THS-13-13. A Word Fitly Spoken

13. A Word Fitly Spoken

"Oh! the power of words! With them we sway men’s minds at will. Let me call your attention to the sea. The Sea! Close your eyes and look at it as you saw it last summer. Think of its waves away, away out yonder. See that ripple of white running along on the crest of the nearer one--see it now as it sheens and advances in wreaths of delicate foam almost to your feet and then rolls playfully back in beautiful sheets to be lost in the next incoming tide. See the old mast out there and the sails that dot the horizon. You see them all now! Why? Words only words!" Thus Dr. Conwell drew upon the imagination and described the power of words. The writer of Proverbs, in a beautiful and suggestive simile, said "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in baskets of silver" (Proverbs 25:11). As a preacher you use words for the conveyance of your thought. Not all words are fitly spoken, unfortunately. Long ago there were men who darkened counsel by words without knowledge (Job 38:2). Astute men have often used words to conceal thought. It has been said that words are like glass--they obscure what they do not help us to see. If we have really been called of God to the work of preaching, a divine obligation rests upon us to see that "words of grace" characterize our public ministry of the Word.

Learn Words A man who depends upon words to imbibe knowledge and express his thoughts must necessarily become acquainted with words. The ordinary man feels no need to learn words--a limited number comes to his use in his daily experience, and he is able to get along very well. It is different with the preacher. He must read books. If he is to do his duty adequately he must be able to read worth-while books. He is called upon to address all types of men--scholarly men and illiterate men. He must know words.

How do men learn words? I know of no alternative to steady slogging work. There is great value, of course, in wide reading. That in itself is bound to be a valuable method of learning the meaning and use of words. It can hardly take the place of the steady use of the dictionary. My own method for years was to use pencil and notebook, and write the words of which I did not know either the meaning or the pronunciation, and the dictionary was in constant use. Long before I left the farm I was accustomed to take lists of words and their meanings out into the fields, and memorize them as I followed the plough. The words I learnt when, as a boy of sixteen, I waded through Farrar’s Life and Work of St. Paul! Please do not examine me to see if I remember them all. I learned them all, and it was no small task. In those youthful days, in the little country church where we had no minister, I preached with some regularity, and I liked to use the words I had learned. I quite well remember a day when I was preaching on the inspiration of the apostles, and concluded the sermon by saying they "spoke as the amanuenses of God." I remember also the comments that followed, which led me to eschew the use of large words altogether--a practice which I have tried to follow to this very day. I did not, however, abandon the study of words. For many years those interminable lists were my constant friends, and provided one of the most valuable disciplines of my life. Give yourselves to this painstaking drill if you wish to become effective preachers. Pick up words as you would pick up valuable shells on the seashore. The Use of Words

Learn to use words. One may acquire the knowledge of many words without knowing how to use them well. A preacher needs not only to read books of doctrine and theology and philosophy to inform his mind. He should read some books to learn how to use words. There are many books of this nature. Shakespeare is always recommended for this purpose. Fortunately the one book the preacher is supposed to make his constant friend is one that all masters of English prose recommend without fail--the Bible.

Someone has said that whatever might be true of the first writers of the books of the Bible, the English translators of the Bible were certainly inspired, so simple and true were they in their use of words.

Authorities always emphasize the strength and beauty of the Anglo-Saxon words, as compared with those of Latin and Greek origin. We may not all be well versed enough in the ancient languages to know which is which. It is sufficient for practical purposes to remember that as a rule the short crisp words are the strong words. A schoolmaster (so it is said) saw a farmer working with a spade on the roadside. He said, "Are you excavating a subterranean channel?" The farmer said "No, I’m digging a ditch." Meiklejohn, in his The Art of Writing English (a most valuable book, by the way) tells of an alderman in the city of London who was offended when one of his colleagues proposed to inscribe on the tombstone of the great statesman George Channing, the simple words, "He died poor." He thought it would be much more appropriate to say, "He expired in circumstances of extreme indigence." Educated people do not write or speak like that now. Let me impress the lesson by saying, Avoid grandiose verbosity! Following is a remarkable example of the vigor and force that may be secured by the use of words of only one syllable:

Think not that strength lies in the big round word, Or that the brief and plain must needs be weak. To whom can this be true who once has heard The cry for help, the tongue that all men speak, When want, or woe, or fear is in the throat, So that each word gasped out is like a shriek Pressed from the sore heart or a strange wild note Sung by some fay or fiend? There is a strength Which dies if stretched too far or spun too fine; Which has more height than breadth, more depth than length.

