SPEECH.
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.—Psalm xix. 2.
Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth.—Psalm cxl. 11.
Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.—Colossians, iv. 6.
The glittering heaven’s refulgent glow,
And sparkling spheres of golden light,
Jehovah’s work and glory show,
By burning day or gentle night.
In silence, through the vast profound,
They move their orbs of fire on high,
Nor speech, nor word, nor answering sound,
Is heard upon the tranquil sky;
Yet to the earth’s remotest bar
Their burning glory all is known;
Their living light has sparkled far,
And on the attentive silence shone.
God ’mid the shining legions, rears
A tent where burns the radiant sun;
As, like a bridegroom bright, appears
The monarch, on his course begun.
From end to end of azure heaven
He holds his fiery path along;
To all, his circling heat is given,
His radiance flames the spheres among.
By sunny ray, and starry throne,
The wonders of our mighty Lord
To man’s attentive heart are known,
Bright as the promise of His word.
J. W. Eastbourne.
First think; and if thy thoughts approve thy will,
Then speak; and, after, that thou speak’st, fulfil.
Thomas Randolph.
Speak gently!—’tis a little thing
Dropped in the heart’s deep well;
The good, the joy that it may bring
Eternity shall tell.
Daniel Bates.