^[ Oh, the unmitigable curse of controversy ! Oh, the detest- able passions that corrections and contradictions kindle up to fury in the proud heart of man ! Eschew controversy, my brethren, as you would eschew the entrance to hell itself. Let them have it their own way. Let them talk. Let them write. Let them correct you. Let them traduce you. Let them judge and condemn you. Let them slay you. Eather let the truth of God itself suffer, than that love suffer. You have not enough of the divine nature in you to be a controversialist. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth ; He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again ; when He suffered, He threatened not : by whose stripes ye were healed. Heal me, prays Augustine again and again, of this lust of mine of always vindicat- ing myself.2
(2) And, above all, the conversation must be absolutely real. Hypocrisy, unreality, exaggeration are no elements of the speak- ing one to another so commended by Malachi. It is a difficult matter often to draw the line between these two, — "a time to
1 Thoughts from the Writings and Speeches of William Ewart Gladstone, 61.
2 A. Whyte, Bible Characters : Ahithophel to Nehemiah, 124.
MALACHI in. 16 487
speak, and a time to be silent." As to Christian conversation, it should, before all things else, be true and then natural ; only then can it do good. In general company silence may frequently be best ; religion dragged in unsuitably defeats a good intention, and repels instead of attracting. Only let the silence be from wisdom not cowardice, and let it seek to turn the conversation into improving channels, though not directly religious. The world feels when there is a solid basis of principle beneath the most common talk, — like the ointment of the right hand it " bewrayeth itself." A man will generally do most good by first gaining an influence through quiet, unobtrusive demeanour and acts of un- selfish kindness, and then speech will come with power. A little word so commended is like a point with the weight of all the sword to drive it home, while a world of talk, if the life lags behind, is like chaff; this "talk of the lips" also "tendeth to penury." Cases may arise where opportunity is pressing and sin flagrant, and a man must speak at all hazards.
The Pharisees were rebuked for making their religion public. Daniel would have sinned had he made his private. So different is duty when religion is popular or unpopular. Sometimes a man has no religion if he does not show it ; sometimes very little if he obtrudes it. One thing we must always show — the fruits in the life.
There are things in religion not for common talk, which a delicate mind will no more thrust in than it will its heart's deepest affections. David says, " Come near all ye that fear God : I will tell what he hath done for my soul." Those that " fear God " are invited, and they must " come near." As the poet savs of grief, so of religion here : " let her be her own mistress still." Claudius says : " My son, let not pietisers but pious men be thy companions. The true fear of God in the heart is like the sun which shines and warms though it does not speak " ; and what Johnson says of all conversation applies specially to that which is Christian : " It is happiest when there is no competition and no vanity, but a quiet interchange of sentiments."
Much must depend on Christian temperament, much on circumstances; only let us never speak for display, and never be silent through fear.1
1 John Ker, Thoughts for Heart avd Life, 126.
488 RELIGIOUS CONVERSATION
T| Dr. Walter C. Smith, the poet-preacher of the Free Church of Scotland, spoke, in his closing address as Moderator of the General Assembly in the Jubilee Year, 1893, of the fellowship of the saints, and declared that, if brethren who differed on some points would only commune together on the real and essential matter, they would be astonished to find how complete was their harmony down in the depths of the life that is in Christ. " Many years ago," he added, " I met on a Highland road one of ' The Men,' as they were called, who have exercised so large an influence in that part of our Church. He had learned to regard me with profound distrust ; I may even say that he thought me about the most dangerous person then within our borders. But we got into conversation, and sat down on a wall by the roadside, and I soon found that he was a good man, a devoted servant of the Lord Jesus, from whose experience there was not a little that I could learn. Had we discussed and disputed as we might have done, I fear it would have been a barren meeting to us both. But I look back on that hour under the shadow of Cairngorm as one of the best in all my days, when two souls, wayfaring here amid clouds and mists and misunderstandings, met and recognized one another, and saw the shadows flee away ere they parted. Very likely he still thought me far wrong on some points, but he did not think me nearly so dangerous as he had done at first ; and I learnt to regard him as a true servant of our common Lord, though he was a good deal in the dark about certain things. May I add that since that day I have often wished to see some of our Highland friends who stand in doubt of some of their Lowland brethren seated side by side of them on that same wall, grey with lichens and mosses, not to debate and discuss knotty points, but to commune of the things that belong to the kingdom and its peace ? "