The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1883-03-03
TALMAGE.
Universal Prevalence of the Sin
of FalsehOod.
Modern Disciples Of AnlnIas who UnfOr'
tunateIy Do Not ReosIve His Swift
Punishment.
sUBJECT-"ANAN1As AND sAPHIRA."


ed AnAnias, with Sa pRira, his wife,
sold his possession"
Well matched, this welded pairl Alike
in ambition and falsehOOd. Anantas
ami SaphiTal They wanted a reputa-
tiOn for great benedcenee, and sold their
property, pretending to put the entire
proceeds into charity, when really they
put it in their own pockets. First, An
anias lied about it, and dropped down
dead; then Saphira lied about 1t and she
dropped down dead. BY these two fatal
tiles all nations were warned Of the dan
gers of sacrificing the truth. There are
10000 ways of telling lie. A mans
entire life may be a falsehOOd, while
with his lips he may not once directly
lie. There are those who state what Is
positively false, but afterward say
maybe" softly. These departures from
the truth are called white lies, but there
is really no such thing as a white lie.
The whitest lie ever told was as black as
perditiOn. There are men high in the
church and state, actually useful, self
denying and honest in many things,
who, upon certain subjects or in GER
tain spheres, are not at all to be depen-
ded upon for Veracity. Indeed, there are
multitudes of men who have their no.
tions of truthfulness 80 thoroughly per-
verted they do not know when they are
lying. With many it is cultivated sin
with some 1T seems natural inhrmity.
have known people who seemed to be
born liars. The efalsehOOds Of their lives
extended from cradle to grave. PreVar-
iCatiOn, Misrepresentation and dishOn-
e5ty of speech appeared in their first ut
torances, and was as natural to them as
any of their infantile diseases, and was
a sort of moral Group or spiritual scar
latina. But many have been in circum-
stances where this tendency has day by
day been called to larger development.
They have gone from attainment to at
taiDment, until they have become grad
uated liars.
The air of the city is filled with false
hoods. They hang pendant from the
chandeliers of our merchant princes.
They fill the sidewalk from curbstOne to
brown stone facing; they cluster around
the mechanics hammeT,a and blossom from
the end of the merchants yardstick, and
sit in the doors of churches. Some call
them fiction, some style them fabrica-
JiOns. You might say they were subter-
fuge, disguise, romance, evasion, fable,
misrepresentation; but, as am tgnOr-
ant of anything 10 be gained by the hi
ding of a GOd-defying outrage under
photographers blanket, l shall chiefly
call them in plAinest vernacular-lies.
shall divide them into agricultural,
mercantile, social, mechanical and &C.
clesiastical lies.
First. | will speak Of those that are
more particularly agricultural. There
Is something in the perpetual presence
of natural objects to make man pure.
The trees never issue false stock Wheat
fields are always honest. Rye and oats
never move out in the night, not pay
ing for the place they have occupied.
Corn shocks never make false assign
ments. Mountain brooks are always
Current" The gold in the grain never
is counterfeit. The sunrise never hAuntS
in false cOlOrs. Taking farmers as a
class believe they are truthful and fair
in dealing, and kind hearted. But the
regions surrounding our cities do not
always send this sort of men to our mar
kets. Day by day there creep Into our
streets and about the market houses,
farm wagons that have not an honest
spoke in their wheels. During the last
few years there have been times when
domestic economy has foundered on the
farmers firkin. Neither high taxes nor
the high price of dry goods, nor the ex-
orbit lncy of labor, could excuse much
that the city has witnessed in the beha-
viOr of the yeOmanry. By the quiet fire.
sides of Westchester and the. Long Is
land counties | hope there may be seas
tance. Rural districts are accustomed
to rail at great cities, as given up to
fraud and every form of unrighteOus.
ness; but our cities do not absorb all the
abOminatiOns. Our citizens have learn
ed the importance of not always trust
ing to the size and style of apples in
the top of farmers barrel, as an indi-
cation of what may be found further
down. Many Of our people sre accus-
toned to watch to see how correctly
bushel of beets is measured, and there
are not many honest milk cans. Deeep-
tiOns do not all cluster around city halls.
When all cities sit down and weep over
their sins, all the surrounding counties
ought to come in and weep with them.
There Is often hostility on the part Of
producers against traders, as though
the man who raises the corn were nee
essarily more honorable than the grain
dealer who pOurs it into his mammoth
bin. There ought to be no such hostil-,
ity. The occupation of one Is as neces-
6ary as that of the other. Yet producers
often think 1t no wrong to snatch away
from the trader, and they say to the bar
gain n-maker, you get your money easy"
Do they get it eAsyp Let those who In
the quiet field and barn get their living
exchange places with those who stand
today amid the eXcitements of CONNER
cial life, and see II they find 1t 80 very
easy. While the farmer goes to sleep
with the assurance that his crops will be
growing ali the night, continually ad-
ding to his revenue, the merchant tries
to go to sleep, conscious that that mo-
ment his cargo may be broken on the
rocks or damaged by the wave that
sweeps clear across the hurricane deck.
or that the speculators may that very
hour be plotting some monetary reVoln-
tion, or the burglars be prying open his
safe, or his debtors fleeing the town. or
his landlord raising his rent, or the fires
kindling on the block that contains all
his estate. Easyl Is itP God help the
merchantsl 1t is hard to have the palms
of the hands blistered with outdoor
work, but more dreadful process when
Through mercantile anxieties, the brain
ls consumed.
In the next place we notice mercan-
tile liars--thOse before the counter and
behind the counter. l will not attempt
to specify the different forms Of COM
mercial falsehoOd. There are merchants
who excuse themselves for deviations
from truthfulness because Of what they