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the witness and ground of the truth. All the precepts of the Most High
are true and righteous altogether. How, then, must prevarication and
any exaggeration or deception appear in His sight? For the falsehood
he uttered because he coveted the gifts which the prophet refused,
the servant of Elisha was struck with leprosy, which ended only with
death.
Even life itself should not be purchased with the price of falsehood.
By a word or a nod the martyrs might have denied the truth and saved
their lives. By consenting to cast a single grain of incense upon the
idol altar they might have been saved from the rack, the scaffold, or
the cross. But they refused to be false in word or deed, though life
was the boon they would receive by so doing. Imprisonment, torture,
and death, with a clear conscience, were welcomed by them, rather
than deliverance on condition of deception, falsehood, and apostasy.
By fidelity and faith in Christ they earned spotless robes and jeweled
crowns. Their lives were ennobled and elevated in the sight of God
because they stood firmly for the truth under the most aggravated
circumstances.
Men are mortals. They may be sincerely pious and yet have many
errors of understanding and many defects of character, but they cannot
be Christ’s followers and yet be in league with him who “loveth and
maketh a lie.” Such a life is a fraud, a perpetual falsehood, a fatal
deception. It is a close test upon the courage of men and women to be
brought to face their own sins and to frankly acknowledge them. To
say, “That mistake must be charged to my account,” requires a strength
of inward principle that the world possesses in but a limited degree.
But he who has the courage to say this in sincerity gains a decided
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victory over self and effectually closes the door against the enemy.
An adherence to the strictest principles of truth will frequently
cause present inconvenience and may even involve temporal loss,
but it will increase the reward in the future life. Religion does not
consist merely in a system of dry doctrines, but in practical faith,
which sanctifies the life and corrects the conduct in the family circle
and in the church. Many may tithe mint and rue, but neglect the
weightier matters, mercy and the love of God. To walk humbly with
God is essential to the perfection of Christian character. God requires
undeviating principle in the minutest details of the transactions of life.