182
The Voice in Speech and Song
Our anxiety should not be to secure a minister who will please the
people by smart speeches and oratory, in order to gain flattery and
applause, but to secure men who are laborers together with God, men
who study to show themselves approved unto God.—
Manuscript 1a,
1890
.
Fanciful Eloquence—The minister may make a high range into
the heavens, by poetical descriptions and fanciful presentations which
please the senses and feed the imagination, but which do not touch
the common life experience, the daily necessities; bringing home to
the heart the very truths which are of vital interest. The immediate
requirements, the present trials, need present help and strength—the
faith that works by love and purifies the soul, not words which have
no real influence upon the living daily walk in practical Christianity.
The minister may think that with his fanciful eloquence he has
done great things in feeding the flock of God; the hearers may suppose
that they never before heard such beautiful themes, they have never
seen the truth dressed up in such beautiful language, and as God was
represented before them in His greatness, they felt a glow of emotion.
[287]
But trace from cause to effect all this ecstasy of feeling caused by
these fanciful representations. There may be truths, but too often
they are not the food that will fortify them for the daily battles of
life.—
Evangelism, 182
.
A Few Simple Rules—I was shown that our ministers were doing
themselves great injury by carelessness in the use of their vocal organs.
Their attention was called to this important matter, and cautions and
instructions were given them by the Spirit of God. It was their duty
to learn the wisest manner of using these organs. The voice, this gift
of heaven, is a powerful faculty for good, and if not perverted, would
glorify God. All that was essential was to study and conscientiously
follow a few simple rules. But instead of educating themselves, as
they might have done by the exercise of a little common sense, they
employed a professor of elocution.
As a result, many who were feeling that God had a work for them
to do in teaching the truth to others, have become infatuated and crazed
with elocution. All that certain ones needed was to have this temptation
presented before them. Their interest was attracted by the novelty, and
young men and some ministers were carried away with this excitement.
They left their fields of labor—everything in the vineyard of the Lord