A famous publisher declares, "If you are an articulate person, you utter some 30,000 words each day."

     If these words were put in print, they would amount to a fair-sized book a day. These books would, in a lifetime, fill a good-sized college library.

 

     All these books are from the same author. All reflect the life and thoughts of the author, in his own words. And not a book can be taken down from the shelves or withdrawn from circulation.

     The thought is a bit frightening. It emphasizes the fearful responsibility that goes with the gift of speech, and also the glorious privilege that is inherent in 'speech seasoned with grace' (Colossians 4:6).

     Man probably has no greater power for good or for evil than the power of speech. Job had the testimony of his friend that his "words" had kept men on their feet ~ had kept men from falling (Job 4:4). What a rebuke to those whose words have thrown men off their feet ~ causing ill will, suspicion, alienation, broken hearts!

     Probably most of us talk too much. And we seldom realize this until it is too late. Perhaps this was what the psalmist felt when he exclaimed, "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips" (Psalm 141:3).

     An elderly black woman, much beloved in her community, was asked for her formula for making and keeping friends. "Well," she replied, "I stop and taste my words before I let them pass my teeth."

     "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Matthew 12:34). Therefore we read, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23). And "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment" (Matthew 12:36).

     Men in court have turned pale upon the introduction of recordings of their own speech. And souls will tremble in the judgment, upon finding that every utterance from the first wail of infancy till the tongue was silenced by death, has been noted by the Great Recorder.

     Sweeter to our Lord than the melody of music and more important than the oratory of statesmen or the proclamations of kings are the conversations of His children talking together about the things of the Heavenly Father. All is written in His "book of remembrance" (Malachi 3:16). "They spake . . . and the Lord hearkened." Others also "spake," and the Lord hearkened. And into the record went every word of slander, every falsehood, every cutting remark, every obscene utterance, every foul blasphemy.

     What a noble attribute is the gift of speech! And what finer tribute to the Giver than to present to the library of Heaven, each day, one clean volume ~ 30,000 words ~ dedicated to His honor!

 

~ by Chas. W. Koller

(from Tents Toward the Sunrise)