of spontaneous truth, and willingly resigned her life, rather than be guilty of a lie to save it, though that lie was considered by the law of the country, and by the world at large, to be no lie at all; this bright example of what a true and lively faith can do for us in an hour of strong temptation, was not only a humble, guilty woman, but a nameless one also. She was an obscure friendless individual, whose name on earth seems to be nowhere recorded; and, probably, no strong interest was felt for her disastrous death, except by the preacher who converted her, and by the Judge who condemned her. This afflicted person was also well aware that the courage with which she met her fate, and died rather than utter a falsehood, would not be cheered and honoured by an anxious populace, or by the tearful

farewells of mourning but admiring friends; she also knew that her honest avowal would brand her with the odious guilt of murdering her child, and yet she persevered in her adherence to the truth! Therefore, I humbly trust that, however inferior she may appear, in the eyes of her fellowmortals, to martyrs of a loftier and more important description, this willing victim of what she thought her duty, offered as acceptable a sacrifice as theirs, in the eyes of her Judge and her Redeemer.

No doubt, as I before observed, the history of both public and pri vate life may afford many more examples of equal reverence for truth, derived from religious motives; but, as the foregoing instance was more immediately before me, I was induced togive it as an apt illustration of

the precept which I wish to enforce. The few, and not the many, are called upon to earn the honours of public martyrdom, and to shine like stars in the firmament of distant days; and, in like manner, few of us are exposed to the danger of telling great and wicked falsehoods. But, as it is more difficult, perhaps, to bear with fortitude the little daily trials of life, than great calamities, because we summon up all our spiritual and moral strength to resist the latter, but often do not feel it to be a necessary duty to bear the former with meekness and resignation; so is it more difficult to overcome and resist temptations to every-day lying and deceit, than to falsehoods of a worse description; since, while these little lies often steal on us unawares, and take us unprepared, we know them to be so tri

vial, that they escape notice, and to be so tolerated, that even, if detected, they will not incur reproof. Still, I must again and again repeat the burden of my song, that moral result, which, however weakly I may have performed my task, I have laboured incessantly, through the whole of my work, to draw, and to illustrate; namely, that this little and tolerated lying, as well as great and reprobated falsehood, is wholly inconsistent with the character of a serious Christian, and sinful in the eyes of the God of Truth; that, in the daily recurring temptation to deceive, our only security is to lift up our soul, in secret supplication, to be preserved faithful in the hour of danger, and always to remember, without any qualification of the monitory words, that "lying lips are an abomination to the Lord,"

CONCLUSION.

I SHALL now give a summary of the didactic part of these observations on lying, and the principles which, with much fearfulness and humility, I have ventured to lay down.

I have stated, that if there be no other true definition of lying than an intention to deceive, withholding the truth, with such an intention, partakes as much of the nature of falsehood as direct lies; and that, therefore, lies are of two natures, active and passive; or, in other words, direct and indirect.

That a PASSIVE LIE is equally as irreconcileable to moral principles as an active one.