I Didn't Mean To

  ''A certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the armor." I Kings 22:34

"Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.
 They will not be put to shame when they contend
with their enemies in the gate." Psalm 127:5

       About twenty-seven hundred years ago there was a king of Israel named Ahab. One day he went out with his army to fight against the Syrians. Now, Ahab was a coward. He was afraid that when the Syrians saw him they would try to kill him because he was the king of Israel. So he took off the fine armor and the plumed helmet that kings always wore in battle and put on the armor of an ordinary soldier. He did this so that the Syrians would not know who he was. By and by the battle was being fought and the Syrians looked around for Ahab, but they could not find him.
       Off there in the Syrian army was a soldier with a bow and a quiver of arrows. He tightened his bowstring, took an arrow and put it against the string and looked for an Israelite to shoot at. He did not see any very near him so he just shot off that arrow into the air, not at anything in particular. 
       That is what we mean by drawing a bow at a venture. Let me tell you what became of that arrow. It went up and over and down, and hit the king of Israel who was trying so hard not to be killed that day. There was a place in the armor where the girdle and the breastplate came together, a little joint, and in there the arrow went and killed King Ahab.
       The man in the Syrian army did not mean to do that. It is likely that he never knew as long as he lived that his arrow had killed the king.
       Did you ever hear boys and girls say, "I didn't mean to"? When we start out we very seldom mean to do wrong. How is it, then, that we are so often guilty of doing evil things?
       There was a story, that I read once in an old school book, of a workman who was busy building a ship. He came upon a wormy plank in a pile of lumber. He ought not to have put it into the ship, but he thought to himself, '' It is only one small plank and it will not matter." So he put it in and forgot all about it. After a while the ship was finished and went to sea. For years it did well, and then it was found that the timbers were eaten with worms. They tried to repair it but it became worse and worse, till one day while out at sea it began to leak badly. They tried to pump out the water, but it came in faster than they could get it out, and the crew only saved themselves by taking to the boats. It was that one wormy plank that caused the loss of that valuable ship. The man who put it in there did not mean to sink the ship, any more than that soldier meant to kill the king, but he did.
       Some of the little things, that we do not mean to do, are those that most hurt others. The Prophet Jeremiah says that the tongue is like an arrow. It is often like the arrow of this soldier. It does what we do not mean it to do.
       There was a story in one of our papers about a poor girl in one of our great cities. Her father had been killed, and she was working for her living, and trying to support her mother and her little sisters and brothers. It took so much for all this that she did not have anything left to buy pretty clothes with. Some of the girls in the shop where she worked made fun of her shabby dress. She was very sensitive and thought about it till her mind became affected. Then she ran off and jumped into the river. Those thoughtless girls did not mean to hurt her feelings. Their tongues were like that arrow. They killed when they did not mean to.
       Good words are as arrows too. One of the great ministers of this country tells of crossing the ocean one summer. On the ship was a lawyer, the attorney-general of his state. One night the minister was passing the lawyer's stateroom. The door was open, and as he looked in he saw him reading his Bible. Just then the lawyer looked up and saw the minister and said, " Come in," and he went in. ''I am very glad," said the minister," to see you reading the Bible." ''Yes," said the other, " I read it through at least once each year. I did not know much about this book till a few years ago. One day a little girl said to me, ''Judge, have you ever read the Bible through?'' I said, ''No, have you?'' She said, ''Yes, of course I have.'' That set me thinking. I said to myself, ''Here I am, the attorney-general of this state, and I have never read through the book upon which our whole civilization rests.'' For pure shame I went and read it to the end, and I have never failed once each year to go through it again."
       That little girl's arrow had hit the judge. Be sure that the words you speak are good words, so that when they hit, they will help instead of hurt. Hutchison.