1 Timothy IV. 12.
“Be thou an example of the believers in word.”
J.C. Ryle
Something I would say, in the next place, about a minister’s dangers in the matter of his speech or words. Once for all I beg to say, I am not now referring to the public use of the gift of speech, to preaching, lecturing, or expounding. These are not matters in which the minister is to be an example to the believer. The use of the tongue on which I am now dwelling, is that use which is common both to the minister and the laymen—the use of the tongue in private conversation. There are great dangers into which we are all liable to fall, and I crave permission to point out two or three to my brethren, against which all ought to be on their guard, if they desire to be an example to believers.
We are all in danger of being “unspiritual” in our tone of speech and conversation. We are apt to leave the impression on the minds of company, that we have left our religion in our pulpits, and are ashamed to speak of our Master outside the walls of our churches. I do not allude to pastoral visitation, but to the tone of our conversation is social intercourse with our neighbors, friends, and relatives. I do not mean to say we ought to be always preaching in every room we enter; but I do think we are often in danger of forgetting whose we specially are, and whom we specially serve, and of talking of nothing but temporal things. Surely a minister ought not to spend a whole evening in speaking of politics, literature, arts, and sciences. These may be innocent, harmless, and useful subjects, but they are not the minister’s special subject. The very ardour with which these subjects are taken up in this day, increases the danger of our being absorbed by them. The desire not to seem ignorant, has seduced many a minister into talking too much about them. This is one danger.
We are, many of us, in danger of giving away to levity in conversation. I pray my brethren not to mistake my meaning in saying this. I am very far from asserting that all mirth is sinful, or that it is wicked to laugh. But I do think that high spirits and excessive cheerfulness are sometimes a snare to a minister. They sometimes carry him away, and lead him to say things for which he is afterwards sorry. It is a doubtless a good thing “to rejoice always.” But it is well to “rejoice with trembling.” It is a happy thing for a man to be of a lively, sanguine temperament, and to be able to shake off care for a season, and say with the famous statesman, when he took off his official robe, “Lie there, Lord Chancellor.” But I earnestly entreat my brethren to bear with me, when I suggest to their consideration, that excessive jocoseness and love of merriment, are not becoming in an ambassador of Christ, and a watchman for souls. Some, no doubt, are naturally far graver than others. But all would do well to remember the inconvenience of levity, and watch against it.
Another danger to which we are exposed, in the present day especially, is bitterness and uncharitableness of speech. We live in controversial times. Distrust and party spirit abound. Divers and strange doctrines are constantly springing up, which the minister of the Gospel is obliged, from the nature of his office, to notice, and about which he is frequently questioned in society. May it not be feared, that in the heat of the moment, we sometimes use language, and apply epithets for which in calmer hours we are sorry? Do we never detect in ourselves a disposition to make extreme and unqualified statements in describing an adversary’s opinions? Do we never discover in ourselves a readiness to impute motives and intentions to an opponent, of which, perhaps, he is innocent? Are we never guilty of slight misrepresentation and extravagance in describing the views of the other side? Let no brother mistake me. I am entirely in favour of bold, and outspoken, and unmistakable language. But I think in the heat of controversy, we are sometimes tempted to forget to “speak the truth in love.”
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