eves in God will not lie
unto God under the solemnity of an oath. If, however, it were possible
for God to approve a lie on the part of one of his children, then that
child of God might confidently make solemn oath to the truth of his
lie, appealing to God to bear witness to the lie--which in God's mind
is, in this case, better than the truth. In God's sight an oath is no
more sacred than a yea, yea; and every child of God speaks always as
in the sight of God. Perjury is no more of an immorality than ordinary
lying; nor is ordinary lying any less a sin than formal perjury.

The sin of lying consists primarily and chiefly in its inconsistency
with the nature of God and with the nature of God's image in man. It
is not mainly as a sin against one's neighbor, but it is as a sin
against God and one's self, that a lie is ever and always a sin. If it
were possible to lie without harming or offending one's neighbor, or
even if it were possible to benefit one's fellow-man by a lie, no man
could ever tell a lie, under any circumstances or for any purpose
whatsoever, without doing harm to his own nature, and offending
against God's very being. If a lie comes out of a man on any
inducement or provocation, or for any purpose of good, that man is
the worse for it. The lie is evil, and its coming out of the man is
harmful to him. "The things which proceed out of the man are those
that defile the man,"[1] said our Lord; and the experience of mankind
bears witness to the correctness of this asseveration.

[Footnote 1: Mark 7:15.]

Yet, although the main sin and guilt and curse of a lie are ever on
him who utters that lie, whatever be his motive in so doing, the
evil consequences of lying are immeasurable in the community as a
community; and whoever is guilty of a new lie adds to the burden of
evil that weighs down society, and that tends to its disintegration
and ruin. The bond of society is confidence. A lie is inconsistent
with confidence; and the knowledge that a lie is, under certain
circumstances, deemed proper by a man, throws doubt on all that that
man says or does under any circumstances. No matter why or where the
one opening for an allowable lie be made in the reservoir of public
confidence, if it be made at all, the final emptying of that reservoir
is merely a question of time.

To-day, as in all the days, the chief need of men, for themselves and
for their fellows, is a likeness to God in the impossibility of lying;
and