The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1902-02-07
THE SUNDAY school
International Sunday School lesson
Tor Februosy s.iso2
M EBY REV FRANKLIN b. DWIGHT.
The Sin Of Lying.
"a Acts ": III.

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the sermons which we hear in our
churches deal with the necessity Of
Christian faith and the obligations Of
Christian duty from the positive.side.
And this is as it should be. "The
expulsive power OF new affection"
is the best force to drive out all the
old affections of the unrenewed heart.
The positive and direct teachings of
truth and righteousness are the best
means as rule for overcoming what
is false and sinful.
But the Bible teaches that there
are times when particular sins must
be dealt With plainly. Intemperance
profanity, lying and some other sins
must be pointed out in their true ma
ture and men must be warned Of their
deadly effects upon the heart and
conscience. W. -~.s s s.-........-
Our lesson deals with tho sin Of
lying. Barnabas, who was good
man and who afterward became
prominent as companion in travel of
the Apostle Paul, ''having land, sold
it. and brought the money and laid it
at the Apostles feet. !" 1t was
voluntary act on his part. 1t was in
[accord with the custom OF that Chris
tian communism, which then prevail
ed IN the Jerusalem church, where the
members often sold their private
possessions and distributed from
common fund to every member, as
each one had need. (v:S2) But this
was not compulsory, and it must
therefore hive been merely to gain
the praise Of large benaficence that
two members of this primitive church
agreed together to do a wicked and
deceitful act. Ananias and his wife.
Sapphire sold some land and brought
part of the money they had received
for the sale. and laying it at the feet
of the Apostles, evidently when the
church was assembled for worship,
declared it to be the whole price,
though they knew they were keeping
back part for their own use. TWAS
a lie not>only to men but to God, the
Holy Spirit, for the gift which they
were protesting to make in this unre-
served way was gift for Gods pecu-
liar service in His earthly church.
Peter, guided as we may believe by
prophetic insight, saw through the
lie, and placing the responsibility
full upon the guilty man, and tLen
upon his equally guilty wife, he de-
clares their lie to be against God,
and they are both struck dead by on
unseen Power, the avenging hand of
the God of truth and righteousness
Notice four great. lessons in connec-
ton with this tragic history.
/. To love the right is to hate the
wrong. Opposites are not contrai les
They that love God must hate evil. It
is necessarily SO. To love the truth is
to hate lie. To seek life, by seeking
"the truth as it is in Jesus. = is to
shun death as Satan offers it,
pretending that it is life, under cover
of deceit aud falsehood. "Be not
deceived. God is not mocked.'' The
lesso;, teaches plainly that lying is
sin which brings death. AS it brought
death to the bodies of these hypocriti-
cal members of the early church, SO it
brings death to the soul of the man
who persists in lying to himself, in
lying to his neighbor. in lying to
God. We sh ould hate all kinds Of
lies. A lie has heen defined as IA
known untruth with intent to de-
ceive." That is good definition.
A statement through ignorance is
not a lie; it is not know nuntruth. An
obvious overstatement for poetical or
rhetorical effect is not lie, for here
is no intent to deceive; and yet even
this is fault when too freely made
use of, and fault which oar young
people should be cautioned to avoid.
Do not exaggerate. it may lead you
into lying. The plain truth is always
best. Many years ago little book was
published by Messrs. Robert Carter
and Brothers, entitled "Opie on
Lying" I wish it might be in the
hands of all our boys and girls. The
clever author. Mrs. Amelia Opie,
treats of lying under ten heads:
Lies Of Vanity.
Lies of Flattery.
Lies of Convenience.
Lies Of Interest.
Lies of Fear.
Lies Of first-rate Malignity.
Lies of secoad-rate Maligrity.
Lies, falsely called Lies of Benevol-
ence.
Lies Of real Benevolence.
Lies of Mere Wantonness.
How common many of these SEEM
ingly less wicked lies are Gin social
lifel And how often persons begin
with them and go on till they are on
the; verge of or perhaps actually gull
ty of lies of Wantonness. The charac-
tiers in our lesson seem to have acted
both with motives of vanity and self
interest, but their conduct showed in
the end real contempt for the truth,
-i n l..