The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1891-03-28
FALSEHOODS% DENOUNCED
DR.. Talmage Characterizes Lying
as the Fifth Plague.

The First Lie Originated With satan-A
fiagu That Has Invaded Society and
the Churches-Two Ways of Liv-
ing Compared.
In continuance of his course of ser.
mons on 1.-The Plaques of These Three
Cities" Rev. II. De Witt Talmape
preached his fifth discourse ut Brook.
lyn on the Plague of Lies. His text
was Genesis, lii, a: "Ye shall not
surely die" De Witt Talmage said:
That was n point blank lie. Satan
told it to Eve to induce her to put her
semi-circle of white, beautiful teeth in.
to a forbidden apricot, or plum, OF
peach, or apple. He practically said To
her: 20, Eve! Just take a bite of this
n you will be omnipotent and omnis.
clent You shall be as gods" Just op.
posite was h result. 1t was the first
lie that was ever told in our world. II
opened the gate for all the falshoods
that have ever alighted on this planet,
1t introduced a plague that covers all
nations, the Plague of Lies. Far worse
than the plaques of Egypt, for they
were on the banks of the Nile, but this
on the banks of the Hudson, on the
banks of the East river, on the banks of
the Ohio, and the Mississippi, and the
Thames, and the Rhine, and the Tiber.
and on both sides of all the rivers. The
Egyptian plaques lasted only a few
weeks, but for 5000 years has ragged
this plague of lies.
There are a hundred ways of telling
"a lie. A mans entire life may be a
falsehood, while with his lips he NAV
not once directly falsify. There are
those who state what Is positively un-
true, but afterward say may be-" soft
ly. These departures from the truth
are called white les" but there is
really no such thing as a white lie. The
whitest lie that vas ever told was as
black as perdition. No inventory of
public crimes will be sufficient that
omits this gigantic abomination. There
are men, high in church and state, actu-
ally useful, self-denying and honest in
many things, who, upon certain subjects
and in certain spheres, are not at all to
be depended uponfor veracity. Indeed,
49, va AaAAJ A4SA IN OI1C WIZ
have their notions of truthfulness so
thoroughly perverted that they do not
know when they are lying. With many
1t is a cultivated sin; with some it seems
a natural inirmity.
l have known people who seemed to
have been born liars. The falsehoods
of their lives extended from cradle to
grave. Prevarications, misrepresenta-
ton and dishonesty of speech appeared
in their first ~utterances, and were as
natural to them as any Of their infantile
diseases, and were q sort of moral
Group or spiritual scarlatina.
The air of the city is filed with false
hoods. They hang pendant from the
chandeliers of our finest residences;
they crowd the shelves of some of our
merchant princes; they fill the side
walk from curbstone to brownstone
facing. They cluster around the me-
chanic's hammer and blossom from the
end of the merchants yardstick and sit
in the doors of the churches. Some call
them fiction" Some style them "fab-
rication." You might say they were
subterfuge, disguise, delusion. 1 shall
chiefly call them what my father taught
me to call them-lies.
shall divide them into agricultural,
mercantile, mechanical, ecclesiastical
and social lies.
First, then, l 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 hon.
est. 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 sunrise never fiaunts in false col
ors. The dew sports only genuine dia-
monds.
Taking farmers as q class, / believe
they are truthful and fair in dealing
and kind hearted. But the regions sur
rounding our 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 a truthful rivet from
togue to tailboard. During the last few
years there have been times when do
nestle economy has foundered on the
farmers firkin. Neither high taxes,
nor the high price of dry good, o the
exorbitance of labor could excuse much
that the city has witnessed in the be-
havior of the yeomanry. Rural dis
tricts are accustomed to rail at great
cities as given up to fraud and every
form of unrighteousness; but our cities
do not absorb all the denominations.
Our citizens have learned the impor-
lance of not always trusting to the size
and style of apples in the top of a
farmers barrel as an indication Of
what may be found further down.
Many of our people r accustomed to
watch and see how correctly a bushel
of beets is measured; and there are not
many honest milk cans.
Deceptions do not all cluster round
city halls. When our cities sit down
and weep over their sins, all the sur
rounding countries ought to come in
and weep with them. There is often
hostility on the part of producers against
VI ddCA "a &c LAAohkll Nv l1dh ~ 1aI6Co
the corr was necessarily more honor
able than the grain dealer who pours it
into his mammoth bin. There ought
to be no such hostility. Yet producers
often think it no wrong to snatch from
the trader; and they say to the bargain
maker, you get your money easy"
Do they get it easy? Let those who in
the quiet field and barn get their living
exchange places with those who stand
to-day amid the e~xcitements Of CONNER
cial life and see If they find it SO very
easy.
In the next place we notice mercan-
tile lies, those before the counter and
behind the counter. / will not attempt
to specify the forms of commercial
falsehood. There are merchants who
excuse themselves for deviation from
truthfulness because of what they call
commercial custom. In other words,
the multiplication and universally of a
sin turns it into n virtue. There have
been large fortunes gathered where
there was not one drop of unrequited
toll in the wine; not one spark of bad
temper flashing from the bronze
bracket; not one drop of needle
woman's heart blood in the
crimson plush; while there are
other great establishments in which
there is not one doorknob, not one
brick, not onc t~rinlSet, not one thread
of lace, but has upon it the mark Of
dishonor. What wonder If some day a
hand of toll that had been wrung and
worn out and blistered until the skin