AFFECTATION is ever to be deplored, and most offensive it is in the things of God. There is a seemliness which belongs to the order of nature: the presence of a king demands respect; that of age, veneration; that of weakness, tenderness; and not to show these things is unnatural. The apostle, when speaking of a matter of non-spiritual character, says, “Doth not even nature itself teach you?" (1 Cor. 11: 14), and the spiritually-minded will hardly transgress nature's teaching.
Let the young worker for the Master not forget that his class or audience will take nearly as much notice of his manner as of his matter. If his matter fully possess him, his manner will be natural, and it will be said, He did not so much as think of himself, and a very high commendation that will be. John the Baptist, the great herald of our Lord, could say truly of himself when asked who he was, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." He cared to be nobody in his care that the Coming One should be all.
It is not natural (certainly it is not spiritual) to affect anything when speaking for or of God. If we are truly in God's presence we shall be reverential, and most important is the testimony of reverence. We do not mean assumed reverence of manner, or an affected voice of piety, but real reverence begotten of thoughts of God's holiness. There is a free and easy way, we might almost say, a flippancy, affected by some when speaking of God, which is most lamentable, and which only tends towards infidelity. It should be shunned. We think it a sad want of Christian propriety, as well as unnatural, when a speaker, whose subject is the Bible, places his hands in his pockets. No one would dare assume such a position in the presence of a king, or, if he did so presume, would be tolerated in the king's presence. He would soon learn, by being ejected, this text, "both not even nature itself teach you?"
In speaking of the love of God do not adopt a repelling tone of voice. Be neither harsh nor patronizing. Young speakers should neither scold nor be familiar. Never let the dignity of the message suffer by the messenger's want of thought. Never call attention to yourself by odd ways, or by grand words. Alas, how many have become confirmed in such ways, and are too old to be cured.
The work for Christ is worth all our care and earnestness. We would offer our younger friends these suggestions in order to assist the object in view. First, ask some wise and candid Christian friend to tell you of what you can easily correct; second, and above all, seek so to be before God when speaking for Him that you may forget yourself.