The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-04-20
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A HOmily on the Pernicious Habit of
PrOfane Speaking.
B1asphemy and Profanity and How IT
Originated and How it GrOws-DI-
vine Punishments-How the Habit
May be Overcome.

Blasphemy and Profanity and How it
Originated and How it Grows-DI-
vine Punishments-How the Habit
May be Overcome.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took 4or the
subject of a recent sermon at the Brook
lyn Tabernacle the habit of cursing and
swearing. His text was:
So went Satan forth from the presence of the
Lord, and smote Job with sore bolls from the
sole OF his foot unto the crown. And he took
| him a potsherd to scFape himself withali and
| he sat down among the ashes. Then said his
wife unto him; Dost thou stin retain thine in
tegrityG Curse God and die.-Book Of JOB, IL,
2, and Q.
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
| any thing else, seven sons and three
| daughters. It was the habit Of these chill
dren to gather together for family reunion.
One day Job is thinking of his children as
! gathered together at a 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 N after now? "Oh," says the
| messenger ga foraging party of Sabeans
have fallen upon the oxen and the asses
and destroyed them, and butchered all
| the servants except myself"
Stand aside. Another messenger run
ming. What is the matter now.
"Oh," says the man, ''the lightning has
! struck the sheep and the shepherds, and
! all the shepherds are destroyed except
myself" Stand aside. Another messen-
ger 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. Another messenger running.
What is the matter now?
ooh, " he says, ga hurricane struck the
! four corners of the tent where your chill
! dren were assembled at the banquet, and
they are all dead"
/ But the chapter of calamity has not
/ ended. Job was smitten with eIephanti-
asis, or black leprosy. Tumors from head
| to foot, forehead ridged with tubercles, eye
lashes fall out, nostriIs excoriated, voice
| destroyed, intolerable exhaIations from
the entire body, until, with none to dress
his sores, he sits down in the ashes with
nothing but pieces of pottery to use in the
surgery Of his wounds. At this moment,
when he needed all encouragement, and
all consolation, his wife comes in, in a
/ fret and a rage, and says:
'"This is intolerable. Our property gone,
our children slain, and now you covered
ease. Why don't you swear? Curse God,
and die 10
| All, Job knew right well that swearing
would not cure one of the tumors of his
agonized body, would not bring back one
of his destroyed camels, would not re-
store one of his dead children. He knew
that profanity would only make the pain
more unbearable, and the poverty more
| distressing, and the bereavement more
excruciating. But, judging from the pro-
family abroad in our day, you might come
to the conclusion that there was some
great advantage to be reaped from pro-
family.
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 pro-
family when James A. Garfield, Ehoti 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 troubles, in the day Of darkness, in the
day of physical anguish, in the day of be-
reavement; but am speaking now Of the
triviaIity and of the recklessness with
which the name Of God is sometimes man
aged. The whole land is cursed with it.
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
distinctness of utterance to let you know
that they are damning their own souls, or
damning the souls of others. It is an
awful ahing the first time the little feet are
lifted to have them set down on the burn
ing pavement Of helll
Between sixteen and twenty years of
age there is apt to come time when Il
young man is as much 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 pat
tern, and now, if he can only swear with
out awkwardness, and as well as his COM
rades, he believes he is in the fashion.
There are young men who walk in an at
mosphere of imprecatiOn-oaths on their
lips, under their tongues, nesting in their
shock of hair. They abstain from 1t in
the elegant drawing groom, but the street
and the clubhouse ring with their profan-
tiles. They have no regard for God, al
though they have great respect for the
! ladiesi Ny young brother, there is no
manliness in that The most ungentle-
manly thing man can do is to swear.
Fathers foster this great crime. There
are parents who are very cautious not to
swear in the presence of their children
in moment of sudden anger they look
around to see if the children are present
when they indulge in this habit Do you
not know, o father, that your child is
aware of the fact that you swear? He
overheard you in the next room, or some
one has informed him Of your habit He
is practicing now. In ten years he viii
swear as well as you do. Do not, o father,
be under the delusion that you may swear
and your son not know it. It Is an awful
thing to start the habit in a family-the
father to be profane, and then to have the
echo Of his example come back from other
generations, so that generations after
generations curse the Lord.
The crime is also fostered by master
mechanics, boss carpenters, those who
are at the head of men in hat factories
and in dock yards, and at the head OF
great business establishments. When you
90 down to look at the work Of the scaf-
folding, and you find it is not done right
what do you say? 1t is not praying, is til
The employer swears; his employe il
tempted to swear. The man says:
81 don't know why my employer, worth
fifty thousand dollars or one hundred
thousand dollars, should have any luxury
should be denied, simply because 1 an
poor. Because am poor and dependent
on a days wages haven't I as much right
to swear as he has, with his large in
! comel''
Employers swear, and that makes 50
many employees swear.
The habit comes from infrmity Of tenn
per. There are a good many people who
when they are at peace, have righteous
ness Of speech, but when angered thel
blaze with imprecation. Perhaps all the
rest Of the year they talk in righ
( language, but now they pour out the fur
of "a whole year in one re1-hot paragraph
Of I've minutes. I knew Of a man whs
r excused himself for the habit. saying; g
only swear once IN q great while. 1 mus
do that Just to clear myself out"
The hab t comes also from the prOfusi
use Of by-worda. The transition from