The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-09
CURSING AND SWEARING
TALMAGE AIMS HIS RHETORICAL
DARTS AT THE HABIT.


Jobs Refusal to Swear Despite His
Heavy Burden of Affections The
Silly Notion Among Boys that Pro-
family is Manly and Smart-No Ex-
cuse for the Sim
BROOKLYN, April S.-One of the hymns
sung at the Tabernacle this morning begins
with the words:
so let our lips and lives express
The Holy Gospel we profess"
After reading appropriate passages of
Scripture, the Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage,
d. D., preached on the habit of cursing and
swearing. His text was from the book of
job chap. IL, Z, s, 9; $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 potshorn to
scrape himself withal; and he sat down
among the ashes Then said his wife un to
him: 'Dost thou still retain thine integrity!
Curse God and die'n
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 with
daughters. 1t 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 matter now9 "Oh,n says the messen-
ger, "a fOraging party of Sabeans lave
fallen upon the oxen and the asses, and de
stroyed tn I'm, and butchered all the servants
except myself" Stand aside Another
messenger running. What is the matter
now9 ooh, " says the man, "the lightning
has struck the sheep and the shepherds, and
all the shepherds are destroyed except my
self.n Stand aside Another messenger
running What is the matter now? "Oh," :"
he says, 'the Chaldeans have captured the
cames, and slain all the camel-drivers ex-
cept MYSELF Stand aside. Another mes
senger running. What is the matter now?
''Oh, he says, "a hurricane struck the four
corners of the tent were your children were
assem- bled at the banquet, and they are all
dead
But the chapter of calamity has not ended.
Job was smItten with elephantiasis, or black
leprosy. Tumors from head to fsot-fore-
head ridged with tuhercles-eyeashes fall
out-nostrils excoriated-voice DESTROYED
intolerable exhalation from the entire body,
until with none to dress his sores, be 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 encouragement and all cOnsola-
tion, his wife comes in, in fret and a rage,
and says: ''This is intolerable. Our prop
erty gone, our children slain, and now YOU
covered up with this loathsome ard disgust
ing disease. Why don't you swear Curse
God and dier'
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 restore
one of his Gead children. He knew tnat
profanity would only make the pain more
unbearable, 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 conclu-
sion that there was some great advantage to
be reaped from profanity.
Blasphemy is all abroad. You hear it in
every direction The drayman swearing at
his cart, the sewing girl imprecating the
tang led skein, the accountant cursing the
long line of troublesome figures. Swearing
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 the
rough calling on the Almighty in the low
restaurant, clear up to the reckless go
Lord" of a glittering 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 a father 1t was no pro-
family when James A. Garfield, shot in the
Washington depot, cried out: "Mv God
what does this meanp There is no profan-
ity in calling out upon God in the day cf
trouble, in the day of darkness, in the day
of physical anguish, in the day of bereave-
ment; but | am now speaking of the trivial
ty and Of the recklessness with which the
name of God is sometimes managed. The
whole land is curse with it.
A gentleman coming from the far West
sat i'll the car day after day behind two
persons who were lndulging 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
manuscript TO one of the persons in front of
him. rs it possible" said the man, "that
we have uttered so many profanities the
last few daysW "It is" replied the gentle
man. "Then, y said the man who had taken
the manuscript, Il will never swear again, "
But it is a comparatively unimportant
thing if q 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 CON
demnation. | shall not to-day deal in alb
stractions. ] hate distractions. am going
to have plain talk with you, my brother,
about a 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 10 walk
straight on the street, yet have enough dis
tinctness of utterance TO LIT 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 are lifted
to have them set down on the burning
pavement Of helll
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 cf 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 iHlprecation
--oaths on their lips, under their tongues,
nesting in their shock Of hair. They alb
stain from it in the elegant drawing-room,
but the street and the club house ring with
their profanities. They have no regard for
God, although they have great respect for