear — not the sentiment of the American
Church respecting the national disruption — but the
blessed precepts of the Gospel. Influenced at first
by timidity or by want of a proper estimate of
their professional position and its privileges, and
very often by unresisted personal feelings, they
have since to a large extent moved forward eagerly
on the path in which they have been set. Minis-
terial counsels and the religious press have been
extreme, vehement, prescriptive. They have au-
thoritatively questioned and reproved in their own
body what was deemed a lack of zeal in advocat-
ing the sectional contest, or a manifesting of sym-
'pathy for opponents. Indeed, this word of sweet
human meaning and gospel use has come some-
what into discredit in these days, and its appli-
cation, to our thinking, been unduly restricted.

76 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

Why may not personal preference unite with
"kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, and
long-suffering" to recommend and promote, not
illegal or unfair practice, but moderation and
indulgence of sentiment and expression ? Public
opinion, first secular, then ecclesiastical, has called
for what it terms decided iestimony to the justice
of the views and measures of the section; and
from already mentioned causes, as the fear of
lessened influence, personal obloquy, or earnest in-
dividual feeling, the minister, in his public utter-
ances concerning the opposing party, has not been
slow to comply with the command, " Cry aloud and
spare not," forgetting that the injunction Avas laid
on one divinely inspired and directed in the case.
Nor has the zeal of the clergy found its only vent
in somewhat open mouthed declamation. Some
have left the ecclesiastical for the military service.
Many, in addition to such as, with special qualifi-
cations and no restraining ties of parish or family,
might well deem themselves summoned to the post,

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 77

have attached themselves in their clerical capa-
city to the army, who have most deplorably failed
to meet their grave responsibilities. A minister
who, in peculiar circumstances, was solicited to
take a command, replied that in considering the
proposition he had sought a precedent for such a
change, and that failing to find that Jewish priest
or Levite had ever been enrolled among com-
batants, he must decline the appointment. Our
heart is moved in Christian rejoicing for one who,
strongly tempted to indulge a natural taste which
a military training had developed, would ask coun-
sel of the word of God, and abide by its decision.
And yet, we could not but grieve that, at this
period of the world, and with our advance in Chris-
tian knowledge, one who had been long in the
ministry, should have to establish for the first
time the grounds of his action on such an occa-
sion ; and that in the Gospel which he was com-
missioned to preach, he seemingly did not discover

7*

78 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

ample enunciation of principles which would apply
in the case. Had he searched for precedent the
New, as he did the Old Testament, he would have
found it. But the solitary Bible instance of a min-
ister's bearing arms would scarcely have availed
much in the premises. In that case, the spirit of
oppugnation was not very vehement, the physical
courage was deficient, for later it altogether failed
the combatant, or, in common with most of his
brethren of the present day, he had not attained
to any special skill in the use of weapons, as the
damage done by his sword was inconsiderable, and,
but for the solemn surroundings of the scene, would
have been ludicrous. Beside, the action and di-
rection of the Saviour are not susceptible of mis-
construction. They afford, with the command to
lay aside the sword, a general and ever applicable
warning, and the exact reparation of the injury by
the restoring of the lost member to the doubtless
wondering servant of the high priest. The ques-

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 79

tion of the right of self-defence stands alone, and
is to be considered as established on natural,
moral, and scripture principles. But we can reach
no conclusion but that any other voluntary assump-
tion of arms by a Christian minister is indefensible
altogether by Christian teaching, and is inferen-
tially prohibited by such a measure as the early
separation of the apostles, by the interposition of
the office of deacon, from even kindred secular
employments.

Extempore jDublic prayer has to a great extent
expressed the party spirit, or we might more
fairly say, the enthusiastic advocacy of sectional in-
terests, which has characterized the general action
of the Church. In a few melancholy instances it
has been scarcely qualified in its pleading for the
destruction of enemies. When, without such de-
nunciation, it has been legitimately preferred for
the prosperity and success of the so deemed right-
eous cause, it has often assumed a tone of dicta-

80 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

tion, and exhibited a self-assertion and unrestricted
self-confidence, which at any time ill become
ignorant and fallible men, and assuredly are
irreverent and insane in a crisis like the present,
when questions await solution, more complicate in
form and momentous in import than any that have
yet been proposed to the most accurate reasoning
or sagacious statesmanshij). In the ordinary and
simpler entanglements of private or public affairs,
we have ever reason to distrust our deceitful
hearts, to beware of the false weights of prejudice
and self-love in the balance of our mental appre-
ciation of the justness of our cause. It would be
well for us if in every determining process of
thought, Ave would address ourselves to the
Searcher of hearts, invoke his closest scrutiny, re-
cite to him all past action, declare every purpose,
and, like David, anticipate " good judgment and
knowledge," only by believing his commandments.
It would be well if with David we would from

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 81

time to time review the ground of our persuasion
and the course of our conduct: — "If I have done
this, if there be iniquity in my hands, if I have
rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me ;"
and well, also, if our zeal for truth and right could,
like David's, predominate over our yearnings for
success and triumph : — " If I have done this — let
the enemy persecute my soul and take it, yea, let
him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay
mine honor in the dust." There is a simple and
certain method of ensuring both intellectual sound-
ness and moral rectitude ; and the Psalmist gives
it in few words : " Through thy precepts I get under-
standing ; therefore I hate every false way."

The imprecatory Psalms, which have furnished
the form at least of much of the denunciation of
enemies which has found unhappily its expression
in public prayer, have ever proved intangible to the
writer's spiritual apprehension ; and, like many now
inexplicable facts and mysterious announcements,

82 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

will obtain to ourselves their proper significancy
only in the great day of general revealing. We
are aware that to this particular class of Psalms is
attached by some a figurative meaning, — that the
formidable and persecuting enemy is the great
adversary of souls, who with his legions of allied
combatants in the world and in the flesh, takes
" crafty counsel" against the people of God, and
"consults" against his "hidden ones;" and that
the personal rancor of David typifies the Christ-
ian's undying conflict with every form of evil, and
his abiding separation from all workers of iniquity
and contemners of God. Again, we have listened
to the argument that David's vehement indignation
is sanctioned by the fact of his enemies being em-
phatically the enemies of God, and that his was there-
fore no ordinary hate and vengefulness, but con-
suming zeal for Divine honor and supremacy.
Calvin, taking this view if we mistake not, for we
have not now access to the passage, infers that with

