Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-04-10
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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 stars!n and "mercy on
me!n and "good graciousm and "by GeorgeF
! and '.by Jovegn and you go ON with that a
4 little while, and then you swear. These
words, perfectly harmless in themselves, are
next door to imprecation and blasphemy. A
profuse use of byworSis always ends in pro-
fanity. The habit is creeping up into the
highest styles of society. Women have no
patience with fat and dunvarnished profanity.
| They will order man out Of the parlor in
dulsing in blasphemy, and yet you will
sometimes 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 expressing all
shades of feeling and every degree of en-
ergy. Are you happyf Noah Webster will
give you ten thousand words with which to
express your .exhilarstion- 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
cature, 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 a thousandfold 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 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 q
flow of good worsls, potent words, mighty
words, words just 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'll 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 a hurricane Of
fire like that which consumed Sodom.
Do you know that this trivial use of Gods
name results in perjury Do you know that
people who take the name of God on their
llIS III TtCkttcoucss anu tuOuSuticoSkicoo
fostering the crime of perjuryi Make the
name of Coda foot ball 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: "Shelp you God
kiss the book!' Smuggling, which is always
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 cheapi can't understand 1t. v "Ah!"
he replies, with 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 soiemnity
Why is it that so often jurors render unac-
countable verdicts and judges give unac-
ccuntable charges, and useless railroad
schemes pass in our state capitals, and there
are most unjust changes made in tariffs
tariff lifted from one thing and put upon
another.
What is an oathi Anything solemn! Any.
thing that calls upon the Almighty Any
thing that marks an event in mans history !
Oh, mol 1t is kissing the book There is no
habit, tell you plalnly-and l talk to hum
dreds and thousands Of men today who will
thank me for my utterancs-I tell you, my
brother-I talk to you not professionally but
Just as one brother tallcs 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 heart from which there pours out
the scoria OF profanity. You may swear
yourself down; you cannot swear yourself
up. When the Mohammsdan 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 60 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 delirium Of fever. He had
for many years lived e 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 understand it. After he came
to his right reason be explained it. He said:
'When was young man was very pro-
fame. conquered the habit, but had to
struggle all through life. You haven't for
forty years heard me saw an improper word,
but it has been an awful struggle. The tiger
is chained, but he is alive yet"
II you would get rid of this habit, want
you, my friends, to dwell upon the useless
ness of it Did a volley Of oaths ever start
heavy load. Did they ever extirpate mean
ness from a customeri Did they ever collect
a bad debti Did they ever cure toothachei
Did they ever stop the twinge of the rheu-
matismf 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 itl Five thousand dollars in all youi
lifei No. One thousandf No. One hun
dredi No. One dollsri No. One cent?
No. II the habit be so utterly useless, away
with it
But you say: II have struggled to over.
come the habit long " bile, and have nor
been successful" YoV struggled in your
own strength, my brother. II ever man
wants God, it is in such crisis Of his history.
God alons 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 .nat it arouses Gods Indignation The
Bible neiterates from chapter to chapter, and
verse after verse, that it is accursed for this
life and that it makes q man miserable for
eternity. There is not a sin in all the cata-
logue that is 50 often peremptorily and
suddenly punished in this world as the sin of
profanity. There is not city or village
but can give an illustration of a 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 swo arers dead at the moment
Of their profanity. That sermon brought to
me from many paris Of this land and other
lands statements Of similar cases of instan-
taneous visitation from God upon bias |
phemers. Ny opinion is that such cases
occur somewhere every day, but for various |
reasons they are not reported
In Scotland club assembled every week |