The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-04-18

public, or do work with that promptness
and perfection that would at other times
be possible
But there are mechanics whose word
cannot be trusted at any time. No man
has right to promise more work than he
can do. There are mechanics who say that
they will come on Monday, but the do
not come until Wednesday. You put work
in their hands that they tell you shall be
completed in ten days, but it is thirty
There have been houses built of which it
might be said that every nail driven, every
foot of plastering put on, every yard of
pipe laid, every shingle hammered. every
brick mortared, could tell of falsehood con-
nected Herewith. There are men attempt
ing to do ten or fifteen pieces of work who
have not the time or strength TO do more
than five or six pieces, but by promises
never fulfilled keep all the undertakings
within their own grasp. This is what they
call nursing" the job.
How much wrong to his soul and insult
to God a mechanic would save if he prom
ised only so much as he expected to be able
to do. Society has no right to ask of you
impossi sibilities. You cannot ALWAYS cal
culate correctly, and you may fail because
you cannot get the help that you antici-
pate. But now am speaking of the will
ful making of promises that you know you
cannot keep. Did you say that that shoe
should be mended, that coat repaired, those
bricks laid, that harness sewed, that door
grained, that spout fixed or that window
glazed by Saturday, knowing that YOU
would neither be able to do it yourself nor
get any one else to do it? Then, before
God and man you are liar. You may saw
that it makes no particular difference, and
that if you had told the truth you would
have lost the job, and that people expect
to be disappointed, but that excuse will
not answer. There is voice of thunder
rolling among the drills and planes and
shoe lasts and shears which says, "All liars
shall have their part in the lake that burn
eth with fire and brimstone"
a ECCLESIASTICAL LIES
/ next notice ecclesiastical lies-that is
falsehoods told for the purpose of advanc.
ing churches and sects, or for the purpose
of depicting them. There is no use in
asking many a Calvinist what an Arminian
believes, for he will be apt to tell YOU that
the Arminian believes that a man can CON
vert himself; or to ask the Arminian what
the Calyinist believes, for he will tell you
that the Calvinist believes that God made
some men just to damn them. There is no
need in asking paedo- Baptist what a Bap-
tist believes, for he will be apt to say that
the Baptist believes immersion to be posi-
lively necessary to salvation. 1t is almost
impossible for one denomination of Chris
tians, without prejudice or misrepresenta-
sect. If a man hates Presbyterians, and
you ask him what Presbyterians believe,
he will tell you that they believe that there
are infants in hell span longl
1t is strange, also, how individual
churches will sometimes make misstate-
ments about other individual churches 1t
Is especially so in regard to falsehoods told
with reference to prosperous enterprises
As long as church is feeble, and the sing
ing is discordant, and the minister, through
the poverty of the church, must go with
threadbare coat, and here and there a wor-
shipper sits in the end of a pew, having all
the seat to himself; religious sympathizers
of other churches will say, What pity!' |
But let a, great day of prosperity come, and
even ministers of the Gospel, who onght to
be rejoiced at the largeness and extent of
the work, denounce and misrepresent and /
falsify, starAng the suspicion in regard to
themselves that the reason they do not
like the corn is because it is not ground in
their own mill, How long before we shall
learn to be fair in our religious criticismsl
The keenest jealousies on earth are church
jealousies. The field of Christian work is
so large that there is no need that our hoe
handles hit.
SOCIAL LIES. sen '1.e5
Next speak of social lies. This evil
makes much of society insincere You |
know not what to believe When people |
,
or not they want you to come. When they
send their regards you do not know
whether it is an expression of their heart |
or an external civility. We have learned
to take almost everything at discount.
Word is sent "Not at home, - when the,
are only too lazy to dress themselves. |
They say, "The furnace has just gone OUT
when in truth they have had no fire in it |
all winter. They. apologize for the un-
usual barrenness of their table when they |
never live any better. They decry their !
most luxurious entertainments to win a |
shower of approval They apologize for |
their appearance, as though it were un-
usual, when always at home they look |
just SO. They would make you believe that |
some nice sketch on the wall was the work
of master painter. sit was an heirloom |
and once hung on the walls of CASTLE /
and duke gave it to their grandfather" |
When the fact is that painting was made /
by a man down east, - and baked so as
to make it look old. and sold with others
for ten dollars a dozen. People who will |
lie about nothing else will lie about pict-
ure. On small income we must make
the world believe that we are aff1uent, and |
our life becomes cheat counterfeit and I
a sham.
Few persons are really natural. When I
say this L do not mean to slur cultured I
manners. 1t is right that we should have
more admiration for the sculptured marble I
than for the unknown block of the q quarry.
From many circles in life insincerity has
driven out vivacity and. enthusiasm A
frozen dignity instead floats about the
room, and iceberg grinds against iceberg.
You must not laugh outright; it is vulgar.
You must smile. You must not dash rapid
" across the room; you must glide There
is round of bows and grins and batteries
and ohs and ahsl and simpering and
namb mbypambyism world of which is not
worth one good, round, honest peal of
laughter. From such d hollow round the
tortured guest retires at the close of the /.
and sls11fraS h;c hoyt IL. L.. i