The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-04-12

well try to raiso vineyards and orchards
on the sides Of belching Stromboli as to
raise anything good on q heart from
which there pouss out the sceria of pro
family. You my swear yourself down;
you cannot SWEAR yourself up. When
the Mohammedan finds q 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. Ne go the other. Now,
what is the cure1 of this habit7 II il
mighty habit. Mem have struggled for
years to get own 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 delirium 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 imprecation and
profanity, and they could not under
stand it. After he came to his right
reason he explained it. He said: "When
was young man I was very profane.
conquered the habit, but had to strug-
gle ali through life. You haven't for
forty years heard me say an improper
word, but it hSe been an awful struggle.
The tiger Is ch4ined, but he Is alive yet. /"
II you would get rid of this habit, I
want you, my friends, to dwell upon the
uselessness Of Il. Did q volley Of oaths
ever start q heavy load? Did they ever
extirpate n1eanne0 from q customerf
Did they. ever collect q bad debti
Did they ever cure q toothache2 Did
they ever stop ~ twinge sl1e 11le0s
matism? Did they ever help you for
ward 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 it? Five
thousand dollars in all your life? No.
One thousanda No. One hundred?
No. One. dollar9 No. One cent? No.
IF the habit be 80 utterly useless,
away with IL.
But you say: 81 have struggled to
overcome the habit a long while, and
have''not been successful" You strug-
gled in your own strength, my brother.
If ever man wants God, it is in such a
crisis Of his history. God alone by his
grace can emancipate you from that
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 indigna-
ton. The Bible reiterates, from chapter
to chapter, and verse after verse, the fact
that it is accursed for this life and that
1t makes man miserable for eternity.
There is not sin in all the catalogue that
is SO often peremptorily and sud-
denly 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 sermon,
gave some instances in which God 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
instantaneous visitation from God upon
blasphemers. 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 horrid oath, and the
man who succeeded was to be president of
the club. The competition went on. A
man uttered an oath which confounded
all llis comrades, and he was made presi-
dcnt of the club. His tongue began to
swell, and 1t protruded from the mouth,
and he could not draw. it in, and he died,
and the physicians said: ssThis is the
strangest thing we ever saw; we never
saw any account in the books like unto
it; we can't understand it. - l under
stand it. He cursed God and died.
At Catskill. N. Y, q group of men
stood in blacksmith's shop during a
violent thunder storm. There came a
crash OF thunder and some of the men
trembled. One man said: "Why, I
don't see what you are afraid Of l am
not afraid to go out in front of the shop
and defy the Almighty. / am not afraid
of lightning" And he laid a wager on
the subject, and he went out, and he
shook his fist at the heavens, crying:
Strike, If you dare!' and instantly, he
fell under bolt What destroyed him?
Any mystery about it7 Oh, no. He
cursed God and died.
Oh, my brother, God win not allow
this sin to go unpunished. There are
styles of writing with manifold sheets,
SO that man writing on one leaf writes
clear through ten, fifteen or twenty
sheets, and 80 every profanity we utter
goes right down through the leaves of
the book of Gods remembrance. 1t is
no exceptional sin, Do you suppose you
could count the profanities Of last week
tho profanities Of Office, store, shop,
factory2 They cursed God, they cursed
his word, they cursed his only begotten
son.
One morning, on Fulton street, as I
was passing along, heard man swear
by the name of Jesus. My hair lifted.
My blood ran cold, My breath caught.
My foot halted, Do you not suppose that
God is aggravated Do you not suppose
that God knows about it? Dionysius used
to have q cave in which his culprits were
incarcerated, and he listened at the top
of that cave, and he could hear every
groan, he could hear every sigh, and he
could hear every whisper OF those who
were imprisoned. He was tyrant. God
is not 2 tyrant; but he bends over this
world and he hears eEerything-every
voice OF praise-every voice of impre-
cation. He hears it all. The oaths seem
to die on the air, but they have eternal
echo. They come back from the ages to
come.
Lstenl Listen! "All blasphemers
thall have their place in the lake which
burneth with fire and birthstone, which
is the second DEATH" And il, according
to the theory of some, man commits in
the next world the sins which he COM
mitted in this world-if unpardoned, 'un-
regenerated-think Of mans going on
cursing in the name Of God to all eter-
nifty!
The habit grows You start with q
small oath, you win come to the large
oath. saw man die with an oath be-
tween his teeth. Voltaire only gradually
came to his tremendous imprecation; but
the habit grew on him until in the last
moment, supposing Christ stood at the
bed, he exclaimed; "Crush that wretchl
Crush that wretchl' Oh, my brother,
you begin to swear and there is nothing
impossible for you in the wrong direc-
ton.
. q - 3 - n n II al