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Show PROFANITY. There i? too much profanity. If it were not sinful it would be foolish and degrading. The habit is in evidence everywhere, but predominates with men of limited vocabulary. A few set phrasers, a few . elozen commonplace 'words, a good supply of profanity and you have some men's entire stock of the vernacular. It is the spice of their limited speech. It emphasizes their dis- j regard for divinity and calls attention to their own vulgarity. It puts the gentleman and the muleteer on the eiame level, and puts the mule above them both. Men, women and children practice it some make up in volume what others give in kind. The changes are rung on it on every occasion, ana in a thousand ways. It is the substitute for every adjective, and qualifies every noun. It describee; virtue as well as vice, and tells the limits of every passion, pas-sion, from wildest joy to deepest sorrow. sor-row. It ought to be stoppped. As a folly it is bad enough, and as vulgarity it is disgraceful, but it is something more than folly and vulgarity it is a sin, says- a writer in the Catholic Universe. Uni-verse. There is a charm in the names of those we love, there is something sacred in the memory of them. If this is true of earthly names, it should be more true of the name of God. If men resent immlt to the name of a mother or sister, sis-ter, the name that is above every name should -be held in benediction. There is a certain degree of manliness demanded de-manded of every man by the very fact of his religion. Christ was God, and deserves the honor due to God, but He was also man, and among men he was the noblest and the best. In word as well as in deed. His life was without reproach. re-proach. He was above meanness and vulgarity, above everything that demeans de-means men. His life is the model for ours. Hia love of His Mother, His fidelity fidel-ity to frienda, His- kindness to all were exemplified above all in His speech. To make His name a by-word to employ it to emphasize our resentment or qualify qual-ify our imprecations is a desecration. It demeans and dishonors Hie . name, and inyitesvattention to our own irrev- . erence and ingratitude. It proves. that the greatest and best (he world has ever witnessed has failed to impress us. There may be isom uttlt- excuse for j the badly instructed or those who have j had no instruction for infidels and I Ior these who adore strange gods, for j indulging in the meaningless habit of cursing and swearing, but for Catholics it is both unreasonable and disgraceful. To believe in God and employ His name in imprecation, to look to Him for mercy and ask malediction upon others is one of the incongruities of Catholic life that finds no explanation in reason Or faith.' |