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 83

such chastened and holy indignation, we may
lawfully refresh ourselves by witnessing the
punishment of evil doers ; but that unassisted
natural promptings and emotions will, in like case,
be indulged only to a wrong and perverse end.
To what point of achievement David had attained
in the subduing of his personal animosities, and the
internal substitution of the single motive of God's
glory, it is needless to inquire, and would be from
his history difficult to discover. For our practical
deduction it is sufficient to note that, however
just Calvin's view may be hypothetically, we can-
not assure ourselves of such exemption from the
infirmity of human principles of thought and
action, as will enable us to conclude that we have
the proper conscious witness of supreme love to
God and desire for his glory, which would justify
the language concerning enemies so abundantly
used in the portion of the book of Psalms to which
we have referred. Matthew Henry, who, in spite

84 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

of a habit of too lengthened discussion, of a weary-
ing love of antithesis, and a somewhat puerile and
unsuitable play upon words, and even, in one re-
membered instance, upon letters, is one of the
most searching and apparently successful investi-
gators of the spiritual meaning of the Psalms —
with marked elevation of tone and felicity of ex-
pression, thus declares to us the sin of the unmodi-
fied condemnation of enemies which appeals to
the Psalms for its justification : "Greater impiety
can scarcely be imagined than to vent a devihsh
passion in the language of sacred writ, to kindle
strife with coals snatched from God's altar, and
to call for fire from heaven with a tongue set
on fire of hell."

We have already intimated that the preaching
of the American pulpit during the last two years
has largely reflected the national excitement and
division of sentiment. Sermons, if not wholly
devoted to the subject of our disturbances, so

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 85

abound with relating allusions and illustrations,
that we are scarcely able to rid ourselves of the
impression that the speaker has folded his daily-
print only just before opening the Word of God to
expound to inquiring and anxious souls the truth
as it is in Jesus. On the days most appropriate
to expressions of public sentiment — days of dis-
tinguished obituary commemoration, of fasting,
and of thanksgiving, we are fain to content our-
selves, or at least to restrain our restiveness, under
the protracted and redundant national glor^nng or
wailing, as the occasion and temperament of the
speaker may dictate. But on the Sabbath, — the
blessed Sabbath of no country and no sect, — shall
Christians be denied the rest for which it was de-
signed ? Is it at the bidding of Christian minis-
ters that we turn again to that world from whose
toil and trouble we had for a brief season made
our escape ? Through all the weary six days, men
have heard, thought, talked, planned, dreamed

86 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

even, of little else than the interest which, though
involving what is stable and precious in worldly
possessions, though enlisting what is magnanimous
in sentiment, and self-sacrificing in action, is still
an interest of time, an interest of earthly consider-
ation, an interest which assails us in some form
with almost every temptation of the heart and of
the tongue, and which, addressing itself specially
to our pride and self-confidence, draws us away
from dependence on God, and substitutes the
might of our hand to obtain for us the wished for
victory. Worn with • such toil of fruitless thought,
with the conflict of passion and temptation, literally
plagued all the day long and chastened every
morning, longing, yea even fainting for the courts
of the Lord, men have sought to return to the lost
rest of their souls, and to recall, like David, amidst
their distress the ever bountiful dealings of their
God. Alas ! the true mental entrance into the
temple of praise and thanksgiving has been denied

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 87

by the very hand which should have thrown wide
the gate and beckoned in the halting, weary, way-
faring man. In Mohammedan countries, we are
told, as the sound of a bell daily for a few minutes
falls on the ear, the devout Mussulman, however
engaged, even laden for a journey, prostrates him-
self for worship, and implores the benediction of
Allah. We have longed that some such summons
throughout our Christian land might constrain men
to bring this national trouble, this heavy burden,
and lying with it at the Master's feet, to find for
a time sweet rest and refreshment for their souls.
He, ministering at God's altar, who with placid,
yea rejoicing mien, as though in holy communion
and heartfelt pleading with the Spirit for stronger
love and more fervent zeal himself had tasted and
seen that the Lord is gracious, — he, who thus
" taught in the way" should have led the torn,
distracted mind to the source of soundness and
peace, — he, who not only should have nerved the

CO THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

soul for the conflict with earthly foes, if such he
deemed his duty, but for the never-ending strife
with far more formidable opponents to its pros-
perity,— he has ofttimes proved recreant to his
trust, careless of souls, and unfaithful to God ! In
the darkness which has covered the land, we have
reason to fear that a spirit of deep spiritual sleep
has closed the eyes of both prophets and rulers.
Spiritual foes have bent the bow and drawn the
spear, but ye have not gone up into the gaps,
neither made up the hedge for us to stand in
the battle in the day of the Lord ! Through her
ministers, her members, her services, the Church
has suffered depreciation and violence. The stakes
of our Zion have been removed and her cords
broken. Her solemn instruments of music have
toned forth on theSabbath-day our jubilant national
airs, instead of only joining in sweet accord the
voices of worshipping assemblies to laud and
magnify the God of heaven and earth. The Sab-

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 89

bath of which she is the watchful guardian, has
been desecrated under the sanctity of her forms
and by those ministering at her altars. Numbers
of the clergy, pleading the emergency of the time,
on that day have hurried from their pulpits to
procure the latest public intelligence, and to dis-
cuss eagerly exciting and worldly topics with
excited and worldly men. Christian professors
have not refrained from the conversation and
avocations of the week, and have attempted their
justification by the sophistry, in this application, of
the inseparable connection between their country's
weal and their Christian faith. Few among us,
we fear, have maintained our nearness to God,
few have tasted the refreshing from his presence,
the joy of that indwelling, which only the humble
and contrite heart, the peaceful and loving spirit,
can experience. We shrink from short-sighted
limitations, from individual criticism, from censur-
ing the hungry pickers of corn on the Sabbath

7*

90 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

day ; but though we admit the existence and force
of exceptional cases, and believe that the Sabbath
was made for man in the highest, fullest, broadest
intention, yet will we not let our liberty in some
subordinate sense or rarely occurring case, destroy
our allegiance to the law of God, and endanger
our priceless and divinely conferred possession. If
in times of like trial we cannot preserve the integ-
rity of the Sabbath, how can we expect to maintain
its influence and claim its benefit ? Comes not
now unto us with emphatic appeal the word of
promise ? " The sons of the stranger that join
themselves to the Lord to serve him, and to love
the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every
one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it,
and taketh hold of my covenant ; even them will
I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joy-
ful in my house of prayer — for mine house shall
be called a house of prayer for all people."

