Proverbs 10:19

In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin

The sin of gab

Carlyle says, “There is a great necessity indeed of getting a little more silent than we are.

It seems to me that the finest nations in the world--England and America--are going away into wind and tongue; but it will appear sufficiently tragical by and by, long after I am away out of it (the world). Silence is the eternal duty of a man. ‘Watch the tongue ‘ is a very old precept, and a most true one.” The most thinking men of all ages have felt a similar conviction of the enormous evil of garrulousness.

I. It is a sin against the speaker himself. A man whose tongue is always wagging, is doing a serious injury to his own intellectual and spiritual nature.

1. Great volubility is a substitute for thought. The man mistakes words for thoughts. Plato says, “As empty vessels make the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”

2. Great volubility is a quietus to thought. The man who has the power of talking without thinking will soon cease to think; his mental faculties fall into disuse under the constant pressure of verbositors.

II. It is a sin against the hearer. Such men--

1. Waste the precious time of the hearer.

2. They foster self-deception. The most ignorant as well as the largest congregations attend the ministry of the garrulous preacher.

3. They propagate crude opinions instead of divine principles. “We have two ears and but one tongue, that we may hear much and talk little.” (D. Thomas, D.D.)