The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1897-11-05
VICES OF SPEECH.
neV. Or. T>almaGe Gives a Pointed
Sermon On Lying.
'"9 various Kinds OF Lies, Acrtcu,tn,.,
''"'"ercl"' Mechanical, Social and
heciesiasticai-Aii VIM Have
to be Answered For,

certain man named Ananias, with Gar
w., lilo. ''" SO ACT
"A "eii-natchcd pair, alike Ia ambi
tion and III falsehood, Apanias an,
They wanted n reputatio,
ior great bS st'cence, and they sold al
thelr property, pretending to nut IN,
entire proceeds in the charity fund
""iif they put much of 1t in their owr
pocket There was no necessity ina
fhey give all their property away. b,i
they wanted the reputation of so do.
ing. Ananias first lied about It and
dropped down dead. Then Sannh %,
I,eo about it. and she dropped down
dead. The two fatalities a warnipg 10
aii ages OF the danger of sacriieipr
the truth.
There are thousands of WAYS of tall.
ang a lie. A mans whole lila ma, 10
'aIsfhood and yet never with his Inns
may he f~alsify once, There is a wa ;
y utteflng falaehood by look, by man
he'' as well as by lip. There are per.
''ohs VINO are guilty of dishonesty of
ePeech una then afterwards say may
&c, calling it a white lie, when no lie
"'nat color The whitest lie ever told
was as black as perdition. There ara
hhos SO given to dishonesty of speech
.uAt 'hey 90 not know when they are
aging. With some it is an acquired sin,
Mha with Others it is Il natural in
'nrlnlty' There are those whom YOU
VIII recognize as born liars. Their
Wnoic life, from cradle to grave, is
ullea up with vice of speech. Misrep-
RESERVATIONS and prevarication are as
natural to them as the infantjle
disease, aud are Il sort of moral
Group or spiritual sc~arlatiua, Then
there are those who in after life have
opportunities of developing this evil,
aud they go from deception to deceu-
'iop' ana from class to class, until they
'afe regularly graduated liars. At
times The air in Our cities is filled with
falsehooa and lies cluster around the
mechanics hammer, blossom on the
merchants yardstick, ana sometimes
sat IN the door of churches. They are
called by some fabrication, aud they
are called by some fiction, You might
'call them subterfuge or deceit, or ro-
nance, or fable, or Misrepresentation.
or dclusion; but as | know NOTHING to
De gained by covering up u God-defy-
ing sin with Il photographers blanket.
4 shall call them in plainest vernacu-
Aat, lies. They may be divided into
agricultural, commercial, mechanical,
social and ecclesiastical.
First of all, | speak of agricultural |
f~alsehoods. There Is something in the ,
presence OF natural objects that has a /
tendency TO make one pure. The trees
never issue false stock. The wheat !
a1elds are a. always honest. Rye and oats a
never move out in the night, not nav. /
ing for the place they occupy. Corn. o
shocks never make false assignment t
Mountain brooks are always current. a
Tho gold of the wheat fields is never 0
counterfeit. But while the ten g
dency of agricultural life is to e
make one honest, honesty is tt
the characteristic of all who il
to the city markets from the II
country districts. You hear th p
crealtlng OF the dishonest farm wagon in
IN almost every street in our great W
farm wagon in which there al
rs not one honest spoke, or one truth OF
ful rivet, from tongue to tail board. W
again and again has domestic econ or
omy in our great cities %foundered on Sa
the farmers tirkin. When New York til
and Washington sit down and weep &c
their sins, let Westches ter county a
the neighborhools around this st,
sit down and weep over theirs. w,
h tendency in all rural districts is tn
q suppose that sins and trausgressions irI
'iuster Ill our great cities; but citizens an
md merchants long ago learned that pa
t IS not safe to calculate from the els
of the apples on the top of tn,
he farmers barrel what is the charac-
er of the apples all the way down to- su,
the bottom. Many of our citi- VIC
ems and merchants have learned that tn,
Is always safe to see the farmer sa,
1easure the barrel Of beets. Milk cans ext
re not always honest. There are poi
hose who, in country life, seem to sou
1inlh they have a right to overreach me
dealers and merchants of all lial
,yles. They think 1t is more hon tina
rable to raise corn than to deal I
corn. The producer some Ho,
mes practically says to the 70,
erchant: You get your money The
lsily, anyhow" Does he get it easily? exa
lille the farmer sleeps, and he may sior
, to sleep, conscious of the fact that ty.
IS corn and rye are all the time pro- hon
n adding to his fortune or real
5 livelihood, the merchant tries to acc,
eep, while conscious of the fact that we
'ha' holehte the snip may DE driving mea
.he ROCK or a wave sweeping over ing
G hurricane-deck spelling his goods, her
the spectators may be plotting a kno,
revolution, or the burglars wor,
~ be ut that moment at his money nigh
[e, or the fire may have kindled on SOFA
very block where his store stands. she
aasy, IS II? Let those who get their angr
IN the quiet farm aud barn take you
} place OF one OF our city merchants very
d see whether it is SO easy. 1t is her !
ri enough TO have the hands bis to-da
ed with outdoor work, but it is time,
with mental anxieties to have hers,
brain consumed. God help the with
rchants' And do net let those who protl
} in country life come to the conclu- to a
that all the dishonesties belong to bedsi
7 life. be di
pass on to consider commercial was
i. There are those who apologize Soc
deviations from the right and for since
ctical deception by saying it Is com that
'cial custom. In other words, a lie had
multiplication becones a virtue. apollo
re are large fortunes gathered in they
en- there is not one drop OF the cry IL
at Of %unrequited toll, and not one to wi
TX OF bad temper flashes from the They
axe bracket, and there is not one a wor
D of needlcyyOnan's hearts bIond nm s,y r.