The Baltimore County union., 1866-12-15
miscellaneous.
THE FALsENEss OF SOCIETY
BY A. A. G.

1t is said by some of the good of our day thai
the golden age of the millennium isjust at hand,
that already light is seen breaking in the east,
| and that soon the sky will be all aglow.
The men who raise " The Last Warning Cry y
and point the warning finger are worthy of our
highest respect, for they are as sincere as they
are persistent but how to have faith in their
faith we know not. We have always supposed
that C The Great Preparation must preeede
"The Great Consummation, and of that Great
Preparation " we as yet see but little, for only
here and there man-and he is king among
his fellows-dares stand up and be true to his
God and himself and those who live with him in
what is called society. Now, so long as society
is what it is, so long as the and women
who compose it are what they are, we must con-
tnue to believe that there is no extensive prepa-
ration for the triumphal procession of the true
hearted inhabitants of the other world, and,
consequently, that we need not direct our eyes
heavenward in the hope, or the fear of seeing
the sky open, and the great uncounted multitude
coming through. Biologists tell US that only a
hundredth part of the earths diameter is solid,
that all the rest is fire. and that this fire may, at
any time, break out and bring the long-expected
day. Well, it mag, but we do not believe it
sOiu, until there is Great Preparation for
it in the hearts of men. We do not believe in
universal salvation but we do believe i'll the
salvation of great many, and we also believe
that if the last day of time should come very
soon, there would be comparatively few to re-
ioice in the dawn of eternity. When society is
cured Of its sickness and its sin-falsehood-
when men and women come to have full faith in
each other, and can live together without wear
ing masks, then we may lift up our heads, for
behold the coming of the Lord draweth nigh"
We can not estimate too highly the virtue of
sincerity. 1t underlies all other virtues. 1t is
the foundation of all character, and without 1t
there is no preparation for any world-save one
that God has ever made
1t has lately been argued by some well-mean-
ing men-men whom we suspect OF being better
than their creeds-that perfect sincerity is an ut
ter impossiblity, and also very undesirable. 1t
has been said that certain amount of deceitful-
ness is not only very respectable and commendable
but absolutely necessary, in the present state OF
the world, to bind people together, and make all
things run in smooth, peaceful current.
We are prepared to hazard the assertions that
all deceitfulness, whether in homeopathic or al
lopathic quantities, is as unnecessary and harm
less as counterfeit money-that society may be
perfectly sincere-that every man may be perfect
iy sincere-that those who lean on the prop oi
falsehood will soon find themselves crawling in
the dust and keeping company with serpents----
that society with no better pillars than lies will
soon fall without any Sampson to pull 1t down,
and that the world with no braver, truer defend
ers than lying men will at last be completely
conquered by evil spirits. We are prepared to
prove that lying is poor policy-that 1t is not
even profitable for the life that now is that
it is no railroad over which we may ride swiftly
to success and frpition, but the slowest, most
wearisome, and most damaging kind of con-
veyance to the things that we don't want, and
| to the place where we don't want to be. We
can show by facts-and facts are very obstinate
| things-that men have been untruthful, in plain
Saxon, have lied all their lives, without giving
| themselves so much as days rest in truthful
| ness, and yet made no money, no fame, no hap
| pness, no nothing by it or, if they made any
| thing, found that it took to itself wings and
went off and did not come back again.
| THERE'S nothing more Improbable than lying,
and nothing more profitable than telling the
truth, as we will show at our leisure.
Strange it is that with such blessed incentives
| to truth-teling, as all men have, any should be
! found arguing for lying, and stranger still that
/ any should believe and boldly say that strict
truth is something far in advance of the age, and
indeed of that long past age when prophets and
apostles declared the will of that great Being
| whose character is founded in truth
| But so it is Yes, there are men, actual exist
| ences, creatures with minds, and brains for We.
hicles, who think that the world was too young
centuries ago, and is still too young, to tell the
| truth that as little is to be expected of infants
| in swadding clothes, SO little, in the line o.
truth, ought to be expected from our young, In
fantile world.
| And yet, in spite of all the babblings of men
| it remains true that the path of truth is patti
for all men of every age-the present as well al
the future-to walk in, and that it is path O
peace.
A very sweet old-fashined book, too often lait
up, out of reach, on the SHELF or bound SO hand
somely and clasped SO tightly that it is seldom
opened settles the question as to the possibilit.
and profitableness of telling the truth. In times
long gone by the Great Inspirer spake often ant
| clearly on this subject of lying. He did not sa,
to any Of his prophets or apostles will kee
silent, for men are, and will, for centuries, con
tinue to be in such low state of moral develop
ment, that they will have no power, and feel
! moral obligation, to heed what say
No. no. He sounded out, The lip of trut
shall be established forever, but lying tongu
is but for moment"
"Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD
but they that deal truly are his delight"
He that will love life and see good days, i
him refrain his tongue from evil, and his llE
that they speak no guile
And among the last words which he prompte
John, the Revelator, to speak, are these, an
they thrilled the hearts and controlled the liv
{, OF thousands, more than eighteen hundred yea
ago : (" And there shall in no wise enter into
the New Jerusalem anything that deficit
neither whatsoever worketh abomination,-
nsdkctb a tte, but they which are written in tl
1 h~ah al