r, how much
greater must it be when the recognised power of words is added!

It has often struck me as a matter of observation, that open profession
adds force to this influence, on whichever side it weighs; and also that
it has the effect of making many a word and act, which might in other
hands have been as nearly neutral as anything can be, tell with by no
means neutral tendency on the wrong side. The question of Eliphaz comes
with great force when applied to one who desires or professes to be
consecrated altogether, life _and_ lips: 'Should _he_ reason with
unprofitable talk, and with speeches _wherewith one can do no good?_'
There is our standard! Idle words, which might have fallen comparatively
harmlessly from one who had never named the Name of Christ, may be a
stumbling-block to inquirers, a sanction to thoughtless juniors, and a
grief to thoughtful seniors, when they come from lips which are
professing to feed many. Even intelligent talk on general subjects by
such a one may be a chilling disappointment to some craving heart, which
had indulged the hope of getting help, comfort, or instruction in the
things of God by listening to the conversation. It may be a lost
opportunity of giving and gaining no one knows _how_ much!

How well I recollect this disappointment to myself, again and again, when
a mere child! In those early seeking days I never could understand why,
sometimes, a good man whom I heard preach or speak as if he loved Christ
very much, talked about all sorts of other things when he came back from
church or missionary meeting. I did so wish he would have talked about
the Saviour, whom I wanted, but had not found. It would have been so much
more interesting even to the apparently thoughtless and merry little
girl. How could he help it, I wondered, if he cared for that Pearl of
Great Price as I was sure I should care for it if I could only find it!
And oh, why didn't they ever talk to me about it, instead of about my
lessons or their little girls at home? They did not know how their
conversation was observed and compared with their sermon or speech, and
how a hungry little soul went empty away from the supper table.

The lips of younger Christians may cause, in their turn, no less
disappointment. One sorrowful lesson I can never forget; and I will tell
the story in hope that it may save others from causes of similar regret.
During a summer visit just after I had left school, a class of girls
about