p. 11 | LYING | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 19, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 12.

LYING

“A LYING tongue is but for a moment.” Prov. 12:19. Who was the first person of whom we know that ever told a lie?—Satan. He will be known forever as the first liar. This is the reason why the Bible calls him “the father of lies.” Now, dear children, to lie is to do Satan’s work. It is one of the meanest of all things. Nothing will offend a respectable person so much as to call him a liar.

A newsboy, to sell his papers, told a lie. The matter came up in Sunday school. “Would you tell a lie for three cents?” asked a teacher of one of her boys. “No, ma’am.” “For a thousand dollars?” Dick was staggered. A thousand dollars looked large. “O,” thought he, “would it not buy lots of things?” While thus he was meditating, another boy said, “No, ma’am.” “Why not?” asked the teacher. “Because, when the thousand dollars is all gone, and all the things I got with them are gone too, the lie is there all the same,” answered the boy.

It is so. Everything else may be gone, but a lie stays by you. Then see what God says of liars: “There shall in nowise enter therein anything that maketh a lie.” No admittance for liars in heaven. Bear this in mind when tempted to tell a lie.—Selected.