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Our strongest resolutions will be required to resist its influence. If we patiently and willingly listen to it when directed to ourselves, we have already yielded to the sin. Nothing will henceforth restrain us from bestowing it upon others. If, on the other hand, we check and rebuke it when offered, men will cease to expect it from us, and our victory over it is certain. Let us be animated by the good resolution expressed in the text, and in the preceding verse: 'Let me not accept any man's person; neither let me give flattering titles unto man. For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my Maker would soon take me away.' Here is a very weighty reason to restrain us from flattery; a reason stronger far than all the temptations to indulge in it. It is a reason which speaks to our interests-to the best and dearest interests of immortal beings. For what shall it profit us to gain the fleeting favour of men-to raise ourselves in the world's esteem-to become possessed of its wealth, if in the acquisition of these coveted enjoyments we forfeit the favour of our Maker, peril the interests of our souls, or bring upon them eternal ruin? What though all men should unite together to uphold us, because by flattery we court their favour, if our Maker should determine to cut us off? What an awfully solemn lesson, on this subject, does the prayer and declaration of the Psalmist furnish: Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity every one with his neighbour; with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things; who have said with our tongues | will we prevail; our lips are our own, who is Lord over us? This suggests the true cause of the prevalence of flattery, and the radical cure of it. We flatter, because we forget that God is Lord over us; that he hears and marks every thing we say; and that to him we must render an account for every idle word we speak. The tongue of flattery would be silenced, could we but remember, in all our intercourse with men, that the God of truth hears us.

EIGHTH DAY.-MORNING.

• All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the

second death,' Rev. xxi. 8.

THIS is a fearful doom which is threatened, and which awaits all liars. It is not directed only

against those who have been notoriously guilty of the crime of falsehood, but against every one who has in any form or to any extent departed from the truth. Such is the plain meaning of the expression, 'all liars.' Not only he who has been guilty of perjury, but he who has concealed a truth which it was his duty to make known, stands exposed to this doom. The man who invents a falsehood, and the man who retails it— the lover of scandal, and the backbiter-he who stirs up strife by evil reports, and he who cajoles and flatters, that strife may be kept down-he who assumes the guise of friendship while hatred lurks in his heart, and he who robes himself in the garb of religion, for selfish ends-all shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. He who is not in all respects what he seems to be, and who does not represent things as they are, is guilty of falsehood in word or deed, and is liable to the second death. No matter what cunning guises falsehood may assume, or what fair names in some of its forms it may bear in the vocabulary of human morality—he to whom all things are naked and open will judge it righteously, and visit it with the punishment he has declared. It is enough to make every man tremble for his own state, when, with the help of that law which is holy and just and good, he regards his own conversation and conduct. How often, alas! will all be obliged to acknowledge, that in the keeping of this law they have come far short. If they have not directly lied, they have not been careful enough to maintain the truth. If they have restrained their tongue, they have not possessed and been animated by that fervent love of truth which God requires in the inward parts. If they have not for selfish ends deceived their neighbour, how often have they wished to appear in his eyes better than they are, and acted the hypocrite's part. Alas! how little is there of real truth in the world, how much guile-how little godly sincerity. And O what a warning does the aspect which it every where presents furnish to us to search our own hearts, to abhor ourselves and to repent in dust and in ashes.

By natural inheritance we have a heart that is deceitful above all things-a heart which suggests to ourselves lying devices, making us the willing subjects of self-deception, and which leads us readily to impose false pretences upon others. Let us not too readily assume then, that we cannot be numbered by God among the liars. There are comparatively few who are ready to acknowledge and who really believe themselves to be liars. The real character of a man is often more apparent to others than it is to himself.

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EIGHTH DAY.-EVENING.

Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another,' Eph. iv. 25. THERE are many strong reasons for the injunction here laid down. The law of God expressly enjoins it, and his character confirms his law. He is known as a God of truth, and he has threatened his heaviest judgments against those who violate it. The sin of lying is very hateful in itself. It manifests a character most opposite to God, and most nearly resembling the devil, who is characterized as the father of lies. It is incumbent on us therefore to put away lying-to tolerate it in no form, in no place-under no circumstances.

