A MISPLACED SWITCH by C. W. Stone

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 18, 1878

A MISPLACED SWITCH.

By C. W. Stone

A SWITCH is an indispensable thing wherever in a railroad track it is necessary to turn the train from one track to another, and set a train out one side, or send it off in another direction. Great care has to be taken in its management; for if a switch is misplaced it sends the train off on the wrong track, or throws it off the track entirely. Railroad men never place a switch in the track where the trains never stop nor in places where it is always desirable to go straight ahead at full speed. Such a switch would be out of place.

I have seen a large part of a large congregation tilted off the track by means of a misplaced switch in the speaker’s manner; and it is rarely the case that a speaker becomes so perfect in the management of the switches as to be able to take a long train of hearers through the whole line of his discourse without switching some of them off the track. It is true that if they are really anxious to ride, they will generally cling to the coupling, and roll onward, getting on to the track as soon as possible; but if the concussion is too great, they will go bumping along on the ties all the rest of the way.

What are these switches? Bad personal habits form one class. Some of these are peculiar to the individual, and may have followed him long; others are conceived and brought forth in the desk or on the stand. As a means of avoiding the latter class, speakers should shun the former or cure themselves of such habits as fast as they may be able to detect them in themselves. I hold that no man who claims to be a gentleman has a right to inflict upon others the torture of his bad or odd personal habits. We have no right to differ from our fellow-men without good reason, nor to practice anything outside of the approved custom unless we are able to show it to be no violation of good taste. It is difficult for us “to see ourselves as others see us” at all times, yet if we were watchful we should doubtless see much that needs adjusting.

It is frequently necessary to clear the throat while speaking, but to hawk periodically, spit on the floor or carpet, and hem whenever the next word does not crowd the one before it, are habits—switches, and such habits switch attention from the track. Speakers sometimes tell the audience to refrain from coughing. There is a lesson for the speaker in that “refrain.”

The speaker’s mouth is watched most closely; hence that should be kept tidy. A drop of water left upon the moustache after drinking, or any one of a dozen other such little things, will spoil the eloquence of the next five minutes. This is another switch out of place. But I need not specify. The speaker should take great pains not to have any of these little eye-sores about his appearance, nor to pain the ear with domestic sounds foreign to the subject. One of these bad habits, if prominent, will switch every sensitive hearer who is a lover of good taste and neatness half-way off the track. They cannot fully ignore the blemish, and to some the beauty and logic of the whole discourse is bedimmed by it. Who does not like to hear a speaker run along smoothly the whole course of his lecture, without jolt or jar or anything to call the attention of the hearers to defects in himself, or turn it in any manner from the subject of the discourse? The hearer should be charitable, and the more noble always are; but it is better for the speaker to avoid any occasion for such charity, even though he deprive his noble audience of the privilege of exercising that most enduring Christian quality.

Stereotyped phrases and copy-righted words, which almost every public speaker at some time deals in, are a source of annoyance. Some will end a prayer three times out of four with phonographic sameness. When they strike the closing strain, you know just what is coming. Some in prayer repeat the address, “our Heavenly Father,” or “O Lord,” or “O God” so often as to seem almost irreverent. In speaking, it is easy to fall into the habit of using some word or phrase repeatedly. Speakers should remember that “variety is the spice of life,” and that Webster gives several words for one idea sometimes. When you have tired out one, switch in another.

C. W. Stone.