Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-03-28
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
Eloquent Sermon by the Brooklyn Di.
vine on Very Popular Vice.
Subject. "Ths Plague of LESS

That was point blank lie. Satan told 10
TO Eve to induce her to put her senieircle Of
white, beautiful teeth into a forbidden
apricot or plum or peach or apple He prac-
ucaliy said to her, "Oh, Eve, just take bite
OF tnis and You will be omnirotent and
omuiscient. You shall rs as godsn Just
opposite was the result. II was the first lie
that was ever ted lii our world. 1t opened
the gate for all the falsehoods that have ever
aightcd on this planet. 1t introduced a
plague that covers all nations, the plague of
iies. Far worse than the plaques of Egypt,
Tor they were on the banks of the Nile, but
TINS on the banks of the HUI ison on the banks
OIL the East River, on the banks Of the Ohio,
and the Mississippi, AMI the Thames, and
tee thine, and the Tiber. and on both sides
OF all rivers. Ths Egyptian plaques lasted
only lew weeks, but for six thousand years
has ra2el this plague of lies.
:. There are hundred ways OF telling
lie mans entire life may be a falsshooi,
wniie with his lips be may not once directly
iashy. There ars those who state What IS
positively untrue, but afsetEafI say may
be- softly. The-e Departures from the truth
are called White lies;N but there is really no
sach thing as white lie.
lie whitest lie that was ever told was as
BLACK as perdition. No inventory OF public
crimes will be sufficient that omits this gil
gantlc aoomlnation. There are men high in
~ tihtA oOd VIC uSlu1ilf USEFUL,
ana honest Ia many things, who, upon GER
tam subjects and in certain spheres, are not
at all to be dependel upon for veracity. In
deed, there are many men aud women who
have their notions of truthfulness so thor
oughly perverted that they do not know
when they are lying. With many it is a cul-
tlvated sin; with some it seems natural in
trinity. | have known people who seemed
TO have been born liars The falsehoods of
their hives extended from cradle to grave.
treYarications, misrepresentation and dis.
honesty OF speech appeared in their first ut
terances and were as natural to them as any
OF their lnfantile diseases, and were d sort of
moral Group or spiritual scarlatina. But
many have been placed in circumstances
where this tendency has day by day and
hour by hour been called 10 larger develop
ment. They have gone from attainment to
attainment and from class to class until they
have become regularly graduated liars.
The air of the city is filed with falsehoods
They hang pendent from the chandeliers Of
our finest residences; they crowd the shelves
OF some 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 yardstick, and sit in the doors Of
churches. Some call them fiction" Some
style them fabrication" You might say
that they were subterfuge, disguised, delu-
SION, romance, evasion, pretense, fable, decep-
ton, Misrepresentation, but, as | am igno.
rant OF anything to he CAMEL by the hiding
OF God defying outrage under a lexico-
grapher's blanket, shall call them what my
father taught me to call them-lies
l shall divide them into agricultural, mer-
camille, me .hanical ecclesiastical, and social
lies.
First then, viii speak Of those that ara
more particularly agricultural There is
aath 80, Ia
natural objects to make man pure. This
trees never issue 'false stock" Wheat fields
are always honest. Rye and oats never more
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 sunrise never
genuine diamonds. Taking farmers as
class, believe they are truthful eAd fair in
dealing and kind hear6ed. But the regions
surrounding CIr cities do not always send
this sort of men to our markets. Day by day
there creak through our streets and about
the market houses farm wagons that have
not an honest spoke In their wheels or truth
full rivet from tongue to tailboard.
During the last few years there have been
times when domestic economy has foun-
dered on the farmers firkin. Neither high
taxes, nor the high price of dry goods, nor
the exorbitancyo of labor, could excuse much
that the city has witnessed in toe behavior
of the yeomanry. By the quiet fresides in
Westchester and Orange Counties | hope
there may be seasons os deep reflection and
hearty repentance. Rural districts are &C
custoned to rail at great cities as given up
to fraud and every form of unrighteousness,
but our cities do not ABSORB all the abomina-
tons. Our citizens have learned the import
ance Of not always trusting to the sizs and
CIV 10 fNT g
rel as an indication of what may DO found
farther down Many of our people are ao-
customed to watch and see how correctly a
bushel of beets is measured, and there are
not many honest milk cans.
1 DeceptiOns do not all cluster rotind city
halls. When orr cities sit down and
weep over their sins, all the surrounding
countries 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 was necessarily
more honorable than the grain dealer who
pours it into his mammoth bin. There ought
to be no such hostility. Yet producers often
think 1t no wrong to snatch away fIom the
trader; and they say to the bargain maker,
( You get your money easy" Do they get
it easy2 Lot those who in the quiet field
and barn get their living exchange places
with those who stand to-day amid the ex.
elements of commercial life and see if theT
/ find so is very easy.
While the farmer goes to sleep with the
assurance that his corn and barley will be
j growing all the night. moment by moment
adding to his revenue, the merchant tries to
go to sleep conscious that that nionett his
cargo may be broken on the rocks or dam
/ aged By thu wave that sweeps clear across
/ the hurricane deci, or that reckless specli.
latorS may that very hour be plotting some
monetary revolution, or the burglars be
prying open his safe, or his debtors fleeing
the town, OF his landlord raising the rent, or
the fires kin1liug on the block that contains
all his estate Easyi Is it? God help
the merchantsl 1t is hard to have the palms
, of the bands bliStered with outdoor work,
but more dreadful process when through
mercantile anxieties the brain is consumed.
In the next place we notice mercantile
lies those before the counter and behind the
| counter. will not attempt to specify the
different forms of commercial falsehood
There are merchants who excuse themselves
Tor deviation from truthfulness because of
what they call commercial custom In other
worGs. the multiplication and universally
OF a sin turns it into virtue. There have
been large fortunes gathered where there
was not one drop of unrequited toll in the
/ N!nei not one spar& OF bad temper flashing
from the bro1Ze bracket; not one drop of
needle woman's heart blool in the crimson
plush, while there are other great establish
ments in which there is not one door knob
I not one brick, not one triuket, not one thread
OF lace but has upon it the mark of dishonor.
What wonder if, soma day, hand of toll
that had been wrung and worn out and bis
tered until the skin came Off should be placed
against the elegant wall paper, leaving it's
mark of booi--four fingers and a thumb
or that some day, walking the halls, there
| should be a voice accosting the occupant.
| saving, six cents for making a shirt, and,
flying the room, another voice s1ould say,
Twelve cents for an army blanket and
the man should try to sleep at night but
ever and anon be aroused until getting UP
on one elbow, he should shrek out, who's
there"
One Sabbath night. in the vestibule of my
church after serv &c, a woman fell in convul-
I sions The doctor said she needed medicine
not so much as something to eat. AS she
began to revive in her delirium, she said.
Easpiagly; Eight cents! Eight cents
Eight cents! | wish l could get it done. Am
so tiredl wish could get some sleep but i
must get it Gonel Eight cents Eich,
cents" We found out afterward She
was making garments for eiph,
cents apiece, and that she could make
ut three of them in davl Three times
elSht are twenty-fourl Hear it, men and
women who have comfortable honest
Some of the worst villains of the city are
the employers of these women. They beat
them down 10 the last penny and try to
cheat them cut of that The woman must
deposit collar or two before she gets the
/ garments to WORK on. When the work is dons
/ tits Sharply inspected, the most insignificant
laws picked out and the wages refused, and
sometimes the dollar deposited not given
back The Womens Protective Union re-
portsa case where one OF these poor souls
finding place where she could get more
wages, resolved to change employers, and