“NOT SPEAKING THINE OWN WORDS.”
By Julia E. Duffie
How constantly we are forgetting this admonition, and profaning the Sabbath with unnecessary, secular conversation, or perhaps even with silly and mischievous gossip or scandal! and perhaps we are thinking at the same time that if we do not engage in actual physical labor, we are doing pretty well, and are model Sabbath-keepers. But if we could see at the close of the Sabbath all the words that have escaped our lips through the day, I fear we should blush to meet the record. Are there not plenty of good themes to talk upon? plenty of good subjects upon which we need to be informed? Is there any excuse for our passing the hours of the Sabbath in idleness or talking upon unprofitable matters? If our minds were on any subject appropriate to the day, it would not be so difficult to control our expressions. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” If we are thinking of, or planning our work for the coming week, or anything of a like nature, our words will be quite likely to betray the drift of our thoughts. But what shall we do when we see that the conversation is becoming unworthy of the day? Shall we coarsely, or sharply reprove our superiors or equals? Oh, no! Let us humbly and cautiously seek to introduce some better subject. Nor is the Sabbath the only day that this “unruly member” requires watching. How often in an unguarded moment we let fall words of sarcasm, low jest, or scandal!—and they are gone, gone forever; we cannot recall them; and their influence, who can tell? Is it to gather with Christ, or to scatter abroad, to honor or dishonor the cause of the Master? The tongue of the wise is health. God help us to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy in word as well as deed, and that our speech at all times may be such as we shall at last wish it to have been. JULIA E. DUFFIE. Francisco, Mich.