We are required to put away lying from ourselves. Let all our conversation be conducted in truth and soberness. We must shun all idle and boastful language. What we dare not openly declare, we must not insinuate. The feeling which we do not possess, we must not pretend to. The form in which the injunction is delivered, shows that lying is a sin which we must not only guard against, but one to which we have been subject. We are not told merely not to lie, but we are told to put it away. Such a statement as this is fitted to awaken our utmost vigilance. It shows falsehood to be a sin to which we not only stand exposed, but which we have already committed. It becometh us therefore narrowly to scrutinize our conduct to watch every word and every feeling, that we may attain not only the perfection of that man who offendeth not in word, but the perfection of him who has truth in the inward parts.

us guard then with all diligence against the deceitfulness of our own hearts. Let us strive, instead of trying to forget our sins, to keep them ever before us. Let us, as it were, on every occasion, compel our hearts to bear faithful testimony, and let us in all earnestness pray God to search and try us, and see if there be in us any wicked way, and lead us in the way everlasting. Blessed be God that he has opened up for us a door of repentance. He has written, and all his words are truth, that all liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. But he has also said: Come now and let us reason together; though your sins be as scarlet they shall be made white as snow, though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool.' He is now calling upon all men every where to repent, and he joins with this call the promise that He will cleanse us from all our filthiness and from all our unrighteousness. Oh! that we were induced to hear and to obey his voice, in this the day of our merciful visitation. The time will come when we shall be compelled to hear it, but then it will be addressed to us in this wise: 'Because I have called and ye have refused, because I have stretched forth my hand and no man regarded, therefore I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh.' That voice we shall certainly hear in all its terrors, if we continue liars to the end. Death will come, we know not how soon and how suddenly, and as our frame is sinking under his power, awakened conscience will testify that we are liars, and must abide the liar's doom. All fond deceits shall then perish, hypocrisy shall drop her ample robe, and all that is false and unreal, the unsubstantial pageants of a wicked world, will be seen in their hollowness, and everlasting despair and death We are required to put away lying from our will seize upon us. And these are but preludes families. We are bound not only to watch for of the second death-intimations sent from the ourselves, but for those whom God has committed abyss to warn the living, and which speak with to our trust. The guilt of their iniquity will be a voice as decisive and emphatic as if the disem- upon us, the blood of their souls will be required bodied spirit were to return from its torment to at our hands, if we do not warn them against this utter it, declaring the unutterable woe which sin, and use all our power and influence to check awaits the impenitent sinner. There is a deeper and to destroy it. In the case of Eli the priest we despair than the deepest which can seize upon have a very striking example of the way in which man in this world, and it is found in hell. All God punishes parents who neglect the proper liars shall become its victims. Theirs is a training of their children. The cause of the sore remediless woe-the portion of the fallen spirits. calamities which befel him and his house, is exThey stand foremost among those that deserve pressly stated to be that his sons made themhell; they are the most declared and undis- selves vile, and he restrained them not. Such guised servants of the devil, and their appro- judgments indicate the method of God's procedure, priate and inevitable doom is to be made the the principles of his judgment; and every parent companion for evermore of the father of lies. may be assured that if he suffers the members of his household to lie, without such restraints as he has it in his power to impose, he will be visited

with punishment for his sin. The crime of lying will be justly chargeable upon himself, because by not checking it when he had the power, he encourages and promotes it. It will not serve him to take up the language of Cain and say, 'Am I my brother's keeper?'

we may possibly lose all which this world can give us, by the stedfast adherence to truth. If such a sacrifice should be required, let it be made. It was at such a sacrifice that the apostles declared the glorious truths of the gospel; it was at such a cost that men received and believed them, and by their example they have given the enduring lesson to us to speak the truth, come what may. It would appear, indeed, as if there were a more special obligation laid upon us to declare the truth, when there is danger in doing it; for it is only in such circumstances that the value of truth is fully exhibited, that the testimony is given to the world that there is something more precious by far than all which the earth can furnish. And in such circumstances also it is that the exceeding preciousness of truth becomes fully known. When the maintenance of it involves the loss of all things, its blessed realizations are more near and more intimate, and it is only under such experience that the language of the apostle can be adopted in the whole fullness and energy of its meaning: 'Yea, doubtless, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord.'

