Los Angeles herald., 1905-01-23
SATANIC SHRINE
FOUNDED ON LIES
REV. TALMAGE DISCUSSES
FALSEH00DS
FaIslties Of Business, Social, Political
and Religious Life Are Vigorously
Condemned in Twelfth OF
Series Of Sermons

of DR.. Frank Dewitt Talmages sermon
last night as the twelfth of the series
on Twenty Ways for Twenty Sins"
The lie Of business life, of society, OF
politics, of the parent to the child and
Of the church we're taken UP separately
and the conscience anointment of the
white lie" vigorously condemned.
He said in part:
Business lies, and social lies. and
political lies, and parental lies, and
church lies, can never be clothed in
white and called white lies Every
falsehood is covered with the black
pail of death--black as the darkness
of the bottomless pit. There Is theory
abroad that some lies are innocent and
respectable. and that there is no harm
IL their black garments hang in the
wardrobes of honest men.
"Falsehoods in the business world:
They nest and thrive especially well In
the haunts of barter and gain. They
greet you at the opened doors of our
large department stores. They pic
torialize themselves in circulars and
newspaper advertisements, which are
sent broadcast over the cities and
country districts. They pose in ficti-
tious reports of our large corporations,
and exaggerate the annual dividends.
They are just as much at home with
the wholesale manipulation as with the
retail dealer; with the great capitalist,
as with the humble trader seated be-
hind the counter of the little country
store.
False estimates and fraudulent mis-
representation, whether made in the
assessors office, or to fire insurance
adjuster, or by the merchant to the
customer, or the customer to the
merchant, all belong to the same
category. They are lies. They are the
utterances of false tongues, and God
has recorded his adherence of it, and
his condemnation of all Intentional
verbal Misrepresentation.
"Falsehoods in the political world!
Oh, how many! Like the seventeen
year locusts, they never entirely de-
part from a region. They, however,
swarm most at certain seasons of the
year. They are especially numerous
and virulenta at a municipal or state
or presidential election. The ballot
box is their footstool. A national con-
vention to nominate a president IL
their gloriflcation. Political falsehood
will take the record of the purest and
best public man that ever lived, and
absolutely bedaub it over with scam
dals and false accusations. But though
the concocters and utterers of political
falsehoods may never tire of black
guarding and misrepresenting our
public men, the acme of meanness is
only reached when, without just cause,
they drag into the political mire the
wives and the children of the men
whom they would indirectly attack. In
this generation the family of any pub
lie man is never able, like Ceasars
wife, to live above suspicion. All, then,
wonder not that some of our public
men become bitter and lose their faith
in mankind. 1 wonder not that many
public man is tempted to carry his
political hatreds down to the grave.
"A lie is a lie, against whomsoever
told. A lie is especially cowardly when
it is told against public men. Espe-
cially cowardly because, for the most
part, the victims must writhe and
twist under the insinuating and poison
Gus attack and suffer in silence.
Social falsehoods are prevalent
everywhere. How are we to guard
against them? First and foremost:
By not making ourselves medium for
mans character once started is passed
from lip to lip, until the whole conf
munity hears it. But the calumny,
often undeserved, might be stopped by
the observation of a simple rule.
Never believing any evil rumor,' my
father said, you may hear against
your neighbor. Never believe it, unless
you have positively heard the evil con-
fession from the mans own lips, and.
even then you must hope there Is some
mistake about it. Never allow your
self to listen to any maligner of an in
nocent mans life, and thereby mako
yourself party in the crime. Never
allow your imperfect memory to trans
nit what idle gossipers and scandal
mongers may revel in.
"Falsehoods in the parental world: We
would have broadened this heading
and called it 'falschoods in the domes-
tic world but for one reason: When
a husband deceives his wife or a wife
her husband they do 1t deliberately
and premeditatedly. They do it with
their eyes wide open, and they fully
realize the enormity of their sins and
toward what destructive rocks they
are heading. But though a father
never tells a falsehood TO his marital
companion without 'forethought, that
parent may thoughtlessly fall into the
habit of deceiving his children. They
are so young. He thinks they do not
remember and do not understand. The
same law applies to the wife as we'll as
10 tha husband ohiIdto nnfna ond