just when they please, and how they please. Religion is the service of the great and holy God; it is a service which that God requires from man; and therefore he should have in it the consecration of the best of our talent and the best of our days.

The young have the possession of their faculties unimpaired, and the prospect of life before them; therefore it is most important that they should "remember their Creator in the days of their youth." A pious cultivation of talent in youth will fit you as instruments for the accomplishment of much good; but neglect this, and you render yourselves useless in what is good, and become curses instead of blessings to society. If youth, the spring-time of life, be well improved, we may hope for an abundant harvest of pleasure and joy; but if that be neglected, old age will present a mournful scene of barrenness and desolation, or a wilderness of briers and thorns, which will fill your hearts with sorrow and anguish. Oh, who can tell the bitterness of that anguish, the horror of those pangs which are felt by a sensible heart, when a life of sin is about to close,-when a review of years spent to no purpose, or only in wickedness, is taken by the trembling, departing soul! How it wishes, but wishes in vain, that it might but spend its time again! How it would resolve to spend it well, and to employ it all in the service of God! Oh that the young were wise, that they understood this,—that they would consider their latter end, and so learn to number their days, that they may apply their hearts unto wisdom!

There is something amiable and of great worth in religion, which cannot but be admitted even by those who do not practise it. And there is something in the character of a man who lives under the influence of true religion, which cannot fail to command the respect of all around. A religious man is a conscientious man; he is upright and steady; he is sober and honest; and wherever these qualities appear in the characters of men, it makes them to be valued and respected. Now the earlier a man applies himself to the observance of the laws of God, the longer he is known to bear a good character, the more is he respected and beloved and confided in. All the advantages flowing from the possession of a long-established good character, besides the heavenly and sublime pleasures of devotion, will be secured to all who properly dedicate themselves to God in youth. And in order that religion may have that attention which its importance requires, and produce to us those advantages it is designed to produce, it must be chosen and followed in youth.

THOMAS SMITH, Hyde.

Published by I. DAVIS, 22, Grosvenor-street, Stalybridge; Bancks and Co., Exchange-street; Heywood, Oldham-street, Manchester; R. Groombridge, 6, Panyer Alley, Paternoster Row, London; and may be had of all Booksellers.

[CAVE and SEVER, Printers, Manchester.]

EVANGELICAL REFORMER,

AND YOUNG MAN'S GUIDE.

BY JOSEPH

BARKER.

Published every Saturday.—Price One Penny, or in Monthly Parts, price Five-pence.

No. 30.

SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1838. VOL. I.

IDLE WORDS.

WHEN professors of religion are reminded that Jesus Christ has said that " every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment," they seem to think that there is some mistake in the passage, and that it does not mean exactly what it says. An idle word, according to the common meaning of the word idle, is a word that tends to nothing good; that neither forwards any part of our worldly business, nor ministers any thing to the instruction or profit of our brethren. It is a sort of middle thing between such conversation as is necessary and useful, and such as is directly mischievous. This is what is generally understood by "idle words," and this is the strict and proper meaning of the phrase. What perplexes some people is, that such trifling things as unprofitable words should be spoken of by Christ as matters of so much importance. They can readily believe that injurious and malicious words should be brought into judgment, but they are hardly willing to believe that idle words should affect their destiny.

Some commentators have given support to this idea, by stating that the word translated idle in the Gospel, is the translation of a Hebrew word, that means not only idle, but wicked and injurious. Adam Clarke says, that our Lord must be understood as condemning all false and injurious words, and that the scope of the place, the

connexion of the words with his reproof of the Pharisees, who ascribed his miracles to Beelzebub, requires this meaning. This explanation seems to be perfectly correct. It does appear to me, that Christ did not, in this passage, refer to what we are accustomed to call light talk, but to the wicked words of his enemies.

