One's language, like his dress, should never be conspicuous for its uncouthness or its oddity, its splendor or its ornamentation. The well-dressed person is he whose apparel is in harmony with accepted conventions of conservative current style, and in keeping with his own character. The minister of the gospel with a sense of taste in proper attire will not affect a Walt Whitman slouchiness nor the dandyism of a Beau Brummell. Similarly, his language should not affect the violence of "soap-box" communism nor the superficialities of Elizabethan courtliness. The truth of the gospel should be garbed in language befitting its dignity and its beauty.
Barbarisms and infelicities of speech are sometimes excused by some of our sincerest workers with the argument that they are a means of getting down to the level of the audience. A lazy vocabulary, street slang, and mutilation of language can hardly be defended, however, with that contention.
The sermon on the mount was delivered to the masses, and the profundity of its truth, combined with the simple purity of its expression, made a powerful appeal to the hearers. It is hardly tenable that some people would never be reached unless a preacher used a cheap vernacular, whereas it is perfectly obvious that many listeners of refined sensibilities may be driven from a series of meetings by one who scrambles his diction or mutilates his grammar.
Typical among errors frequently made by speakers is the failure to make verbs agree with their subjects. Appended herewith are some examples of this type of misusage. The word in parentheses is the right form in each
There is (are) some people who deny, etc. A man and his wife is (are) often, etc.
A list of many things have (has) been drawn up.
Each of the warriors were (was) equipped, etc.
Each leaf and each twig were (was) covered with ice.
Neither the sheriff nor the mayor were (was) in.
Neither I nor my brothers is (are) working. Neither the workmen nor I were (was) to blame.
(In the three last-given examples note that the verb is determined by the nearest subject.) A man don't (doesn't) need, etc.
The reason for my dislike of these professional sports are (is) their frequent bodily injuries.
The most interesting section of the book are (is) the chapters on ethics.
Group nouns describing a mass, a quantity, or a number, though plural in form, require a singular verb when the subject is regarded as a unit. Examples follow:
A thousand dollars is required for the project.
Four and four is eight.
The last hundred years has been marked by scientific achievement.
Compound subjects consisting of words of closely related meanings or two nouns naming the same person or thing are looked upon as a single idea and command a singular verb. Examples follow:
The tumult and the shouting dies.
This regularity and system is greatly to be commended.
Our patron and benefactor is dead.
Berrien Springs, Mich.