Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1904-04-06
SPEAKING AND LISTENING.
BY Rev. w Everett Johnson.

SPEAKING AND LISTENING.
BY Rev. ". Everett Johnson.
Though | speak with the tongues Of
men and Of angels. and have not char
ity, am become as sounding brass, or
tinkling cymbal.-I. Cor, xiii, l.
Every action of life is either one of
speaking or one of listening. Speaking
is the act of making known a thought
or idea. We call any one great speak
er who is able to express his thoughts
with such clearness and force as to
make us listen with interest.
But speaking may be done not only
with the tongue or the pen An artist
is one who is able to speak with q
brush; musician, perhaps, with yio-
lin; an architect with stones; cabinet
worker with a piece of furniture, or
any worker with the tools of his trade.
We are speaking all our lives in all
our work, and our success in a worldly
sense is dependent on our ability to
speak well just what the world desires
to hear The better we can satisfy
that desire the greater will lie our
wage.
The noblest and most divine form Of
speaking requires the ability to get the
world to listen to that for which it
has no desire. The great leaders for
| Righteousness, therefore, must create
desire. The act Of living righteously
is the most eloquent of all speech for
this purpose, and we all have this
power, which may be exercised every
clay CT our lives. A great orator re-
quires not only an eloquent tongue but
most sensitive ear. He must be a
good listener; he must be able to hear
the thoughts, the feelings, the pre,u-
dices, the hopes, and the aspirations
expressed in the daily speech Of those
to whom he speaks We have all heard
speakers who possessed every device
Of oratory in high degree, but who
aroused no hearts to action because Of
the lack of a trained ear
Many persons who speak of right
eousness by correct living do it in such
manner that others are repealed and
refuse to listen for the same reason.
Their ears are not trained: their lives
| and tongues speak Of God, but their
ears are not opened to the speech of
the children of men. Such may have
| the tongues of men, and even of an
gels, without the power to listen to the
imperfect, struggling lives around
them, and are as sounding brass or a
tinkiing cymbal.
And what is Christ? The word made
| flesh, tie eloquence of the father. the
| sublime utterance of the divine wis
dom in human speech. And how more
eloquent was Calvary than Sinai! For
there Was the ear Of God open in SUBJ
lime charity to the cry of poor wreck
| of human life With what sweet mercy
the curtain of darkness is drawn
around the cross, that the poor falter-
ing lips may not be shamed by sight
and the quickening power of darkness
may make more keen the ear of him
| by whom are all things! How do the
words Of the thief on the cross mag
| Nifty the eloquence of the Sermon on
the Mount for all generations to come?
St. Paul sets forth the power Of elo-
quence in human life; the tongues of
angels, the gift of prophecy, the posses
sion of all knowledge, a perfect faith,
| and at last, at the climax of eloQuence.
| the giving up of everything. even to
the body for the burning. And vet all
the glory of such eloquence lost--a bit
| of sounding brass-without a patient,
| long suffering, loving and merciful
ability to listen. To pray is to speak
| to God; to be reverent is to listen to
God; to live righteously is to speak to
our fellows; but to be able to lovingly
listen to every utterance Of human life,
from saint to sinner, Jew or Gentle.
| great or little one, is to possess that
virtue which gives true purpose to the
other three and makes life worth the
| living.
Men are not driven to unbelief by
| the failure to comprehend the hand
| which creates universe but to the
| ear which listens to the music of an
atom. Sin is not continued and multi
| piled on the earth for the lack Of
tongues to utter righteousness, but from
| the lack Of sanctffied ears on the part
Of those who preach it, ears SO keen
that they may hear among the discord-
ant sounds of earth every bit of har-
mony that speaks of hope for the life
that utters it. "And now abideth
faith, hope, charity, these three, but
the greatest of these is charity"
RELIGION AND GOD.
BY ReY. j. r. Boyer.