ion? History is full of such cases.

WORDS NEVER CALLED BACK.

The most dangerous thing about it is that a word once uttered can
never be obliterated. Some one has said that lying is a worse crime
than counterfeiting. There is some hope of following up bad coins
until they are all recovered; but an evil word can never be overtaken.
The mind of the hearer or reader has been poisoned, and human devices
cannot reach in and cleanse it. Lies can never be called back.

A woman who was well known as a scandal-monger, went and confessed to
the priest. He gave her a ripe thistle-top, and told her to go out and
scatter the seeds one by one. She wondered at the penance, but obeyed;
then she came and told the priest. He next told her to go and gather
again the scattered seeds. Of course she saw that it was impossible.
The priest used it as an object-lesson to cure her of the sin of
scandalous talk.

THE FATE OF THE LIAR AND SLANDERER.

These sins are devilish, and the Bible is severe in its denunciations
of them. It contains many solemn warnings. "Thou shalt destroy them
that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.
. . . The mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped. Whoso
privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I cut off. . . . Lying lips
are an abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are His
delight. . . . By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words
thou shalt be condemned. . . . All liars shall have their part in the
lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second
death." Whoso loveth and maketh a lie shall in no wise enter into the
new Jerusalem.

HOW TO OVERCOME.

"But, Mr. Moody," you say, "how can I check myself? how can I overcome
the habit of lying and gossip?" A lady once said to me that she had
got so into the habit of exaggerating that her friends said they could
never understand her.

The cure is simple, but not very pleasant. Treat it as a sin, and
confess it to God and the man whom you have wronged. As soon as you
catch yourself lying, go straight to the person and confess you have
lied. Let your confession be as wide as your transgression. If you
have slandered or lied about any one in public, let your confession be
public. Many a person says some mean, false thing about another in the
presence of others, and then tries to patch it up by going to that
person alone. That is not making restitution. I need not go to God
with confession unti