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 the chief longing of the community is for such confidence of men in one another as will give them assurance that they will not lie one to another.  There was never yet a lie uttered which did not bring more of harm than of good; nor will there ever be a harmless lie, while God is Truth, and Satan is the father of lies.

TOPICAL INDEX.

  Abbe Sicard:  cited
  Abbott, Benjamin V.; cited
  Abohab, Isaac:  quotation from
  Abraham:  his deceiving
  Achilles, truthfulness of
  Act and speech, lying in
  Advantages of lying, supposed
  Africans, truthfulness among
  Ahab’s false prophets
  Ahriman, father of lies
  American Indians, habits of
  Ananias and Sapphira
  Anderson, Rasmus B.:  cited
  Animals, deception of
  Aquinas, Thomas:  cited
  Arabs, influence of civilization on
  Aristotle:  cited
  Army prison life, incidents in
  Augustine:  cited
  Aurelius, Marcus:  cited