A Cowboy's Swearing Habit
Children's Story★★★★Illustration 12. A minister was riding with a cowboy in the Rocky Mountains. They began to talk about swearing, especially the way cowboys in that section swore. The cowboy said, “Oh, we don’t mean anything by it.”
The minister said, “The first time you ever swore, did you mean it?” “Did I! You bet I did.” ‘How about the second time?
Did you mean that?” He replied, “Oh, probably.” The minister said, “Well, that is rather strange logic. You do something once and it is wrong.
You do it twice and it is wrong, but do it a thousand times and it ceases to be wrong.” The cowboy grinned but said nothing.
Then the minister said, “Ought not the names of God and Christ to be the most sacred names that man uses?” “Oh, sure.” “That is the evil of swearing. You take the names that ought to mean every- thing and make them mean nothing.
You said so, for you said you didn’t mean anything by using those names in swearing.”
The point
A story where a minister uses logic to show a cowboy that repeated swearing desecrates God's name and robs it of meaning.