Why Don't he Swear? by John Norton Loughborough

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 10, 1865

Why Don't he Swear?

By John Norton Loughborough

WHILE the minister of divine truth is studying to prepare himself to appear before the people, I suppose it is as much his duty to cultivate his tone of voice, and manner of addressing the audience, as it is to study his subject. That is, not to use such harsh terms, or tones as to needlessly wound the ears of the people. To wound as deeply as possible with the truth, while the words may be words of sympathy and mildness. Not, for instance, in trying to illustrate the fact that children in the last days will be disobedient to parents, to tell the audience, "The streets are filled with your children, and they are a set of ungodly, dirty, filthy brats."

I was forcibly reminded of the importance of proper communication as a person was relating to me a circumstance that occurred a short time since in Maine. She was in a meeting where the minister used the words above in relation to children, and then fell to lashing the parents in a denunciatory manner, seeming himself to be in a rage, till finally a respectable lady who sat beside the sister turned to her and said: "Why don't the minister swear?" A course that could bring forth such remarks must have been anything but salutary on the audience.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.