Sharp County record., 1891-04-09
"THE PLAGUE OF LIES"
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage Discourses
on a Fruitful Topic.
The Social, Mercantile and Mechanical At
mosphere of the Great Cities Constant
ly Contaminated with the Poison
Gus Air of FalsehoOd.

the CltleS, was uelINeIcu III DAOONiJ -
and New York city by Rev. 7. Dewitt
Talmage, the subject being 1.-The
Plague of Lies" His text was:
Ye shall not surely die.-Geness, ii.,L
That was a point blank lie. Satan
told it to Eve to induce her to put her
semi-circle of white, beautiful teeth
into a 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
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 false
hoods that have ever alighted on this
planet. 1t introduced a plague OF
lies Far worse than the plaques Of
Egypt, for they were on the
banks of the Nile, but this onthe 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 a
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 a white lie.
The whitest 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, self-denying and honest in
many things, who, upon certain sub
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 a cultivated sin; with some
it seems a natural infrmity. | have
known people who seemed to have been
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 a sort of moral Group OF
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, ana 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 oul
merchant princes; they fill the side
walk from curbstone to brownstone
facing. They cluster around the me
chanic's hammer, and blossom from the
end of the merchants yard stick, ano
sit in the doors Of churches. Some cal
them "fction." Some style them fab
rication." You might say that they
were subterfuge disguise, delusion
romance, evasion, pretense, fable, de
ception, misrepresentation; but as an
ignorant of anything to be gained by
the hiding of u God-defying outrage
under photographers blanket ] shal,
chiefly call them whatmy father taught
me to call them-lies.
shall divide them into agricultural
mercantile, mechanical, ecclesiastical
and social lies.
First, / will speak Of those that arc
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 oc
cupied. Corn shocks never make fals'
assignments. Mountain brooks are al
ways current" The gold on the grail
is never counterfeit. The sunrise never
Aaunts in colors, The dew sports only
genuine diamonds, Taking farmers ~
class, believe they are truthful ant
+ fair IN dealing, and kind-hearted. Bu
, the regions surrounding our cities dc
! not always send this sort of men to ouI
markets, Day by day there creal
, through our streets, and about The
: market houses, farm wagons thai
, have not an honest spoke in theii
wheels, or truthful rivet from
, tongue to tail-board, During The
{ last few years there have been times
when domestic economy has foundcrct
on the farmers Arliin, Neither higl
taxes, nor the high price Of dry goods
, nor the cXorbitOncy Of labor could eX
, cuse much that the city has Witnessed
, In the behavior Of the yeomanry, BY
the quiet hrcsidos in Westchcstcr Ont
Orange counties hope there may bC
, seasons Of deep reflection and hearty
repentance, Rural districts are accus
toned to rail at great cities as given NJ
, to fraud and every form of unrighteous
, ness; but our cities do not absorb all The
denominations, Our citizens have Learned