There's No Vice Quite Like Profanity

1828

PROFANITY

There is no vice committed, which promises so little profit and gratification as Profanity — few vices have a more powerful effect in lessening our reverence to the Supreme Being — weakening the bands of civil society — and degrading us in the estimation of the good and the wise. — Almost every other crime has a tolerable pretext for the commission — Swearing stands unprotected, either by mental or sensual enjoyments — it may emphatically be called an absurd and an inconsistent vice, as the moment gives no gratification, and promises us no advantage or profit in future.

The Drunkard receives immediate pleasure from the intoxicating draught — the Thief expects to gain profit by his infamous employment — the Murderer gratifies his vengeance for a real or supposed injury — and even the Traitor has in view the advancement of himself in the destruction of his country. Weak and impotent is the gratification of the Profane Swearer — he tosses from his tongue irreverently the name of that ALMIGHTY BEING; 'in whom he lives, moves and has his being.' He on every slight occasion calls on his creator to damn his soul to the regions of despair and misery — and was not our God a merciful and benevolent Being, 'who delighteth not in the death of a sinner,' his situation would be too dreadful to paint — too wretched to imagine. Separate from the dread and fear of the indignation of the ALMIGHTY in the other world, the effect produced on society, by profane swearing, in this world, has a direct tendency to destroy the moral and religious institutions of our country — and in some instances would prostrate the property, blast the reputation, and endanger the lives of our citizens. What confidence, follow citizens, can you have in the oath of that man, in a court of justice, although he calls the SUPREME BEING to the truth of his testimony, when in every circle he enters, with every man he meets, he uses the name of that God, who is the author of every good and every perfect gift, with irreverence. The obligation and the solemnity of an oath are destroyed — and the idea of perjury being a crime has no effect on the mind. See a man trembling on the verge of the grave — see his head whitened with age, his limbs feeble and inactive — and his soul just ready to leave his decayed body to appear at the bar of his God — bear this man, who instead of saying, 'God be merciful to me a sinner,' hear him using expressions of profanity, which palsey the feelings of the soul. Language would fail to express our sentiments of such a man — we only regret that he possesses no other mark of humanity than the form of a man.

—The Delaware Weekly Advertiser and Farmers Journal, Wilmington, Delaware, July 31, 1828, p. 1.