The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1889-06-27
HYPOCRITES AND LIARS.

familiarity with bad associates.
Their corrupting influence extends
to something more important than
manners-to character-and even
where they fail to corrupt they may
do injury to reputation, which should
be "the immediate jeweP' of every
man and woman's soul.
Bad associates, however, come in
many different forms, and the most
insidious and dangerous of all is the
hypocrite and liar, free, as he may
be for time, of other offense.
People of good repute and honest,
who would be chary about associat-
ing with one who was rollicking or
fast, or who drank occasionally to
excess, sometimes fail to recognize
that the hypocrite and liar has po-
tentiality for evil from which the
wild young fellow who drinks too
much may be entirely free.
The drinkcr has durable dis
ease.
The liar, no matter what his
standing in society may be, is cor
rupted in his moral nature, and, if
not past redemption, is SO diseased
that he should ssbe Stunned as one
afflicted with leprosy.
No pure-minded, honest person
can afford to associate with the hypo-
critic and liar.
He may not corrupt in the sense
of leading his companions to double
dealing and Justification, but associa-
ton with such an one may bring
loss of reputation through his own
wicked utterances..
There is too much tolerance of
those who are known to be hypo-
critics, and proved to be liars, yet
who maintain social standing because
they have not been convicted of
what are esteemed graver offences.
Men do not become great crimi-
nails at once and continue contami-
mating pure society. They may
maintain their regulations fairly
we'll until they commit some recog-
nized offense or crime, but after
that their opportunities for contami-
mating others weaker and more in
nocent than themselves are in a
large measure lost. The pure-mind-
ed and honest who know them have
no need to be warned against associ-
ating with the swindler, the thief
or criminals of deeper dye. Men of
this kind are ostracised by decent
society, and must associate thereafter
With n th &arh King needs to be given,
however, against men who have
within them the potentiality of be-
coming such criminals and outcasts,
and these are the hypocrites and liars
whose lack Of moral sense shows
them to be capable of great wrongs
and crimes, and whose course in life
may be determined by their needs
and opportunities.
These are the bad associates to be
found in every rank and walk of
life, whose offences, trivial though
they may seem to be themselves,
should be taken as signal warnings
that they are morally corrupt.
The tombstone to apply 10 every
man is this: as he true and hon
est?" IF he is, whatever his faults
may be, they are capable of correc-
ton. If he is not true, not honest,
then beware of him, for his apparent
virtues may be the veriest shams,
and he has within his moral nature
cancerous fault whose corrllpting
influence no one can measure.
There should be no kindly toIer-
ance of the liar, he should be made
to feel the Indignation Of every per~
son whose ear he abuses and be cut
off from association with those who
desire to be true and to maintain
their good characters and reputa-
tions.
If his fault be not inbred, but
rather the result of bad habit, such
treatment may bring about his re-
form /; if it proceed from a radical
fault of the moral nature, the sooner
association is broken off the better,
for the hypocrite and liar is capable
of working much mischief merely
by his evil tongue. He could not
be as he is and have heart control
led by love or mind guided by
sense of gratitude or even of simple
justice.
He is, therefore, capable of any
malice that may be suggested by his
evil thoughts, and no tender feeling