These sins are devilish, and the Bible is severe in its denunciations of them. It contains many solemn warnings. “Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. . . . The mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped. Whoso privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I cut off. . . . Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are His delight. . . . By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. . . . All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Whoso loveth and maketh a lie shall in no wise enter into the new Jerusalem.
HOW TO OVERCOME.
“But, Mr. Moody,” you say, “how can I check myself? how can I overcome the habit of lying and gossip?” A lady once said to me that she had got so into the habit of exaggerating that her friends said they could never understand her.
The cure is simple, but not very pleasant. Treat it as a sin, and confess it to God and the man whom you have wronged. As soon as you catch yourself lying, go straight to the person and confess you have lied. Let your confession be as wide as your transgression. If you have slandered or lied about any one in public, let your confession be public. Many a person says some mean, false thing about another in the presence of others, and then tries to patch it up by going to that person alone. That is not making restitution. I need not go to God with confession until I have made it right with that person, if it is in my power to do so; He will not hear me.
Hannah Moore’s method was a sure cure for scandal. Whenever she was told anything derogatory of another, her invariable reply was:
“Come, we will go and ask if it be true.”
The effect was sometimes ludicrously painful. The talebearer was taken aback, stammered out a qualification, or begged that no notice might be taken of the statement. But the good lady was inexorable. Off she took the scandal-monger to the scandalized to make inquiry and compare accounts.
It is not likely that anybody ventured a second time to repeat a gossipy story to Hannah Moore.
My friend, how is it? If God should weigh you against this commandment, would you be found wanting? “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Are you innocent or guilty?