and dispense them to all who will degrade themselves by
accepting them. Aspersions, detractions, slanders, defamations, and
calumnies he can conjure in his mind and pour out of his lips without
the shadow of a justification. And as there are always persons with
ready minds to receive whatever is said to the injury of others, and to
circulate it as truth, the liar often succeeds in the accomplishment of
his evil purpose. I will give briefly the traits of his character.

1. _He is a child of the devil._--"Ye are of your father the devil, and
the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the
beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and
the father of it" (John viii. 44). The liar, then, is a legitimate son
of this lying father. He speaks as he is inspired by that black spirit
of perdition. "Thou never liest," says Bishop Hopkins, "but thou
speakest aloud what the devil whispered softly to thee; the Old Serpent
lies folded round in thy heart, and we may hear him hissing in thy
voice. And therefore, when God summoned all His heavenly attendants
about Him, and demanded who would persuade Ahab to go up and fall at
Ramoth-Gilead, an evil spirit that had crowded in amongst them steps
forth and undertakes the office as his most natural employment, and that
wherein he most of all delighted. 'I will go forth and be a lying spirit
in the mouth of all his prophets' (I Kings xxii. 22). Every lie thou
tellest, consider that the devil sits upon thy tongue, breathes
falsehood into thy heart, and forms thy words and accents into deceit."

2. _He acts contrary to the Divine mind and nature._--God is truth and
in Him is no falsehood at all. What He hath said He will do; what He
hath promised He will fulfil. All His thoughts are according to the
perfect reality of things; and all His words are in exact accord with
His thoughts. Hence the sin of lying is contrary to His very nature, and
an abomination in His sight. "These six things doth the Lord hate: yea,
seven are an abomination unto Him: A proud look, A LYING TONGUE, and
hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked
imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A FALSE WITNESS
THAT SPEAKETH LIES, and he that soweth discord among his brethren"
(Prov. vi. 16-19). "LYING LIPS are abomination to the Lord: but they
that deal truly are His delight" (Prov. xii