[Footnote 7:  1 Sam. 11:  1-27]

[Footnote 8:  1 Sam. 21:  1,2.]

[Footnote 9:  2 Sam. 11:  1-27.]

[Footnote 10:  Acts 5:  1-11.]

The whole sweep of Bible teaching is opposed to lying; and the specific injunctions against that sin, as well as the calls to the duty of truth-speaking, are illustrative of that sweep.  “Ye shall not steal; neither shall ye deal falsely, nor lie one to another,"[1] says the Lord, in holding up the right standard before his children.  “A lying tongue” is said to be “an abomination” before the Lord.[2] “A faithful witness will not lie:  but a false witness breatheth out lies,"[3] says Solomon, in marking the one all-dividing line of character; and as to the results of lying he says, “He that breatheth out lies shall not escape,"[4] and “he that breatheth out lies shall perish."[5] And he adds the conclusion of wisdom, in view of the supposed profit of lying, “A poor man is better than a liar;"[6] that is, a truth-telling poor man is better than a rich liar.

[Footnote 1:  Lev. 19:11.]

[Footnote 2:  Prov. 6:16, 17.]

[Footnote 3:  Prov. 14:5.]

[Footnote 4:  Prov. 19:5.]

[Footnote 5:  Prov. 19:9.]

[Footnote 6:  Prov. 19:22.]

The inspired Psalms are full of such teachings:  “The wicked are estranged from the womb:  they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies."[1] “They delight in lies."[2] “The mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped."[3] “He that speaketh falsehood shall not be established before mine [the Psalmist’s] eyes."[4] And the Psalmist prays, “Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips."[5] In the New Testament it is much the same as in the Old.  “Lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings,"[6] is the apostolic injunction; and again, “Speak ye truth each one with his neighbor:  for we are members one of another."[7] There is no place for a lie in Bible ethics, under the earlier dispensation or the later.

[Footnote 1:  Psa. 58:3.]

[Footnote 2:  Psa. 62:4.]

[Footnote 3:  Psa. 63:11.]

[Footnote 4:  Psa. 101:  7.]

[Footnote 5:  Psa. 120:  2.]

[Footnote 6:  Col. 3:  9.]

[Footnote 7:  Eph. 4:  25.]

IV.

DEFINITIONS.

It would seem to be clear that the Bible, and also the other sacred books of the world, and the best moral sense of mankind everywhere, are united in deeming a lie incompatible with the idea of a holy God, and consistent only with the spirit of man’s arch-enemy—­the embodiment of all evil.  Therefore he who, admitting this, would find a place in God’s providential plan for a “lie of necessity” must begin with claiming that there are lies which are not lies.  Hence it is of prime importance to define a lie clearly, and to distinguish it from allowable and proper concealments of truth.