"A Word Upon Its Wheels."

IT is related of a certain lady, that after spending an evening at cards in the midst of gay company, on returning home she found her maid engaged in reading. She stealthily looked over the maid’s shoulder, and, observing what the book was, exclaimed, “Poor, melancholy soul! What pleasure can you find in poring so long over that book?”
Not waiting for an answer, she retired to rest. But that night she rested not. And what was it, think you, that, in this. particular night, disturbed her spirit, and drove sleep from her eyes? Was it the gaiety in which she had so recently been indulging; the excitement of the occasion, or the weariness that followed in its train?
No; it was nothing of this. It was merely a word.
How little do we think of what may be the effect of a word! It is so soon, so easily uttered, and so often lightly escapes the lip. But at times how much hangs, upon a word, what important unalterable issues! Holy Scripture says, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver” (Prov. 25: 11).
How beautiful is this imagery! But if you look in the margin of your Bible there is something more. You will see it reads thus: “A word spoken upon its wheels is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”
Now it was just that; a word upon wheels had run right into that pleasure-loving lady’s heart, and the first effect of it was to give deep anguish of spirit. She found no rest. All night she lay under the hand of God, sighing and weeping with the smart of this one “word upon wheels.”
Again and again her maid begged to know the cause of such deep and unabated distress.
At length the lady could restrain herself no longer. Bursting into a flood of tears, she exclaimed, “Oh! it is one word which I saw in your book that troubles me! There I saw the, word ‘ETERNITY.’ Oh, how happy should I be if I were prepared for ETERNITY!”
And would not you, whom God has so long spared in His mercy from the fast-approaching judgment, would not you be happy, with a happiness you have never yet tasted, were you prepared for eternity? Face to face with that one word, with all its unproved but tremendous significance, what could the frivolities of this wretched world do for the guilty soul of this poor lady? She could only loathe them from the bottom of her heart, while she seemed to breathe the smoke of the pit from which they came.
But God had mercy upon her soul, as He ever has upon such as truly turn to him; and her heart rested by faith upon the precious blood of Christ, which alone tan cleanse a poor sinner from his sins, and give a troubled conscience peace with God. She believed unto salvation, and then, like her pious, faithful, and happy maid, she discovered the secret of the real pleasure, which God’s Book, which speaks of eternity and eternal verities, conveys to the soul of the believer. The word spoken on its wheels began to bring forth its apples of gold (fruit unto holiness and unto God, Rom. 6:22, 8:4), in pictures of silver for every divinely opened eye to see and to admire.