News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-03-26

tions, and stand at the front of relig-
ious and philanthropic enterprises. But
this class, like the Others that | have
named, has in it those who lack in the
element of veracity They cannot all
be trusted. In times when the demand
for labor is great it is impossible to
meet the demands of the public or do
work with that promptness and perfec-
ton that would at other times be posi-
/ BILE.
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 Mon
day, but they do not come until Wed
nesday You put work ir 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 single ham
mered, every brick mortared, could tell
of falsehood connected Herewith.
There are men attempting 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 in
suit to God a mechanic would save if
he promised only SO much as he expect
ed to be able to do. Society has no
right to ask of you impossibilities. You
cannot always calculate correctly, and
you may fail because you cannot get
the help that you anticipate. But now
l am speaking of the willful 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 say 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
a voice of thunder rolling among the
drills and planes and shoe lasts and
shears, which says, "All liars shall
have their part IL INC lake that burn
eth with fire and birthstone"
MEASUREMENTS ABOUT CHURCHES.
next notice ecclesiastical lies-that
is, falsehoods told for the purpose of
advancing churches and sects, or for
the purpose of depicting them. There
is no use in asking many Calvinist
what an ArIninian believes, for he will
be apt to tell you that the Arninian
believes that a man can convert him
self; or to ask the Arminian what the
Calvinist believes, for he will tell you
that the Calvinist believes that God
made some men just to damn them.
There is no need of asking p8do-
Baptist what Baptist believes, for he
will be apt to say that the Baptist be-
ieves immersion to be positively neces-
sary to salvation. 1t is almost impoS-
sible for one denomination of Chris
tians, without prejudice or misrepre-
sentation, to state the sentiment of an
opposing Sect If man hates Presby-
terians, and you ask him what Presby-
terians believe, he will tell you that
they believe that there are infants in
hell span long!
1t is strange, also, how individual
churches will sometimes make mis-
statements about other individual
churches. 1t is especially so in regard
to falsehoods told with reference to
prosperous enterprises. As long as a
church is feeble, and the singing is dis
cordant, and the minister, through the
poverty of the church, must go with
threadbare coat, and here and there a
worshiper sit in the end of a pew, hav-
ing all the seat to himself religious
sympathiZers of other churches will
say, What a pity" But let great
day of prosperity come, and even min
listers of the gospel, who ought to be re-
joiced at the largeness and extent of
the work, denounce and misrepresent
and falsify, starting the suspicion in re-
gard 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 far in
our religious criticisms? The keenest
jealousies on earth are church jealous
les. The field of Christian work is SO
large that there is no need that our
hoe handles hit.
THE LEE OF SOCIETY.
Next ] speak of social lies This evil