Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-04-30
SWEARING.

"Of oil the nauseous, complicated crimes,
That both infect and stigmatise the times,
There's none that con with imp;ous oaths compare,
Where vice and folly have IN equal share"
tits not our purpose to write hon,ily on
this subject; but simply to call attention in
few plain remarks, to a wide spread and
pernicious evil. .S1reor'"g, like drinking,
is confined to no one class, or condition of
society. The young and the old, persons of
both sexes-the rich and the poor the learn
ed and the ignorant, the bond and the free,
are more or less guilty Of the practice
Should the eye of a profane swearer light
upon these lines, We respectly ask him to
pause moment, and seriously ponder the
following consideration.
Profane swearing is forbidden by God.-
"Swear not at ALL" This command is posi-
tive as much so as any precept of the De-
ca!oguc; and for the violation of which you
are as responsible as you would be for theft
For, he who said, "Thou shalt not steal," !"
has also said, "Swear not at all. eff, there
fore, you have any regard for your Maker,
desist from the practice of profane swearing
Consider, that it is useless practice.-
We have heard men justify the use of strong
drink on the grounds of its utility-they
tell us, it warns them in winter and cools
them in summer; and they are firmly pursua-
ded that all this is so But who ever heard
a just, or even sensible plea for an oath !?
who will pretend to say that, the use of pro-
fame language is profitable in any way? The
swearer himself hnops that it is not. 1t
makes him neither wiser, nor richer, nor
more respectable. 1t increases in no degree
his influence and it is very far from recon-
mending him to the favorable notice and re-
CARDS of the good and upright. Besides all
this, it is we'll known fact, that, but little
confidence is placed in the statements of a
man who backs what he says by hard oath.
His veracity is most commonly suspected by
men of strict integrity and if believed at all ,
it is because what he states is known to be
true, Independently Of has testimony. In
short not one single advantage can be shown
to result from the practice-why, then, per-
sst in it !?
Consider too, that II Is no marL Of a gen.
Aeman to srear. We do not say, that, he
who swears, is no gentleman-we leave 9TH
ers to determine this-but we do say, that,
profane swearing is no mark of good breed
ing-of gentlemanly character. What are
the facts of the case? Why, "the most worth
less and vile, the refuge of mankind, and the
drunkard swear as we'll as the best dressed
and educated gcntleman' "And it is we'll
known fact that common sailors, who are
looked upon as among the most degraded in
morals are also, among the most finished in
"the art of cursing" 1t requires no partic-
ular smartness-no special intellectual en-
dowments, to acquire proficiency in this art.
nThe basest and meanest of mankind swear
with as much tact and skill, as the most re-
fned."~ To say the least, then, the common
swearer can, on this account lay no claim to
being gentleman-the practice adds moth
ing to his responsibility.
Awful threatening! let the swearer seri-
ously think of it; and let him abandon a
practice, which is not only wholly unprcft-
able but which, if not repented Of, must f.
nally expose him to the malediction of his
offended Maker
But, the most weighty consideration against
swearing, is, that God will not hold him
guiltess. One of the ten commandments is
specially directed against this practice =
sThou shalt not take the name of the Lord,
thy God in vain" No man so frequently,
and so wantonly, takes the name of God in
vain, as the profane .swearer. He never uses
it but with profane lips. He never uses it,
but in invoking imprecations either on his
own head, or on others. For such wanten,
impious use of his name-a name before
which, all holy intelligences PROSTATE them