Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-05-05

saying: 81 only swear once in great while.
must do that just to clear myself out
The habit comes also from the profuse use
of bywords. The transition from byword
which may be perfectly harmless to impre-
cation and profanity is not very large
transition. 1t is my starslv and mercy on
mel" and good graciousp' and "by George"
and by Jove" and you go on with that
little while, and then you swear. These
words, perfectly harmless in themselves, are
next door to imprecation and blasphemy. A
profuse use of bywords always ends in pro-
family. The habit Is creeping up into the
highest styles of society. Women have no
patience with fat and unvarnished profanity.
They will order man out of the parlor in
dulging in blasphemy, and yet you will some
times find them with fairy fan to the lip,
and under chandeliers which bring no blush
to their cheek, taking on their lips the hottest
Of names in utter triviality.
Why, my friends, the English language is
comprehensive and capable of expressing all
shades OF feeling and every degree of en-
ergy Are you happy' Noah Webster will
give you ten thousand words with which to
express your exhilaration Are YOU right
eously indignant There are whole armies
! In the vocabulary, righteous vocabulary
whole armies Of denunciation. and
scorn, and sarcasm, and irony, and Carl
casure. and wrath You express your
self against some meanness or hypocrisy
in all the oaths that ever smoked up from
the pit, and will come right on after you
and give thousandfold more emphasis of
denunciation to the same meanness and the
same hypocrisy in words across which no
slime has ever traied, and into which the
nres OF hell have never shot their forked
tongues-the pure. the innocent, God hon
ored Anglo-Saxon in which Milton sang and
John Bunyan dreamed and Shakespeare
dramatized
There is no excuse for profanity when we
have such a magnificent language-such
flow of good words, potent words. mighty
words, words lust to suit every crisis and
every case Whatever be the cause of it,
profanity is on the increase, and if you do
not know it, it is because your ears have
been hardened by the din of imprecations so
| that you are not stirred and moved as you
ought to be by profanities in these cities
| which are enough to bring hurricane OF
| fire like that which consumed Sodom
Do you know that this trivial use of Gods
name results in perjurys Do you know that
| peopl" who take the name of God on their
lips in recklessness and thoughtlessness are
| fostering the crime of perjury Make the
name of God football in the community,
and it has no power when in court room and
in legislative assembly it is employed in
/! solemn adjurationl See the way sometimes
they administer the oath: 'S'help you God
kiss the bookn Smuggling, which is always
a violation of the oath, becomes in some
| circles a grand joke. You say to a man:
How is it possible for you to sell these goods
so very cheap can't understand IT," Ali"
he replies, with twinkle in the eyes, 1.-THE
custom house tariff of these goods isn't as
much as it might be-" An oath does not
mean as much as it would were the name of
| God used in reverence and in solemnity.
| Why is it that so often jurors render unac-
countable verdicts and judges give unac-
countable charges, and useless railroad
| RI in faItr Sfafo folk and
are most unjust charges made in tariffs
tariff lifted from one thing and put upon
| anotherl
What is an oath! Anything solemni Any
thing that calls upon the AlmghtYi Any
thing that marks an event in a mans historyl
Oh. MOI It is kissing the book There is no
habit, tell you plainiy-and ! talk to hun
dreds and thousands Of men to day who will
thank me for my utterance-I tell you, my
brother-I talk to you not professionally but
just as one brother talks to another on some
very important theme-I tell you there is no
habit that so depletes mans nature as the
habit of profanity. You might as well try
to raise vineyards and orchards on the sides
Of belching Stromboli as to raise anything
good on a heart from which there pours out
the scoria of profanity. You may swear
| yourself down; you cannot swear yourself
up. When the Mohammedan finds piece of
paper he cannot read, he puts it aside very
cautiously for fear the name of God may be
on it, That is one extreme. We go the
other. Now what is the cure of this
habit! It is mighty habit Men have
struggled for years to get over it, There are
men in this house of God who would give
half their fortune to get rid of it. An aged
! man was in the delrium of fever. He had
for many years lived most upright life and
was honored in all the community, but when
he came into the delirium of this fever he
was full OF lmprecation and profanity, and
they could not understand it. After he came
to his right reason he explained it. He said:
! ''When | was young man was very pro-
fame. l conquered the habit but had to
struggle all through life. You haven't for
forty years heard me say an improper word,
but it has been an awful struggle The tiger
is chained, but he is alive yet"
If you would get rid Of this habit, / warn
you, my friends, to dwell upon the useless
ness of it. Did volley of oaths ever start a
heavy loadl Did they ever extirpate mean
ness from customer Did they ever collect
a bad debt! Did they ever cure toothache7
Did they ever stop the twinge of the rheu
1 matism! Did they ever help you forward
one step in the right directionl Come now,
tell me, ye who have had the most expert
ence in this habit, how much have you made
out of it, Five thousand dollars in all your
lifef No. One thousandl No. One hun
dred! No. One dollarl No. One cent?
No. If the habit be so utterly useless away
with it,
But you say: 81 have struggled to over
come the habit long while, and have not
been successful" You struggled in YOUR
own strength. my brother. If ever a man
wants God, it is in such a crisis of his history.
God alone by His grace can emancipate you
from trouble. Call upon Him day and
night that you may be delivered from this
crime. Remember also in the cure of this
habit that it arouses Gods Indignation The
Bible reiterates from chapter to chapter, and
verse after verse, that it is accused for this
life and that it makes a man miserable for
eternity. There is not sin in all the cata-
logue that is so often peremptorily and
suddenly punished in this world as the sin of
profanity. There is not a city or village
but can give an illustration of man struck
down at the moment of imprecation. A
couple of years ago, briefly referring to this
in a sermon, gave some Instances in which
Sod had struck swearers dead at the moment
OF their profanity. That sermon brought to
me from many parts of this land and other
lands statements Of similar cases Of instan-
taneous visitation from God upon bias
phemers My opinion is that such cases
occur somewhere every day, but for various
reasons they are not reported
In Scotland club assembled every week
for purposes Of wickedness, and there was
competition as to which could use the most
| hOrrld oath and the man who alcceeded was