Are we then at liberty to speak idle words? This does not follow. There are some expressions in the Epistles, which seem to teach the contrary. The Apostle Paul cautions the Ephesians against both foolish talking and jesting, and tells them that these things are not consistent with their Christian profession. And the advice he gives in reference to the management of our tongues in other parts of his writings, must, if it be reduced to practice, restrain us from all idle and unprofitable conversation. "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth," says he, "but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers." Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another; and whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." In these passages we are not only forbidden to use hurtful words, but we are commanded so to order our conversation that it may always tend to good. Instead of wit and laughter, we are to give thanks; and instead of foolish talking, we are to teach and admonish one another. Our words must not only not be corrupt, but they must be good; useful in promoting the knowledge and piety of those with whom we converse; and whatever we do in word or in deed, we are to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, and to the glory of God. But who can do this, and yet let loose his tongue in idle conversation ?

There are many considerations which are calculated to show, that what are called idle words, are not so harmless as some would suppose; and that the sacred writers do not go too far when they forbid them to be used.

It is difficult, when trifling conversation is once begun, to keep it within bounds. You may purpose not to go very far, but when once you have made a beginning, you

have lost your hold, and you are hurried forward against your will. You make but one foolish observation at first, but this encourages your companion to make another, and now you must either answer his foolish observation with a third, or seem to be unsocial. Beginning to talk foolishly, is like entering on a steep and down-hill path, with the wind blowing hard upon your back; you must go forward.

If you once indulge yourself in trifling talk, it will always be expected of you; and when you restrain your.. self, it will be attributed to a want of freedom and friendliness. If you never begin, people will not expect it from you; and you will then be at liberty to be silent, or to speak only when duty calls upon you, without exposing yourselves to uncomfortable suspicions.

And there is no one who does not at times feel indisposed to trifling. Perhaps God is visiting him in affliction; perhaps his heart is touched with a melancholy sympathy with an unhappy world; or perhaps he is pondering his own defective ways. Nothing is more cross to the feelings of a man in such a state of mind, than to be obliged to join in foolish and empty conversation. Every word harrows his soul. And yet, if a man habituate himself to such talk, there is no remedy. His friend may be thoughtless and merry enough, and he must either join him, or give him offence.

And we cannot indulge in foolish and frivolous conversation, however moderately, without encouraging others to do the same. And there will always be a danger, that some of those whom we draw into the practice, will be undone thereby. We may be able to keep within some bounds, but we can never be sure that those who attempt to follow us will be able to do so.

Lightness and idle talk in old professors of religion, produce other bad effects. They often injure young professors, turning their minds against religion itself. In preachers they do mischief more extensively. I have known preachers who have both shut up the hearts of their hearers to their ministry thereby, and alienated the minds of their best friends.

And idle conversation has a bad effect on one's own

"mind. I could never indulge it, without losing something of that lively and comfortable feeling which is so necessary to a proper discharge of one's duties, and to the real enjoyment of life. I never felt happy when trifling, and I always felt miserable after. Whenever I have indulged in it, I have been unfitted for my duty, whatever it might be. I was not fit for prayer after trifling conversation, and I was not fit for preaching. I was not fit for visiting the sick, nor for reproving sin, nor did I feel as if I were fit to die.

But when I have been engaged in useful conversation, I have found myself quite different. I could either pray or preach, or read or write, reprove a sinner or console a saint.

Light talk has a tendency to make an empty mind. Not only does the mind furnish matter for the tongue, but the proper exercise of the tongue brings matter to the mind. Grave and rational conversation both invigorates the mind, and leads those with whom we converse, to speak in such a way as to minister to our improvement. If a man, therefore, wishes to derive benefit from the conversation of others, he must try to render his own conversation profitable to them.

Idle talk often leads to evil talk. It is very difficult to talk long about nothing, and it is very difficult to pass from idle talk to serious and godly conversation. But it is a very easy and natural transition from idle talk to calumny and evil-speaking. And those who begin with that which is worth nothing, will seldom fail to end with what is worth less than nothing.

But some will be saying, If people are not to use idle talk what must they do in company? We answer, If your companions cannot relish wholesome and reasonable conversation, you had better leave their company; and if they have nothing that they can talk about, but what amounts to nothing, it is time for them to go into their closets, and spend a little time in reading and prayer, till their minds are better furnished.

I know too well that the conversation of many companies is chiefly made up of folly and sin, and that if you take from them their idle talk and evil speaking, you leave