p. 3 | LIP CONSECRATION

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 24, 1859

LIP CONSECRATION.

“And is the Gospel peace and love? Such let our conversation be: The serpent blended with the dove, Wisdom and meek simplicity.”

Beloved reader, how is it, have you consecrated your lips to God’s service? The lips are the whole man. Unless the lips are consecrated nothing is truly consecrated. Some very good people tell us they have laid all upon the altar, made a complete sacrifice or surrender, brought all the tithes into the store-house; when, in fact, their lips are their own, to use as they please—yes, their own, not God’s! Instead of laying all upon the altar, Christ Jesus, it is evident, there is yet nothing on the altar. Unless the lips are wholly and unreservedly set apart for God, the first step is not taken. James tells us that “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, able, also, to bridle the whole body.” Very many we fear, professing entire consecratedness to the Lord, are mistaken, or deceive themselves. The very moment they open their lips you perceive the mistake. This little unruly member, the tongue, which no man can tame, is unbridled. “Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth.” David said, “I will keep my mouth with a bridle.” “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.” It is the lips that do the mischief, that tell the secret. “Murder will out.” To verify our entire consecratedness our conversation must be rightly ordered, at home and abroad, in the family circle, the social party, in private conversation, in meetings for prayer, praise and testimony. The words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts, must be acceptable in the sight of the Lord. We must speak as the Holy Spirit gives utterance. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” “Who is a wise man, endued with knowledge among you? let him show, out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom; but if ye have bitter envyings and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.”

Persons with wholly consecrated lips are exceedingly careful to order their speech arright—to speak to the spirit of meekness and love—their conversation is such as becometh the Gospel of Christ; they let their moderation be known to all men; they are never petulant, fretful, overbearing, unduly excited or censorious; they never engross the time in prayer, praise, testimony or exhortation that duly belongs to others; they are not wise in their own conceits, or think that wisdom is about to die with them. “For if a man thinketh himself to be something, when he is nothing he deceiveth himself.”

Every one whose lips are wholly sanctified, set apart exclusively, for things heavenly and divine, feels and knows that by his words he is justified, and by his words he is condemned, and for every idle word he shall speak he “shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” Consecrated or sanctified lips are never employed in joking, jesting, or foolish talking, which are not convenient, but rather in giving thanks, in praising God, uttering words of soberness, meekness, modesty, humanity, administering edification and grace to their hearers. In a word, they are wise, watchful, prayerful, pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Friends, are your lips thus sanctified, set apart for God’s glory? Do you profess to have laid all on the altar, without reserve? Above all, is this little unruly member, the tongue, given up to be led by wisdom that cometh from above? Is your heart so entirely sanctified, made so holy that every word that proceedeth from your lips is dictated by heavenly wisdom, by the Spirit of Christ? Paul says: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.” There is no surer test of the true state of the heart, whether sanctified or unsanctified, than the ordering of the lips; “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

“So let our lips and lives express The holy Gospel we profess; So let our works and virtues shine, To prove the doctrine all divine.” —Golden Rule.