Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 281, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1917 — EVIL OF A CURSE [ARTICLE]

EVIL OF A CURSE

Why Jesus Delivered the Solemn Warning Against Profanity ... of “Thou Fool.” “Whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” —St. Matthew 5:22. The excuse of “mere words”’does not meet the 'case. There are plenty of idle words, vapid and thoughtless —rambling speech that starts from nothing and reaches no terminal. Yet It is a fair question whether even such words are altogether so Idle and mere as they seem. Wise men have never undervalued speech. Jesus attached great Importance to words. He warns us against over-fluency and would have us z thlnk before we speak. He tells us that 6iir words either condemn us or honor us. We are making records of ourselves. In our prayers we use the name of God to lift us upward. Out In the street we may see the same name to curse another man. Words bind us to God. Words cut us away from God. Words weave our hearts together, and words ravel us apart. Words bless and make life beautiful, and words fill life with hate and sorrow. “What do you read, my lord?” asked Polonius, and Hamlet answered, “Words, words, words.” But Hamlet found the one thing he could not endure was to hear people trifle with words. He could not come to peace because he found life poisoned with false words, and Macbeth came at last to this sorry travesty of life, “a tale told by an Idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Hard to Forget. There are no “mere words.” Somewhere all our words are woven into this thing that we are, making It either poor or rich, giving It substance and strength or frailty and poverty. It Is almost easier to forget a blow than It is to forget a curse. The blow is somehow physical, brutal, a thing of the body. The curse is in some mysterious way a thing of the mind, the spirit. Boys have told me that they have never been able to forget tlieir employer’s curse, spoken In sudden wrath. They would almost rather have been struck. The same thing is true of all angry speech and accusation. Someone has offended you, and you flash forth your bitter words. The passion of your speech carries you, and because you have called him by some opprobrious, hateful name you have all in a moment created a deathless memory. Friendships are severed, homes are ruined, husbands afid wives are alienated, love Is killed and trust destroyed and the heart of life broken more often, I think, by Angry words than by wicked deeds. Jesus says that the doing of this sort of thing puts a man in ddnger of hell fire. Hell fire Is not a physical flame but an untying regret, a sense of shame and loss that will not leave us. One of the gravest evils of hasty speech Is that It has the very opposite result from that which those who use It think to secure. It builds up walls of dislike and separation. It arouses anger Instead of correcting errors. It Is destructive Instead of helpful and upbuilding. Men and 'women who use it defeat their own purposes and lower the dignity of their own characters.

• Ask Forgiveness. Jesus speaks this word of warning because he knows what language means. If you are bringing your gift to the altar, and remember that you have done someone an injury, spoken unkindly, or cruelly or slightingly of them, go and make amends. Ask forgiveness for your faulty speech, your unkind criticism, your rash and headlong condemnation of your false Innuendo, and, having done your best to repair your wrong, come then and offer your gift. If your child, or your wife, or your husband arouses your impatience Is it for you to fly Into a passion or indulge in bitter, sarcastic speech? If you have a dislike for someone, and you let drop an ungenerous word that arouses suspicion and feeds the flame of a slow, deep burning distrust, have you not really done the coward’s deed and struck below the belt? \ Jesus is giving us here the standard of a fine courtesy, the gentleman’s creed. The fact is we llve ln a world where words have an almost infinite power to bless or curse. And rest assured of this also, that the word of blessing blesses both the speaker and the one of whom he speaks, and the word of cursing curses, often, even more bitterly, the one who speaks the curse. The old proverb still holds true, “A soft word turneth away wrath, but grievous Words stir up anger.” Rev. Pascal narrower. Church of the Ascension, West Brighton, S. L