Milford chronicle., 1905-08-25
The wrong KIND Of Story

1 walk down the street. There I see
a lot of schoOlboys gathered together
Suddenly great guffaw Of laughter
is raised. what are you laugh
ing at, boys?7 "Oh, at Il story"
"What is the story?" 1--WE cannot
tell you. You are a minister and
would not be willing to hear it,
so to the mems club, and there
find that the risque joke is often the
one most appreciated. I go to the
/ theater, and there l find that the filthy
insiuuatiOn is the one most uproar-
fously encored. l go into the home,
and there at many fresides the sug-
gestive story is the one that finds the
most attentive listeners. This should
not be; this must not be. The same
words which Paul wrote to the Ephe
sians he ~ now speaking to us, Let
no corrupt communication proceed out
Of your mOuth" That means. as Al
bert Barnes once said, "Abstain from
corrupt and poIIuting conversation"
AS q young woman or young man,
as a middle aged woman or a middle
aged man, as an old woman or am old
man. do not say anything you would
not be- willing for the ears of .E0uV
pure Christian DotheT to hear.
But the vindictive tongue and the
lying tongue and the vile tongue is
also the blasphemOus tongue. When
the man Of one talent in the Bible
went and hid his, talent in the earth
he Immediately commenced to put the'l
responsibility ON Cod. When you and
l do wrong; and continue to do wrong,
at once our evil Tongues begin to find
fault with the God who created us, !
and with the Christ who wants to re-
deem us. One of the WOrsa signs that |
your tongue. is an. evil tongue is when |
it begins to talk about God as a cruel |
God, a mereiless, God. a mean God and |
heartless- God. The vindictive |
tongue, the lying tongue the lewd |
tongue, almost inevitably becomes the /
blasphemous tongue.
You cannot have a corrupt tongue |
without in the end having a blasphe
nous tongue. A gentleman some years
ago was riding on the Erie railroad,
and just before the train passed over
the bridge which spans the Hacken-
sack river he saw a large sign painted |
by the track for the railroad engineers.
1t read thus: -Shut You. Ash Pan" The
gentleman wondered what that sign
meant Then he. asked the reason, and
this was the reply: when the train
crosses the riERn some OF the. Eve Goals
might fall out Of the engine and land
on the WOODEN ties and buBn up the
wooden bridge" Oh, yes, I said to
myself when / read that story. it is
well that the engineer should be care
full of the Eve coaas Of his ash pan,
but how much mnge' should man be
careful Of the live Goals Of bis tongue!
"The tongue. is a drea' once let the
live Goals OF the. vindictive4 and the ly-
ing tongue and the lewd tongue scatter
and they will fall down and burn up
the work thnt proceeds from Christ's
cross. They will scatter and burn up
Christ's chnrch and ChEists Bible and
mans immortal hope Blasphemy is
the natural outcome. Of mans tongue
with eyiI fn his dealings With
man.
A DepFnved T0ngRe.
But 4 cannot close this line of my
talk without declaring that the bias
phemoas tongue mevitably becomes the
tongue Of a human beast of carbon
As soon as man gets out Of touch with
God be inevitably acquires a depraved
idea OF the human race. Like the buz-
zarf which circles about in the heav-
ems over the hills and the valleys and
the prairies Of southern California wait
ing for the horse or the cow or the
sheep to drop dead in his tracks that
he may pOunce upon it, so the evil
tongue Of man seems to glory in the
banquet Of dead regulations. Of evil re-
ports and of debasing rumors which af-
firm that men and women have gone
astray and become as bad as or even
worse than ourselves.
No example Of the evil tongue is
more sinfully suggestive than when a
party OF men and women get together
to discuss the overthrow OF a fellow
man. "Have you heard the news?"
asks one evit tongue. mo" answers