The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-03-26

This Is His Fifth Discourse in the Series |
on the Plaques of the Cities-satan's
Statement. 'Ye Shall Not sareiy pie."
the Text.
New YORK, March % 2-''rhe Plague
of Lies" was selected by DIR. Talmage
for the subject of the fifth Of his dis
courses on ''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 q point blank lie. Satan
told it to Eve to induce her to put her
| semicircle of white, beautiful teeth
into a 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. 1t 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 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" soft
ly. These departures from the truth
are called white lies;" but there is
really no such thing as a white lie.
SOME LIVES ARE ALL FALSEHooD.
The whitest lie that was ever told
was as black as perdition. No inven-
tory of public crimes will be sufficient
that omits this gigantic abomnation.
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 mon
and women who have their notions of
truthfulness SO thoroughly perverted
that they do not know when they are
lying. With many it is cultivated
sin, with some it seems a natural in
trinity. l have known people who
seemed to have been born liars. The
falsehoods of their lives extended from
cradle to grave. Prevarications, misrep-
resentations and dishonesty of speech
appeared in their first -utterances, 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 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 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 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 yardstick, and
sit in the doors of churches. Some
call them Fiction" Some style them
, fabrication" You might say thai
: 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 God defying outrage
3 under a photographers blanket,
t shall chiefly call them what my father
| thuSut lilc W CShi bliCiu
CLASSIFICATION OF LIES
shall divide them into agricultural
!, mercantile, mechanical, ecclesiastical
= and social lies.
First, then, will speak of those thai
are more particularly agricultural
/ There is something in the perpetua
e ,,.e.ence of natural objects to make {
J. | man pure The trees never issue 'falst
:, stock" Wheat fields are always honest
t Rye and oats never move out in tht
: night. not paying for the place the.
e have occupied. Corn shocks neve
make false assignments. Mountain
brooks are always current" Th'
gold on the grain is never counterfeit
: The sunrise never fiaunts in false col
mrs. The dew sports ouly genuine dia
!. monds. Taking farmers as a class
= believe they are truthful and fair il
q dealing, and kind hearted But tn
q regions surrounding our cities do no
t always send this sort of men to on
# markets Day by day there creal
It through our streets, and about tn
lu<Ihct uOuSSS, A<1iAi wagons euoe ASAs
% not an honest spoke in their wheels o
., q truthful rivet from tongue to tail
> board.
During the last few years there hav
been times when domestic econom
= has foundered on the farmers firkin
. Neither high taxes, nor the high price
= dry goods, nor the exorbitancy of labo
r could excuse much that the city ha
# witnessed in the behavior OF the yee
,s manry. BY the quiet fresides in Wes1
d chester and Orange counties hop
It there may be seasons of deep reslectio
y and hearty repentance. Rural district
are accustomed to raj. at great elite
q as given up to fraud and every forr
= of unrighteousness; but our cities d
" not aI,eorh all the denominations On