The Monitor-register., 1897-10-29

He Refers Specially to q Variety of Liars
n In Closing Draws a Remarkably
Graphic Picture of a Masquerade Ball.
copyright, 1897, by American Press Asso-
c~iation.]
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24.-Dr. Ta1mage
in this discourse gives vivid classified
ton Of the vices of speech and pleads
for honesty in all that is said and done.
His text is Acts v, Ito, ga certain
nan named Ananias, with Sapphire his
wife, sold a possession, " etc.
A well matched pair, alike in ambi-
ton and in falsehood, Ananias and
Sapphirai They wanted a reputation
for great beneficenee, 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 necessity 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 Sapphire lied about
it, and she dropped down dead-the
two fatalities a warning to all ages of
the danger of sacrificing the truth.
There are thousands of ways of tell
ing a lie. A mans whole life may be a
falsehood and yet never with his lips
may he falsify once. There is a way of
uttering falsehood by look, by manner,
as well al by lip. There are persons
who are guilty of dishonesty of speech
and then afterward say may be, call
ing it a white lie, when no lie is that
color. The whitest 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 a natural inirmity. There
are those whom you will recognize as
born liars. Their whole life, from era
die to grave, is filled up with vice of
speech. Misrepresentation and ~prevari-
cation are as natural to them as the in
fantile diseases and are a sort of moral
Group or spiritual ~scarlatina.
Then there are those who in after
life have opportunities of developing
this evil, and they go from decep-
ton to deception and from class to
class until they are regularly graduated
liars. At times the air in our cities is
filled with falsehood and lies cluster
around the mechanics hammer, bios
SOM on the merchants yardstick and
sometimes sit in the doors Of churches.
They are called by some fabrication,
and they are called by some fiction.
You might call them subterfuge or de-
ceit or romance or fable or misrepre-
sentation or delusion, but as / know
nothing to be gained by covering up a
God defying sin with a photographers
blanket l shall call them in plainest
vernacular lies. They may be divided
into agricultural. commercial, mechan-
ioal. social and ecclesiastical.
h Lying Farmer.
First of all, l speak of agricultural
fa1sehoods. There is something in the
presence of natural objects that has a
tendency to make n pure. The trees
never issue false stock. The wheatfelds
are always honest. Rye and oats never
out in the night, not paying for
he place they occupy. Corn shocks
never make false assignment. Mountain
brooks are always current. The gold of
the wheatfelds is never counterfeit, but
while the tendency of agricultural life
is to make n honest, honesty is not
the characteristic of all who come to
the city markets from the country dis
tricts. You hear the creaking of the
dishonest farm wagon in almost every
street of u great cities-a farm wagon
Ill which there is not one honest spoke
or n truthful rivet, from tongue to
tailboard- Again and again has domes-
tic economy in u great cities founder
ed on the farmers firkin. When New
York and Washington sit down and
weep over their sins, let Westchester
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
cluster in our great cities, but citizens
and merchants long ago learned that it
il not safe to calculate from the charac-
ter OF the apples on the top of the farm
er's barrel what is the character of the
apples all the way down toward the
bottom Many of our citizens and mer-
chants have learned that it is always
safe to see the farmer measure the
barrel of beets. Milk cans are not al
ways honest. There are those who in
country life seem to think they have a
right to overreach grain dealers and
merchants 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 easily? While the farmer
sleeps-and he may go to sleep con-
scieus Of the fact that his corr and rye
are all the time progressing and add
ing to his fortune Or his livelihood-the
merchant tries to sleep, while conscious
of the fact that at that moment the ship
may be driving on the rock or a wave
sweeping owe the hurricane deck spoil
ing his goods, or the spectators may be
plotting a monetary revolution, or the
burglars may be at that moment at his
meney safe, or the fire may have kin
died on the very block where his store
stands.
Easy, is it? Let those who get their
living in the quiet farm and barn take
the place of one of our city merchants
and see whether it is so easy. 1t is hard
enough to have the hands blistered
with outdoor work, but it is harder
with mental anxieties to have the brain
consumed God help the merchants,
and do not let those who live in coun-
try life come to the conclusion that all
tho dtchnnnctiao ha1Ono 70 a,tr I;fo
The Lying Merchant.
/ pass OIL to consider commercial lies.
There are those who apologize for de-
viations from the right and for practi-
cal deceptlLl by saying it is CONNER
eial custom In other words. a lie by
multiplication becomes a virtue. There
are large fortunes gathered in which
there is not one drop Of the sweat Of
unrequited toll, and not one spark of
bad temper flashes from the bronze
bracket, and there is not one drop of
needlewoman's hearts blood ON the
crimson plush, while there are other
fortunes about which it may be said
that on every doorLnob. and ON every
figure of the carpet, and on every wall
there is the mark of dishonor. What If
the hand wrung by toll and blistered
until the skin comes off should be
placed on the exquisite wall paper, leav-
ing its mark Of blood-four fingers and
a thumb-or if in the night the man
should be aroused from his slumber
again and again by his W conscience.
getting himself up on elbow and cry
ing out into the darkness, "Who is
there?"
There are large fortunes upon which
Gods favor zones down, and it is just
as honest and just as Christian to be
atiuent as it is to be poor. In many a