Truthfulness is a mark of Christianity. The heathen go astray, speaking
lies as soon as they are born. In China a mother will give her boy a
reward for the best falsehood that he can tell. Beginning so early, and
regarding it such a fine thing to tell wrong stories, they become skillful
in falsehoods. Some parents in Christian America are very careless in
this matter. It made my heart ache one day when I saw a lady in a street
car trying to keep her little boy awake by telling him that, if he went
to sleep, that man who had all those teeth in his window (referring to
a dentist's office they had passed) would come into the car and pull
every tooth out of his mouth. The little fellow looked up dreadfully
scared, and did his best to keep awake: but I thought to myself, when
he finds out what a wrong story his mother has told, he will not believe
her even when she tells the truth. He will be like a little fellow of
whom I heard once, whose mother told him that if he vent to play in a
bank from which the men had been drawing sand for a building, a bear
would come out and eat him up. One day another boy tried to coax him to
go there and play, but he said, no, he was afraid of the bears. The other
boy said there were no bears. "But there be bears cause my mother said
there be bears." While they were disputing, the minister happened to
come along, and they asked him if there were bears in the sand-bank. He
told them there were none. "But," said the first little boy, "My mother
said there be bears there." "I am sorry she said so," said the minister,
"but the truth is, there are none." The child began to cry, and started
for home as fast as he could go. "O Mama!" he said, "Did you tell me a
wrong story? Did you tell me there be bears down at the sand-bank when
there aren't any?" She saw what a dreadful sin she had committed, and
she told him that she was sorry; but she was afraid that if he played
there he would get buried in the sand, and she told him that to keep him
away. "But, Mama, it is such an awful thing to tell a wrong story." "I
know it Tommy, I know it," she said, tears coming into her eyes; "and
we will ask Jesus to forgive me and I will never do it again." They knelt
down, and she was just about to pray when he said, "Wait, Mama, let me
ask Him; maybe you won't tell Him truly." That pierced her heart like a
dagger. She saw that her little boy had lost confidence in her truthfulness
even when she prayed.
--Jennie F. Willing