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Christ’s Object Lessons
quietly drop words or introduce a subject that will turn the conversation
into a profitable channel.
It is the work of parents to train their children to proper habits of
speech. The very best school for this culture is the home life. From
the earliest years the children should be taught to speak respectfully
and lovingly to their parents and to one another. They should be taught
that only words of gentleness, truth, and purity must pass their lips.
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Let the parents themselves be daily learners in the school of Christ.
Then by precept and example they can teach their children the use of
“sound speech, that cannot be condemned.”
Titus 2:8
. This is one of
the greatest and most responsible of their duties.
As followers of Christ we should make our words such as to be a
help and an encouragement to one another in the Christian life. Far
more than we do, we need to speak of the precious chapters in our
experience. We should speak of the mercy and loving-kindness of
God, of the matchless depths of the Saviour’s love. Our words should
be words of praise and thanksgiving. If the mind and heart are full of
the love of God, this will be revealed in the conversation. It will not
be a difficult matter to impart that which enters into our spiritual life.
Great thoughts, noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth, unselfish
purposes, yearnings for piety and holiness, will bear fruit in words that
reveal the character of the heart treasure. When Christ is thus revealed
in our speech, it will have power in winning souls to Him.
We should speak of Christ to those who know Him not. We should
do as Christ did. Wherever He was, in the synagogue, by the wayside,
in the boat thrust out a little from the land, at the Pharisee’s feast or
the table of the publican, He spoke to men of the things pertaining
to the higher life. The things of nature, the events of daily life, were
bound up by Him with the words of truth. The hearts of His hearers
were drawn to Him; for He had healed their sick, had comforted their
sorrowing ones, and had taken their children in His arms and blessed
them. When He opened His lips to speak, their attention was riveted
upon Him, and every word was to some soul a savor of life unto life.
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So it should be with us. Wherever we are, we should watch for
opportunities of speaking to others of the Saviour. If we follow Christ’s
example in doing good, hearts will open to us as they did to Him. Not
abruptly, but with tact born of divine love, we can tell them of Him
who is the “Chiefest among ten thousand” and the One “altogether