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Words "Fitly Spoken."

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 9, 1882

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 8, No. 10.

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Words "Fitly Spoken."

By Editor

OPPORTUNITIES for doing what may be called great things seldom occur, but opportunities for saying and doing little things present themselves every day. "A word fitly spoken, how good it is!" We will never forget the good class leader who, when we were but a very small boy, put his hand on our head and said, "God bless this boy," and now in return we say, "God bless good Brother M——."
We have read of Harlan Page passing round through the Sabbath-school, and, on asking a teacher if he would put down his name as "having a hope in Christ," the teacher replied, "No." Mr. Page said kindly: "Then I shall put you down as having no hope," and, having closed his little book, left him. But these few words, spoken so lovingly, went to the young teacher's heart, and he found no rest until he found Christ.
A devoted minister in Brooklyn met a man of years on the street on New-Year's-day and said to him: "Had not you and I better begin the new year with a new life?" After they separated the old man began to think of his words, and the result was his conversion.
If we would question many of the noble and devoted Christians of to-day, many would tell us that some kind word or words spoken in this way were the means of bringing them to Jesus.
A powerful means of influencing the unregenerate is by their seeing, exhibited in our lives, Christian graces and godly, consistent living. "The Christian is the only Bible many of the unconverted look at."
Infidels may meet learning with learning, arguments with sophistry, and mere profession with a sneer, but there is something in earnest, consistent, and sanctified lives which they cannot resist. We may speak to the unconverted, but if our speaking is not illustrated and enforced by our example, our labor is almost sure to be fruitless. We must be "living epistles," as were read by many.
"Work done for God, it dieth not."—Rev. D. Rogers, in Methodism.