This active energy of Christian discipline will communicate a fragrance to our conversation, most acceptable to our beloved Lord

Posted : 22 Sep, 2013 02:33 AM

Psalm 119:172 My tongue shall speak of Your word; for all Your commandments are righteousness.





To speak of God and for Him, will be the desire and delight of

him, whose heart and lips have been taught to utter praise.

Yet alas! how seldom is "our conversation seasoned with

grace!" So much of this poor world's nothing! So little of

Jesus! 'If only five minutes can be redeemed for prayer, for

Scripture, or for thought; let it be seized as an inestimable

jewel. If we can pass five minutes less in foolish or ensnaring

company, secure the advantage.' If vain words are flowing up

from the bottom, look on the restraint that represses them

from our lips as a triumphant mercy. This active energy of

Christian discipline will communicate a fragrance to our

conversation, most acceptable to our beloved Lord; and will

make our "lips" enriching, feeding, and instructive to His

church. And truly when we see how hardly men judge of Him,

how they count His "commandments grievous," and His ways

"unequal," it will be delightful to bear our testimony, that all His

commandments are righteousness; restraining the power of

sin, and conforming the soul to His image. "Lord, open my lips, that my tongue may speak of Your word."

Honor me, O my God, by helping me to show, that all Your

commandments are righteousness. In our own atmosphere,

and our own spirit, how often do we pour out our words

without waiting on the Lord for unction and power; speaking of

the things of God without His presence and blessing! Were we

living fully in the atmosphere and breathing of prayer,

enriched with habitual meditation in the word; how much more

fluent would our tongue be to speak of His word "to the use of

edifying!" It would be made really our own, known

experimentally; and then how cheering, how enlivening the

conversation of the man of God! His "light so shines before

men, that" they are constrained to "glorify His Father which is

in heaven."

Perhaps, Believer, supposed inability, natural bashfulness, or

want of seasonable opportunity, may restrain your lips. But

under the most unfavorable circumstances something may

generally be said or done in the service of God. And while it is

well carefully to watch against the "talk of the lips, which tends

only to poverty;" beware, lest, through the scrupulous

tenderness of conscience, "Satan get advantage" to shut the

mouth of the faithful witnesses of God, and thus to weaken

that cause, which it is your first desire to support. Guard then

against the influence of unbelief. Bring your weakness and

inability daily to the Lord. Let any dreaded inconsistency of

profession be searched out, examined, and lamented before

Him, and opposed in dependence on His grace; but never let

it be made a covering for indolence, or supply fuel for

despondency. Consider how your interest in a Divine Savior

makes your way open to bring all your wants to Him. Be

encouraged therefore to ask for the Spirit of God to guide your

lips: that a poor weak sinner may be permitted to "show forth

the praises of Him," who is surrounded with all the Hosts of

Heaven. When however our silence has arisen from the too feeble

resistance of our natural carelessness and indolence, the

recollection of many important opportunities of glorifying our

Savior, lost beyond recall, may well excite the prayer, "Deliver

me from blood-guiltiness, O God; and my tongue shall sing

aloud of Your righteousness." Oh! to have the preciousness of

souls deeply impressed upon our hearts! Oh! for that

compassionate love, that would never suffer us to meet a

fellow-sinner without lifting up our hearts to God on his behalf:

without making an effort to win his soul to Christ, and

manifesting an earnest desire for his salvation! What loss is

there to our own souls in these neglected opportunities of

blessing the souls of others! For never do we receive richer

fruit to ourselves, than in the act or endeavor to communicate

to others. The heart becomes enlarged by every practical

exercise of Christian love. Yet much simplicity, much unction

from above, much tenderness of heart, much wisdom

combined with boldness-is needed in our daily conversation,

that we may "make manifest the savor of the knowledge of

Christ in every place;" and especially, that our very desires to

bring sinners to the Gospel may proceed, not from a goading

conscience, much less from pride and vainglory; but from the

pure source of love to Christ and to our fellow-sinners. For

even if we are as "full of matter" as Elihu was, nothing will be

said for God- nothing, that will "minister grace to the hearers,"

unless the influence of the Divine Spirit fills our hearts, as "a

well of water, springing up into everlasting life"-a blessing to

all around us.



by

Charles Bridges

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