thers, like Origen and Jerome, who sought
to find arguments for laxity of practice, at this point, in the course
of the Apostles themselves.

All the way along the centuries, while the strongest defenders of the
law of truthfulness have been found among clergymen, more has been
written in favor of the lie of necessity by clergymen than by men of
any other class or profession. And if it be true, as many of these
have claimed, that deceit and falsehood are a duty, on the part of a
God-loving teacher, toward those persons who, through weakness, or
mental incapacity, or moral obliquity, are in the relation to him of
wards of love, or of subjects of guardianship, there is no profession
in which there is more of a call for godly deception, and for holy
falsehood, than the Christian ministry. If it be true that a lie, or a
falsehood, is justifiable in order to the saving of the physical life
of another, how much better were it to tell such a lie in the loving
desire to save a soul.

If the lie of necessity be allowable for any purpose, it would seem
to be more important as a means of good in the exercise of the
ministerial profession, than of any other profession or occupation.
And if it be understood that this is the case, what dependence can be
put, by the average hearer, on the most earnest words of a preacher,
who may be declaring a truth from God, and who, on the other hand, may
be uttering falsehoods in love? And if it be true, also, as some of
these clergymen have claimed, that God specifically approved falsehood
and deception, according to the Bible record, and that Jesus Christ
practiced in this line, while here on earth, what measure of
confidence can fallible man place in the sacred text as it has come to
him? The statement of this view of the case, is the best refutation
of the claim of a possible justification for the most loving lie
imaginable.

The only other point remaining untouched, in this review of the
centuries of discussion concerning the possible justifiableness of a
lie under conceivable circumstances, is in its relation to the lower
animals. It has been claimed that "all admit" that there is no
impropriety in using any available means for the decoying of fish or
of beasts to their death, or in saving one's self from an enraged
animal; hence that a lie is not to be counted as a sin _per se_, but
depends for its moral value on the relation subsisting between its
utterer and the one toward whom it is