We have marked with watchful eye and often

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 91

troubled spirit the progress of our national contest.
But no connected anxiety for self or country has
struck such root into our souls as the apprehension
for the spiritual life of the Church of Christ. We
•believe that we do not overestimate the peril to
which it is exposed. For every assertion we have
made, there is from all parts of our land sub-
stantiating evidence which, we have ascertained
even while writing these last pages, has also
proved conclusive to other observers. Out of
the abundance of our conviction, as out of the
abundance of our love for the Church and our
reverence for her ministers, our mouth has spoken
this message of warning and entreaty. We have
not presented the shrinkings of an over sensitive
conscientiousness from the novel and stern en-
counters of the time, nor, as we believe, the
unsubstantial visions and causeless terrors of an
excited imagination. Still less have we designed
a covert attack on any denomination or its repre-

92 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

sentatives in any part of our much loved and un-
happy country. If then, Christian reader, our
words seem earnest more than the occasion de-
mands, bear with us, and search yourself into this
matter. Visibly to us a change is passing over
the church in our land. Yet do we take heart. It
is an interest which more trustfully perhaps than
all others can be commifted to the keeping of God.
Not alone individual or inferior considerations dis-
tinguish it, but such as pertain to the world of
order and law — to the wider world and every
where throbbing heart of humanity. If in relation
to any temporal interest, — if we may so designate
the preservation and prosperity of Christ's church
on earth — we find assurances heaped upon assu-
rances, warnings dealt out in every form of
predicted temptation and contingent suffering,
instances of former signal deliverance repeatedly
and urgently adduced, persuasives to submission
and trust lavished on hard, rebellious man, until

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 93

Divine condescension can go no farther, and we
are fain to hide our faces in shame, — it is surely
in reference to this. God's own people who ac-
cept his rule, and hold fast that which hath been
delivered unto them, are now, as were the Jews,
the subjects of his promise and the confident ex-
pectants of its fulfilment. The singular position
of the American Republic, the absence of all suffi-
cient ground for calculation as to its future, the
character of the sins of which nation and church
have been deeply guilty, the prospect of ultimate
deliverance, and the merciful enlightening and
restoration which most heartily we implore for
all, in every portion of our Union, who through
ignorance or evil-mindedness have divided and
desolated this goodly heritage, are more fully con-
veyed than we have anywhere seen in the message
of the prophet Isaiah to his own people :

" The vision of all is become unto you as the
words of a book that is sealed which men deliver

94 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray
thee : and he saith, I cannot ; for it is sealed : and
the book is delivered to him that is not learned,
saying, Read this, I pray thee : and he saith, I
am not learned. Wherefore, the Lord saith.
Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their
mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have
removed their heart far from me, and their fear
toward me is taught by the precept of men :
therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvel-
lous work among this people, even a marvellous
work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise
men shall perish, and the understanding of their
prudent men shall be hid. * * In that day shall
the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes
of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of
darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy
in the Lord. * * * They also that erred in
spirit shall come to understanding, and they that
murmured shall learn doctrine."

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 95

Christian fellow-countrymen ! what more need
we for our instruction and consolation? Let us
be content, whether " learned" or " not learned" —
whether high in place and power, familiar with
the principles and application of law, and of politi-
cal and military science, or treading in humble
ignorance the now rugged path of our national
experience, that the book of our destiny is sealed
to us. Let us impress deeply on our minds, that
in the midst of remarkable privileges, and with a
fuller possession than exists in any other land of
the forms and methods, the appliances and aids —
the whole external, in short, of Christian instruc-
tion and practice, we have neglected to cultivate
the spirit of humility, meekness, docility, self-
watchfulness, and absolute dependence on the
word of God, as the means of self-acquaintance
and of direction in all our affairs. Let us view in
the frustrating of many well planned schemes, and
the disappointment of many a cherished hope, the

96 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

signally disjjlayed dealing of our God who has thus
caused to perish the results of what we had deemed
unfailing calculation, in order, perhaps, that we
may now call upon his name, and be stirred up to
take hold of him, and in this returning and rest
may find safety, and strength in this quietness and
confidence. Let us keep down the risings of
hatred and revenge, the promptings of our unre-
newed, unsoftened nature in regard to those who
have conscientiously differed from us or maliciously
assailed us. To God can we leave the judgment
concerning them. He is able to bring the terrible
one to nought, to consume the scorner, to cut ofi'
all that watch for iniquity ; and, we rejoice to
think, as able to cause the heart of the rash to
understand knowledge, and to pour out his Spirit
from on high till the wilderness of our national
desolation be once more a fruitful field, where
judgment shall dwell and righteousness remain
forever.

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 97

We have wandered not without design from
the consideration of our main topic. It is our
conviction that the decay throughout our country
and the church of spiritual life is attributable,
more than to any definite and tangible cause, to
the abuse of speech. We have endeavored to trace
how the evil has operated in its public and private
developments, and to indicate the heart burnings,
obstinate prejudice, and virulence of sentiment,
which the constant irritation of ungoverned tongues
has occasioned. A prevailing disregard for truth
and accurate representation ; an extravagant expres-
sion of attachment to one set of opinions which
runs into vehement denunciation of the opposite,
and into the sneers and taunts of low invective ;
the ceaseless, often aimless, profitless discussion
of the whole subject, have disturbed our mental
equilibrium, and incapacitated us for such appre-
hension of pending questions as their magnitude
and singular complication demands. Our eyes are

9

98 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

shut that they cannot see, and our hearts, that
they cannot understand.

Who among us will give ear to this? Who will
hearken and hear for the time to come ? We be-
lieve that to private Christians is committed, as
well as to the appointed watchmen upon the walls,
the care of the church. No rest must they give
to their souls until, in their own persons and in
the sphere of their influence, her righteousness
go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp
that burneth. Abiding in the study of the word
of God, in fervent prayer, in never relaxed watch-
fulness over their processes of thought and every
utterance of the tongue, in the exercise of a
patient, meek, forgiving spirit, they shall find
their own spiritual enlargement and supply; and
by the united action of such faithful husbandmen,
the church shall become a garden of the Lord,
wherein shall be found "joy and gladness, thanks-
giving and the voice of melody."

