The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-05-10
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Homily on the Pernicious Habit of
PrOfane Speaking.
Blasphemy and Profanity and How 1t
Originated and How it Grows-Di-
vine Punishments-How the Habit
May be Overcome.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took for 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 potsherd to scrape himself withal; and
he sat down among the ashes Then said his
wife unto him: Dost thou still retain thine in
tegrity? Curse God and die.-Book of Job, H.,
:, 8 and9
A story Oriental and marvellous. Job was
the richest man in all the East. He had
camels and oxen and asses and sheppard,
what would have made him rich without
any thing else, seven sons and three
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 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 now? "Oh," says the
messenger "a 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
rarna1 dT;uo
aside. Another messenger running.
What is the matter now?
"Oh," 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 elephanti-
asis, or black leprosy. Tumors from head
to foot, forehead ridged with tubercles, eye
lashes fall out, nostrils excoriated, voice
destroyed, intolerable exhalations 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 rage, and says:
'sThis is intolerable. Our property gone,
our children slain, and now you covered
up with this loathsome and disgusting dis
ease. Why don't you swear? Curse God,
and die"
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.
Blasphemy is all abroad. You hear it in
every direction. The drayman swearing
at his cart, the sewing girl imprecating
the tangled skein, the accountant cursing
the long line Of troublesome figures.
Swearing at the store, swearing in the
loft, swearing in the cellar, swearing in
the street, swearing in the factory. Chill
dren swear. Men swear. Women swear |!
Swearing from the rough calling on the
Almighty in the low restaurant clear up
to the reckless ooh, Lord! I" of glittering
drawing 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 father. TWAS no pro-
family when James A. Garfield. shot in the
Washington depot, cried out: sMy 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 tht-
triviality and of the recklessness with
which the name of God is sometimes man
aged. The whole land is cursed with it.
A gentleman coming from the far West
sat in the car day after day behind two
persons who were indulging in profani-
ty, and he made up his mind he would make
record of their profanities, and at the
end of two days several sheets of paper
were filed with these imprecations, and
ct the end Of the journey he handed the pa
per to one of the persons in front of him.
Ills it possible" said the man, 'sthat we
have uttered so many profanities the last
few daysp
sit is" replied the gentleman.
''Then," said the man who had taken
the manuscript, 81 will never swear
again"
But it is comparatively unimportant
thing If man makes record of our i'm.
proprieties Of speech. The more memoir.
able consideration is that every improper
word, every oath uttered, has a 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
domination. shall not day deal in abb
stractions. hate distractions lam 60
ing to have plain talk with YOU, INV
brother, about q 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 to walk
straight on the street, yet have enough
dtstinctness of utterance to let you know
that they are damning their own souls, or
damning the souls of others. It is an
awful thing the first time the little feet are
lifted to have them set down on the burn.
ing pavement of hell!
Between sixteen and twenty wears Of
age there Is apt to come time when a
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
II n