p. 7 | A WORD FITLY SPOKEN by T.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 1, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 48.

“A WORD FITLY SPOKEN.”

By T.

To speak proper things at proper times and in a proper manner should be one of our highest aims. We may carelessly speak a word, thinking nothing of it ourselves, but years afterwards may be delighted to find that that word has been a constant influence for good in a fellow-mortal’s mind; or in sadness we may learn that our words have assisted in wrecking a life. Then we should see to it that our words are what they should be. The wise man says, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in baskets of silver.” Prov. 25:11, Revised Version. Are our words always “fitly spoken”? Do they always make that pleasant and refining impression that would be given by viewing the beautiful “apples of gold in baskets of silver”? What artistic elegance, what uplifting purity, what elevating culture of the soul is conveyed to the mind by this simple passage from the Word of God!

The mind is a storehouse of words and ideas. And it should be most closely guarded, so that none but the pure and the true may find lodgment there. We see persons covered with filth. They are untidy and loathsome to look upon. But more loathsome still is the filthy, impure mind. “Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies; these are the things which defile a man.” T.