WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
By Christian at Work
It is to be feared that the charge made against Goldsmith, might be repeated truly enough against many a Christian, viz.: "He wrote like an angel, and talked like poor Poll." . . . Now would it not be well for the church to revive this lost art of inspiring conversation—directing it at the same time upon divine truths and seasoning it with the salt of divine grace? Here is one of the grandest and most fruitful fields for improvement, and it lies open to every follower of the Master. There is deep significance in the record that while the two disciples talked together on their journey to Emmaus concerning Jesus—his crucifixion, resurrection, and the like—they were joined by another, whose words caused their hearts to burn within them, and their eyes to be unsealed to the discovery of the presence of Christ himself as the risen Redeemer and Conqueror of death. And again, when, on another occasion, the eleven were discoursing of him, he suddenly appeared among them, though the doors were shut. It is as sweet as it is true to think that wherever any two or more are earnestly engaged in conversing upon the interests of the heavenly kingdom, there the invisible Head and Lord of that kingdom is certain to come with his own elevating and revealing influence. As the fire flies from the flint under an iron hammer, so many of the loftiest purposes and far-reaching plans have been struck from Christian hearts under the friction of noble words made energetic and mighty by the indefinable force of personal power. Progress lies through the gateway of speech not less than through the cultivation of solitary thought. It is the Heaven-appointed agency for stirring up the gift within us, for interchanging our best sentiments, for disseminating truth, for reaching with transforming influence the springs of character and of action for proclaiming God. "Go home to thy friends," said our Saviour to the restored demoniac, "and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion on thee." To tell others about himself, his grace, his willingness to save, his good tidings, is exactly what the Master wishes each one of us to do, and in the doing of which he has promised great reward. Words fitly spoken act as an inspiration and guide long after the speaker forgets them. A college president once let fall a few sentences, in a casual way, about the wants of his institution, and lo! these sentences proved the seed-corn that ripened into a legacy of $50,000 in the hearer's will for the benefit of education. The tongue is the mightiest instrument within the power of man. It scatters blessings or curses, according to the disposition wielding it. Guard it well, O Christian, that it be not a flaming dart "set on fire of hell," but rather a source of light to illumine the pathway to Heaven.—Christian at Work.