_THE LIAR._
"A false witness shall not be unpunished; and he that speaketh lies
shall not escape."--SOLOMON.
This is a talker who voluntarily speaks untruth with an intention to
deceive. He is a _painter_, giving to subjects colours and views that he
knows are false to the original, but which he means to be understood as
true by the spectators. He is a _dramatist_, making representations
which do not belong to the characters in the drama, and thereby imposing
upon the credulity of the beholders. He is a _legerdemain_, showing
black to be white, and white to be black, and red to be no colour--a
_factor_, producing works which he vends as real, when he knows them to
be shams--a _witness_, bearing testimony to things which have no
existence--a _tradesman_, carrying on business in a fictitious name and
with an imaginary capital.
This talker may be met with in a variety of aspects and relations: in
the shop, telling his customer that his goods are the best in town, and
cheapest in price, when he knows that they are far from being either one
or the other; in the market, declaring that the fruit is fresh gathered
and fish just arrived, when he knows that both are on the eve of decay
and rottenness from long keeping; in the manufactory, stating that the
article is pure and unadulterated, when he knows that one half or three
parts are impure and corrupt. "You shall have it at cost price," when
perhaps the price is ten or twenty per cent. above it. "Selling at
twenty-five below cost," when the proprietor knows he will make a large
profit. "They are salvage goods," or they are "damaged goods from a
great fire in Manchester or Edinburgh," when they are old things which
have been damaged in the owner's own warehouse or cellar. "William, if
Mr. Cash calls to inquire if I am at home, tell him I am gone out for
the day," said Mr. Brush to his servant, while he was the whole day
engaged in some pet diversion in the bagatelle-room. "You shall most
certainly have your new coat by Thursday evening," says the tailor to
Mr. Shaw, upon which promise he makes a special engagement to meet
company. Thursday evening comes, and Mr. Shaw finds the promise
unfulfilled by the tailor, who knew at the time he should not do as he
said. "O, yes, I will meet you at four o'clock on Monday at Mr.
Nuncio's," when he knew that he was purposing to go in quite an opposite
direction at that very hour. "I certainly cannot pay your bill to-day:
call on Friday, and I will pay you," when he knows he has the money on
hand, and that when you call on Friday he will not pay you.
There are yet three more aspects in which this talker appears before
society--as _jocular_, as _officious_, as _pernicious._ As _Jocular_, he
talks with a view to amuse and create merriment by telling stories of
his own invention, or what he has heard others repeat, and which he
knows not to be true. As _Officious_, he talks with a view, as he says,
to benefit others. He may do it as a parent to benefit his children; or
as a husband to benefit his wife; or as an officer in Church or State to
benefit those who are subject to him. He thinks the end justifies the
means, and he can do evil that good may come. But this is an egregious
mistake; for the Divine injunction is that we must _not_ do evil that
good may come. "And therefore," says Bishop Hopkins, "although thine own
life or thy neighbour's depends upon it; yea, put the case it were not
only to save his life, but to save his soul, couldest thou by this means
most eminently advance the glory of God, or the general good and welfare
of the Church, yet thou oughtest not to tell the least lie to promote
these great and blessed ends." As _Pernicious_, he talks things that are
false with a view to injure his neighbour, or any one towards whom he
has an evil feeling. It is immaterial to him what the invention is, so
that it will answer his malicious design. He can create rumours by
wholesale, and dispense them to all who will degrade themselves by
accepting them. Aspersions, detractions, slanders, defamations, and
calumnies he can conjure in his mind and pour out of his lips without
the shadow of a justification. And as there are always persons with
ready minds to receive whatever is said to the injury of others, and to
circulate it as truth, the liar often succeeds in the accomplishment of
his evil purpose. I will give briefly the traits of his character.
1. _He is a child of the devil._--"Ye are of your father the devil, and
the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the
beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and
the father of it" (John viii. 44). The liar, then, is a legitimate son
of this lying father. He speaks as he is inspired by that black spirit
of perdition. "Thou never liest," says Bishop Hopkins, "but thou
speakest aloud what the devil whispered softly to thee; the Old Serpent
lies folded round in thy heart, and we may hear him hissing in thy
voice. And therefore, when God summoned all His heavenly attendants
about Him, and demanded who would persuade Ahab to go up and fall at
Ramoth-Gilead, an evil spirit that had crowded in amongst them steps
forth and undertakes the office as his most natural employment, and that
wherein he most of all delighted. 'I will go forth and be a lying spirit
in the mouth of all his prophets' (I Kings xxii. 22). Every lie thou
tellest, consider that the devil sits upon thy tongue, breathes
falsehood into thy heart, and forms thy words and accents into deceit."
2. _He acts contrary to the Divine mind and nature._--God is truth and
in Him is no falsehood at all. What He hath said He will do; what He
hath promised He will fulfil. All His thoughts are according to the
perfect reality of things; and all His words are in exact accord with
His thoughts. Hence the sin of lying is contrary to His very nature, and
an abomination in His sight. "These six things doth the Lord hate: yea,
seven are an abomination unto Him: A proud look, A LYING TONGUE, and
hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked
imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A FALSE WITNESS
THAT SPEAKETH LIES, and he that soweth discord among his brethren"
(Prov. vi. 16-19). "LYING LIPS are abomination to the Lord: but they
that deal truly are His delight" (Prov. xii. 22).
3. _He gives indubitable evidence of a depraved nature._--He is the
opposite in nature to a child of "our Father which is in heaven."
"Surely," says the Lord of His children, "they are My people; children
that WILL NOT LIE: so He became their Saviour" (Isa. lxiii. 8). On the
contrary, it is affirmed of the wicked that they "are estranged from the
womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies" (Ps.
lviii. 3). Again it is said, "Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a
sharp razor, working deceitfully. Thou lovest evil more than good, and
lying rather than to speak righteousness" (Ps. lii. 2, 3). The wicked
"delight in lies; they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly"
(Ps. lxii. 4). Again it is said, "Behold, he travaileth with iniquity,
and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood" (Ps. vii. 14).
Jeremiah's description of his people answers to the character of the
liar in our day. "They bend their tongues like their bow for lies; but
they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth, for they proceed from
evil to evil, and they know not Me, saith the Lord." "They will deceive
every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth; they have taught
their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity"
(Jer. ix. 3, 5).
4. _He is generally a coward in respect to men, and a contemner of
God._--"To say a man lieth," says Montaigne, "is to say that he is
audacious towards God, and a coward towards men." "Whosoever lies,"
observes Hopkins, "doth it out of a base and sordid fear lest some evil
and inconvenience should come unto him by declaring the truth." "A
liar," remarks Bacon, "is brave towards God and a coward towards man.
For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man." "The meanness of lying,"
says Gilpin, "arises from the cowardice which it implies. We dare not
boldly and nobly speak the truth, but have recourse to low subterfuges,
which always show a sordid and disingenuous mind. Hence it is that in
the fashionable world the word _liar_ is always considered as a term of
peculiar reproach."
"Lie not, but let thy heart be true to God,
Thy mouth to it, thy actions to them both.
Cowards tell lies, and those that fear the rod;
The stormy working soul spits lies and froth."