CHAPTER VII.

THE RIGHT USE OF THE TONGUE.

Thus far in the examination of our topic we
have viewed it in a negative rather than positive
form. We have attempted to present the import-
ance of governing the tongue, and to point out the
abuses rather than the higher uses of speech. It
remains for us to ask, For what objects other than
the fulfilling of our physical requirements, and in
what mode, is the tongue to be employed ?

In such analysis as we have been able to con-
duct, we find that, strictly speaking, there is but
one quality of speech. Truth is the only relation
which it can be said to sustain, for language is but
the representative of facts whether sensible or
spiritual. Many other characteristics in common

100 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

parlance are attributed to it, as purity, reverence,
humility, and their opposites, but these are quali-
ties of the thought of which speech is the ex-
ponent. Truth, as regards language, is simply
the correspondence of the word or sign with the
thought or thing signified. Let us dwell for a
moment on this greatest, noblest quality of all
thought and action. Truth expresses the relation
to what is, i. e., to God himself and the constitu-
tion of his creation and government. That relation
subsists in all modes and forms of being, and might
be termed a perceived conformity to natural and
moral appearances and laws. Beauty is such only
because it is truth; not that truth constitutes
beauty, but that beauty can not exist without
conformity to a standard, which is truth in out-
line, in color, in motion, in relation. In all ideas
and objects there exist a quality and relation, and
truth is simply the developing of these. In moral
action, it is the relation in thought, word, and

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 101

deed, to the Divine character and will as revealed
in the Bible and partially conveyed in creation.
Truth is the basis of our reverence to God, of our
hopes of heaven, of our self-culture, and our best
and imperishable affections. It is the end of all
investigation, and is the consummation of all pro-
gress and happiness ; for it is in heaven the com-
pleted relation of the creature to the Creator, the
assimilation and union of all spiritual being. Truth
like faith, like every moral quality but charity or
love, has no longer a name in heaven, for the re-
lation becomes the standard, or rather, where all
is truth, it ceases to be a standard, and universal
unity precludes relation. Truth embraces all moral
excellence. Honesty is one form or application
of truth, benevolence, another. Gentleness and
patience, humihty and tender-heartedness — this
last often considered only a natural endowment, but
surely a grace also, to be cultivated and increased
like any other, — taste, as applied to all literary or

9*

102 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

artistic productions, to manner, dress, language,
to all mental and physical culture and social inter-
course,— all are modes of the application of truth,
all are streams flowing in different directions from
one full fountain. The analysis is not always
readily made, but so far as we can conduct it, it
has to our apprehension been unfailing. If truth
then embraces all moral excellence, in its fullest
development it constitutes the perfection of heaven.
God is truth ; and, did it not seem an approach to
the pantheistic rant of the present day, we could
almost exclaim, truth is God ! — so fully does truth
constitute, represent, define his being. God is
love. But what were his love, his omniscience, his
omnipresence, his omnipotence without truth. His
justice is truth in action, his mercy, truth in appli-
cation, his holiness, truth to his own nature so de-
veloped and expressed that created mind may
behold and adore it forever. Blessed Truth ! May
the Spirit guide us into it, enable us to abide in it,

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 103

and through all eternity satisfy with it our now
longing, and, perchance, darkened and despairing
souls !

In ordinary human intercourse, the partial oral
suppression of many facts and depending relations
of our physical and social being, is the supervening
necessity of a corrupted nature, and the guard of
an order which cannot be maintained without it.
In the early and sinless period of man's history, as
the body required no covering, so language furnished
no half-exhibited meaning. But when sin reigned
in the body, a check to its promptings was de-
manded, if only for the integrity and perpetuity of
the social compact. It was provided in the giving
of the moral law. Subordinate restraints were by
degrees supplied and adapted according to exigen-
cies of climate, color, and degrees of civilization.
Language passed through a like process of modi-
fication and development, and afforded another
means of moral discipline. In its legitimate use,

104 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

as far as general social intercourse is concerned,
the avenues to forbidden thoughts are closed. It
must not reproduce the buried forms of prohibited
conceptions. Thus were established the ordinary
and now almost universal rules of propriety in
conduct and language. They were of prime neces-
sity in all social intercourse. With that proneness
to excess which characterizes every humanly sus-
tained arrangement, this purification of language
has run into fastidiousness and perversion of fact;
and, applied not only to a few simple conceptions,
but to their complex and multiform derivatives,
has become the false show of virtue and the opposer
of truth. Manner and speech, rescued from license,
come again under bonds to formal, vapid, heart-
less, and prescribed expression. Thought and
emotion cannot pass the barriers of worldly con-
ventionalism, and are inert, rigid, dead to their
true and appointed exercise. And yet not with-
out reason have these barriers been erected. There

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 105

exists a necessity for this factitious social order,
for these outworks of defence to our personal feel-
ings and practice — a necessity springing not from
the absence, but from the presence of civilization
and refinement. In the encounters of social life,
we are not in these days often hurled to the
ground by the bold and direct assault of reviling
and railing accusation, of clamorous reproach and
evil speaking. There is a disguised uncharitable-
ness which like the "hinder end" of the spear
shall smite under the fifth rib, and let out the life
of tranquillity and content. There are poisoned
arrows of sarcasm and detraction which graze some
unprotected part, and straight the soundness of
our good name and social confidence becomes an
ever-rankling and putrefying sore of prejudice and
distrust. That defence which modern science
supplies against such sly attack is a panoply of
self-concealment and withholding. " Je suis sur la
defensive avec la society, et cest ainsi quit faut

106 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

etrer But this caution, valuable as a protection,
may so invest and envelop the man as to trammel
every movement and paralyze that confidence in self
and others, without which there is no free action,
no continued effort, no generous strain of every
energy, no Christian working, sympathy, or suc-
cess. We propose no tolerance of grossness,
bluntness, of harshness which assumes to be plain
dealing; nordo we recommend what Lord Bacon calls
the discharging of the mind in opposition to its impart-
ing^— a practice not only unsafe and generally inex-
pedient, but enfeebling in its influence and wholly
inimical to that personal training which cannot be
otherwise than self-conducted. But we would
urge that the spirit of Christianity be infused into
every social arrangement ; and, sustained by that
Bible precept, " whatsoever ye do, do all to the
glory of God," we would declare to Christians the
obligation to see to it that no artificial observance,
no merely worldly code, however wise and effective