Let but this force of thought and speech be mine, And he that will may take the sleek, fat phrase, Which glows and burns not, though it gleam and shine-- Light, but not heat-a flash, but not a blaze! Nor is it mere strength that the short word boasts;

It serves of more than fight or storm to tell-- The roar of waves that clash on rock-bound coasts, The crash of tall trees when the wild winds swell, The roar of guns, the groans of men that die On blood-stained fields. It has a voice as well For them that far off on their sick-beds lie, For them that weep, for them that mourn the dead; For them that laugh, and dance, and clap the hand, To Joy’s quick step, as well as Grief’s slow tread. The sweet, plain words we learned at first keep time, And though the theme be sad, or gay, or grand, With each, with all, these may be made to chime, In thought, or speech, or song, or prose, or rhyme.

--J. ADDISON ALEXANDER.

Short Sentences

Use not only simple rugged words, but short clear-cut sentences as well. Do not talk in the following manner unless you are trying to induce sleep in your congregation: In addressing sinners, then, in a careless, unawakened state, I am not prepared to say that the subject here treated on would be of any immediate, practical use: but as it forms one important branch of sacred truth, and frequently occurs in the general tenor of apostolic teaching; moreover, as every spiritual requisition involves the necessity of this divine agency, it surely ought to occupy a conspicuous place in our general exhibitions of the economy of divine grace.

Apart from anything else, you can never hold attention in that way. Break the sentence up into four, and it will become much more intelligible, even though it is heavy with long words.

Use of Synonyms

One of the most rewarding studies in the use of words is that of synonyms, that is, of words that are similar in meaning. The appreciation of delicate differences in the meaning of words may well be a coveted accomplishment. A book that has been on my library shelves during all my public life is Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases. The book is nearly one hundred years old, and has been published so often that the original plates were worn out. It is still a standard work, and one of the best of its kind. I could not begin to tell the value this book has been to me. Its use is especially to help in the study of words and their synonyms and their opposites. It will be found a profitable exercise to make lists of words in common use, and write down any synonyms you remember. Take, for instance, the verb "claim." What synonyms can you recall? "Maintain, aver, affirm, assert." When you come to the end of your own resources, Roget will probably supply some more--"contend, say, state, certify." The finer shades of meaning can only be fully appreciated by one who reads extensively among the best masters of English literature. We often see in the humor columns of our papers the alleged attempts of foreigners to use our words, and they can be very amusing. In our work as preachers the use of words in incorrect relations may or may not be amusing, it will rather be an occasion for sadness and annoyance to those who enjoy the refinements of language.

It is not possible here to make an extensive discussion of the use of words. My purpose is to emphasize the importance of such a study, and to indicate how much is missed if one is ignorant of the power of words. A preacher’s resources should include a wide vocabulary, not, as someone has said, "that you may use many or large words, but that you may use few, and those few fit for the occasion." Only ignorant people could be impressed by a flow of large words from a preacher’s lips, and only an ignorant preacher would use such words in presenting the message of the gospel. It may be necessary for a lawyer to be voluminous and involved in his deed of transfer or whatever it is he writes--he has the gift of making his work seem worth the fee that it costs. It may be necessary for the scientist to use words of Latin and Greek derivation to express his meaning in exact definition, but a preacher’s business is to speak clearly.

Speak Clearly

Herbert Spencer once wrote a famous definition of evolution. "It is," he said, "the integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion, from an indefinite incoherent homogeneity to a definite heterogeneity, with structure and function, during which the retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation."

While we may perhaps thank Spencer for his illuminating statement, we shall not, I trust, imitate his style.

Clearness in speaking, to be sure, is not merely a matter of words. To speak clearly one must think clearly. A preacher needs to think through his subject matter thoroughly before he attempts to preach it. Our earlier chapters have described the art of building the outline of a sermon, but always there has been the steady emphasis on the need of amplifying, clarifying and enriching the material to be presented. There are some subjects that cannot be made very clear to the ordinary man--questions of metaphysics, for example, but they should be avoided in our preaching. Some Biblical subjects, which lie at the very heart of Christian doctrine, such as The Atonement, or Election, will never be easy to deal with either, and we shall do well to discuss only such aspects of great themes as have become clear to our own minds.

Words have somewhat of personality, it seems to me. Ruskin suggests something like this when he says an educated gentleman "is learned in the peerage of words; knows the words of true descent and ancient blood, at a glance, from words of modern canaille." I doubt if I mean just the same thing, however. Ruskin moved among the aristocracy of words in a very beautiful way, but to me, whether it is of noble descent or not, "a word’s a word for a’ that.’ (Though that statement is printed within quotation marks it is not a quotation really.) I am thinking now of the quality of words as they come to our ears. There are rich words, and poor; strong words, and weak. The way we put words together in sentences also will contribute largely to our style of speech.

