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Show The Vice of Lying. It is a curious fact that all persons in theory consider lying as an odious, mean and pernicious practice, and yet it is the most common of vices. This is because men are so ready to find excuses ex-cuses for deceiving one another, and fail to perceive the pernicious effect upon character and reputation of even small departures from truth long continued. con-tinued. Reputations, good or bad, are not made by single acts, but by the general course of conduct. A man whose renutation anions friends and acquaintances is that of a truthteller, whose word can be relied upon, gains it by constantly telling the truth; so also a man whose word is always doubted, unless confirmed, does not get such a reputation unless his' friends and acquaintances have learned by observation ob-servation that he is constantly lying. He may not tell any malicious lies, or do any great harm by his attempts to deceive, except to himself, but long-continued long-continued misrepresentations of the truth impair his credibility and develop de-velop in him a habit of lying which is fatal to his reputation. He is. moreover, more-over, exposed to great temptations to. commit more grievous faults than those which have here been considered. "He lies like a politician," is a proverbial saying, for the professional politicians and their hirelings have the reputation of taking advantage of any opportunity opportu-nity to place their, adversaries in a false position by misrepresenting, mis- , quoting or garbling their utterances, and sometimes by directly slandering them. A man who is habituated to truth-telling, who has never indulged I in white lies, shrinks instinctively from I deceiving others, either maliciously or : for his own advantage, in matters of j great moment. But he who has practiced prac-ticed a disregard for truth in small matters is ready when tempted to lie for his own advantage at any time. Young people cannot too soon learn to have a high regard for truth, and to avoid intentional deception in any form, direct or indirect, active or passive. pas-sive. Their future reputations, and much of their peace of mind and success suc-cess in life may depend uoon the degree de-gree to which they resist "the temptation tempta-tion to indulge in this too common vice. . |