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 107

in its own sphere of operation, no personal fastidi-
ousness or conventional refinement, shall be suf-
fered to trench upon that Christian service, which,
with its reward, is the end of our earthly being.
Render unto the world those things which fairly,
by the ordering of God, belong to it ; but in so
doing, make not the fearful mistake of withdraw-
ing from him that tribute which in his Word he
has declared to be his due. Let us state the
matter more exactly. The Christian is not unscrip-
turally to view himself out of Christ, and as yield-
ing to him a portion of the fruits of his natural
endowments and imparted grace. A partial devo-
tion, even of the best, an offering of some choice
possession, is after all a Jewish and legal notion.
This self-denial, this stretching up to some self-
erected standard, this stint here and liberty there,
is but a poor understanding of Christian being and
action. " We are members of his bod}^, of his
flesh, and of his bones." We have not yet at-

108 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

tained " unto the measure of the stature of the
fulness of Christ : * * * but speaking the truth in love"
— mark what honor is here given to the tongue —
" may grow up unto him in all things, which is the
head, even Christ : from whom the whoJe body,
fitly joined together and compacted by that which
every joint supplieth, * * * maketh increase * * *."
There are many illustrations of the believer's union
to Christ, but this is a more precious figure which
declares not union but unity. Sheep of whom he
is Shepherd; coheirs by their adoption of the
privileges of his Sonship ; friends in contradistinc-
tion to servants ; lively stones, " built up a spiritual
house with him the living stone;" — in such variety
of exhibition must Christians discern their near-
ness to Christ and his abiding love for his chosen
ones. But to hold Christ as the Head from which
all our body, " by joints and bands having nourish-
ment ministered and knit together, increaseth ^i'zV^
the increase of God" — to be " complete in him ;"

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 109

"rooted and built up in him;" to "walk" in him;
to be " buried with him in baptism ;" to be " quick-
ened together with him," who has not only blot-
ted out the handwriting of ordinances that was
against us, but has taken it "out of the way,
nailing it to his cross," so that it could in no man-
ner be replaced on record; so that our offence
might forever be cancelled in his free gift, and
that as the worth of the sacrifice so might be the
fulness of the remission — what a view have we
here of the Christian's life in Christ — the " life
hid with Christ in God !" Do we ask what is the
consistent and analogous consummation of such
earthly privilege ? " When Christ who is our life
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him
in glory." Joined to him here, you shall not be
divided from him there. The Father in the Son,
the Son in the Father, you in them, "changed
into the same image," " filled with all the fulness
of God !" Not with these eartl^ly eyes can we

10

110 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

steadfastly behold the glory of such a revealing,
but not the less are these promises of God in Christ,
Yea, and in him, Amen, unto the glory of God by us !
The rule of our speech, its highest end, its
distinguishing and honorable mark, is furnished
by the Apostle James, — therewith Mess we God.
In the ordinary sense of the words, this is the
recognized duty and precious privilege of adora-
tion and thanksgiving. It is to honor our Maker,
to speak on earth the praise which from thousand
times ten thousand heavenly tongues resounds
now and evermore. Not the smallest j)art of
Christian joy is in this blessing of God, which
lifts us awhile over self, unites us in service to
saints above, and conducts us into that Presence
which we so long to abide in forever, but which
we now so dimly perceive. There are seasons,
as in unexpected deliverances; in similar relief
obtained from some new view of truth, or of a
once mysterious dealing which events have made

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. Ill

clear; in witnessing the peaceful death of the
righteous; in observing the progress or happy re-
sult of plans of benevolence ; above all, perhaps,
in beholding the work of grace in the heart — the
change from corruption and debasement to purity
and holiness — there are, we say, seasons when
there is no vent for our emotions but in prostra-
tion of body and soul in joyful acknowledgment —
in ascriptions of praise and outpourings of thanks-
giving. At such times we come near to our God,
and seem to catch the tones and prolong the echo
of angel voices. Then is there sweet communion
with saints, and fellowship with the Father and
his Son Jesus Christ. These are prelibations of
the fount of blessedness; soft airs from the atmo-
sphere of heaven ; strains of that seraphic melody
which forever surrounds the throne; and visions
of that enchanting scenery, which we would fain
believe the redeemed shall behold in the new earth,
and under the new and imperishable heaven !

112 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

But even this mode of blessing God would form
but a portion of our enjoyment in such use of the
tongue, as it would constitute but an imperfect
performance of the prescribed duty. It is not
alone in direct address that we are called upon to
bless God. There is a generally practised reve-
rence which is dictated by the prevalence of the
Christian religion and the consequent refinements
of civilization and education, and in a measure by
the mysteries of the outer and inner world, and the
depending questionings, fears, and hopes of man's
nature. An open irreverence, repellent both to
taste and common sense, and reckless of the
spiritual truths which most men contemplate in
awe, at least, if not with faith, incurs, more than
most offences against good order and decency,
public abhorrence and reprehension. It is true
there is an irreverence as real, if not so patent; an
irreverence veiled often in tasteful and even Chris-
tian forms of expression ; an irreverence which

TEH RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 113

jars on the ear and grieves the heart of a true and
loving disciple of Christ. There is often a care-
less or jocose application of sentiment, or of words
and phrases which, if not strictly sacred, become
consecrate from their frequent scriptural use and
peculiar adaptation. There is often in public
extempore prayer an excessive and inconsiderate
use of the names of God. The untrained in
this exercise fill the gaps of their petitions and
give new impetus to their fluency, by needless
and often inappropriate invocation; and the public
speaker rounds his periods and solemnizes his
sentiment by the same unwarranted introduction
of the Divine name. Theologians, to our think-
ing, often forget the ground on which they stand,
in stating too confidently the laws of God's nature
and rules of his government. We are displeased
with the expressions, God cannot do this, God
will never decree or permit that. For ourselves,

we discover but one semblance of warrant for

lo*

114 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

such language; and if the Apostle's declaration
of Divine consistency — " He cannot deny him-
self," be understood to announce a limitation of
Divine ability, it becomes an empty quibble, for it
is but saying that his nature is w^hat it is. We
need less positiveness, less dogmatism, less leaning
to the human understanding, in the* treatment of
theological questions. There is danger, it is true,
of an ill-assured and trembling hold on truth; of
such over-scrupulous and uncordial adoption of
opinion, that whatever is solid and valuable escapes
from the grasp, and is lost for all valuable appli-
cation. But let us not rush as the horse into the
battle field into the investigation of Divine truth.
So doing, we shall but cast ourselves on the thick
bosses of his buckler. " He giveth not account of
any of his ways ;" and if he reveal his " secret,"
it is not to those who question much concerning
him, but to such as "fear" or reverence him. Let
God be exalted in all our apprehension, in all our

