The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-03-27
TALHAGE'S SERMON.
PLAGUE oFLIEs THE FIFTH OF THE
SERIES OF THE CURSES OF GREAT
CITIES.
Little "whtte Lies as Black as Big Ones

DhOOhl11N y. N. -s4ciNh -
Plague of Lies" was selected by DIR.
Talmage for the subject OF the nun OF
his discourses on THE Plaques oil lhese
Three Cities" which he preached yes
terday. His text was Genesis, Ill, I:
'Ye shall not surely die" He said:
That was a point blank lie. Satan
told it TO Eve to induce her to put her
semi-circle of white, beautiful teeth
into a forbidden apricot, or plum. or
peach. or apple. He practically said to
her: 30. Eve! Just take bite of this
and YOU will be omnipotent and omni-
scient. You shall be as gods" Just
opposite was the result. 1t was the
first lie that was ever told in our world.
1t opened the way for all the falsehoods
that have ever alighted on this planet.
1t introduced 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 Tlber,
and on both sides of all rivers. The
Egyptian plague lasted only few
weeks, but for 5000 years has ragged
this Plague Of Lies.
There are hundred ways OF telling a
lie. A mans entire life may be false
hood. while with his lips he may not
once directly falsify. There are those
who state what is positively untrue, but
sfterward say may be-" softly. These
departures from the truth are called
white lies" but there is really no such
hi inv s.e- h 4 20 l1e 'ha II
that was ever told was as black as per-
dition. No inventory of public crimes
will be sufficient that Omits this gigan-
tic illumination. There are men, high
in church and state, actually useful,
self-denying and honest in many things,
who. upon certain subjects and in GER
tain spheres. are not at all to be de-
pended upon for veracity. Indeed,
there are many men and women who
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 infirmity.
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 was as nat
ural to them as any of their infantile
diseases, and were sort of moral Group
or spiritual scarlatina. But many have
been placed in circumstances where
this tendency has, day by day
been called to larger development. They
have gone from class to class, until
they have become regularly graduated
liars.
The air of the city is filed with false
hoods. They hang pendant from the
chandeliers of our finest residences:
thev crowd the shelves of some of our
merchant princes: they fill the sidewalk
from curbetone to brownstone facing.
They cluster around the mechanics
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 ''fabrica-
ton" You might say they were sub
terfuge, disguise, delusion, romance,
evasion. pretence, fable, deception, mis-
representation: but. as l am ignorant OF
anything to be gained by the hiding of
a God defying outrage under a lexi-
cographer's blanket, l shall chiefly call
them what my father taught me to call
them-liA.
shall divide them into agricultural.
mercantile. mechanical, ecclesiastical
and social lies.
First. then. I will speak of those that
are more particularly agricultural.
There is something in the perpetual
presence of natural obiectE to make
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
sunrise never faunts in false colors.
The dew sports only genuine diamonds.
Taking farmers as 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 70 our markets. Day
by day there creak through our streets
and about our market houses farm way
ous that have not an honest spoke in
their wheels, or truthful rivet from
tongue to tailboard. During the last
few years there have been times when
domestic economy has toundered on the
farmers frkiu. Rural districts are &C
customed to rail at great cities
as given up to fraud and
every form of unrighteous-
ness: but our cities do dot absorb all
the admonitions. Our citizens have
learned the Importance of not always
trusting TO the size and style Of apples
on the top Of farmers barrel, as an in
dication Of what may be found farther
down. Many OF our people are &C
custoned 10 watch and see how correct
lv a hUshel OF beets is measurek; 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 the 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 pro-
ducers often think II 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 harm
get their living exchange places
with those who stand to-day
amid the excitements Of CONNER
cial life and see If they find it so very
easy. While the farmer goes to sleep
with the assurance that his corn and
barley will be growing all the night.
moment by moment adding to his reve-
nue.. the merchant tries to go to sleep.
conscious that that moment his cargo
NAV be broken on the rocks or damaged
bv the wave that sweeps clear across
the hurricane deck: or that reckless