Be True by E. J. Burnham

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 25, 1873

Be True.

By E. J. Burnham

Few are so lost to a regard for the opinion of others, to respect for themselves, and obedience to their Maker, as to speak that which is not true. But many who would scorn to speak a falsehood will, when tempted, act one, and wherever, on the highway of life, man meets his fellow-man, he encounters such temptations. The man of business feels their influence, and society fosters their growth.

False acts are out of the groove of nature, and they must be rectified by nature’s God. Every dollar made by a betrayal of our fellow-men, every good opinion won by false seeming, carries with it an inevitable curse, since “do right” is the only safe rule of conduct, and every departure from it will receive due punishment. And yet how few of us, even the best and wisest, believe in truth, and are willing to trust it altogether. In our anxiety to appear well before man, we forget that the angels see us.

The world needs true men and women. Society owes to them whatever moral stamina it possesses. We cannot live to self alone. We cannot evade the obligations we are under as members of society. The human race is to us a brother and a friend, and, though we may regard it lightly, we are all the time casting thoughts, words, and deeds, into the broad field of human thought and action, and, sometime, they will reappear, either as a poisonous weed or herb medicinal. E. J. BURNHAM.