"But, uncle, will not such carefulness destroy all freedom in conversation?" said Helen.
"If you are talking with a beloved friend, Helen, do you not use an instinctive care to avoid all that might pain that friend?"
"Certainly."
"And do you find this effort a restraint on your enjoyment?"
"Certainly not."
"And you, from your own feelings, avoid what is indelicate and impure in conversation, and yet feel it no restraint?"
"Certainly."
"Well, I suppose the object of Christian effort should be so to realize the character of our Savior, and conform our tastes and sympathies to his, that we shall instinctively avoid all in our conversation that would be displeasing to him. A person habitually indulging jealous, angry, or revengeful feeling--a person habitually worldly in his spirit--a person allowing himself in sceptical and unsettled habits of thought, cannot talk without doing harm. This is our Savior's account of the matter in the verses immediately before the passage we were speaking of--'How can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things.' The highest flow of animal spirits would never hurry a pure-minded person to say any thing indelicate or gross; and in the same manner, if a person is habitually Christian in all his habits of thought and feeling, he will be able without irksome watchfulness to avoid what may be injurious even in the most unrestrained conversation