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 115

investigation and utterance concerning him. We
plead not that his name be incommunicable as the
title Jehovah w;is held among the Jews. No! he
is ow God, and we may make mention of him as
such and call upon his name. Let us use as we
ought this precious privilege. We err also in an-
other direction, and often from a conscientious
motive. We employ, in using the name of God,
every mode of designation but the one which
directly presents him. We resort to circumlocu-
tion; we shrink from expressing the greatness of
his being in one all comprehending term. We
designate him by an attribute or manifestation,
and habitually style him the Omniscient, the
Creator, Providence. In certain connections such
terms are appropriate. But apart from special
application, we find the use of them, in common
conversation or in pulpit address, an avoidance of
our due but unwillingly assumed responsibility of
blessing God, — a more cowardly than reverent with-

116 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

drawing from the creature's duty of humble but
hearty acknowledgment of his Creator's rule and
right. But all precept touching outward reverence
is of no avail, unless its principle be firmly estab-
lished in the heart. That principle is formed of
Christian belief, of self-acquaintance, of constant,
earnest, spiritual contemplation — perhaps more
properly, of that supreme love to God which is the
work alone of the Spirit, and the convincing
evidence to the sinner himself of his changed
relation, his pardon, and reconciliation. Such a
reverence marks the man who habitually honors
the name, the day, the word of God; who care-
fully watches over and zealously defends the
bulwarks of Christianity; who vindicates the pro-
vidence of God and loves his people; who has,
even at the least, that concern for the cause and
interests of his Lord that we are wont to manifest
for some best loved earthly friend. How regardful
are we of the person, the feelings, the reputation

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 117

of that friend! How do we ward off all rough
handling, and withstand all abrupt approach!
How keen our eye, how attent our ear, how ready
our tongue, how nice our tact to discern the
threatened attack, to anticipate the sentiment that
may displease, the reference that shall wound !
Is it less that we will do for God our Father, for
God our elder Brother, our Teacher, our Master,
our heavenly Friend ? It is told of Robert Boyle
that he never mentioned the name of God without
a previous momentary pause. If we hesitate to
make such apparent preparation for the introduc-
tion of the holy name, still, may there not be "an
upward glancing" of the mental eye, a motion of
reverence and love towards Him who understands
our thought affxr off, and who knoweth altogether
every word of our tongue? Why are we willing
to be so far from Him? It is not altogether the
vision of heated enthusiasm, the morbid fancy of
a recluse or ascetic, but in a measure the blessed

118 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

experience of the Christian that one may abide
with Christ, walk with him in the way, sit with
him at the feast as a loving disciple, and sleep
pillowed on his bosom. Amidst the noise of
tongues and the bustle of the crowd, in the rapid
flow of thought and the exhilaration of lawful
merriment within the social circle, in the hurry
and excitement of travel, or in the quiet of the
chamber of sickness, there shall come, if you seek
it, the peaceful sense of his presence, the uplifting
of your soul into a region of holy calm, where,
safe and at rest, you gaze on worldly scenes with
moderated interest and emotion. A benign coun-
tenance shall to your thought beam with compla-
cency and tenderness; the eye which fixed on
Peter brought him to his right mind and filled
him with penitence, shall seem in its grave
kindliness to rest on you, to soften your grief,
regulate your mirth, and elevate your soul. If
thus you are ever mindful of Christ, shall not your

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 119

tongue bless him in ratifying his commands, in
asserting your union to him, and confessing the
purposed devotion of all that you have and are to
his service ? Will you not urge others to love this
supremely lovely Saviour? will you not defend
him against the aspersions of his open contemners,
and denounce the faithlessness of his nominal ad-
herents, no matter how honorable they may be in
human estimation, how accomplished in mental
endowments and culture, how adorned with the
graces of person and manner, how endowed with
keen sensibilities and earnest affections? Will
you not cherish all that reveals Christ more per-
fectly, that extends his influence, that increases
his honor? Will you be silent when such a
theme demands your utterance ? There is a
wise, an effective, an appropriate silence; but
there is also among Christians an "idle silence,"
for which they must give account in the day of
reckoning for the use of intrusted talents. An

120 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

old proverb tells us, wisely only in some appli-
cation, that speech is silvern, hut silence is ff olden.
Like many an adage, it sacrifices truth to terse-
ness and laconism, or, at least, presents a half
truth, often more mischievous than none.

Not many years have passed since there came,
for a short season to our country on a gospel mis-
sion, one who, in our hearing, urged on Christians
more zeal and boldness in the department of the
Master's service which we have undertaken to
consider. We partially recall his words, and en-
tirely the thought which they conveyed with
remarkable force and beauty. He had travelled
in many lands, he had sojourned with the poor in
their humble abodes, and with the great and rich
in their splendid mansions. He had been a listener
when topics were discussed with all the power of
intellect and the charms of fancy. But how
rarely in the gay or literary assemblage, or even
in the familiar home life of the Christian, had he

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 121

heard the name more precious than any other
name! Of all else Christians can speak. For
other interests can they argue and prevail; but
how little find they to say for their Saviour, how
unwilling are they to " speak for Jesus !" The
tones of the preacher still linger on our ear; still
our heart thrills at his appeal; now, as then,
roused by his most reasonable, if impassioned,
pleading, there springs up within us the per-
chance self-confident and vain resolve — Though
all should betray thee by their speech, or deny
thee by their silence, yet will not I!

Speak then, fellow Christian, for Jesus. Speak
of his character, his blessed purpose in coming into
the world, of his infinite compassion and power to
save. Hasten to speak for Jesus to your child,
who, with asking eye uplifted to yours, waits at
your side to learn the reason of things around him
— the answer to the ever propounded question.

