Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-04-18
WHAT SEEMS INSIGNIFICANT IS
NOT ALWAYS so.

NOT ALWAYS so.
DIR. TALMAGE's SERMON, SUNDAY, APR. Sth.
BROOKLYN, April S.-One of the hymns
sung at the Tabernacle this morning, be-
gins with the words:
$50 let our lips and lives express
| The holy gospel we profess
| After reading appropriate passages OF
Scripture, the Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage,
DID,, preached on the habit of cursing and
swearing. His text was from the Book Of
Job, chap. 2, v. Z, 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 in all the East. He had
camels and oxen and asses and sheep, and,
what would have made him rich without
anything else, seven sons and three daugh-
| tiers. 1t was the habit of these children to
gather together for family reunion. One
day, Job is thinking of his children as gath
cred together at banquet at the elder
brothers. house.
While the old man is seated at his tent
door he sees some one running, evidently
from his manner bringing bad news. What
is the matter now? "Oh," says the mes
senger, ''a foraging party of Sabeans have
| fallen upon the oxen and the asses, and de-
stroyed them, and butchered all the ser.
wants except myself" Stand aside. An
other messenger running. What is the
matter new? 'Oh," says the man, ''the
lightning has struck the sheep and the shep-
herds and all the shepherds are destroyed
except myself" Stand aside. Another
messenger running. What is the matter
now !? "Oh," he says, ''the Chaldeans have
captured the camels and slain all the camel
drivers except myself" Stand aside. An
other messenger running. What is the
matter now 'Oh," he says, "a hurricane
struck the four corners Of the tent where
your children we're assembled at the BAN
quet, and they are all dead"
But the chapter of calamity has not end
ed. Job was smitten with elephantiasis, or
black leprosy. Tumors from head to feot
forehead ridged with tubercles-eyelashes
fall out-nostrils excoriated-voice destroy.
ed-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 tho sur
gerry of his wounds. At this moment, when
he needed all encouragement, and all con-
ISOLATION, his wife comes in, in fret and a
rage, and says: sThis is intolerabe Our
property gone, our children slam, and now
you covered up with this loathsome and
disgusting disease Why don't you swear?
Curse God, and die 70
Ah, 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 pro-
family would only make the pain more un.
bearable, and the poverty more distressing.
and the bereavement more e1cruciating
But judging from the profanity abroad in
our day, you might come to the conclusion
that there was some great advantage to be
: reaped from profanity.
Blasphemy is all abroad. You hear it in
) every direction. The drayman swearing al
. his cart, the sewing girl imprecating the
tangled skein, the accountant cursng the
long line of troublesome figures. Swearing
l at the store, swearing in the loft, swearing
in the cellar, swearing on the street, swear.
ing in the factory. Children swear. Men
swear. Women swear! Swearing from
low restaurant, clear up to the reckless so
: Lord r of glit.ering drawing 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 our 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: sMy Go6,
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 bereave-
ment; but am speaking now of the trivial
ity and of the recklessness with which the
r name of God is sometimes managed. The
whole land is cursed with it.
= A gentleman coming from the far West
sat in the car day after day behind two per,
sons who were indulging in profanity, and
he made up his mind that he would make a
record of their profanities, and at the end
of two days several sheets of paper were
covered with these imprecations. and at the
close of the journey he handed the manu-
script TO one of the persons in front of him.
"Is it possible" said the man, "that we
have uttered so many profanities the last
few days?" SIT is, replied the gentleman.
"Then," said the man who had taken the
manuscript, 81 will never swear again"
But it is a comparatively unimportant
thing if 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 condemnation. l
shall not to- day deal in distractions. / hate
distractions. am going to have plain
talk with you, my brother, about habit
that you admit to be wrong.
The habit grows in the 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 dis
tinctness of utterance to let you know that
they are damning their own souls, or damn
ing the souls of Others 1t is an awful thing
the first time the little feet arc 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 a young
man is as mnch ashamed of not being able
to swear gracefully as he is of the dizziness
of his first cigar. He has his hat, his boot,
and his coat of the right pattern, and now,
if he can only swear without awkwardness,
and as well as his comrades, he believes he
is in the fashion. There are young men
who walk in an atmosphere of imprecation
-oaths on their lips under their tongues,
nesting in their shock of hair. They alb.