Help Us, O LORD!
"By
the fear of the LORD
men depart from evil."
-PROVERBS
16:6 [KJV]
There
is a very close and intimate connection between godly fear and being
"holy in all manner of conversation." When do we drop into
levity of conversation? When do light and frothy words fall from our
lips? When do any of those hasty bursts of temper, or those fretful
expressions, or that mere carnal, worldly talk to which we are
naturally prone, hover upon our lips and break forth, more or less
unguardedly, from our tongue? Is it not when this godly fear is not
playing its streams as a fountain of life to well water the soul and
soften it into humility and love, and is not springing up in
wholesome checks and godly admonitions to keep the tongue as with a
bridle and to rule that little member which, though so little, if
untamed, defileth the whole body?
But
if this fear be in exercise, it will restrain that levity of speech
which not only grieves and wounds our own conscience, but is often a
stumbling-block to the world, a bad example to the family of God, and
a weapon in the hands of Satan to bring death into their soul. We
should do well to ponder over those words of the apostle, and to
carry them with us when we are brought into conversation with others
in the daily walks of life: "Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of
edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not
the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
redemption" [EPHESIANS
4:29, 30].
-Gospel
report by preacher J.C. Philpot, 1802-1869 A.D.
April
24th, EARS FROM HARVESTED SHEAVES
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