Speaking Well

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 13, 1902

LET no preacher fall into the snare of such high-sounding utterance, which is, being interpreted, nonsense. He ought to get the form of his speech, as well as the form of his thought, from God. Let him pray for an anointed tongue. Let him remember that the preacher to-day whose pulpit orations outshine all others, and are masterpieces of argument and analysis, are not fruitful in conversions; while Moody, the man of one book, who took no pride in either his grammar or his rhetoric, turned his thousands to God on two continents by simply holding up the cross.

“Speakest thou for God? Speak well, Nor slight the mission of the King; Spare no eloquence to tell The vital message which you bring. “Speakest thou unto a race Condemned, the truth of sin and hell, Of God and Christ, and saving grace? O man of God, speak well. “Know the world's great, aching heart, And know thy God and near him dwell; God and dying men apart! Ambassador for Christ, speak well.” — M. T. Andrews, in the Baptist Standard.