Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1903-09-05
TALMAGE
SERMON
BY Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. DID,.
Pastor Of Jefferson Park Presby.
ierian Church. Chicago

Chicago. Aug. 30.-In this sermon
the preacher inculcates the duty OF
truthfulness in all the relations OF
Kfe-in business in politics, In our So
cial intercourse and our religion. His
text is Acts v, 8: Tell me whether We
sold the land for so much? And she
said, Yea, for so much
Morbid curiosity is to the eye what
gossip is to the ear. The grewsome'
the hldeous, the diseased, the appall-
ing. are objects at which some OF US
never tire of looking. Let poor work
man tumble from a scaffolding ana
have his brains bespattered upon the
city payements below or let helpless
washerwoman. staggering under her
load of clothes, be crushed by the
truckman's wheel or drunken human
brute be battered by policeman's CLUB
and the crowds will collect as rapidly
as do carrion eating birds at the scent
of a carcass. All day long a STEADY
stream of sightseers passes in and out
of the Partisan morgue. The more
bloated and defOrmed the corpses the
stronger the fascination and the bigger
the crowd.
Such is the scene Of my text. There
is great excitement in Jerusalem. The
agitation Is spreading everywhere. AS
the people are rushing along toward
common center some bystander asks
runner. What is the matterT why"
answers he, haven't you heard the
news? You know Ananias, who used
TO live next door to me? He was my
dearest neighbor Well, Peter was
preaching this morning near the tenn
pie. He took up collection for the
poor. Ananias came forward and laid
his contribution at the feet OF the
apostle and pretended that he had CIV
en- all his money to the church. de
wanted to appear well before his fellow
church members. But Ananias told a
falsehood. He had not given all, as he
| had pledged himself to do, but had
kept back part Of the money for his
own use. Then Peter raised his finger
toward heaven and said, 'Ananias, thou
hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
Immediately Ananias clutched at his
heart. He gave one shrek and dropped
dead. Come on let us go up and see
what Is next going to happen
Lies Cannot BE Clothed In White.
These two men rush on toward the
temple. They come to the outskirts OF
great throng. There the multitudes
are crowding and pushing and jostling
their neighbors and trying to get near
TO the speaker. Suddenly the cry If
raised. MAKE way, make way!' Inc
sea of human faces surges TO the rigf.
and to the left. Every head uncoyers.
The murmur of many voices Is hushed
| 10 the silence of the tomb. Slowly and
solemnly down through the open path
way come the pallbearers, carrying be-
tween them a shrouded form. For
"the young men arose. wound him up
and carried him out and buried him.
Hardly had the noise of the shuffiing
feet ceased when a newcomer, WON
an. began to elbow her way through
the crowd. She asks the people as she
pushes along: What Is the matterF is
any one hurtY No one answers. They
pretend they do not hear her. but they
do. AS soon as she passes along many
an eye Is moist, many a lip quivers
"God pity her! God pity her" This
is Sapphira, the wife of the dead per
iurer. She Is her husbands confed
crate in the premedltated lie. AS soon
as Peter sees her he points to the pile
of silver and gold and says unto her
woman, tell me whether ye sold tne
land for so muchT And she says
"Yea. for so much" Quick as a fash
the lightning of Gods wrath struck
"Then fell she down straightway a.
his feet and yielded up the ghost, and
the young men came in and found mel
dead. and, carrying her forth, buried
her nv her husband" Such Is the BID
lical description of two capital punish
ments. The record stands there on the
sacred page as a perpetual warning
against falsehood, an object lesson, ter
rible and exemplary, of the divine attl
tude toward oil kinds OF lies ana un
truths and prevarications and 1nten
tional distortions and misrepresenta
tions. wherever they may be found.
To catalogue some Of the equiyoca
tions by which the Ananiases ana th'
Sapphiras Of the present day perver
the truth is the purpose Of this sermon
We would prove that business lies an'
social lies and political lies and par
entail lies and church lies can never d.
clothed in white and called "whit'
lies" Every falsehood is covered witt
the black pail Of death-black as TN
darkness Of the bottOmless pit. w
would try to do this because there Is
theory abroad that some lies are limo
cent and respectable and that there
I no harm II their black garments nam
in the wardrobes of honest men.
business Falsehoods.
FalsehOods in the business world
They nest and thrive especially we
in the haunts Of barter and gain. The
greet you at the opened doors OF ou
large department stores. They pi'
torialize themselves in circulars an
newspaper advertisements when ar
sent broadcast over the cities and cour
try districts. They pose in tctitlou
reports of our large corporations an
exaggerate the annual dividends. The
have for their passports white slips Q
paper, purporting to represent Don
fide stock, whereas the gold and silve
and copper mines are purely inaglnar!
They enthrone themselves In the pits
Of the produce exchanges. They nnge
> the keys Of the telegraph instrument
when the breadstuffs are about I
be cornered. They are Just as mu'
Loo n1a mn nj N