v. 20. _Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil._
What difference can it make what anything is called!
"What's in a name?
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
Yet the Bible pronounces its woe upon those who merely call things by
wrong names. Why?
1. _Names are not mere words: they are the representatives of ideas;
and hence, they have a force of meaning which makes them powerful
instruments._ There are opprobrious epithets that wound more severely
than a blow. Slander has slain more than the dagger. The name of a
place or person suggests to us all that we know, or have conceived,
about it or him. Paul, Jesus--what a power there is in these names!
How suggestive are the phrases, "an upright man," "a transparent
character!" Because words are representatives of ideas, to use the
wrong names is to convey false ideas. 2. _The wrong use of names
confounds moral distinctions, and perplexes and misleads men in
regard to duty._ Right must not be called wrong, or wrong right. This
is to sweep away all the landmarks of duty; or, rather, it is
shifting all the buoys and beacons by which we navigate the sea of
life, so that instead of warning us of danger, they shall rather draw
us upon shoals and rocks. The skill of every successful errorist
consists in a dexterous jugglery of names. 3. _By giving decent names
to gross sins, the standard of public morals is lowered, and the
community is corrupted._ One of the things that blinded America to
the evil of slavery was, the term that used to be applied to it--"our
domestic institution," &c. Be on your guard, then, against wrong
names. Do not try to deceive yourself by means of them. Pure
covetousness is sin, even though you do call it economy, &c. Do not
try to deceive others (Matt. v. 19; Mark ix. 42).--_S. G. Buckingham,
American National Preacher,_ xxv. 269-278.