EVIL SPEAKING | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 9, 1860

EVIL SPEAKING.

"SPEAK not evil one of another, brethren. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body."

The Scriptures abound in teaching upon this point; and were it heeded, a great majority of the trials that afflict the church would be avoided. What wounds are inflicted upon the absent brother or sister by giving loose reins to this unruly evil, full of deadly poison! And the consequence is, that peace, union, charity, brotherly kindness and feelings of sympathy and commiseration for each other's weaknesses and errors, are destroyed, and suspicions, distrust, grudgings, envying, coldness and hatred, take their place.

These things ought not so to be. Brother, sister, close up and seal that bitter fountain, for no sweet water can flow from it. And let a fountain be opened of sweet water, only sweet. Correct the evil in the heart; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. Your peace can never flow like a river, until this fountain of bitter waters is dried up. Speak not one evil word concerning that absent one; for, in so doing, you inflict a deep wound, not only on the one against whom you speak, but on yourself.

But it may be replied, I say nothing but the truth about them—that brother or sister has said so and so, has done so and so, and is guilty of this and that. But this is evil speaking. You have no right to say it. If there is a wrong that needs correction, go to work right where the wrong exists. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. If the fault is so great that you must speak of it, set about the work of restoring such a one, according to the directions given in the word. But if it be a matter so small that you are ashamed to mention it to the offender and the church, mention it not to a third person, lest you become the greater offender of the two. The rule against evil speaking forbids not only speaking evil falsely, but speaking it at all, even where the evil complained of does exist. There is another and a better way of correcting existing evils. Indeed, evil speaking has no tendency to correct the evils it complains of, but to render the evil state of things incurable.

Brethren and sisters, let us set about the work of learning to bridle our tongues. Let us cure this malady of evil speaking first of all; and then there may be hope that the smaller evils on which this monster feeds and fastens, may either lose their importance, as seen through the magnifying glasses of Satan, the old accuser of the brethren, or, if of real importance, receive that kind of treatment which will effect their cure.

The following poem on evil speaking from "Home Here & Home in Heaven," p. 85, as it is some time since it appeared in the Review, will be new to many readers, and perhaps it may benefit others by stirring them up to remembrance:

"Of things which we so careless name, How little kindles to a flame; The unruly tongue no man can tame. "They say" (and so it must be true) What would, did we but rightly view, Prove false and vanish as the dew. "Abroad from lip to lip it flies, And reaches, soon, a wondrous size, As mountains, oft, from mole-hills rise. "Or as the torrent in its flow, Or as the winter's rolling snow, Lose nothing as they onward go. "Far better rob one of his gold; For this could be restored four-fold; But never what is wrongly told. "As in the lightning's path we find Its scathing tracks are left behind; So is this influence on the mind. "Then deem it not a little thing; A whisper borne on silent wing, May reach a heart that feels its sting. "Nor think ye lightly of the deed, Broadcast to fling the poisonous seed, That springs to many a deadly weed. "Thou hypocrite! why vainly try, From motes to free thy brother's eye: First, in thine own, the beam descry. "As if a fabric thou couldst rear, Of other's faults, thyself to clear; More guilty thus dost thou appear. "If temples for God's Spirit meet— No fountain with pure streams replete, Sends forth both bitter and the sweet. "O, that we could this lesson learn; From everything away to turn, But what does only us concern. "Then should we know, and see, and hear, The more of joy, the less of fear, And half our trials disappear. "A richer harvest we should reap, A better record angels keep, And many smile, where now they weep. "By this we quench Love's holy light; We scatter when we should unite, And darken all that else were bright. "But they in charity abound, Who, faultless, will the throne surround, And in their mouth no guile be found. "How much we've spoken ill or well, Whether to wound or soothe it fell, Eternity alone can tell! "O then how wilt thou be o'erwhelmed, Though well the current thou has stemmed, If by thy words thou art condemned!" R. F. C.