News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1897-10-27
klNS OF THE TONGUE.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE PLEADS FOR HON
EST WORDS AND DEEDS.

He Speaks of Agricultural, Commercial,
Mechanical and Ecclesiastical Lies-A
Plain Plea For Telling the Truth-The
Masquerade Ball.
copyright, 1897 by American Press Asso-
ciation.l
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24-Dr Talmage in
this discourse gives vivid classification of
the vices Of speech and pleads for honesty
in all that is said and done. His text Is
Acts " Ito, "A certain man named An
anias with Sapphira, his wife, sold pos
session, etc.
A well matched pair, alike in ambition
and in falsehood, Ananias and Sapphira
They wanted reputation for great benef-
cence, and they sold all their property,
pretending to put the entire proceeds in
the charity fund while they put much of
it in their own pocket, There was no ne
Cessity that they give all their property
away, but they wanted the reputation of
so doing. Ananias first lied about it and
dropped down dead Then Sapphira lied
about it, and she dropped down dead.
The two fatalities IA warning to all ages of
There are thousands of ways of telling
lie. A mans whole life may be a false
hood, and yet never with his lips may he
falsify once. There is way of uttering
falsehood by look, by manner, as well as
by lip. There are persons who are guilty
of dishonesty of speech and then afterward
say maybe, " calling it white lie when
no lie is that color The whitiest lie ever
told was as black as perdition. There are
those SO given to dishonesty of speech that
they do not know when they are lying
With some it is an acquired sin, and with
Others it is natural intirmity. There are
those whom you will recognize as born
liars. Their whole life, from cradle to
grave, is filled up with vice of speech Mis-
representation and prevarcation are as
natural to them as the infantile diseases
and are sort of moral Group or spiritual
6carlatina.
Then there are those who in after life
have opportunities of developing this evil,
and they go from deception to deception
and from class to class, until they are reg
ularly graduated liars. At times the air
in our cities is filled with falsehood, and
lies cluster around the mechanics ham
mer, blossom on the merchants yardstick
They are called by some fabrication and
they are called by some, fiction. You
might call them subterfuge, or deceit, or
romance or fable, or misrepresentation,
or delusion, but as | know nothing to be
gained by covering up God defying sin
with photographer $ blanket, shall call
them in plainest vernacular, lies They
may be divided into agricultural CONNER
nia al N al
Agricultural Falsehoods.
First of all, l speak Of agricultural false
hoods. There is something in the presence
of natural objects that has tendency to
make one pure. The trees never issue false
stock. The wheatfelds are always honest.
Rye and oats never move out in the night,
not paying for the place they occupy.
Corn shocks never make false assignment.
Mountain brooks are always current The
gold of the wheatfields is never counterfeit
But while the tendency of agricultural life
is to make one honest, honesty is not the
characteristic of all who come to the city
markets from the country districts. You
hear the creaking of the dishonest farm
wagon in almost every street of our great
cities-a farm wagon in which there is not
one honest spoke, or one truthful rivet,
from tongue to tailboard. Again and
again has domestic economy in our great
cities foundered on the farmers flrkin
When New York and Washington sit down
and weep over their sins, let Westminster
county and the neighborhoods around this
capital sit down and weep over theirs
The tendency in all rural districts is to
suppose that sins and transgressions clus-
ter in our great cities, but citizens and
,,,,I tl,f . i-
safe to calculate from the character of the
apples on the top of the farmers barrel
what is the character of the apples all the
way down toward the bottom. Many Of
our citizens and merchants have learned
that it is always safe to see the farmer
measure the barrel of beets Milk cans are
not always honest. There are those who
in country life seem to think they have a
right to overreach grain dealers and mer-
chants of all styles. They think it is more
honorable to raise corn than to deal in
corn The producer sometimes practically
says to the merchant You get your
money easily anyhow" Does he get it
easilyP While the farmer sleeps-and he
may 90 to sleep conscious of the fact that
his corn and rye are all the time progress
ing and adding to his fortune or his liveli-
hood-the merchant tries to sleep, while
conscious of the fact that at that moment
the ship may be driving on the rock or q
wave sweeping over the hurricane deck
spelling his goods, or the spectators may
be plotting a monetary revolution, or the
burglars may be at that moment at his
money safe, or the fire may have kindled
on the very block where his store stands.
Easy, is it? Let those who get their liv'
ing in the quiet farm and barn take the
place of one Of our city merchants and sec
whether it is SO easy. 1t is hard enough tC
have the hands blistered with outdoor
work, but it is harder with mental anxi
cites to have the brain consumed. Goo
help the merchants And do not let thosC
who live in country life come to the con
clusion that all the dishonesties belong t.
city life
Commercial Lies.
| pass on to consider commercial lies
There are those who apologize for devia
tions from the right and for practical de
teption by saying it is commercial custom
In other words, lie by multiplication be
comes a virtue There are large fortune
gathered in which there is not one drol
of the sweat of unrequited toll, and no
one spark of bad temper flashes from tn
bronze bracket and there is not one dro
of needlewoman hearts blood on th
crimson plush, while there are other for
tunes about which 1t may be said that OF
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