sewed, that door grained, that spout fixed, or that
window glazed, by Saturday, knowing that you would neither be able
to do it yourself nor get any one else to do it? Then, before God
and man, you are a liar. You may say that it makes no particular
difference, and that if you had told the truth you would have lost the
job, and that people expect to be disappointed. But that excuse will
not answer. There is a voice of thunder rolling among the drills, and
planes, and shoe-lasts, and shears, which says: "All liars shall have
their place in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone."

I next notice _ecclesiastical_ lies; that is, falsehoods told for
the purpose of advancing churches and sects, or for the purpose of
depleting them. There is no use in asking many a Calvinist what an
Arminian believes, for he will be apt to tell you that the Arminian
believes that a man can convert himself; or to ask the Arminian
what the Calvinist believes, for he will tell you that the Calvinist
believes that God made some men just to damn them. There is no need of
asking a pedo-Baptist what a Baptist believes, for he will be apt to
say that the Baptist believes immersion to be positively necessary to
salvation. It is almost impossible for one denomination of Christians,
without prejudice or misrepresentation, to state the sentiment of
an opposing sect. If a man hates Presbyterians, and you ask him what
Presbyterians believe, he will tell you that they believe that there
are infants in hell a span long.

It is strange also how individual churches will sometimes make
misstatements about other individual churches. It is especially so in
regard to falsehoods told with reference to prosperous enterprises.
As long as a church is feeble, and the singing is discordant, and the
minister, through the poverty of the church, must go with threadbare
coat, and here and there a worshipper sits in the end of a pew having
all the seat to himself, religious sympathizers of other churches will
say, "What a pity!" But, let a great day of prosperity come, and even
ministers of the gospel, who ought to be rejoiced at the largeness and
extent of the work, denounce, and misrepresent, and falsify,--starting
the suspicion, in regard to themselves, that the reason they do not
like the corn is because it is not ground in their own mill.

How long before we shall learn to be fair in our religious criticisms!
The keenest jealousies on earth are church jealousies