Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-03-27
REV. DR.. 7ALMAGE.
Eloquent Sermon by the Brooklyn Di.
vine on a Very Popular Vice.
Subject, "Ths Plague Of Lies"

That was point blank lie Satan told i
70 Eve to induce her to put her semicircle Of
white, beautiful teeth into forbidden
apricot or plum or psach or apple He prac
tcally said to her, "Oi, Eve, just take Bit
OF this AMI you will be omnipotent and
omniscient You shall be as gods" just
opposite was the result. II was the first liz
that was ever told in oar world. 1t opened
the gate for all the falsshools that have ever
alighte1 on this planet. II introduced d
| plague that covers ali nations, tho 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 HUI lson, on the banks
OF the East River on the banks Of the Ohio.
and the Mississippi. AMI the Thames, and
the Rhine, and the Tiber, and Oh both sides
ofall rivers. The Egyptian plaques lasted
only few weeks, but for six thousand years
hasrag0i this plague Of lies.
There are a hundred ways of telling a
lie, A mans entire life may be falsehoo1
while with his lips he may not once directly
faisify. There are those who state what is
positively untrue. but afterwari say "may
be" sof5ly. These departures from the truth
are called white lies hut there is really no
SUCH thing as white lie.
The wfitest lie that was ever told was as
black as perdition, No inventory OF public
crimes viii be sufficient that omits this gil
gantic a5om nation. There are mon high in
church and state actually useful, self-denying
AID honest in many things, who, upon GER
tain subjects and in certain spheres are not
at all to be depen1el upon for veracity. In
deed, there are many men and women WHO
have their notions of truthfulness so thor
| oughly perverted that they do not know
when they are lying. With many it is cu!-
| tivated sin; with some it seems natural in
trinity. | hsve known people who seemed
to have been born liars. The fasehoods OF
their lives EXTENDED from cradle to grave.
| Prevarications. Misrepresentation and dis
honesty OF speech appeared in their first ut
teranceS, and were as natural TO them as any
of their infantile diseases, and were a 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 develop.
nlent 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 falsehoods.
They hang pendent from the chandeliers Of
our finest residences; they crowd the shelves
of some our merchant princes; they Gil the
sidewalk from curbstone 10 brown stone
facing; they cluster around the mechanics
hammer, and blossom from the end of the
merchants yarlsticl and sit in the doors of
Cuuits4tH COIlt Nttli lutill ttllOhs Otsit
style them fabrication You might say
that they were subterfuge, disguised, delu-
sion, romance, evasion, pretense, fable, decep-
ton, Misrepresentation, but, as | am igno-
rant of anything 10 be CAMEL by the hiding
of God defying outrage under lexic0-
grapher's blanket, shall call them what my
father taught me to call them-lies
l shall divide them into agricultural, mer-
camille, me .hanical, ecclesiastical, and social
lies.
First, then, will speak Of those that ara
more particularly agricultural There is
something in the perpetual presence of
natural objects TO make man pure. Tbs
trees never issue false stock" Wheat fields
are always honest. Rye and oats never more
out in the night, not paying for the place
they have occupied. Corn shocks never
make false assignments. Mountain brooks
are always "cur:ens." The gold on the grain
is pever counterfeit The sunrise never
faunts in false colors. The dew sports only
genuine diamonds Taking farmers as a
class, bslieve they are truthful and fair in
dealing aa1 kind hearred. But the regions
surrounding car 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 wheeis or truth
tul rivet from tongue 10 tailboard.
During the last few years there have been
time, when domestic economy has fOun-
dered on the farmers firkin. Neither high
taxes nor the h;gh price OF dry goods, nor
the exOr0itancy of labor, could excuse much
that the city has witnessed in the behavior
OF the yeomanry. By the quiet tiresides in
Westchester and Orange Counties | hope
there may b. seasons o. deep reflection and
hearty repentance. Rural districts are ac-
customed to rail at great cities as given up
to fraud and every form OF ulrighteousness
but our cities do not ABSORB all tho abomila-
tons. Our citizen have learned the import
anca of not always trusting to the size and
style Of apples in the top Of farmers bar
rel as an indication Of what may be found
farther down. Many Of our people are &C
customed to watch and see how correctly
bushe 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 surrounding
countries ought to come in and weep with
them. There is often hostility on 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. Yet producers often
think it no wrong to snatch away from the
trader; and they say to the bargain maker
"YOu 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 to-day amid the ex-
elements of commercial life and see if they
find so is very easy.
While the farmer goes to sleep with the
assurance that his corn and barley will be-
growing all the night, moment by moment
adding TO his revenue, the merchant tries to
60 to sleep conscious that that momeUt his
cargo may be broken on the rocks or dam
aged by the wave that sweeps clear across
the hurricane oecS or that reckless specu-
lators may that very hour be plotting some
monetary revolution, or the burglars be
pTying open his safe, or his debtors fleeing
the town, or his landlord raising the rent, or
the fires kindling on the block that contains
all his estate. Easy Is it, God help
the merchants 1t is hard to have the palms
Of the bands blistered with outdoor work,
but more dreadful process when through
mercantile anKieties the brain is consumed.
In the next place we notice mercantile
lies, those before the counter and behind the
counter | will not attempt Co specify the
different forms of commercial falsehood.
There are merchants who excuse themselves
for deviation from truthfulness because Of
what they call commercial custom. In other
words, the multiplication and universally
of a sin turns it into virtue. There have
been large fortunes gathered where there
was not one drop Of unrequted toll In the
wine; not one sparS Of bad temper flashing
from the bronze bracket; not one drop of
needle womans heart blood in the crimson
plush while there are other great establish
ments in which there is not one door knob,
not one brick, not one trnket, not one thread
of lace but has upon it the mark of dishonor.
What wonder if, some day, hand Of toll
that had been wrung AMI worn out and bills.
tered until the skin came off should be placed
against the elegant wall paper, leaving its
mark of blooi-four fingers and thumb
or that some day, walking the halls, there
should be a voice accosting the occupant,
SAYING, "Six cents for making shirt" and,
hying the room, another voice s;ould say,
Twelve cents for an army blanket" and
the man should try to sleep at night, but
ever and anon be aroused. until getting up
on one elbow, he should shrek out who's
thereS
One Sabbath night, in the vestibule Of my
church after service, woman fell in convul-
sions. The doctor said she needed medicine
not so much as something to eat. AS she
began to revive in her delirum, she sail,
gaspingly Eight centsl Eight centsl
Eight cents wish could get it done; lam
so tired ] wish ! could get some sleep, but
must Get IL donei EIGHT cenfsi EIGHT