us impression. While the
critic is holding up the bad arrangement, and setting in a ludicrous
point of view the lame figures, perhaps the servant behind his chair,
who was almost persuaded to be a Christian by that very discourse, gives
up his purposes, in losing his respect for the sermon; this was
thoughtless--but the evil is done, and the man who did it is responsible
for it."

"I think," said Helen, "that a great deal of evil is done to children in
this way, by our not thinking of what we are saying."

"It seems to me," said Miss B., "that this view of the subject will
reduce us to silence almost as much as the other. How is one ever to
estimate the consequences of their words, people are affected in so many
different ways by the same thing?"

"I suppose," said her uncle, "we are only responsible for such results
as by carefulness and reflection we might have foreseen. It is not for
_ill-judged_ words, but for idle words, that we are to be judged--words
uttered without any consideration at all, and producing bad results. If
a person really anxious to do right misjudges as to the probable effect
of what he is about to say on others, it is quite another thing."

"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