The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-04-20


ing 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 holiest of names in utter triviality.
Why, my friends, the English language
is comprehensive and capable Of express
ing all shapes OF feeling and every degree
of energy. Are you happy, Noah Webster
will give you ten thousand words with
which to express your exhilaration. Are
you righteously indignant, there are whole
armories In the vocabulary, righteous
ocabulary-whOle armies of denuncia-
tion, and scorn, and sarcasm, and irony,
and caricature, and wrath. You express
yourself against some meanness or
hypocrisy, in all the oaths that ever
smoked up from the pit, and 1 viii come
right on after you and give a thousand
fold more emphasis of denunciation to
the same meanness and the same
hypocrisy in words across which no slime
has ever trailed, and into which the fires
of hell have never shot their fOrked
tongues-the pure, the innocent, God
honored 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,
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 pro-
families in these cities which are enough
to bring hurricane of fire like that which
| consumed Sodom.
Do you know that this trivial use of
y
know that people who take the name of
God on their lips in recklessness and
| thoughtlessness are fostering the crime Of
| perjury? Make the name of God a foot
ball in the community, and ithas no power
| when in courtroom and in legislative as
sembly it is employed in solemn adjura-
tionl See the way sometimes they adj
minister the oath: "S' help you God
kiss the bOok!" Smuggling, which is al
ways a violation of the oath, becomes in
some circles grand joke. You say to a
man:
'How is it possible for you to sell these
goods so very cheap? I can't understand
it.D
"Ahp' he replies, with a twinkle Of the
eye, "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 unaccountable verdicts and
| judges give unaccountable charges, and
useless railroad schemes pass in our State
! capitols, and there are most unjust
! changes made in tariffs-tariff lifted from
one thing and put upon another?
| What is an oath? Amy thing solemn
| Any thing that calls upon - Almighty?
Any thing that marks an event IN mans
history? Oh, mol 1t is kissing the bookl
! There is no habit, tell you plainly-and
talk to hundreds 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 a mans nature
as the habit of profanity. You might as
well try to raise vineyard and orchards
on the sides of belching StrOmboli as to
raise any thing good on a heart from
which there pours out the scoria Of pro-
family. You may swear yourself down
! you can not swear yourself up. When the
! Mohammedan finds a piece Of paper he
| can not read, he puts it aside very eau
| tiously for fear the name of God may be
on it. That is one extreme. We go to the
| other. Now, what is the cure Of this hab-
| it? 1t is mighty habit. Men have strug-
! gled for years to get over it. There are
-
half their fortune to get rid Of it. An aged
man was in the delirium of a fever. He
| had for many years lived a most upright
life and was hOnored in all the commune
ty, but when he came into the delirium of
this fever he was full of imprecation and
/ profanity, and they could not understand
it. After he came to his right reason he
explained it. He said:
''When 1 was a young man I was very
I..1.1 I.rrA a
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, want
you, my friends, to dwell upon the USE
! Iessness of it. Did volley Of oaths ever
start q heavy loadg Did they ever extir-
pate meanness from a customer? Did
they ever collect a bad debt? Did they
ever cure a toothache? Did they ever
stop the twinge Of the rheumatism? Did
| they ever help you forward one step in the
! right direction? Come, now, tell me, ye
! who have had the most experience in this
| habit, how much have you made out Of iti
| Five thousand dollars IN all your lifei
I No. One thousandy No. One hundreds
No. One dollar2 No. One cent? No. III
the habit be SO utterly useless, away with
it.
come the habit a long while, and have
not been successful" " You struggled in
your own strength, my brother. If ever q
man wants God, it is in such a crisis Of
his history. God alone by His grace car
emancipate you from that trouble Cal
upon Him day and night that you may be
delivered from this crime. Remember
also in the cure of this habit that il
/ arOuses Gods Indignation. The Bible re-
fterates from chapter to chapter, and verse
after verse, the fact that it is accursed fol
this life and that it makes a man misera-
Bile for eternity. There is not sin in al
the catalogue that is so often peremptori-
ly and suddenly punished in this world al
the sin Of profanity. There is not q city
or a village but can give illustration oi
a man struck down at the moment OF i'm
precation. A couple Of years ago, briefly
referring to this in a sermon, / gave some
instances in which God had struck swear
ers dead at the moment Of their profanity
That sermon brought 10 me from many
parts Of this land and other lands state
ments Of similar cases of instantaneous
visitation from God upon biasphemers
Ny opinion is that such cases occur some
where every day, but for various reasons
they are not reported.
In Scotland club assembled every
week for purposes Of wickedness, and
/ there was a competition as to which could
use the most horIid oath, and the man
succeeded was to be president Of the club
The competition went on. man uttered
an oath which confounded ali his com
rades, and he was chosen president Of the
/ club. His tongue began 10 swell, and il
protruded from his mouth, and he could
not draw il in, and he died, aud the physi.
clans said: This Is the strangest thina
we ever saw; we never saw any account in
, the books ike unto it. we can't under
stand it, I understand IL. he cursed
God and died
At Catskil, n ". "A group Of men stoot
, IN a blacks uith'a shop during a violen
thunder storm. There came crash o
!