Whence am I and whfther am I going ? Tell him
11

122 THE RIGHT USE OP SPEECH.

the story which with God's blessing shall be to
his soul the well-spring of truth for time, the foun-
tain of bliss for eternity. Speak for Jesus to yon
wretched wanderer from the ways of purity ; nor,
wrapped in your unsullied garment of outward pro-
priety and respectability, shrink from pollution of
which the Holy Son of God could endure the con-
tact, in order both to rebuke — with what a match-
less grace ! — the offence, and to deliver the of-
fender from the scorn and persecution of no less
guilty accusers. Speak for Jesus to the dying,
and delay not with your scruples as to mode and
occasion, for already the film of death glazes the
eye, and the ear can catch little else than the only
name given under heaven, whereby men can be
saved. One confession of sin and of God's justice
— " we indeed justly ; for we receive the due re-
ward of our deeds ;" one petition — '' Lord re-
member me ;" and heaven may shout forth its two-
fold joy over one repenting and home-returning soul!

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 123

And not alone to these, but speak for Jesus to
them who thmk they have a name to live, and
yet, by all Scripture tests, seem to you to be dead.
Speak for him to the self-honoring and confident
disciple ; to the minister who has the worldliness
not of wealth, or place, or power, of dress or fashion,
or immoderate social intercourse, but the world-
liness, alas! of religion — the worldliness of self-gra-
tulation over a crowded, wealthy, and influential
church ; the worldliness of a name for talent and
eloquence, or, more dangerous still, of a reputation
for Christian attainment and devoted ness; the
worldliness of weight in ministerial councils, of
scholarly accomjDlishment, of pastoral popularity ;
aye — even so far may the dying man who speaks
to dying men forget his character and office — the
worldliness of personal comeliness, of melodious
voice, and graceful gesture.

Do 3''0u ask how you are to become thus earn-
est and bold in utterance ; how, consistently with

124 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

established rules of social intercourse, you are thus
persistently, pointedly, faithfully, to speak for and
of your Saviour? We can only bid you learn
what is meant by love for souls — an expression so
common as to be often of small significancy, tacked
to a description or petition, set forth prominently
among spiritual technicalities. But if there be
sometimes a counterfeit presentment, it but proves
the existence of a real form and power. There
may be, there is in the Christian a love for souls,
an unquenchable desire to win them to Christ, to
holiness, to heaven. There is a yearning that
nothing will satisfy but continued effort to secure
not only the salvation but the sanctrfication of the
soul, a yearning to witness its progress in the
divine life, the increase of its stature and the
fulness of its development into "a perfect man."
Not only in the breast of the Apostle Paul
did the longing arise " to impart unto you some
spiritual gift to the end that ye may be es-

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 125

tablished." His true successors in both office and
devotedness, and those to whom also, in fact, if
not in form, a dispensation of the gospel is com-
mitted, feel ever the weight of that necessity to
gain both them that are without law, and them who
nominally only are under the law of Christianity —
by all means to save some. This anguish of desire
— this " woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel !"
how it pervades Paul's writings ! how it has
filled the heart of many a disciple since, who,
called to hold forth the word of life, has been in
such ministry counted faithful to the trust com-
mitted to him — the trust of the glorious gospel
of the blessed God ! With such love for souls,
whatever the obstacles of your temperament or
training, whatever restraints may be dictated by
the conventional wisdom which not unfrequently
runs into spiritual folly, you cannot but give ex-
pression to your convictions and desires. If you
lack wisdom as to mode and season of utterance,

11*

126 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

God will liberally supply it to him that asketh.
See the quality of the wisdom " that is from above ;"
how adapted to self-discipline, — " pure," '• gentle
and easy to be entreated," "without hypocrisy ;"how
effective for your purpose toward men, — "peace-
able," "full of mercy and good fruits," "without
partiality" ! Endued with like knowledge, the
" meekness of wisdom" will show itself forth with
all the works of " a good conversation," or general
course of life ; and, purifying you from earthly mo-
tive or aim, will kindle into intenser glow and ever
radiating warmth the flame of your Christian zeal.
Be on the watch for opportunity of useful speech ;
not after a precise and dogmatic fashion, not to ob-
tain a reputation for learning and piety, not to in-
dulge both your indolence and vanity by substitut-
ing words for often more effective action, — and you
will have ample need to search yourself in this
matter — not by foolish questions to "gender
strifes," but that you may convey gospel truth in

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 127

gospel plainness and meekness. Be on the watch,
in all modes of kindly sympathy, in all forms of
intellectual intercourse, to present the " sound doc-
trine" by which you may exhort and convince the
gainsayers. Have you love and faith toward the
Lord Jesus ? Then is the blessed encouragement
yours that " by the acknowledging of every good
thing which is in you in Christ Jesus," there may
be an efedual communication of your faith for the
supply of the spiritual necessities of those around
you. Some are altogether brutish in their ignor-
ance and debasement, and your care for the body
shall humanize and elevate the soul. Some are
still babes in Christ, have " a little strength," and
require your judicious and constant feeding, first
with the milk, then with the strong meat of the
word. Some, perhaps your spiritual teachers, are
in the vigorous manhood of their Christian life, —
nay, are valiant and faithful Christian soldiers, en-
cased in the " whole armour of God," and ever

128 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

watchful and ready at their j^ost. But one joint
in the harness is weak, the fine edge of a weapon
has become blunt, or the stalwart champion yields
to a temporary faintness and discouragement. Go
to his rescue from the wily foes who press on to
his undoing. Supply his deficiency, sustain him
in your arms, shout in his ear the battle cry of his
all conquering Leader, animate him with news of
Christian triumj^hs, and with the sure hojDC and
promise of final victorj^

If you have rightly understood and received the
spirit of Christ's teachings, you cannot be impa-
tient, harsh, reproachful, or uncharitable. You will
feel something of his infinite pity at sight of the
ruin and wretchedness around you, will learn some-
what of his " wonderful fashion" of communicating
both knowledge and reproof. If all that you de-
sire cannot be accomplished, and you find yourself
hindered by your own poverty in natural endow-
ments, in influence, in Christian graces, or by

