Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-04-20
CURSING AND SWEARING.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Discourses on the
Habit of Profanity.

Such a Magnificent Language. II Gomez
from Infirnity of Temper aud tho FRO
fuse Use of Byworis.
BROOKLYN, April S.-One of the hymns
sung ut the Tabernacle this morning be.
gins with the words:
SO let our lips and lives express
The Holy Gospel VIC profess.
After reading appropriate passages Of
Scripture, the Rev. I. De Witt Talmage,
y. d.. preached on tho habit of cursing
and swearing. His text was from the
Book of Job ii. I, s, and 8: $50 went Satan
forth from the presence of the Lord,
and Smote job with sore boils from the
sole of his foot unto his crown. And he
took him potsherd to scrape himself
withal; and he sat down among the ashes.
Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou
still retain thine integrity? Curse GOD,
and die"
A story oriental and marvellous. Job
was the richest man i'll all the East. He
had canels and oxen and asses and sheep,
and, what would have made him rich with
out anything else, seven sons and three
daughters. it was the habit of these chill
s!ren to gather together for family reunion.
One day, Job is thinking of his children
as gathered together ut banquet ut the
elder brothers house.
While the old man is seated at his tent
door, he sees some one running, cvidon,ly
from his manner bringing bad news. What
zs the matter now? "Oh." says tue mes
senger, "a foraging party of Sabeans has
fallen upon the oxen and tho asses, and
destroyed them. and butchered all the
servants except myself" Stand aside.
mother messenger running. What is the
matter now? "Oh," says tho man, "the
lightning has struck tho sheep ind the
shepherds, and all the shepherds are de-
;,;royed except myself stand aside. An
s,sller messenger running. Mhnt is the
matter now? "Oh," he says, "the Chal-
deans have captured the cames, and slain
Stand aside. Another messenger running.
What is the matter now? "Oh." he says,
"a hurricane struck the four corners OF the
tent where your children were assembled
at the banquet, and they are all dead"
But the chapter of calamity has not
ended. Job was smitten with elephanti-
asis, or black leprosy. Tumors from
head to foot-foreheld rigid with tubercles
--eyelashes fall out-nostrils excoriated--
voice desroyed-intolerable eXhalations
from the entire body, until with none to
dress his sores, he sits down in the ashes
with nothing but pieces Of broken pottery
to use in the surgery of his wounds. At
this moment, when he needed all encour-
comes in, in fret and rage, and says:
This is intolerable. Our property gone.
our children slain, and now you covered
up with this loathsome and disgusting
disease. Why don't you swear? Curse
God, and uIe !"
All, Job knew right we'll that swearing
would not cure one of the tumors of his
agonized body. would not bring back one
OF his destroyed camels, would not restore
one of his dead children. He knew that
profanity would only mako the pain more
snbearable and the poverty more DISTRESS
ing and the bereavement, more excruciat-
ing. But Judging from the profanity
abroad in our day, you might come to the
vantage to be reaped from profanity.
Blasphemy is all abroad. You hear it in
every direction. The drayman swearing ut
his cart, the sowing girl imErecating the
tangled skein, the accountant cursing the
long line of troublesome figures. Swear
ing at the store, swearing in the loft, swear
ing in the cellar, swearing on the street,
swearing in the factory. Children swear.
Men swear. Women swear. Swearing
from the rough calling on the Almighty in
the low restaurant clear up 10 the "Oh,
Lord!" of a glittering drawins-room: and
the one is as much blasphemy as the
other.
There are times when we must cry out
to the Lord by reason of our physical
agony or mental distress, and that is only
throwing out our weak hand toward the
strong arm of father. 1t was no profan-
ity when James A. Garfield. shot in the
Washington depot, cried out: "My God,
what does this mean" There is no pro-
family in calling out upon God in the day
OF trouble, in the day of darkness, in the
day of physical anguish, in the day of be.
reavement; but am speaking now of the
triviality and of the recklessness with
which the name Of God is sometimes man
aged. The whole land is cursed, with it.
gentleman coming from the far West
sat in the Car day after day behind two
persons who were indulging in profanity,
make a record of their profanities, and OF
the end of two days several sheets of paper
were covered with these imprecations, and
at the close of the journey he handed the
manuscript to one of the persons in front
of him. us it possible" said the man,
"that we have uttered so many profanities
the last few days." @lt is, replied the gen
tleman. "Then," said the man who had
taken the manuscript, 81 will never swear
again."
But it is comparatively unimporlant
thing if o man makes record of our impro-
prieties OF speech. The more memorable
consideration is that every improper word,
every oath uttered, has record in the book
of Gods remembrance. and that the day
will come when all our crimes of speech,
if unrepented of, will be our condemna-
tion. shall not to day deal in abstrac-
tions. l hate distractions. am going to
have plain talk with YOU, nv brother,
about habit that you admit 10 be wrong.
The habit grows i'll tho community in the
fact that young people think it manly to
swear. Little children. hardly able to
walk straight on the street, yet have
enough distinctness Of utterance to let you
know that they are damning their own
souls, or damning the souls of others. 1t
is an awful thing the first time the little
feet are lifted TO have them set down on
the burning pavement OF hell
Between sixteen and twenty Years of age
there is apt to come time when young
man is as much ashamed Of not being able
to swear gracefully as he is Of the dizzi-
ness of his first cigar. He has his hat, his
boots, and his coat of tho right pattern,
and now, if he can only swear without
awkwardness, and as we'll as his comrades,
he believes he is in the fashion. There are
young men who walk in an atmosphere of