Milford chronicle., 1891-03-27
THE PLAGUE OF LIES.
FIFTH SERMON IN THE SERIES ON
THE clTYs PLAQUES.

course Which VIII Apply Equally Well
in Country and City-''He Shall Not Sure
Iy DE-" Satan Told Eve, and He Lied.
NEW YORK, March 22.-''The Plague of
Lies" was selected by Dr. Talmage for the
subject of the fifth Of his discoUrses on
"The Plaques of These Three Cities" which
he preached today. Both at the morning
service in Brooklyn 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 iii, 4, Eye
shall not surely die"
That was point blank lie. Satan told
it to Eve to induce her to put her semicir-
Gle of white beautiful teeth into forbid
den apricot or plum or peach or apple.
He practically said to her, "Oh, Eve, just
take a bite of this and you will be omnipo-
tent and omniscient. Hou shall be as
gods" Just opposite was the result, 1t
was the first lie that was ever told in our
world. It opened the gate for all the false
hoods that have ever alighted on this
planet. It introduced 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 a few weeks, but for six thousand
years has ragged this plague of lies.
There are hundred ways of telling a
lie A mans entire life may be false
hood, while with his lips he may not once
directly falsify. There are those who state
what is positively untrue, 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
A LIE MAY DE TOLD IL MANY WAYS.
The whitest lie that was ever told was as
black as perdition. No inventory Of pub
lie crimes will 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 certain su ubjects 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 it is a cultivated sin; with
some it seems natural infirmity. I have
known people who seemed to have been
born liars The falsehoOds of their lives
extended from cradle to grave. Prevari-
cations, misrepresentation and dishonesty
of speech appeared in their first utter
ances, and were as natural to them as any
of their infantile diseases, and were sort
of moral Group or spiritual scarlatina.
But many have been placed in circum-
stances where this tendency has day by
L. Hf..rI &c,
larger development. They have gone from
attainment to attainment and from class
to 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 fill the sidewalk from curb
stone to brown stone facing; they cluster
around the mechanics hammer, and bios
som from the end of the merchants yard
stick, and sit in the doors of churches.
Some call them Fiction" Some style them
fabrication" You might say that they
were subterfuge, disguised, delusion, ro-
nance, evasion, pretense, fable, deception,
Misrepresentation; but, as am ignorant
of anything to be gained by the hiding of
a God defying outrage under a lexicog-
rapher's blanket, shall call them what
my father taught me to call them--lies.
VARIOUS SORTS OF LIES.
/ shall divide them into agricultural,
mercantile, mechanical, ecclesiastical and
social lies.
First, then, 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
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 are always current"
The gold on the grain is never counterfeit.
The sunrise never faunts in false eolors.
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 a truthful
rivet from tongue TO tailboard.
During the last few years there have
been times when domestic economy has
foundered on the farmers firkin. Neither
high taxes, nor the high price Of drS goods,
nor the exorbitancy Of labor, could ex
cuse much that the city has witnessed in
the behavior Of the yeomanry. By the
ouiet fresides in Westchester and Orange
counties hope there may be seasons Of
deep reflection and hearty repentance.
Rural districts are accustomed to rail at
great cities as given up to fraud and every
sasf n
not absorb all the denominations. Our citi-
zens have learned the Importance Of not
always trusting to the size and style of ap-
pies 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 bnshel 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 surrouhding eoun-
tries ought to come in and weep with them.
There is often hostility on the part of pro
ducers against traders, as though the man
who raises the corn was necessarily more
honorable than the grain dealer VINO pours
it into his mammoth bin There ought to
be nosuch hostility. Yet producers often
think it no wrong to snatch away from the
prader; and they say to the bargain maker,
'sYou get your money easy" Do they get
it easy? Let those who in the quiet field
and barn get their living exchange places
with those who stand today amid the ex-
elements Of commercial life and see if
they find it SO very easy.
While the farmer goes to sleep with the
assurance that his corn and barley will be
growing all the night, moment 10y moment
adding to his revenue, the merchant tries
to 20 to sleep conscious that that moment
his cargo may be broken on the rocks or
damaged by the wave that sweeps clear
across the hurricane deck, or that reckless
speculator may that very hour be plotting
some monetary revolution, or the burglars
be prying open his safe, or his debtors lee
ing the town, or his issidlord raising the
rent, or the fires kindling on che block that
contains all his estate. Easy Is it, God
help the merchantsi 1t is hard to have the
palms OF the hands blistered with outdoor
work, but more dreadful process when
through mercantile anxieties the brain is