Holding the Language.
A young professor was talking with me and giving his experiences in the University of Berlin. He had found considerable difficulty in learning German well enough to understand his teachers in the classroom; but he had been fortunate enough to get into a boarding-house where only German was spoken, so that his progress in the language was, in a sense, forced upon him.
He went to Germany with only college German, not at all sufficient for conversation; but in a few months he became able to speak and understand the language quite readily. He reserved Sunday for visiting his English-speaking friends, and upon that day alone he allowed himself to lapse again into his native tongue. He always found that on Monday he was unable to speak and understand German as well as before Sunday. By the next Saturday he would recover his knowledge, but the Sunday interval of English always caused some of it to slip away.
I spoke to the professor of Hamerton's boy, who in early childhood, living in Scotland, understood Gaelic, but, being sent to the south of France, the lad picked up Provencal in three months so thoroughly that he not only forgot his Gaelic, but was absolutely unable to speak English, and could not talk with his father when he came on a visit. Later, removing to the north of France, the boy in a few weeks forgot all his Provençal and became able to speak nothing but French. Indeed, Hamerton contends that it is not possible for a person to speak perfectly more than one language at a time.
This consideration has set me to thinking about the language of heaven. For there is a language of heaven, spoken upon earth, quite distinct from any language of earth. It employs the words of earthly languages, but it is a different tongue, for the spirit is entirely different. It is to be heard sometimes in prayer meeting, but not in all prayer meetings. It is to be heard when aged saints hold converse with God in prayer. It is to be heard when two sincere and open Christians talk confidingly to each other out of their inmost hearts. When it is heard, it is perceived at once to be a new language, and a very beautiful one.
Is it possible to speak this language for part of the week, say on Sunday, and an earth-language for the rest of the week? Not to perfection. If anyone would speak it well, he must speak it all the time. He must allow it to drive out all other language. That is the preparation, and the only wise preparation, for speaking it in heaven.