usiness, in politics, in social order, even in religion, they
will stand. People must be got to see that they are evil, that under no
circumstances can they be anything else, that there can be no alliance
between truth and falsehood, that the false thing must, in the end, be
the corrupting thing, Satanic and vile utterly. They must know that,
just so far as anything is incorporate with a lie, so far is it foul to
the nostrils of all angels, and ought to be to the nostrils of all men.

Weave a lie into your social polity. It may prosper for a while, but
soon or late your social polity runs mad. Take a lie into your business,
as sleeping partner, try to live and prosper in that connection, and,
some time, you and your business will go to the dogs together. Adopt a
lie in your religion, make up your mind, piously as you think, to
believe what you do not believe and cannot believe, attempt to sanctify
falsehood and lie yourself into a faith, and your sham creed and your
lying religion will do you no good in this world or in the other.

Because a lie is a respectable lie, believed and patronized by
respectable people, shall you respect it? Because some venerable sham
has imposed its emptiness on a score of generations, shall we go on
reverencing it, and pass the scarecrow and its trumpery trappings on for
the reverence of our children? Shall we, for any cause, that is, turn
liars ourselves, and use the tongues God gave us to speak honest truth
and simple meaning with, to deceive, in small matter or great, one human
brother of ours, and make him think Satan's black lie as good as the
Lord's white truth?

It may be strong preaching, but how can one help it? Never yet did a
true-hearted, clear-headed reformer set to work to clear away some old
cankering sore of falsehood from a people's life that he did not meet
with opposition. And never yet did that opposition come from those who
loved the lie for the lie's sake or the bad for the bad's sake. It came
from those who love Truth, but who could not trust her, who loved Good,
but had no faith in its success, who wanted to see the right side
triumph, but had no confidence in the right--who really believed, that
is to say, that Satan was almighty and the Lord's cause could not
prosper, in this world at least, without his help! The opposition came
from those who would deal gently with respectable lies, not because they
are lies, but because they are respectable; who trembled before