We are required to put away lying from the church. The church has been established on the earth for the very purpose of bearing testimony to the truth; and neither in her collective capacity, nor in her individual members, should any form of falsehood be tolerated. As members of the church we are bound to use every endeavour to secure that the truth be spoken by those who from their office are understood to express the mind of the church. According to the forms of church government in this country, the discharge of this obligation is easy. If church courts in their procedure are not acting out the truth, testifying on its behalf, and protesting against every form of error as it arises, it is incumbent on the members of the church, as they desire to avoid being partakers in the sin, to remonstrate with them in every competent form, to declare to them the truth, and to urge them to act upon it. As members of a particular congregation, Christians are required to act the same part towards their The strong and satisfying reason assigned in spiritual rulers and guides, to use all means the text for the injunction it gives, is, that we are whereby the testimony for the truth may be members one of another. This reason premaintained. Each member of Christ's body, no supposes the fact, that truth is essential to the matter what his standing otherwise may be, is healthful existence of the church. It presumes bound to put away lying from the church. The that no member of it can be guilty of falsehood least as well as the greatest lie under this obliga- without inflicting an injury upon the whole body. tion, and must discharge it. Especially, the mem- We are members one of another, by reason of bers of the church in their intercourse one with our union with Christ. He is the head, and all another, should seek to attain this character of his believing people are members of his body, and perfect and unchanging truthfulness. No imagina-members one of another. The same reason, then, tion is more dangerous, than that which would lead which should prevent us from employing one memany one to believe that he may in any way trifle ber of our body to injure another, should constrain with the truth, or conceal it, without guilt. Our every man to speak truth with his neighbour. It is testimony must be uniform,-as uncompromising truth which animates and nourishes the body of as the word of God. That testimony must be Christ. It is like the blood to the human frame. borne in all places, and under all circumstances. We cannot lie without depriving some member No deviation from truth is excusable. The law of life, and strength, and healthful vigour. We of God is absolute and unchangeable. It varies cannot lie without dishonour to Christ our Head. not with the varying circumstances of men. It We claim connection with Him, and that in such has not told us merely to speak the truth, when a way that it is he who lives in us, and his Spirit the declaration of it will promote our worldly which animates us, and his will that directs us, and ends. It has given us no permissive power to therefore when standing in this declared connecwithhold or deny it, when danger and difficulty tion we lie, we are guilty of this most wicked of are before us. It has not directed us to make a nice all falsehoods, the proclaiming Christ to be the calculation of probabilities to ascertain whether it author of our lie. We make use of Christ's shall be most for our advantage to speak the truth, name to do the devil's work. We rend the body or to equivocate and lie. It has told every man of Christ, crucify him afresh, and put him to open to speak truth with his neighbour whatever may shame. be the immediate issue. We may lose much,

NINTH DAY.-MORNING.

• Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day,' Psal. xxv. 5.

Jesus told them that their minds did not receive and comprehend, because they were in love with certain errors, and would not abandon them. The Spirit, therefore, when the love of falsehood had been subdued, was to bring these truths again before their minds, and then they would joyfully receive them. Now, what was the case with the apostles, we may be sure will happen to us. We are naturally in love with error, and we cannot receive the truth. We have the Bible to instruct us-we have its meaning explained, an its precepts commended to us in our public

THAT man is grossly ignorant of the state of his own heart, and of the character of a world which lieth in wickedness, who hath not learned how necessary it is that he should earnestly and frequently give utterance to such a prayer as this. We are liable to a thousand errors of ignorance, in many things we willingly deceive ourselves, and too often we purposely deceive others. The ministrations; but these are not enough to lead prince of the power of this world has made falsehood an essential condition of his service, and hence the world lives and apparently thrives by it. Plain dealing is discountenanced and put down. Some form of deception is the condition of prosperity, and hence untruth almost universally prevails. God is provoked and contemned, and his law set at nought or skilfully evaded. For all this iniquity God has in store a day of vengeance, and we are urged by the terrors of his wrath to plead that he would lead us in his truth and teach us. There is for us, otherwise, no hope. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. We want the right knowledge to guide us. Our minds are so blinded that we err in ignorance, not knowing the truth. We want the right disposition. The truth is naturally hateful to us. We love the darkness rather than the light. And our love of error leads us easily to the commission of it. The greatest and most blessed truths are naturally the most distasteful to us, and this shows what a strong affection we have for falsehood.

It is requisite for God to lead and train us a long time before we really love the truth. Our state is just the same as that of the twelve disciples. Even after Jesus had called them, and they had waited for years upon his teaching, there were still many glorious truths which they could not bear. The reason was, that they loved and cherished the falsehoods which were opposed to these truths, and they were not revealed until the Holy Spirit was sent to teach them all things, and to bring all things to their remembrance. This office, which the Spirit was to discharge for the apostles, urges upon us by a two-fold reason the necessity of fervent prayer for light and truth. He was to teach the apostles all things to make them fully acquainted with what had been partially revealed-to instruct them in new truths heretofore unknown. But he was, moreover, to bring all things to their remembrance. There were many things which

us in the truth and teach us. It is quite possible we may know all the facts of the Bible-we may have its most important precepts on our memory, and yet we may be in the darkness of error, taking refuge in lies. The apostles heard from the lips of Jesus the most important doctrines and commandments which they afterwards preached, but till the Spirit was given they wanted the discernment of spiritual things, and remained under the influence of the most grierous errors. So will it be with us unless the Spirit be given to lead us in the truth and to teach us. The light of the truth may shine around us, but it will not shine into our hearts to give us that knowledge which maketh wise unto salvation, which is alone the result of the sanctification of the Spirit. In the circumstances in which we are placed, then, we are altogether without excuse, if we neglect to follow the example here set before us-to wait upon God, and to pray that he would lead us in the truth and teach us. And how much more inexcusable when we are encouraged thus to pray to him as the God of our salvation?

