Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-03-24
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
DR.. TALMAeE breaches ON THE
PLAGUE or LIES.

@NNN"
statsment, ''Ys Shall Not Surely Die"
the Text.
New YORK, March %. --'The Plague
of Lies" was selected by Dr. Talmage
for the subject of the fifth of bis dis
courses on 1.-The Plaques Of These
Three Cities, - which he preached today.
Both at the morning service in Brook
lyn and at the evening service under
the auspices Of The Christian Herald in
New York the vast buildings were not
large enough to hold more than one
half the crowd who came TO hear the
sermon. His text was Genesis lii, 4,
''Ye shall not surely die"
That was a point blank lie. Satan
told Il to Eve to induce her to put her
semicircle of white, beautiful teeth
into forbidden 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. 1t was
the first lie that was ever told In our
world. 1t 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 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, but
for six thousand years has ragged this
plague Of lies.
There are hundred ways of telling
lie. A mans entire life may be
falsehood, while with his lips he may
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 lies;" but there Is
really no such thing as white lie.
SOME LIvRs ARE ALL FALsRHooD.
The whitest lie that was ever told
was as black as perdition. No inven-
tory of public crimes viii be sufficient
that omits this gigantic abomination
There are men high In church and
state, actually useful, self denying and
honest in many things, who, upon GER
tain subjects and In certain spheres,
are not at all to be depended upon for
veracity. Indeed, there are many men
and women who have their notions of
truthfuiness so thoroughly perverted
that they do not know when they are
lying. With many IL Is a cultivated
sin, with some II seems a natural In
trinity. / have known people who
seemed 10 have been born liars. The
falsehoods of their lives extended from
cradle tograve. Prevarications, Inisrep-
resentations and dishonesty of speech
appeared In their first utterances, and
were as natural to them as any of their
infantiIe diseases, and were sort of
moral group or spiritual scarlatina. 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 attainment and from
class 10 class until they have become
regularly graduated liars.
The air of the city is filed with false
hoods They hang pendent from the
chandeliers of our finest residences;
they crowd the shelves of some of our
merchant princes; they flll the side
walk from ourbstone TO brownstone
facing They cluster around the me-
chanic's hammer and blossom from the
end OF the merchants yardsticlk, and
sit In the doors OF churches. Some
call them "ilction." Some style them
fabrication" You might say that
they are subterfuge, disguise, delusion,
romance, evasion, pretense, fable, de-
ception, Misrepresentation, but as
am ignorant OF anything TO be gained
by the hiding OF a God defying outrage
under photographers blanket,
shall chiefly call them what my father
taught me 10 call them-lies.
CLASSIFICATION or LIRs.
shall divide them into agricultural,
mercantile, mechanical, ecclesiastical
and social lies
First, then, I win speak Of those that
are more particularly agricultural
There Il something In the perpetual
presence Of natural objects 20 make a
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 arc always current" The
gold on the grain Is never eounterfeit
The sunrise never hannts In false col
nra The dew sports only genuine dia-
Inonda Taking farmers as a class
beliove they are truthful and fair In
dealing, and kind hearted. But the
regions surrounding our cities do not
always send this sort OF men to our
mayketa Day by day there ereak
through cur streets, and about the
nAarket houses, farm wagons that have
not an honest spoke Ia their wheels or
. truthful rivet from tongue 70 tail
board.
Dusine the last few years there have
bean times when domestic economy
slaa fonndered on the farmers tirkin.
a II. q