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"O, never say a careless word

Hath not the power to pain,

The shaft may ope some hidden wound

That closes not again.

Weigh well those light-winged messengers;

God marked thy needless word,

And with it, too, the falling tear,

The heart-pang that it stirred."

Anna Shipton.

Our Lord, in S. Matthew's Gospel, tells us "that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment[#]." Now there are so many forms of speech which may be called "idle words," that I think it would be best to consider each separately. And so we will divide them under three heads. 1. Needless words. 2. Impure words. 3. Careless words.

[#] S. Matt. xii. 36.

1. Now all "idle words" are needless. You may be sure of this, that if God had made, as He has made, many expressions necessary to our ordinary conversation or adapted to our daily wants, such could never be "idle words." I do not mean to say, nor would I have you think by this, that any expressions of joy or merriment, that any of the amusing stories we hear, or any of the ordinary conversation of life, comes under the head of "idle words." But what I do mean by "idle words" and needless words is all that we commonly call gossip. Now gossip is quite needless. It is generally taken up with talk about our neighbours; rarely, very rarely, is any thing said in their favour--most often are their characters blackened. Now you know it is so easy often to say an unkind thing of a person, and so hard to say a kind one, that men prefer the easier method, and the character suffers thereby. But would this be so, think you, if we always remembered that for these and such like "idle words" God would bring us into judgment?

2. Then again there are impure words and swearing. Now I daresay when you swear you don't think of what it means. When you turn round upon a fellow man and curse him, it does not occur to you that you have solemnly called upon God to give his soul over to everlasting damnation. God Almighty alone can tell what effect that curse, so carelessly spoken, may have. I cannot and do not believe that it will affect the soul of him against whom it is launched. But I do believe, for God has told us so, that that word, however carelessly and thoughtlessly spoken, will one day be brought up against the speaker, and for that and any other "idle words" he may have spoken, he "shall give an account in the day of judgment."

And the same is true of impure words. They may be said thoughtlessly, but they may yet for all that do as much harm as if you had thought over them before speaking. Suppose you throw a stone into a pond, the stone sinks and you see it no more, and all you can see is a widening circle spreading ever farther and farther until it ripples at your feet upon the shore. And this is true of life. You speak an impure word, or you tell an impure tale to some of your friends, and you go away and forget it. But the word or the story may have been heard by a little child perhaps, and that word or story may be the first step on the road to its ruin. "For every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account in the day of judgment."

3. And what shall I say of careless words, for they are words so often spoken even by the very best among us? We speak the words, and often we regret them as soon as spoken. But we are too proud to recall them. It may be that a word which we have carelessly spoken may be remembered years after, when we ourselves have passed away. Besides which, careless words, needless words, and impure words pass upwards before God, and He hears them and notes them down against that day when men shall give an account of every idle word.

"By God's eternal dwelling-place,

Those words went floating by,

And still the echo wanders on

Throughout eternity.

And whispering yet within thy heart,

'The still small voice' is heard,

And thou shall cry, 'O God! forgive

My needless bitter word!'"

Yes, reader, God may forgive the words, and will do so, as He has promised; but, as that verse says, "the echo wanders on throughout eternity." And the consequences wander on too. And though God may have forgiven the utterance of the word, yet since it was idly spoken, you will have to "give an account thereof at the day of judgment."

It has been said, that the words spoken here "wander on" through eternity, and that we shall one day confront again the words which we have spoken in the flesh. How careful then ought we to be of every idle word! How particular that none escape us! For think of the torment it will be to the purified soul to meet in the everlasting city with the echoes--even though they be but the last dying echoes--of the idle words which the lips have spoken on earth.