The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1889-02-22
EVERYDAY LYING.
New York Preachers Opinion of Polite
Society, Trade and Politics.

anu fOlitics.
Rev. DIR. +. c. Bolles. pastor of the
Third Unitarian Church on West
Eleventh street, preached recently on
The question lis Lie Ever Right?'
DIR. Bolles said he presumed the pep
pie had come TO hear him decide the
right and wrong OF lying to screen
criminals, cheer the sick, suppress
unnecessary scandal, shield honesty
from fraud and innocence from vice.
But he wasn't going to touch any such
hair-splitting points. They had best
be left 10 every mans conscience and
common sense when the emergency
came Nobody would say that war is
not an unmitigated wrong, and vet
emergencies came in every nations
life when it was necessary to slay
ones fellow men. There might be
emergencies in any mans life. He
would talk OF the lies OF everyday life.
Il denounce," said he, "the social
lie, the lie OF life veneered and var
nished with the politeness and fashion
OF the world; the lies men live and the
Hes men tell TO make life easy. society
pleasant and the wheels of existence
smooth running. The lies men live
are worse than those they tell. The
great lie of a life is 20 live beyond
ones means, 70 keep up appearances,
as the phrase goes; to assume g posi-
tion one does not earn; to form rela-
uonships one is not entitled TO; 20
spread examples that are lies, and
eventually to defraud creditors who
would never have become creditors ex-
cept for the lie that the man has lived.
No life in the universe is so hoI-
low as the life Of polite and fashion
able society. In no liie is there moro
falseness. less honor. more polite
palliations, more moral rottenness.
There is more honor among thieves
than in the parlors of New York.
more truth among gamblers and more
honesty among sharpers than among
those whose pride it is 10 be the most
polite and the most fashionable. To
prevent unpleasant truths from com
ing up, to make things go, to lubri-
cate the social machinery-for these
reasons social lies are told and acted,
and the result is that society's ideals
are bad and its methods false. The
truth told in a drawing-room is like a
breath of pure air in an atmosphere OF
fevers and asthmas. Is social life
ever right and heaIthful? one involun-
tsrily asks. II we could have honesty
there il might be-
Another everyday lie is the COM
nercial lie. the profitable, money-mak-
ing lie. Is there ever any ju5tifca-
uon for it, The plea Is made every
day that in these days OF competition
it is impossible TO get along without
complying with the general custom OF
commercial lying. Men say they
can't get TO the top and be honest with
their competitors. / should be sorry
70 think the flower Of our civilization
SO poisonous, so noxious as that. But,
If it is true, one can better afford not
30 get at the top than 70 lie. II is not
necessary TO be rich. Is is necessary
20 tell the truth.
Now comes the most provoking OF
al lies IL seems strange that in this
Christian church, city and couutry-a
country ruled by n religion which stands
for eternal truth-we should have to
speak of political lies. Men labor
uDder strange delusions in those en-
Ightened times. They think they can
cover their personality under the flag
OF hall, party or committee. But they
can't Back of every slander, every
lie told TO pauder 10 the lower ele-
nents, every trick. every rascalitY,
every editorial and stump speech
which does not deal in truth. there
stands man. He may think himself
hidden, but le isn't Because every
body else lies is DO excuse. For every
deed there is responsibility, and shs
arrows of God are surer than those Of
zaep."-N T. Sun