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 129

strenuous outward opposition, still you must not
sit useless in selfish silence and uncaring apathy.
Cultivate yourself for your work. Cultivate your
voice that its tones repel not your hearer in the
very opening of your message. Cultivate your man-
ner to simplicity — strange contradiction as this may
seem, and impossible to effect but by gospel method
— to humility, to gentleness, to kindness. Cultivate
your taste in dress, expenditure, mode of living, in
every outward expression of your inward self, not
to exalt or recommend that self to fastidious and
discerning observers, but to accomplish a more en-
tire consecration, a more perfect glorifying of God
by your body which is his. Form a due but never
extravagant estimate of the value of the much
prized embellishments of life, of its arts and graces,
its conventionahties and refinements, its lesser
morahties, and merely external training. Cultivate
your mind by opening it to the beholding of all
things around you, and by the study of the records

130 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

of the past ; cultivate it by this acquisition of all
valuable knowledge, and yet by " habitually look-
ing to a purpose beyond the mere increase of
knowledge." Cultivate your heart not to a sickly
sentimentality, a morbid sensitiveness, but to such
outgoings of tenderness as the Saviour displayed
to the young man whom beholding he loved, — to
such sympathy as filled his blessed eyes with tears
as he witnessed the grief of the mourning sister of
Lazarus, as he looked on the fair city, " the joy of
the whole earth," which his prophetic gaze beheld
pillaged, desecrated, and destroyed. There is much
discussion in this day, and, as it seems to us, little
apprehension, of the business of education. Even
those who adapt best their means to the proposed
end, for the most part misconceive the end ; and
neglecting the culture of the emotional for that of
the intellectual nature, would exhibit in their work-
manship an unnatural, ineffective, and repellent
disproportion. Shall we essay to tell you what

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 131

education is ? or, rather, shall we show it to you
by a short illustration which you will find in the
book of Proverbs, and which more than any defini-
tion presents to us the process we would describe ?

" Through wisdom is an house buildedj and by
understanding it is established :

" And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled
with all precious and pleasant riches."

No raising of the structure is there without the
" wisdom," which is the knowledge of God, and
man's relations to him, the reference to him of the
mysteries of creation and of the human heart, and an
intelligent, willing submission to his rule. No foun-
dation can establish the structure but " understand-
ing," which is the application of this wisdom to the
common affairs and exigencies of life — a Christian
discretion, prudence, docility, and sound judgment.
Would that we could walk with you through those
well stored chambers — those fair galleries, adorned
with the products of human invention and indus-

132 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

try, and with far-surpassing divine gifts. See art
and poetry revealing the glorious forms of truth's
undying beauty, and finding their prototypes in
the living aspect, in the beating heart of creation !
Behold the many-colored and resplendent gems of
discovered truth ! All these things are yours, and
you may at will delight yourself in these " pre-
cious and pleasant riches" of your Creator's bounty.
And if there are eyes too dim, minds too " con-
tracted by these walls of flesh," to perceive this
matchless excellence, to accomplish this entire ap-
propriation and wise use of all divine bestowments
and human appliances, still, wonderful to disclose,
there is in the source of all, in the revelation of
Him whose care is over all his creatures, and who,
if he seemeth to withhold, giv6th yet more largely
from other stores of his bounty — there is in the
word of Grod truth which shall quicken into in-
tellectual life, supply the lacking comprehension,
warm the cold emotion, fill, refine, subdue the

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 133

whole man, suppress the earthly and exalt the
heavenly nature. Do we rashly conclude that in
an intellectual as well as spiritual sense there is a
time, when, for all the higher purposes of know-
ledge, " ye need not that any man teach you," but
" the anointing which ye have received of Him
* * * teacheth you of all things, and is truth" ?
Not only the philosopher and poet who left his
conviction on record, but the feeblest mind which
applies itself rightly to the investigation of Scrip-
ture, will arrive at the conclusion that " in the
Bible there is more that finds me than I have ex-
perienced in all other books put together. The
words of the Bible find me at greater depths of
my being, and whatever finds me brings with it
irresistible evidence of its having proceeded from
the Holy Spirit."

It is of the truths of this Bible that you are to
speak — not in torrents of words, which stun as
they fall on the ear, not either in the measured

12

134 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH.

cadence of studied oratory, with fopperies of style
and trickeries of manner, not in the technical
language of the schools, not for the present tribute
of admiring hearers, not in any form of both ig-
noble and hurtful vain-glory, but to hless God there-
with,— to use thereby your one or your ten talents,
to honor your Creator, and declare him unto your
fellow-men. Oh that the time might come, when
freely, readily, naturally, yet with due rcA^erence,
we ma}^, in intercourse with Christians at least,
make mention of the name of God ; when, without
either the presence, or suspicion of the presence
of affectation, hypocrisy, or self-seeking in any
form, we may plead the authority and example of
Christ, acknowledge our interest in him, and urge
others to yield themselves to his claims; when the
transition will be easy from earthly to heavenly
considerations, from topics literary, scientific, na-
tional, social, and individual, to the great themes
of Christian doctrine and practice ! We said the

THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH. 135

transition, but, viewed in the clearest light and
fullest development, all temporal and eternal in-
terests are one and indivisible. It is human short-
sightedness which beholds the part, human unskil-
fulness which would divide whiit God has joined
together.

If we have not altogether failed in our attempt,
we have established the right use of speech as a
means of intellectual and Christian discipline, and
a scripturally-appointed mode of glorifying God.
Let it not be deemed that in our effort to set forth
prominently this agency we have over-estimated
its value. Taking the word of God as our stan-
dard, we do not unduly magnify the office of the
tongue. Suffer, then, reader, the application of
our argument. To this government and use of
the tongue, this rendering of blessing, you are
called that you should inherit a blessing. Life
and the good days, without which, humanly speak-

136 THE RIGHT USE OF SPEECH,

ing, life is scarcely to be desired, are indirectly
promised to him who shall "refrain his tongue
from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile."
As encouragement for the exercise of this self-
discipline, we have in immediate connection the
declaration that " the eyes of the Lord are over
the righteous, and his ears are open to their
prayers." Take, then, the first step in this mat-
ter. " Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts."
As men ask you a reason of the hope that is in
you, be ready always, in word and deed, to give
it with " meekness" toward them, and " fear" or
reverence toward God. We close with the fervent
petition for our readers and for ourselves, that
whether we speak or whether we minister, God in
all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ,
to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever.
Amen.