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Cleanliness and Purity of Conversation

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 5, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 18.

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Cleanliness and Purity of Conversation

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle
THE Master laid great stress upon the importance of our conversation. Words; what little things! and yet it is by them that we are to be justified or condemned. What! the very salvation of our souls depend upon the use we make of that unruly member, the tongue?—Yes; and yet, after all, we must go back farther than mere words; back of those impure words is an impure heart. Ah, that is it. We have found the fountain; for “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”
The divine Reader of all hearts declared that “a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.” This is just as true to-day as it was two thousand years ago.
Then there is no use in battling with the wicked words alone, which spring from our lips. The trouble lies deeper than that,—the fountain is impure; it must be so. If the thoughts were only beautiful and pure and holy, there would be no trouble with the tongue. Recognizing this fact, the inspired penman has given us counsel to “keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
“But,” you protest, “what can I do? Am I to be held accountable for my very thoughts? If so, I might just about as well give up. I have often tried to control my evil thoughts, but it is like a child undertaking to check the rushing torrent of Niagara with his tiny hand. It is impossible.”
Impossible in our own unaided strength, yes; but we may obtain the help of Him who is “acquainted with all our thoughts.” He who has made these wonderful minds and bodies of ours with their complex machinery, who knoweth our frame and remembereth that we are dust, is able and willing to help us. If a piece of delicate machinery needs repairing, what do we do? Suppose I break the mainspring of my watch. Shall I go to work with my clumsy and unaccustomed fingers, and try to repair the mischief myself? If I should undertake so foolish a task, I should fail most miserably. But we would have no fear to entrust to the maker of the watch the difficult task of repairing it; certainly not. And have we any less confidence in our loving heavenly Father? Have we less confidence in His power or His wisdom or His infinite love and willingness to save? Have we forgotten that where “sin abounded, grace did much more abound”? O, the fountain of God’s grace is deep and broad and wide. We can not fathom it. It is deep enough and broad enough to cleanse every sinful heart in all the world, if we will but appropriate it.
“But what more can I do?” you question.
“I have often asked the Lord to take away my sins and to cleanse my heart and make it pure, but still every day do I say with the poet, ‘I hate the sinful thoughts that rise.’ I mourn over my sins, but, like Paul, ‘when I would do good, evil is present with me.’ So, what am I to do?”
You remember that Paul wanted to be rid of the dead body of sin. In fact, he questions: How shall I be delivered from this dead body? This you will find in the seventh chapter of Romans, verse twenty-four. But just read the very next verse of the same chapter, and you will have his glorious answer: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
O, the blessedness of the assurance! There is a wonderful virtue in the very name of our Redeemer. He who spoke mighty worlds into existence can speak the word, and the sinful thoughts that have tormented us, and the evil and impure words that have sprung to our lips to defile them will depart. The blood of Calvary is the live coal from off the altar. “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged.” Just plead His promises; spread them out before Him. Tell Him of your utter helplessness. Leave it with Him. He can not fail you—He will not. It is not presumption to plead His promise; it is FAITH. He says, “Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.” The heavens may pass away—be rolled together as a scroll, and the very elements melt; the solid earth may be “removed as a cottage,” but the word of our God abideth forever.
Then, when He has given us the victory, let us cling to His mighty arm by faith, and let us avoid everything which might tend to turn our thoughts downward.
O, if we are ever to associate with pure and holy beings who have never known the taint of sin, we must receive a fitting up here. If we are ever to join the song of redeeming love around the throne, we must submit to the touch of the live coal from off the altar. If our feet are ever to tread the golden pavements of the city of our great King, they must tread the paths of virtue here. If our hands are to bring sweetest music from harps of gold over there, they must be pure hands and honest hands—hands that are swift in the Master’s service. We must not forget that sin is a deadly and a dangerous thing; it is like the leprosy, “Unclean, unclean!” We must have nothing to do with it in any form.
“But,” you ask, “while we are in this world, how can we avoid it?”
Ah, we are in the world, indeed, but we need not be of the world. The Master petitioned His Father: “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”
O, then, brother, sister, while we must associate daily with those who are not Christians, shall we not set a double watch over our lips? Shall our conversation be in heaven? Then, O, then, angels pure and holy shall walk by our side, and we may be indeed “living epistles, . . . known and read of all men.”