Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-12-29
LYING as A FINE ART.

At the Young Mems Christian Association
rooms last night an interesting lecture was de-
livered by Rev. A. L. Frost, his subject be-
ing, Lying as a Fine Art" Mr.. Frost took
for his text the proverb, Buy the Truth
and Sell it not" He commenced by assert
ing that Gods ways were ways of truth. that
justice and Judgment are the habitation Of
His throne, and as God is absolutely true in
nature, His word must be truth. Assuming
that men do not lie for the mere sake of ly.
ing, he stated that falsehood, direct
and indirect, was becoming alarmingly
frequent. OF course absolute truth cannot
always be expected, by reason of the limited
comprehension or imperfect knowledge OF the
subject involved, but the law of veracity
requires US to make our statements conform
to our conception of the subject, and to utter
what we believe to be the truth. The
speaker gave several illustrations OF the pos
sibility of a man telling an untruth without
meaning to, or his being mistaken In his
facts, which he gave out for the truth yet
he did not lie, for the intent was honest. A
lie told was an intention to deceive. he
made the distinction between an untruth
and a lie, that the one was mega
lively false ard the other positively
and purposely false. The same rule
practically applies to the difference between
q falsehood and lie. Dsceiving by the
tongue is called lie, while stimulation by
looks, acts and gestures is called hypocrisy.
Plato held that it was lawful for statesmen
to lie, and Cicero and Plutarch held the same
view, which seems to be held by many mod
ern statesmen. No vice is SO common as
that Of lying, and none so universally con.
demned The Devil is called the Father Of
LIS" and he has many children. Men even
swear upon the Bible, and swear against it.
The lecturer quoted at length from the poets
aud authors on the subject Of lying, to
sastain his views, and then described the
various kinds of lying most in vogue.
These were the violation of solemn promise
which he classified as prOmissory lying !"
the violation of confidence directly or by in
situation benevolent lies" which are &C.
casioned by selfish dread of losing the good
feeling of your friend or provoking his dis
pleasure; the "pious lies," done by pro-
fessedly pious people for iuetihable ends on
the ground that the end justifes the means
lilies of convenience" which more especially
pertain to the so-ealled social amenities :;
lies of self-intereFt," told in ones self-de-
Tense for his personal advancement; white
lies, which are lies in their mildest form.
and are like milk of the first water %
malicious lies, )" uttered for the express pur-
pose of injuring your neighbor; "wanton
les" told for the mere sake of lying, and
practical lies, not only uttered but acted.
These various forms of lies and lying were
dwelt upon and felicitiously described by the
lecturer at length. and in most entertaining
manner. In conclusion, he pictured the con-
sequences of lying by saying that nothing go
utterly destroys character as want of veracity.
Truth and honesty are not only the founda-
ton of all good character. but the super
structure also,