Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1862-03-07
From sermon by H. W. Beecher.
Use of LANGUAGE a.t

OSO vi Language.
Language, too may be employed for the
sake Of scholastic and literary finish, so as
almost, if not quite. to deaden the effect of
what man breaches. The use of Latin
lied words and pcriphrascs in what is call
ed elegant speaking and fine writing, is a
common vice. There is great tendency
on the part Of writers and speakers to
domestic words, and colloquiallsms, as they
are often called
Now, all words are pegs to hang ideas
on and as the wooden peg in the hall,
On which the father and grandfather were
ACCUSTOMED to hang the coat and hat, is.
to the child's eye, more beautiful than the
most exq uisite picture that could be hung
on the wall, so the most common and fa-
miliar words, are more powerful than any
abstract and aFbi rlry ones, -.
What does home mean? When you
speak tLat word it is if you struck bee
hive and thousand bees began to buzz
and hum music in your mind. Father
and mother are words that children learn
on the hearth and in the nursery They
are nursery and childhood companions -
and thoy do not cease to be companions in
after life. They are always linked with
our early associations. Aud when yox
attemft to express the thought which be-
longs to father or mother, by saying spa
rent" you kill it. When you say women
you mean what tho world has taught of
woman; but when you say ''female" you
mean what fool would mean that did not
know how to use language On the trent
of Coorer's reading room ca noble charity
sadly marred) you will find, in golden let
ters, CT ought to have been in letters of
brass or lead male and Female Rading-
Rooms ,, Male sheep? or oxen? Male
what? Male is an adjective; and so is
female And what tempted anybody that
felt the force of words unless it was the
devil, to take away from cur mother
tongue these noble wol ds-n5en aud uon1en
and put in that place Male and Female
Reading Rooms, / cannot imagine. And
so there are thousands of men who aban-
don the great vantage-ground of common
langua ge.E .Ea85 iifH eHo sH zla atf
lg The difference between one man and an
other in the use Of words is, that one uses
familiar words, and uses them in their or
dinary sense, and the othor uses words
that arc not familiar, and uses them in
sense that is unusual. Some ministers
use words in such way that they flash,
as it were, and wake men up, and give
them feelings that they cannot account for
They pick out wurds adapted to the COM
prehension Of their people, and employ
them so they shall have a meaning over
and above the phil sophical meaning
But there are thousands of ministers that
charm men when they talk in private con-
versation, because they are sensible then,
who are fools when they come to preach
and not according to the apostle idea of
foolishness of preaching, either. They say
they are bound to bring our people up to
us. aud not to 90 down to them, l beg
your pardon, you will honor yourselves by
going down to them. No man need be
ashamed to use the language of common
life, for that is the language of power and
eloquence, The man that knows how. like
old John Bunyan, like Baxter, and like
South. (seholarly as he was,) to take Sax
on cclloquial terms of the household, Of
the kitchin, of the parlor, of the nursery,
of the field, where men 1--we, and employ
them in his preaching, is powerful and
eloquent preacher. These old, brawney,
ler ge meaning words, heavily iadenen with
precious associations, are words of might.
Rut how many Of our preachers. for the
sake Of heing literary. for the sake Of he
ing polished, step aside from the great
highway Of power in language, into the lit
tie lanes of exclusiyeness. where there is
no mower