The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-24

one, has got so prominently into the Foreground that he Is willing to violate certain rules which have been recog- nized as the foundation of all good business dealing. Tie rates the ad- lYantage which Is immediately before ] him high. and rates the honor of keeping his word low. What sort of unselfsh considerations there may be which in extreme instances Justify a man in departing from verbal truthful ness. do not care to discuss. 1 We all recognize that no man is worthy of our tolerance who de- | parts from the truth for selfish reasons or who habitually neglects it for any reasons whatever. The integrity of the spoken word is necessity among q people which desires to get its busi- ness efficiently and straightforwardly done. It is impossible to get the com plex needs of modern life satisfied or | the complex forces of society ruled unless the business men and the poli- tical leaders keep their word to one another. Therefore any man who is found to be physically untruthful is first distrusted and then cast out, just as completely as we distrust and cast out the man who is physically un- 1 cleanly. The reason is nearly the same in the two cases. It Is d meas ure of self protection on the part of society. And the reason is so obvi- ous and so imperative that it is only a very weak or a very foolish man who shuts his eyes to 1t and persists in a course of conduct which must result either in peril to society or in ostra- Icisn to himself.
 But just as there are a great many people who in their personal rela- tions are content to wash their hands and let the heart go, so there are an equally large number who in their pub lie relations are content to be physi- cally truthful and stop short of being morally so. They avoid specific forms of deceit. They do not avoid the phil osophy of life of which deceit in some form is a necessary consequence.
 The evil of a lie to society is due to the fact that it undermines mems con- fldence in one another, so that they cannot do business together. The evil of lie to the man that tells 1t lis something deeper and more subtle than this. It is due to the fact that he has got momentary considerations out of proportion to eternal ones; physical and intellectual ambitions out of proportion to the demands of character.
 If the little things which we are do- ing from moment to moment look large to us and the moral laws rela- | lively small, we are bound to go astray
 We are bound to sacrifice to our per. sonal ambitions and desires the con- slderations of service to God and oul fellow men. "A man who is in this DO sltion has lifted up his soul into vani
 ty He has left the things that are i'm. | mediately before him take an import ance that they were never intended t
 have. He has allowed a single tree il
 the foreground to blot out miles o ! distant landscape so completely that h
 tells himself and everyone else tha they never were there. Such a man bound to be 6 blind guide; to deceiv l either himself or others, or both-be } cause he is measuring the universe b,
 a wrong rule. He is in perpetual dan ger of entering upon courses of decei ] and untruth which shall disqualify hir