sharp enough to sting, and short enough to remember! Even men of high moral sense feel it necessary to put a curb on their lips and a bridle on their imagination, in the rapid chase and conflict of conversation. And if this is the case with men who make a conscience of their converse, what is to be said of men whose natural tendencies are not checked by restraining motives? How easily, even in what is called decent society, do such men use language from which the pure-minded shrink as from a blow; how easily does the angry, fiery word leap forth in passion; and how lightly is that Great Name used at which the angels in heaven bow and the hosts of hell tremble! What definition, therefore, shall be given of the idle word? That is an idle word which answers neither a primary nor a secondary intention of speech. It is often most useful for us, and attended with a restraining and salutary effect, that we should pause in a conversation, and ask ourselves what is the character and the purport of our speech. It will often happen, we may trust, that we obtain a clear, approving answer. We are imparting or deriving information; we are comparing feelings and opinions; we are cheering the hours of relaxation with conversation which may be careless indeed, but not therefore useless. Or it may still more frequently happen, that an honest answer may show us that we are greatly to blame in our converse. It may have slipped into something FACILITIES OF SINNING IN SPEECH. 239 exceeding frivolous, and the frivolity cannot be shielded under a nicer name. Or it may have descended into the worn and narrow groove of talking about persons rather than on general subjects; and a talk dealing with personalities is often dangerous, and fruitful of mistakes. Not uncommonly holy subjects are touched lightly, and the guilt of irreverence is incurred. Not uncommonly an argument is pressed beyond the bounds of fairness, or a statement beyond the strict limits of veracity. The piquant tale has often more of Attic than of divine salt. A good story has often a great deal of harm in it. By a very rapid act of selfinspection we may pass our conversation in review, and assign it a definite character, accusing or excusing ourselves. Conscience, when trained to this office, will do her work quickly and surely, and teach us to set a watch on the door of our lips. Often enough conversation will rise into a strain of moral and religious earnestness. Discussion shapes the formation of our opinions, and is a great school of education. The living words of a visible person, in whom we feel the deepest interest, have a force and influence which books are powerless to attain. The learned and simple-minded George Herbert wished his Country Parson to be familiar with the Dialogues of Plato, that he might acquire a graceful and winning way of talking to country folk. A greater than Socrates has left us a still higher example of converse. In His sacred converse He never spared to denounce 240 THE HIGHEST EXAMPLES OF CONVERSE. hypocrisy and greed and wrong; and it would be well if we should imitate what I will venture to call the generosity of the sentiments of Christ. We remember also the conversations of which that of Emmaus was the type. We are all of us, it is to be hoped, familiar with the teachings which the Christian poet Cowper drew from the conversation at Emmaus. Our conversation can hardly rise to a nobler kind than when, earnestly, reverently, and unaffectedly, it is religious conversation. We should not, indeed, be rash in reaching ground where angels might well fear to tread. We must be careful not to expose our precious pearls to those who would desire to turn and rend us. We shall often have reason to fear that our own deficiency as dialecticians may mar the cause which we have most deeply at heart. I have a great deal of sympathy with that faithful, unlettered Christian, who simply said: "I cannot argue for Christ; but I could die for Him.” But better, perhaps, than argument would be the simple statement from such a one of all that the Lord had done for his soul. Such statements, delivered with the simplicity of faith and the fervour of belief, outweigh in value any amount of refinement and elaboration. We should, moreover, be always prepared to give to him that asketh us a reason of the faith that is in us. It is hard to believe that any subject has fully taken possession of the heart, unless it has correspondingly exercised the intellect. I may add that, after making every al RELIGIOUS CONVERSATION. 241 lowance for natural and laudable feelings, it is hardly a good sign when a person feels a decided disinclination for conversation on religious topics, and with religious people. It was a rule with a wise and illustrious Christian, if it were probable that she would meet a person whom she considered "worldly" a second time, not to enter upon a religious conversation, lest she should do more harm by her forwardness than good by her exhortation; but if the opportunity were likely to be a solitary one, she did not impose any reticence upon herself, but seized the present opportunity. It is good to speak a word in season; but we must also be instant in season and out of season. Those instances are very numerous where real good has been effected when a man has summoned up boldness to speak a word for truth's sake and his Lord's. Such are words which make a man feel strong in speaking truth. Such words, Such words, uttered perhaps at some solemn moment to one deeply dear to us, make us almost as a messenger of the Lord sent on some special errand. Our great Christian poet will best express what may well be our concluding thoughts concerning that wondrous gift of speech, which is the highest mark of a being endowed with reason, and of his sovereignty and lordship over inferior kinds. "As Thou hast touched our ears, and taught Our tongues to speak Thy praises plain, 242 KEBLE ON THE IDLE WORD. Quell Thou each thankless, godless thought From idle words, that restless throng, And haunt our hearts when we would pray, |