Two boys were playing at bat and ball in a field. There was a high hedge
on one side of the field, and on the other side of the hedge was a
market garden, where things are grown to be afterwards sold in the
market. The boys had been playing some time, when the "batter," giving
the ball a very hard blow, sent it over the hedge, and =both= the boys
heard a loud crash as of breaking glass. They picked up the wickets
quickly, and carried them, with the bat, to a hut that stood in the
field, and were hurrying away when the gardener came and stopped them,
asking, "Have you sent a cricket-ball over the hedge into my cucumber
frame?" The boy who had struck the ball answered, "I did not see a ball
go into your frame," and the other boy said, "Neither did I".
They did not =see= the ball break the glass, but they both =knew= that
it had crashed into the frame, and though the words they spoke might be
true, the lie was there all the same.
Supposing the sisters "Crystal-clear" had brought to the Fairy Queen a
diamond that was only good on one side, do you think she would have put
it in the Temple? No, indeed, she would have said it was only =half=
true; and so we must put away anything that =looks= like truth, but is
not truth. How wrong it is to make believe we have not done a thing,
when all the time we have.
Dear children, be true all through! Have you ever seen a glass jar of
pure honey, no bits of wax floating in it, all clear and pure? Let your
heart be like that, =sincere=, which means "without wax, clear and
pure".
(Blackboard.)
A Half-truth is as Hateful as a Lie.
(UNTRUTH, BY "STRETCHING"--EXAGGERATION.)