When He Finally Got To Talk

In 1840, the Whig party needed a candidate to unseat Martin Van Buren. So, they created one. They took a Virginia aristocrat by the name of William Henry Harrison and transformed into a ‘hard cider–swillin’, log cabin–livin’ everyman’. Harrison wasn’t known for much outside of his victory in the rather obscure battle of Tippecanoe and that exactly what the Whigs wanted. All he had to do during the campaign against Van Buren, was to avoid any controversial issues and keep his mouth shut. The campaign was a success.

So, his Inauguration Day was really the first chance Harrison had to speak his mind. And boy did he. His speech still holds the record for the longest ever at over two hours. It was described as the “longest, most excruciatingly boring Inaugural Address ever delivered’. It was an ordeal for the audiences not just because of the speech but also because the temperatures were below freezing. That didn’t faze Harrison. Even without a coat, He droned on and on. Maybe he should have cut it short because the speech cut his life short. Afterward, he developed a cold from the conditions, that turned into pneumonia that killed the President just a month later.

Maybe we are like Harrison. So many times, we have to keep our mouths closed about things in our world. So, when we get a chance to let it out it comes out in a torrent. But does that do us or anyone else any good? James warns us to “be slow to speak” and Peter tells us “Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God” (James 1:19, 1Peter 4:11). Do our outbursts follow those commands?

Maybe we need to think of our word more like a rifle shot than a shotgun blast. Instead of blowing people away with a blast that flies everywhere, we should instead take a small volley that seeks to piece the inside. Better a few good words well placed than many that do great harm.

When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, But he who restrains his lips is wise.

Proverbs 10:19

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