Vigorous Utterance

Some speakers are simply tame. Some are tame even when they are not lacking in physical energy and vociferous utterance. Matthew Arnold once criticized the English style of General Grant. Grant was one of Mark Twain’s heroes, and the celebrated humorist came to the defense. He said in part: "There is that about the sun which makes us forget his spots, and when we think of General Grant our pulses quicken and his grammar vanishes; we only remember that this is the simple soldier who, all untaught of the silken-phrase makers, linked words together with an art surpassing the art of schools and put into them a something which will still bring to American ears the roll of his vanished drums and the tread of his marching hosts ... Think of those thunderous phrases: ’unconditional and immediate surrender.’ ’I propose to move immediately upon your works,’ ’I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.’ Mr. Arnold would doubtless claim that this last phrase is not strictly grammatical, yet it did certainly wake up this nation as a hundred million tons of a No. 1, fool-proof, hard-boiled, hide-bound grammar from another mouth could not have done." I have selected this passage, not alone for the samples of strong simple speech that Mark Twain quotes, but for the vigor of his own language in describing it. Be on the watch for strong words in powerful sentences. Look for good phrases too--"Study phrases," said Robert Blatchford, "seek them, hoard them, prize them; keep them bright. Collect and treasure phrases as you would collect and treasure the rarest pieces of old blue china." The Preacher an Artist The image making faculty is one of the most interesting and useful that a preacher possesses. To call to mind vivid and varied pictures, and to develop the ability to describe them, is a powerful element in good speaking. This art, like all the arts, can be developed. When in your reading you come to a word picture--a description that makes you see--pause awhile to study how it is done.

It is evening. The sun is near to setting. The air is still and the sea is calm. As the sun sinks towards the bright clouds they assume fantastic shapes. A column of burnished brass runs from our feet to the western horizon, where land and sea and cloud merge into a haze of bright yellow and saffron. Over there a point of land jutting out towards the gleaming shaft of light is swathed in opalescent glow. As the sun sinks out of sight, the moon, almost at the full appears over Mt. Dandenong, and soon another column, a shimmering silvery sheen, stretches away over the waters to the east. Purple clouds to the north still catch the light of the departing sun, and reflect it in rose-pink tints on the glazed surface of the water. That is a picture as real, though of a different sort, as the pictures you see in the City Library. You see the setting sun and the rising moon and the varied lights on sea and cloud. Try your own skill at such picturing. Look steadily at a storm, a bush fire, or the sky at night, and paint the picture you see in words. Such developed skill will vastly help you in preaching.

There is another way in which the artistry of words may be and ought to be practiced, and that is by the use of the various figures of speech which adorn our language. The teaching of our Lord was richly adorned with similes and allegories and other forms which revealed his image-making power. Bond, in Homiletics of Jesus, says that at least sixty-two figures of speech are used in the Sermon on the Mount. To illustrate the remarkable way in which such pictures may adorn our speech, I shall quote a few lines from Patrick Henry’s famous oration,--"Give me Liberty or Give me Death."

"Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in (1) the illusions of hope. We are apt (2) to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and (3) listen to the song of the siren, till she transforms us into beasts. (4) Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? (5) Are we disposed to he of the number of those who, (6) having eyes see not, and having cars hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? ... (7) I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is (8) the lamp of experience."

Note the various figures which are in this brief quotation. I have numbered the most obvious of them. (1) is a metaphor; (2) another metaphor; (3) an allusion to Grecian mythology; (4) a rhetorical interrogation; (5) another rhetorical interrogation; (6) a scriptural allusion; (7) another scriptural allusion; (8) a metaphor.

Such imagery not only enriches language; it tends to give the speaker interest and power. All good preachers are proficient in it. I open a volume of Maclaren’s Expositions at random, and the very first line has this metaphor: "There will come a film over Hope’s blue eye." On the opposite page is another: "The Church is God’s trumpet." I glance at H. Emerson Fosdick and find a striking simile about "lives isolated like bottles in the rain." I take from my shelves a volume of sermons by A. J. Gossip, and on the page at which it opens is this: "How often in our history a door has opened in a dead blank wall, where certainly there was no door." The speech of all great preachers is filled with such arresting figures of speech. We may use them too. Indeed we must, for such imagery is the chief thing which gives interest and beauty to abstract truths and dry facts, and rescues our speech from the deep river of dull monotony.

Here we must stop. In many other ways we might have illustrated the power of "a word fitly spoken," but at least enough has been said to open this vast field of opportunity to study and research, enough, I trust, to awaken a divine discontent in the heart of every reader who has not in some degree mastered these accomplishments, and to stimulate him to give sincere and constant attention to their attainment. For Review:

1. Exercise your mind in discovering synonyms for the following words: Search, Fashioned, Integrity.

2. Find similes for justice, truth, mercy.

3. Invent metaphors for reason, nature, knowledge.

4. Make sentences in which the following phrases are introduced: The eloquence of god; the wounds of self-love; the gnawing of envy.

5. Write a picture in words of (1) a storm, (2) a football scrimmage, (3) the sky at night.