With what holy boldness and confidence are we encouraged to come into his presence! He is the God of our salvation! Has he called himself by this name, and will he not save us from the bondage and dominion of error? He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up to the death for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? He is pledged by the bestowal of that best and greatest gift, to satisfy our souls with his goodness. We might ask many things of God which he could not bestow, because it would not be well for us to receive them, nor right in him to confer then. We may not succeed, by prayer, in warding off temporal calamity, in lengthening out our days, in protecting our bodies from disease. But here we are encouraged to ask what God, as the God of truth, is especially willing to bestow-to ask

what is above all well pleasing to him. Such a request he will not deny, and we are thus doubly bound to ask it-to wait with earnest expectation, till he gives us his enlightening Spirit, to lead us in his truth and to teach us. Thus taught and led we shall be safe from the dominion of

error.

grief, clapping her hands, and enumerating the good qualities of her son. "He never told a lie," said the disconsolate mother, as her wounded son was carried in at the gate: "He never told a lie, no never." Such a eulogium, even though undeserved, indicated what her sense was of the highest virtue a child could possess. The mother So long as we are really ignorant of the saving to whom the apostle wrote had a more assured truths of the gospel-until they have really comfort. The eulogy on her children was proobtained a place in our hearts, we manifest a nounced by one who though he constantly spoke hatred of the greatest truth, and consequently a the language of gentlest affection, knew not how love of the most debasing error. In this condi- to flatter. She had the delightful consolation of tion of mind, falsehood is the basis of our charac-knowing that the character given to her children, ter, and we inevitably become liars. When the though high, was just. And if the apostle rejoiced light of God's truth has shone into our hearts, greatly, with no common gladness, that he was darkness and error flee away. The darkness able to bear such a testimony, how much more hates the light, and is displaced by it, so truth delightful must it have been to her to receive it! banishes falsehood. By having our minds freed Her children were walking in truth, and for this from the greatest falsehood, we become altogether cause her heart was glad. They were kept in this good and holy way, in virtue of their union with Christ. He who is the truth dwelt with them, and was in them, and preserved them safe amid the lying vanities and false ways of the world. He had given them a new heart, and written his law upon it, and taught them to delight in his statutes.

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Moreover, the truth of God has a sanctifying power. It was the prayer of Christ for his disciples: Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.' By this word we are freed from the love of falsehood. Truth obtains a place in our inward parts, and we are saved from lying by the very hatred we have towards it. But to maintain this hatred of falsehood, we must be careful to maintain our communion with God. This is the way of success, the way that leads to victory. Our flesh and heart fail, but God is the strength of our heart and our portion for

ever.

NINTH DAY.-EVENING.

I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father,' 2 John 4.

Is there a parent who would not rejoice greatly to receive a like testimony regarding his children; who would not regard it as an overpayment for all the toils and cares, the sorrows and fears endured on their behalf, to learn from a witness so free from all suspicion of guile that his children were walking in the truth? If so, let parents adopt the only method by which such a character can be formed? Let them aim at nothing less for their children, than to have them

united to Christ, that they may not only be

saved from the wrath to come; but from the

shame and misery which even in this world wait upon uncontrolled iniquity. It is amazing to How delightful must it have been to the mother what acts of self-denial a mother will submit, for whom the apostle here addresses, to receive such the sake of her child. How unquenchable and an account of her children from such a witness! untiring her love, and with what patience, and The instincts of a mother's heart teach her, that even gladness, she performs the various offices an adherence to truth on the part of her children which her affection prompts. She anticipates its is the most decisive evidence they could furnish wants, and seems to live upon the gratification of the entire rectitude of their conduct, and no she is able to afford it. All this love, and watchtestimony she could give would be regarded by ful tendence, and tireless patience, she is ready her as more satisfactory, and she could receive to manifest for its preservation and bodily comnone from another which could be more gratify- fort. What a lesson might the natural instinct ing. Of this we have a striking exemplification of a mother's heart teach to every Christian in an anecdote recorded by Mungo Park. In an parent! They know that their children are imattack by the Moors, a young herdsman had been mortal-disposed to every form of evil – depraved wounded by a shot. The people supported him on horseback, and conducted him slowly to the town. • His mother walked on before quite frantic with

in every affection, and exposed to the everlasting wrath of God. And is it not inexpressibly shameful, that they should act as if after all it

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