Litchfield enquirer., 1861-11-07
For the Enquirer. SHORT SERMONS. BY AMMAN. No. THREE.
ON HYPOCRITES.

| My Dearly Beloued Tn the course which marked out myself in the beginning, and for yo, } to follow, gave you warning that should takt some of your darling sins, seriatim describe thei
 origin, illustrate their effects and apply the caus
 tic cure. Intermingled with the weightier mat
 ters of the law should feed you with lghte : food, easy to masticate and gentle in disges
 ton.
 Our subject to-day however teaches us more
 serious lesson. Let us all give heed to it
 There are many things in this world of ours de
 spcable and mean. many people who are fit only
 for the bolts and bars which lock up criminal from the outer world and keep him from preyne upon the innocent and unsuspecting of the earth many who are sent to Coventry and ought to be, many who are mean and miserable in life and who ought to die and who do die mean aud miserable deaths, and yet the meanest, most mis. erabe and most despicable of all are the Hippo crites.
 You will be surprised, my unconverted and un convertible, when tell you how widespread and universal is this class in your midst. The worst
 insult a man can put upon you is to tell you to your face that Y ou Lie'- that is, that you are ashamed or afraid to speak the truth. And yet how many there are whose whole life is living lie and whose whole soul is mass and burden of rotten, putrescent, mortified Hypocrisy.
 Sometimes you are successful in deceiying others sometimes men really think you are real ly what you seem sometimes the cloak which covers you conceals the horns and hoois and tail of the real devil you are; sometimes the liv- cry you steal completely covers the inherent rot tenness of your skeleton sometimes men un- hesitatingly imagine you are tile pure and saint ly and godly, or the persecuted, maligned and martyred hero you pretend; sometimes you live life through of gross deception, and die and are covered in your grave with regrets, that would be changed to anathemas were you only seen even then as your MAKER sees you | Sometimes you deceive yourselves, but oh ]! how rarely; sometimes you are over persuaded; your conscience, aone too soft in the beginning, is hardened in the long course of deceit, or al- ways elastic has snapt unbeknown to you, and is withercd and gone.' That pious face, that snnffing twang, that shutfling gait, those groans and sghs and crocodile tears, those pious offtr- ings, deceive sometimes even yourself. On this head might recommend for your improvement that old Greek motto of So!on. one of the first lawyers of his days, "know Thyself''- watch the internal emotions of your minds and hearts-study your own characters honestly l undcccive yourself first and then undeceye oth- CTS.
 But it isn't always so, men are not always de- ce;ved by Hypocrtes. Conscious Hypocrites, and unconscious ones too, are often known when they least expect it. Uriah Heep is not uncom- mon and does not always remain undiscovered. That man who attends church regularly, who even reruses these fnmnations of your Shepherd on the sly, and sees their point and wrestlcs and is upset with them who gives now and then to charity and charges it to the income of his wife his honesty and sobriety, and yet, who, in the ab- sence of family restraint, would get drunk seven simes week. who is bland and smiling and cau- tious abroad and yet who is brute and Devil incarnate at home, because he is a co,card, and wreaks upon the defeucsess head of his family the fruits of his ugly temper that he dares not exhibit abroad, is-a Hypocri te-tho' he may be unconscious of the fact-and Hypocrite of the 1 bascst and meanest kind.
 | That man who says his prayers like a good churchman, who kneels at his family altar and l implores blessings upon the poor persecuted Jews and the miserable ignorant heathen, who gives ostentatiousiy for the Mission at Bombay, and yet kicks the beggar from his door and starves his belly for the sake of his pocket, is a Hypocrite, and poor and miserabletype of one. That man who rolls up his eyes in holy horror at the wicked ways of the world, who exhorts and cries out with loud voice "Thank God I am not as other men are" is one of the oldest classes of Hvpocrites.
 That man, woman and child, who pretends to be what they are not, who are careful always to show the best side outward, who would wear coat covered with velvet next to the skin rath CT than homespun jacket and a shirt, who would brush up the parlor and leave their kitchen in slops, who would wear jewels and go without l meat, are of the commonest class but that man or that woman who greet you on the street with smirk, an obsequious bow and an extended l hand, who welcome you on their threshold with snlirk and smile and an "oh how glad am ] to see yon'-and yet who feel at their heart the most utter indifference and unfriendliness for you are the commonest class of all-and oh !! how base. -
 1 An my friends, how widespread and uuiver- sal in your community is Hypocrisy-of all classes and all shades, and all types-these "whited se- pulchers." How poor and inadequate are the words of your preacher to root out and eradicate them off the face of the earth they poute and the air they poison. How miserable and base, brutish and rotten within" indeed are men who are content to LIVE IN LIE. So did that grace less scoundrel Byron sing out-who whatever his faults was never himself hypocrite :-
 sOh for forty y-parson power to cbant
 Thy praise, Hypocrisy! Oh Afor hymn Loud as the virtues thou dost loudly vaunt, l Not practice! Oh! for trump of cherubim Or the ear-trumpet of my good old aunt,
 Who, though her spectacles at last grew dim, Drew quiet consolation through Its hint,
 When she no more could read the pious print" ' D. ,.u bo.ro,S I Eoo, :x |.