Impure speech and filfthy hearts (Robert Leighton)

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Reformed Covenanter

Cancelled Commissioner
They who give their tongues the liberty of scurrilous jesting and impure speeches, cannot but have filthy hearts: their noisome breath argues rottenness within.

Robert Leighton, An Exposition of the Ten Commandments (1701) in The Whole Works of the Most Reverend Father in God, Robert Leighton, D.D., Archbishop of Glasgow (2 vols, London: James Duncan, 1828), 2: 390.
 
When I got sick last year I was in such pain that some cussing returned to me. I hadn't really cussed since about 18-20 when I was saved, but the pain brought some old habits out. Big pains seem to demand big words and our vocab lacks the Oooomph, and so I guess we revert to the shocking words for emphasis.

When my friend wanted to join the mission field he came out and with the mission leaders hiked some jungle. Well, he almost stepped on a huge poisonous snake and yelled out a dirty word in surprise, and was mortified. I have to admit that I laughed and laughed at that, though.

It is humbling to think that when a person gets into a fatal car crash, the last words on his lips might be a cuss word escaping out of a sense of surprise. That is a good reason to develop a habit of restraining one's speech.

Of course, I also know piously bad men who use godly language despite their awful dispositions, and this makes them 100 times worse than a basically good but rough around the edges fella who cusses like a sailor. And I do enjoy a good fart joke every once in awhile.
 
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