The Forrest City times., 1891-03-27
THE PLAGUE OF LIES.
DR TALMAGE SAYS IT IS ONE OF
 THE EVILS OF THE TIMES

A4x0 HN AkAJ OR 4AG A4MxIN4 whether Known as Fiction, Tabri-
 oation, Subterfuge, Disguise, Ro-
 nance, Evasion, Pretence, Fable,
 FalschOod or Misrepresentation,
 White Lies or Black Lies, Dntruth
 is Always Despicable and to be
 Avoided.
 Nsw YORK, March %, 1s91.-'The Plague of Lies" was selected by Dr. Tal- mage for the subject of the fifth of his dis courses on ''The Plagues of These Three Cities, which he preached today. His text was Genesis 8. 1: "Ys shall not surely die"
 That was roint blank lie Satan told lt to Eve to induce her to put her semi circle of white, beautiful teeth into . for bidden apricot, or plum, or peach. or apple. He practically said to her, 'Oh, Eve! Just take bite of this and you will be omnipotent and omniscient You shall be as gods" Just opposite was the result It was the first lie that was ever told in eur world. It opened the gate for all the falsehoods that have ever alighted on this planet. It 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 is 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 rivers. The Egyptian plaques lasted only few weeks, hvIf ciy thousand haa rayeAI fhia Plague of Lies.
 There are a hundred ways of telling lie. A mans entire life may be falsehood, while with his lips be may not once direct ly falsify. There are those who state what is positively untrue. but afterwards say ''may be-" softly. These departures from the truth are called ''white lies," but there As no such thing as 8 white lie. The white est lie that was ever told was as black as perdition. No inventory of public crimes will be sufficient that omits this gigantic evil There are men, high in church and state, actually useful, self-denying and honest in many things, who, upon certain subjects, and in certain spheres, are not at all to be depended upon for veracity. In- deed, there are many men and women who have their notions of truthfulness 30 thoroughly perverted that they do not know when they are lying. With many 1t b cultivated sin; with some it seems natural infrmity. 1 have known people who seemed to have been born liars. The falsehoods of their lives extended from the cradle to the grave. Prevarications, mis- representa tation, and dishonesty of speech, appeared in their first utterances, and were as natural to them as any of their infantile diseases, and were 8 sort of moral croup or spiritual scarletina. But many have been placed in circumstances where this tendency has, day by day. and hour by hour, been called to larger development. They have gone from attainment to attain ment, and from class to class, until they have become regularly graduated liars.
 The air of the city is filled with false- hoods. They hang pendant from the chandeliers of our finest residences; they crowd the shelves of some of our mer- chant princes; they fill the sidewalk from curbstone to brown stone facing. They cluster around the mechanics hammer. and blossom from the end of the mer- chants yard stick, and sit in the doors of churches. Some call them ..fction.s .s Some style them ..fabrication." You might say that they were subterfuge, dis guise, delusioa, romance, evasion, pre-
 
 but, as am ignorant of anything to be gained by the hiding of a d-defying out rage under photographers blanket, I shall chiefly call them what my father taught me to call them-lies.
 shall divide them into agricultural, mercantile, mechanical, ecclesiastical and aocial lies.
 Frst, then, I will speak of those that are more particularly agricultural There is something in the perpetual presence of natural objects to make man pure. The trees never issue "false stock" Wheat 6elds are always honest Rye and oats never move out in the night, not paying for the place they have occupied. Corn ahocks never make false assignments. Mountain brooks arc always current" The gold on the grain is never counter 1oit The sunrise never aaunts in false cobra The dew sports only genuine diamonds. Taking farmers as Q class, believe they are truthful aud fair in deal- ing, and kind hearted. But the regions surrounding our cities do not always send this sort of men to our markets. Day by day there creak through our streets, knd about tho market houses, farm wagons that have not an honest spoke in their wheels, or truthful rivet from tongue to tall board. During the last few years there have been times when domestic economy has fonndered on the farmer's 6rkin. Neither high taxes, nor the high price of dry goods, nor the cxorbitancy of labor, could excuse much that the city has witnessed in the behavior of the yeomanry. By the quiet hresides in Westchester and Orange counties, hops there may bs seAsone Of deep reflection and hearty re- T|pr 1fctvr .ko l to rail at great cities as given up to fraud and every form of unrighte ousness; but our cities do not absorb all the abomina- tions. Our citizens have learned the im- portance of not always trusting to the size and style of apples in the top of a farmers barrel IS an indication of what may bo found farther down. Many of our peo- pao are accustomed to watch and see how correctly bushal of beets Ia measured; l; and there arc not many honest milk cans.
 Deceptions do not all cluster around city 1auA When our cities sit down and weep 1, ovor their sins, ah the surrounding coun- tries ought to come in and weep with them. There Is often hostility on the part of the producers against traders, ss though the aaa who raises the corn was necessarily moro honorable than the grain dealer, who pours it into his mammoth bin. There ought t0 be no such hostility. Yet pro- .ducers often think it no wronR to snatch away from this trader; and they say to the sbargain- maker ''You get your money easy" Do they get it easy? Let those who tn tho quiet field and barn get their living