as my whole
work has been a defence of myself, I may here say that I rarely
preach a sermon, but I go to this beautiful and complete Catechism to
get both my matter and my doctrine. There we find the following
notices about the duty of veracity:--

"'Thou shalt not bear false witness,' etc.: let attention be drawn to
two laws contained in this commandment:--the one, forbidding false
witness; the other bidding, that removing all pretence and deceits,
we should measure our words and deeds by simple truth, as the Apostle
admonished the Ephesians of that duty in these words: 'Doing truth in
charity, let us grow in Him through all things.'

"To deceive by a lie in joke or for the sake of compliment, though to
no one there accrues loss or gain in consequence, nevertheless is
altogether unworthy: for thus the Apostle admonishes, 'Putting aside
lying, speak ye truth.' For therein is great danger of lapsing into
frequent and more serious lying, and from lies in joke men gain the
habit of lying, whence they gain the character of not being truthful.
And thence again, in order to gain credit to their words, they find
it necessary to make a practice of swearing.

"Nothing is more necessary than truth of testimony, in those things,
which we neither know ourselves, nor can allowably be ignorant of,
on which point there is extant that maxim of St. Augustine's; Whoso
conceals the truth, and whoso puts forth a lie, each is guilty; the
one because he is not willing to do a service, the other because he
has a wish to do a mischief.

"It is lawful at times to be silent about the truth, but out of a
court of law; for in court, when a witness is interrogated by the
judge according to law, the truth is wholly to be brought out.

"Witnesses, however, must beware, lest, from over-confidence in their
memory, they affirm for certain, what they have not verified.

"In order that the faithful may with more good will avoid the sin of
lying, the Parish Priest shall set before them the extreme misery and
turpitude of this wickedness. For, in holy writ, the devil is called
the father of a lie; for, in that he did not remain in Truth, he is a
liar, and the father of a lie. He will add, with the view of ridding
men of so great a crime, the evils which follow upon lying; and,
whereas they are innumerable, he will point out [at least] the
sources and the general heads of these mischiefs and calamities, viz.
1. How great is God's displeasure and how g