If, at the day of judgement, men are to give account for every idle or unprofitable word that they speak, then, how much more so for every profane utterance! And if the person giving utterance to the profanity be a public figure, in the public eye, he, in doing so, not only dishonours himself, but commits a sin that is all the more heinous in the sight of God. He who knows what is in man has declared that it is “out of the abundance of the heart” that “the mouth speaketh”; it is what is “in the well”, as John Trapp expresses it, that will be “in the bucket”.
When the British Prime Minister is overheard giving utterance to profanities, it makes headlines in the world’s Press. It is true that he thought that his remarks were being made in private and that they were audible only to the person who was interviewing him. They were no doubt given improperly and dishonestly to the wide world outside and it is unthinkable that he would have made them had it for a moment crossed his mind that they were to reach other ears. But they were made and from the nature of them we must, following the Scripture rule, sadly draw the conclusion that our Prime Minister has an unclean heart. How true it was in this instance, “Be sure your sin will find you out”!
So perverted are the moral standards observed by this generation that some political commentators expressed the view that these utterances had only enhanced the Prime Minister’s image. Swearing, in their view, was more of a virtue than a vice in a man occupying his position! It indicated that he was a man of conviction, a leader to be reckoned with, and one journalist even suggested that the video-taped remarks should be used by the Conservatives as the basis of a party political broadcast. Such are the times we live in! It is to be feared that the mass-media have now, as far as the use of such language is concerned, conditioned people to such an extent that they are no longer shocked by what they hear. Other politicians are guilty of using profane language and perhaps are more guilty
in that respect than Mr John Major; the reason for singling him out is that he happens to occupy No. 10 Downing Street and that great importance is thus attached to the example which he sets. The nation is, in a sense, involved. Thomas Boston draws attention to the fact that the more notable the persons offending are then the more heinous are their sins. “As the greater the fire is, the more mischief will it do, if it go out of its place; the greater the tree is, the more mischief will it do by its fall. Thus one and the same sin is greater in magistrates, ministers, parents, and the aged, than in subjects, people, children and the younger sort. For men’s places and offices, which respect the government of others in the way of holiness and justice, aggravate their sins. ‘Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?’ “
The Divine standard remains what it ever was; it applies to all and sundry, high and low, and in whatever circumstances placed: “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” That is, we believe, what every sincere Christian aims at. It would be well if the words were prominently placarded on the wall of the Cabinet Room at No. 10 Downing Street or, even more so, above the entrance to the palace of Westminster.