Correct School Discipline
377
we do not deserve grace because of our merit, for all that we have is
God’s gift. He says to us, “Freely ye have received, freely give.”
The atmosphere of unbelief is heavy and oppressive. The giddy
laugh, the jesting, the joking, sickens the soul that is feeding on Christ.
Cheap, foolish talk is painful to Him. With a humble heart read
carefully
1 Peter 1:13-18
. Those who enjoy talking should see that
their words are select and well chosen. Be careful how you speak. Be
careful how you represent the religion you have accepted. You may
feel it no sin to gossip and talk nonsense, but this grieves your Saviour,
and saddens the heavenly angels.
What testimony does Peter bear? “Wherefore laying aside all mal-
ice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as
newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow
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thereby: if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” Here
again the same principle is brought out distinctly. No one need make a
mistake. If as newborn babes you desire the sincere milk of the word,
that you may grow thereby, you will have no appetite to partake of a
dish of evil speaking, but all such food will be at once rejected, because
those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious cannot partake of the
dish of nonsense, and folly, and backbiting. They will say decidedly,
“Take this dish away. I do not want to eat such food. It is not the bread
from heaven. It is eating and drinking the very spirit of the devil; for it
is his business to be an accuser of the brethren.”
It is best for every soul to closely investigate what mental food is
served up for him to eat. When those come to you who live to talk, and
who are all armed and equipped to say, “Report, and we will report
it,” stop and think if the conversation will give spiritual help, spiritual
efficiency, that in spiritual communication you may eat of the flesh and
drink the blood of the Son of God. “To whom coming, as unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious.”
These words express much. We are not to be tattlers, or gossipers,
or talebearers; we are not to bear false witness. We are forbidden by
God to engage in trifling, foolish conversation, in jesting, joking, or
speaking any idle words. We must give an account of what we say to
God. We will be brought into judgment for our hasty words, that do
no good to the speaker or to the hearer. Then let us all speak words
that will tend to edification. Remember that you are of value with