The Brookhaven leader., 1891-04-02
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Tho Plague of Lies" Furnishes a
Fruitful Subject.
Modcrn Life in the Great Cities Perme-
nted with an Atmosphere Men
dacity-white and Black
Lies Compared.

anu NcN loIh Guy, IFOin INC tcNts
Ye shall not surely die.-Genesis, ill.,, 4.
That was a point blank lie. Satan
told it to Eve to induce her to put her
semi-circlc of white, beautiful teeth
into forbidden apricot, or plum, or
peach, or apple. He practically said
to her: "Oh, Eve! just take bit of
this and you will be omnipotent and
omnis .ient. 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 false
hoods that have ever alighted on this
planet. 1t introduced 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 Il
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"
softly These departures from the truth
are called white lies" but there is
really no such thing as white lie
The whitcst lie that was ever told was
as black as perdition. No inventory of
public crimes will be sufficient that
omits this gigantic abomination. There
are men high in church and state, actu-
ally useful. sclf-denying and honest in
many things, who, upon certain sab
jects, 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 truthful
ness so thoroughly perverted that they
do not know when they are lying. With
many it is cultivated sin; with some
it seems natural infirmity. | have
known people who seemed to have bccD
born liars. The falsehoods of their
lives extended from cradle to grave
PrevaricatiOnS, misrepresentation and
dishonesty of speech appeared in their
first utteranceS and were as natural to
them as any of their infantile diseases,
and were Il 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 de
velopment. They have gone from at
tainment to attainment, and from
class to class, until they have be-
come 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
merchant princes; they fill the side
walk from curbstOne to brOwnstonc
facing. They cluster around the me-
chanics hammer and blossom from the
end of the merchants yard stick, and
sit in the doors of churches. Some call
them fiction" Some style them fab
ricatiCn." You might say that they
were subterfuge, disguise, delusiOn,
romance, evasion, prctense, fable, de-
ceptioIt, 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 to call them-lics.
| shall divide them into agricultural,
mercantile, mechanical, ecclesiastical,
and social lies.
First, will speak OF those that are
more particularly agricultural, There
is something in the perpetual presence
of natural objects to 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 oc-
cupied. Corn shocks never make false
assignments. Mountain brooks are al
ways current" The gold on the grain
is never counterfeit. The sunrise never
haunts in colors. The dew sports only
genuine diamonds. Taking farmers as
a class | believe 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
markets. Day by day there creak
through our streets, and about the
market houses, farm wagons that
have not an honest spoke in their
Wheels or truthful rivet from
tongue to tail-board. During the
last few years there have been times
when domestic economy has fOundered
on the farmers frkin. Neither high
taxes, nor the high price of dry goods,
nor the eXOrbitancy of labor could eX-
cuse much that the city has witnessed
in the behavior of the yeomanry. BY
the quiet firesides in WeStchester and
Orange counties | hope there may be
seasons of deep reflection and hearty
repentance. Rural districts are accus-
toned to rail at great cities as given up
to fraud and every form of unrighteous-
ness; but our cities do not absorb all the
denominations. Our citizens have learned
the importance of not always trusting
to the size and style of apples in the
top of farmers barrel as an indication
of what may be found farther down.
Many of our people are accustomed to
watch and see how correctly bushel
of beets is measured; 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 weey with them. There is often
hostility en- the part of 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.