p. 9 | The Power of Words by G. B. Thompson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 22, 1915

The Power of Words

By G. B. Thompson

THE gift of speech is one of the greatest gifts of the Creator to man. Used as God designed it should be, its influence for good can never be told until the books are opened at the last great day, and the records of time are complete.

Words are indeed of fearful import.

This is emphasized in the words of Jesus when he said, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Matt. 12:36, 37.

Words can never be recalled. Though the lips that spoke them may have been silent for long years in the tomb, they go on, scattering blessing, dispelling clouds, or darkening the lives of others in whose memory they may linger.

A returned missionary stands before a strange congregation and tells the story of his toil in preaching the gospel in a foreign tongue in a far-distant land. With deep and imploring earnestness he calls for others to enlist in the sacred cause and carry the banner of the cross through every land. An unknown youth listens from the gallery, and the words of the preacher become as a fire in his throbbing heart. He goes to his home, resumes the round of daily life just as he lived before. But those burning words are still in his heart. They are remembered in his hours of toil and recreation; they haunt him in solitude; they come to him like messengers from another world in the dreams of the night. And when years have passed on, and the missionary has gone back to his field and finished his work, and his ashes are resting beneath the shadow of the palm or beside the moaning sea, there is another voice, loud and clear and strong, fired with the ardor of young manhood, taking up and carrying on the message which he began; and all its utterance and power have come from those few words dropped into the ear of an unknown youth in a strange congregation, when the speaker knew not that any listened or regarded.

Man is so fearfully and wonderfully made that a tone, a look, a breath, may determine the course of conduct for a lifetime and the destiny of a soul for eternity. It takes only a very slight influence to make a lasting impression upon so sensitive a thing as a human heart. The little bird that walked upon the plastic clay of the river bank uncounted ages ago, left a track which may be seen today in the solid stone. . . . So the tongue may scatter words as freely as leaves fall in autumn, or birds sport on the river bank, but all the while the words spoken are making impressions upon souls that shall outlive all time,—impressions which will remain to be read when the hills have melted like wax and the earth is burned in the final flame.

The good words of truth live and give life to the world. They may be shut up in prison, but no fetters can bind them. They may be cast into the fire, but the truth cannot be burned. They may be thrown overboard into the depths of the sea, but the truth cannot be drowned. They may be persecuted and driven into exile, but even there they will acquire new life and make the desert blossom as the rose. It would be easier to stop the current of the mighty river, or to hush the fury of the wildest storm, than stop the course or quench the life of the good words which any earnest, truth-speaking man has sent forth into the world. If you would throw your influence into the stream which carries blessing wherever it flows, if you would ally yourself with the divine power which is renewing and redeeming the nations, if you would unbar the prisons of despair and open the gates of life to immortal souls, you have only to speak good words.

We should guard well the words which fall from our lips, and ever pray for wisdom that we by kindly words may minister grace to those about us.

G. B. Thompson.