p. 7 | The Power of the Tongue by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 11, 1915

The Power of the Tongue

By F. M. W.

SOLOMON declares, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Words of faith and hope impart light and life, while words of doubt and darkness bring discouragement and defeat. Many a one struggling with difficulties would have weakly yielded but for a cheering word uttered at the right moment by some helpful person. Many afflicted ones would have gone down to untimely graves but for the kindly counsel of a sympathetic physician. And the converse is equally true. Many would have recovered from error’s ways and today be walking in the paths of righteousness had it not been for the unkind words, spoken perchance in a moment of anger or thoughtlessness, which like poisoned arrows rankled until the deadly venom saddened and embittered the whole life.

We are in a world of sickness and sorrow. On every side are the disappointed, the discouraged, the embittered. Why speak one word to make heavier the loads which must be borne? Rather, why not add our quota to the world’s cheer and good fellowship?

“Apt words have power to suage The tumults of a troubled mind And are as balm to festered wounds.”

“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” It requires a fine sense of proportion, propriety, and discrimination to speak fitting and appropriate words. Even kind words may be so lacking in point and poise as to defeat rather than to accomplish their author’s design. True, helpful, ennobling sympathy is quite apart from the sentimental utterances which often pass for such. Of this latter kind is the sympathy expressed for the one who considers himself abused, or whose conduct has required disciplinary measures on the part of the church or school. Many an erring one has been helped along on his downward course by the words of well-meaning but sentimental and unwise brethren. In place of making an effort to correct the error, they have questioned the methods if not the motives of the ones who were honestly endeavoring to save a soul from death.

There is a charity, generous in its expressed sympathy and lavish in its gifts, which without inquiry or investigation bestows its benefices with an open hand upon all who ask. Many times, however, the result is to rob men and women of their manhood and womanhood and to increase the spirit of indigence and pauperism which exists in the world. On the other hand, there is a sympathy, equally as generous, which seeks to help men to help themselves, strengthens the spirit of manhood and true independence, while at the same time it alleviates suffering and need.

“How bad you look!” “How thin you have grown of late!” and many allied expressions, have robbed many a poor nervous dyspeptic or a patiently plodding consumptive battling for health, of the last vestige of his ebbing courage and hastened him into the grave. And strangely enough many who act this part of Job’s comforters pride themselves on being the world’s almoners, the dispensers of love and good cheer. Theirs is a sickly, sad-eyed, long-faced, sentimental sympathy, with which their fellows can well dispense. Never, unless the sick one is your enemy and you cruelly desire to submit him to a painful, lingering death, tell him that he looks bad. Carry with you into the sick room words of life and hope, or stay away. With the sick do not look horrified, do not whimper, do not talk about funerals. Speak sympathetically but hopefully. Inspire confidence in the nurse, in the physician, and above all in God. Then will it be proved indeed in your visit that “the tongue of the wise is health.”

In the spiritual realm, as in the physical world, the tongue may prove a savor of life, or a “fire, a world of iniquity.” We may give to our neighbors, our neighborhood, our community, a good reputation or an evil one. We may talk our brethren and sisters “up,” or we may talk them “down.” We may encourage confidence in the church, in its officers, in its enterprises, or we may drop insinuating words which germinate into seeds of doubt and suspicion in many minds. It is painful to contemplate the idle, meaningless words uttered from day to day by the professed followers of Christ. The conversation of many is made up of a discussion of the fashions and follies and foibles of the world. Idle chitchat, jesting, and joking consume precious hours that should be spent in the contemplation of God, in the study of his words and works, or in ministering to the world’s great needs. And even those who are looking for the second coming of the Lord are not exempt from these temptations.

We have in our tongues the power of life and death. Which influence shall we exert? Our record we must sometime meet, “for every idle word that men shall speak they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment.” By our words we shall be justified, and by our words we shall be condemned. Let us think before we speak. We cannot recall our words nor the influence they exert.

“Boys flying kites haul in their white-winged birds; You can’t do that way when you’re flying words.”

Like thistledown scattered to the breeze, words travel we know not where. The influence they exert, and the fruit they bear, only the judgment will reveal. By God’s help we may order our conversation aright before him. And to the one who will do this is the promise given: “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.”

F. M. W.