Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-02-26
LIARS.
The Followers Of Ananlas and
Sapphira.
What DR.. TaImage Knows About Agricul'
tursI, Mercantile Social, Mechani-
cal and Ecclesiastical
Lies.
rENIHoUsAND WAYS OF TELLINGAlIE
Snecinl % The ReQ,ster.

'sfF Special 10 the Register.
BROOKLYN, February 25.-Dr. Talmage
preached to large congregation to-day.
Subiect-Anauias and Saphira.
Text: Acts v. IA certain man named
Ananiss with sapphira, his wife, sold MS pos
sessions"
Well matched, this welded pair! Alike
in ambition and in falsehood, Ananias and
Sapphira. They wanted reputation for
great bene licences and sold their property
pretending to put the entire proceeds into
charity, when really they put it into their
own pocket. First Ananias lied about IL
and dropped down dead. Then Sapphira
lied aboutit and she dropped dead. By these
two fatalities all nations were warned OF
sacrificing the truth. There are 10000
WAYS of telling q lie. A mans entire life
NAV be falsehOod while with his lips he
NAV not once directly falsify. There are
those who state what is positively untrue but
afterwards say "may be" softly. These de-
partures from the truth are called white
lies, but there is really no such thing as
white lie. The whltest lie that was ever
told was as black as perditisn. There are
men high in church and state, actually
useful, self-denying and honest IN
many things, who, upon certain SUB.
iects in certain spheres are not
at all to be depended upon for veracity.
Indeed there are multitudes of men who
have their notions of truthfulness so
thoroughly perverted that they do not
know when they are lying. With many 1t
is cultivated sin with some it seems a nat
ural iRfirmity. | have seen people who
seemed to have been born liars. The
falsehoods of their lives extended from
cradle to grave. Prevarcatien, misrepre-
sentatlon and dishonesty of speech ap-
peared in their first utterances and was as
natural TO them as any other lnfannle dls-
ease and was a sort of moral Group or spe'
ritual scarlatina. But many have been
placed in circumstances where this ten
dency has, day by day and hour by hour,
been called to larger development: They
have gone from attainment to attainment,
and from class to class until they have be-
come regularly graduated liars.
The air of the city is
Filled with FalsehOods.
They hang pendant from the chandeliers
of our finest residences. They crowd the
shelves of some of our merchant princes.
They fill the sidewalk from curbstone to
brown stone facing. They cluster around
the mechanics hammer and blossom from
the end Of the merchants yard-stick and
set in the doors OF churches. Some call
them fiction" Some style them "fabri-
cations" You might say that they were
subterfuge, disguise, illusion, romance,
evasion, pretence, fable, deception, misrep-
resentation; but as | am ignorant OF any
thing to be gained by the hiding OF Cod
defyipg outrage under a photographer 8
blanket, shall chiefly call them in plain
est vernacular-lies. l shall divide them
into agricultural, mercantile, social, me-
chanical and ecclesiastical lies.
Agricultural Liars.
First, then, will speak of those that are
more particularly agricultural. There IS
something in the perpetual presence of
natural objects to make q man pure. The
trees never issue false stock" Wheat
fields are always honest. Rye and oats
never move out in the night not paying
for the place they have occupied. Corn
shocks never make false assignments.
Mountain brooks are always current
The gold on the grain is never counterfeit.
The sun rise never faunts in false colors.
The dew sports only genuine diamonds.
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 markets. Day by day there creep
into our streets and about the market
houses farm wagons that have not al. hon.
est spoke i'll their wheels, or truthful
rivet FROM tongue to tail.board. During
the last few years there have been times
when domestic economy has foundered on
the farmers firkin. Neither high ta-e!
nor the high price of dry goods, .or th,
exhorbitancy of labor, could e--cnss mucl
that the city has witnesseS. IN The behavi"
Of the yeomanry' y the quiet freside
OF "estchester, and the Long Island coun
ues nope there may be seasons of dee,
t, : - lection and hearty repentance. Rura
districts are accustomed to rail at grea
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