For men shall be blasphemers …
—II Tim. 3:2
4783 A Rare Disease?
A London psychiatrist reports the strange case of a man who could not keep himself from shouting profanity at a rate of forty obscene words a minute.
According to the psychiatrist, the swearing habit started when the patient was nine. As he grew older his uncontrollable swearing increased. He obtained a salesman’s job but had to give this up because he would suddenly begin cursing during his sales presentation.
The doctor diagnosed the compulsive swearing as a rare disease known as “gilles de la tourette,” named for the French doctor who first noted the disease in 1885.
4784 Good-Mannered Horses
A successful owner of fine horses once told his trainers: “I have never seen a good-mannered horse that was sworn at all times. It hurts the feelings of a sensitive horse, and I’ll keep my word to discharge any man caught swearing within the hearing of any horse in this stable.”
4785 The Ruined Boy Was More Serious
Josiah Wedgwood, maker of the famous Wedgwood pottery, one day showed a nobleman through the factory. A boy who was an employee of the factory accompanied them. The nobleman was profane and vulgar.
At first the boy was shocked by the nobleman’s irreverence. Then he became fascinated by his coarse jokes and laughed heartily. Mr. Wedgwood was distressed. At the conclusion of the tour, he showed the nobleman a vase of unique design. The man was charmed with its exquisite shape and rare beauty.
As he reached for it, Mr. Wedgwood designedly let it fall to the floor. The nobleman uttered an angry oath! “I wanted that vase for my collection,” he said, “and you have ruined it by your carelessness!” Mr. Wedgwood answered, “Sir, there are other ruined things more precious than a vase, howsoever valuable, which can never be restored. You can never give back to that boy, who has just left us, the reverence for sacred things which his parents have tried to teach him for years! You have undone their labor in less than half an hour!”
—Good News Digest
4786 How Haldane Was Converted
James Haldane, when a young man, commanded the man-of-war, the Melville Castle. In a fierce battle with an enemy ship, he ordered new men on deck to take the place of those who had been killed or wounded. The men, seeing the mangled bloody bodies of their comrades, fell back in horror. Captain Haldane began to swear frightfully and wished them all in hell.
At the close of the fight a Christian soldier stepped up and said respectfully to the young captain, “Sir, if God had answered your prayer just now where should we have been?” This faithful word of rebuke went home to the conscience of Haldane. It led to his sound conversion. He abandoned his career in the Navy and became a preacher of the Gospel and labored for fifty-four years.
But this was not all: James led his brother Robert to Christ who also became a preacher and an able commentator of the Bible. Nor was this all. Robert Haldane was the means of the conversion of Felix Neff a philanthropic Swiss preacher and leader of Protestantism. What if that Christian soldier had remained silent instead of rebuking Captain Haldane?
—Triumphs of Faith
4787 General Washington’s Directive
General Washington had this notice posted for his men in 1776: “The General is sorry to be informed that the foolish, wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice heretofore little-known in the American army, is growing in fashion. He hopes the officers will, by example as well as by influence, endeavor to check it. We can have little hope of the blessing of Heaven on our arms if we insult it by our impiety and folly. Added to this, it is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense and character detests and despises it.”
—Mrs. Clarence Jones
4788 King Henry V Never Swore
King Henry V never swore a profane oath. He had only two ways of expressing his utmost determination and what his resolution was. When anything wrong was proposed to him, his one word was “Impossible.” When anything in the shape of duty came before him, he had only one expression, “It must be done.”
—Dean Stanley
4789 Why General Grant Never Swore
Gen. Horace Porter, in his “Campaigning With Grant,” in the New Century, says:
While sitting with him at the campfire late one night after everyone had gone to bed, I said to him: “General, it seems singular that you should have gone through all the rough and tumble of army service and frontier life, and have never been provoked into swearing. I have never heard you utter an oath or use an imprecation.”
“Well, somehow or other, I never learned to swear,” he replied, “when a boy, I seemed to have an aversion to it, and when I became a man I saw the folly of it. I have always noticed, too, that swearing helps to arouse a man’s anger; and when a man flies into a passion his adversary who keeps cool always gets the better of him. In fact, I could never see the value of swearing. I think it is the case with many people who swear excessively that it is a mere habit, and that they do not mean to be profane; but to say the least, it is a great waste of time.”
—W. J. Hart
4790 No Swearing During Church Building
When St. Paul’s Cathedral was being built, its famous architect, Sir Christopher Wren, had posted in different parts of the structure this notice: “Whereas among laborers and others that ungodly custom of swearing is so frequently heard to the dishonor of God and to the contempt of His authority, and to the end that such impiety may be utterly banished with these words which are intended to the service of God and the honor of religion, it is ordered that profane swearing shall be a sufficient crime to discharge any laborer that comes to the call.”
To the builder of St. Paul’s and those other noble temples associated with his name, profane words spoken by the builders desecrated and profaned the holy place. If that is true of the temple made with hands, how much more is it true of that most wonderful temple of all, the temple not made with hands—man him self!
—Selected
4791 Pres. Wilson’s Father
Woodrow Wilson liked to speak of his godly ministerial father, Dr. Joseph R. Wilson, for many years a distinguished Presbyterian minister in the South. Among the anecdotes he related of him was this: “He was once in a company of men where they were having a heated discussion. In the midst of it one let out a profane expletive. Then, seeing Dr. Wilson there, he offered him an apology, saying, “Sir, I had forgotten that you were present. Please pardon me.” Dr. Wilson’s reply was, “It is not to me that you owe your apology but to God.””
4792 Story Of Two Parrots
The story is told of two parrots who lived near each other. The one was accustomed to sing hymns, while the other was addicted to swearing. The owner of the latter obtained permission for it to associate with the former, in the hope that its bad habit would be corrected. But the opposite happened; both learned to swear.
—Foster
4793 Wedding For The Birds
For more than a year a Toronto man has been searching for a minister to join his two mynah birds, Rajah, in holy matrimony. Finally, Pastor Lindsay King of the Willowdale United Church consented. Objections by his church members, however, forced him to cancel the ceremony. King expressed disappointment, saying the action would have made his church “more human.”
The birds’ owner said six big Las Vegas casinos and a Niagara Falls hotel were competing for sponsorship of the wedding.
4794 Ordaining A Dog
“Sadie,” a Labrador retriever belonging to the Charles Thurber family in Terra Linda, California, has been ordained as a minister of faith by the Hilltop House Church in San Rafael. The dog’s name and $15 were submitted by the Better Business Bureau of San Francisco through a newspaper ad. By return mail Sadie received her “Certificate of Ordination.”
—Pastor’s Manual
4795 Cussing-Cars For Passengers
The railroads have mail-cars, baggage-cars, passenger-cars, sleeping-cars and smoking-cars. And now they should add a cussing-car and all swearers ought to be shown to seats in it as a protection to the travelling public.
—James R. Stuart
4796 Epigram On Profanity
• A Farmer drove his team of mules into town and was very late returning home.
“What took you so long?” asked his wife.
“Well,” the farmer explained, “on the way I had to pick up the preacher, and from there on, these mules of ours didn’t understand one word I said.”
See also: Atheists ; Matt. 5:37; I Tim. 4:7; Jude 15; Rev. 13:6; 16:11.