The lip of truth shall be established for ever.
Truthfulness
I. The righteousness of truth (Proverbs 12:17). The highest and only proper use of speech is to show the right. It may be used to set forth--
1. Right views of God (Psalms 11:2; John 17:25-26; Romans 3:21-22).
2. Right views of personal experience (Psalms 66:16).
3. Right estimates of character. Testimonials should be given with great caution.
4. Right statements as to the value of articles of merchandise.
5. Right expositions of Scripture. Some “wrest” the Scriptures (2 Peter 3:16); others make them void by their traditions (Mark 7:13); others handle them deceitfully (2 Corinthians 4:2); but the God-taught expositor aims at “the manifestation of the truth.”
II. The wholesomeness of truth (Proverbs 12:18). Foolish speech often wounds, but in the word of wisdom is healing. Healthy doctrine produces healthy living, and thus it becomes its own advocate.
III. The stability of truth (Proverbs 12:19). “Truth, like cork, will be uppermost one time or other, though an effort be made to keep it under water.” Time is on the side of truth, and so is eternity. There has been an abundant establishment of--
1. The testimony of prophets.
2. Words spoken by the opponents of error. Lies often die hard, but sooner or later they die surely.
IV. The safety of truth. We may be afraid to be wrong, but should never be afraid to be right.
V. The reward of truth (Proverbs 12:22.) (H. Thorne.)
The lip of truth
There was once a little boy named Duncan. The boys used to call him “True Duncan” because he would never tell a lie. One day he was playing with an axe in the schoolyard. The axe was used for cutting wood for the schoolroom fire in winter. While Duncan was chopping a stick, the teacher’s cat, “Old Tabby,” came and leaped on to the log of wood where Duncan was at work. He had raised the axe to cut the wood, but it fell on the cat and killed her. What to do he knew not. She was the master’s pet cat, and used to sit on a cushion at his side while he was hearing the boys’ lessons. Duncan stood looking at poor Tabby. His face grew red and the tears stood in his eyes. All the boys came running up, and every one had something to say. One of them was heard whispering to the others, “Now, boys, let us see if Duncan can’t make up a fib as well as the rest of us.” “Not he,” said Tom Brown, who was Duncan’s friend, “not he, I’ll warrant. Duncan will be as true as gold.” John Jones stepped up and said, “Come, boys, let us fling the cat into the lane, and we can tell Mr. Cole that the butcher’s dog killed her. You know that he worried her last week.” Some of them thought that would do very well. But Duncan looked quite angry; his cheek swelled and his face grew redder than before. “No, no,” said he. “Do you think I would say that? It would be a lie--a lie!” Each time he used the word his voice grew louder. Then he took up the poor thing and carried her into the master’s room. The boys followed to see what would happen. The master looked up and said, “What? is this my poor Tabby killed? Who could have done me such an injury?” All were silent for a little while. As soon as Duncan could get his voice he said, “Mr. Cole, I am very sorry I killed poor Tabby. Indeed, sir, I am very sorry, I ought to have been more careful, for I saw her rubbing herself against the log. I am more sorry than I can tell, sir.” Every one expected to see Mr. Cole get very angry, take down his cane and give Duncan a sound thrashing. But instead of that he put on a pleasant smile and said, “Duncan, you are a brave boy. I saw and heard all that passed in the yard from my window above. I am glad to see such an example of truth and honour in my school.” Duncan took out his handkerchief and wiped his eyes. The boys could not keep silence any longer, and when Tom Brown cried, “Three cheers for True Duncan!” they all joined and made the schoolhouse ring with a mighty hurrah. The teacher then said, “My boys, I am glad you know what is right and that you approve it, though I am afraid some of you could not have done it. Learn from this time that nothing can make a lie necessary. Suppose Duncan had taken your evil advice and come to me with a lie, it would have been instantly detected, and instead of the honour of truth he would have had only the shame of falsehood.” (Sunday School.)
But a lying tongue is but for a moment.--
The doomed life of a lie
It is “but for a moment.” Dean Swift complains that the influence of a lie is often mischievously lasting; so often does it happen that if a lie be believed, only for an hour, it has done its work, and there is no further occasion for it. But the inherent mortality of whatever is false is recognised in other proverbs than those of Solomon, e.g., the English proverb, “A lie has no legs.” “A lie, in that it is a lie, always carries within itself the germs of its own dissolution. It is sure to destroy itself at last.” Carlyle says, “There is no lie in the long run successful. The hour of all windbags does arrive; every windbag is at length ripped, and collapses.” “Lies exist only to be extinguished; they wait and cry earnestly for extinction.” “Ruin is the great sea of darkness whither all falsehoods, winding or direct, continually flow.” “Nothing,” affirms a political philosopher, of an earlier and quite another school, “can give stability and durable uniformity to error. Indolence or ignorance may keep it floating, as it were, on the surface of the mind, and sometimes hinder truth from penetrating; or force may maintain it in possession, while the mind assents to it no longer. But such opinions, like human bodies, tend to dissolution from their birth. .. Men are dragged into them, and held down in them, by chains of circumstances. Break but these chains, and the mind returns with a kind of intellectual elasticity to its proper object--truth.” (Francis Jacox, B.A.)
Skill in telling lies
The lying tongue succeeds indeed, but its success is momentary; it flashes and expires; it has a clear, straightforward story to tell, but events come, and cross-examine that story, and set it in proper distance and perspective; alliances to which the story owed its consistency are broken up, and evil men begin to divulge secrets regarding one another; piece by piece the story falls asunder, and at the end it is found that it was the fabrication of a malignant genius. Be sure you are true yourselves, and have a true purpose in view, and all discrepancies, inconsistencies, and difficulties will ultimately be smoothed down, and men will be brought to acknowledge the integrity of your heart. Be as skilful as you please in the way of telling lies, arrange everything with consummate cunning, hire all your allies, bribe your spies, and make your way clear by abundance of gold, and yet in the long run your confederates will turn against you, and they to whom you have given most money will be glad to expose your cupidity and falsehood. (J. Parker, D.D.)
Truth more enduring than falsehood
Truth wears well. Time tests it, but it right well endures the trial. If, then, I have spoken the truth, and have for the present to suffer for it, I must be content to wait. If also I believe the truth of God, and endeavour to declare it, I may meet with much opposition, but I need not fear, for ultimately the truth must prevail. What a poor thing is the temporary triumph of falsehood! “A lying lip is but for a moment!” It is a mere gourd, which comes up in a night, and perishes in a night; and the greater its development, the more manifest its decay. On the other hand, how worthy of an immortal being is the avowal and defence of that truth which can never change; the everlasting gospel, which is established in the immutable truth of an unchanging God! An old proverb says, “He that speaks truth shames the devil.” Assuredly he that speaks the truth of God will put to shame all the devils in hell, and confound all the seed of the serpent which now hiss out their falsehoods. Oh, my heart, take care that thou be in all things on the side of truth, both in small things and great; but specially on the side of Him by whom grace and truth have come among men! (C. H. Spurgeon.)