implying that she was not his wife, since she was both, he imposed upon the royal credulity. The whole history, as it seems to me, compels the conclusion of Abraham's utter unconviction of wrong in this transaction. Nothing appears in the account of it, leading to the inference of there being the slightest impression on his mind that he was violating any established rule of propriety. Neither did the consequences of his deceit fall upon himself, but upon Pharoah:-and justly; for, although that monarch imagined Sarah to be Abraham's sister, he, nevertheless, took her, as a matter of right, into his house; thus disuniting two members of the same family, against the wish of both; it not being supposable that either desired to be separated in a foreign country and among strange people.

The attempt commonly made to defend Abraham, upon the ground that he did not tell an untruth, because Sarah really was his sister as well as his wife, is altogether to rest his vindication upon a fallacy; as by saying she was the one, he virtually denied that she was the other, by designedly leading to this obvious assumption. Imposition was manifestly practised, as was the case with Rahab, and intended imposition is, under any and every limitation, positive falsehood. If the righteous Hebrew thought himself guiltless, under the circumstances which provoked his deceit, much more might the degraded Canaanite consider herself justified in the imposition practised by her upon the messengers of

the king of Jericho. As she knew of no law against falsehood arising out of the desire to produce good, she actually violated none in resorting to it for such a purpose.

Now, I need hardly attempt to convince an assembly of Christian worshippers, that, however Rahab, in her ignorance, was absolved from guilt in declaring an untruth, we, whose lives are expected to be governed by the sacred regulations of a better covenant, cannot be warranted in telling one, whatever the inducement or provocation, because it is expressly prohibited. "Lie not one to another, brethren," writes the Apostle to the Colossian church," seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him."

The Gospel constitutes falsehood a sin, whether it be told for good or for evil. There is no reservation made, for the Christian principle is that good alone shall produce good. It does not recognize the heathen maxim that evil may be employed for this purpose. Evil loses not its identity, by being employed in the production of benefit. Nothing, therefore, with the law of Christ to guide us, will justify, however it may extenuate, a lie.

I shall take up this argument, God permitting, next Sunday morning, by way of practical corollary to the whole subject; when I hope to show that there is nothing in the discourses already delivered to you, upon Rahab's history, that

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will extenuate falsehood or imposition, in those who have the unerring precepts of the Gospel to direct their practice. Meanwhile, I commend you to God's blessing.

SERMON XIX.

THE SIN OF LYING.

JOHN, CHAP. VIII. VER. 44.

"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."

It is plainly declared by Christ in this passage, that the Devil was the author of lying, and as he alone was the author of sin, and of sin only, it is manifest that lying must be sin. This will, I presume, be sufficient to establish the fact of its guilt. It has been proclaimed to be criminal by the unerring authority, unerring because inspired, of "that disciple whom Jesus loved." Satan being the father of it, and as every thing proceeding from him must be evil, for that reason falsehood must be so, since nothing good can proceed from a being utterly and for ever alienated from God. The author of sin, therefore, can only produce

sin. "He was a murderer from the beginning," by introducing death into the world, until then unknown, by means of a lie; this, consequently, being the first committed sin upon earth, issuing too as it did in such lamentable consequences to the entire human race, the guilt of it is great in proportion to those consequences. We perceive too, with how rapid and successful an energy, after the Fall, the influence of the tempter operated in leading the tempted into further transgression; prompting them to commit that very act by which he had prevailed against their in

nocency.

Adam, almost immediately after his first offence, aggravated it by a second-by a deliberate and base falsehood. It was not committed in innocence, but with a full consciousness of guilt. The knowledge imparted by the forbidden fruit had supplied that consciousness. It was fearful and complete. In spite of it, however— thus rapidly did sin operate!-he attempted to impose upon God by a criminal misrepresentation of the truth; upon that God whose " eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden: and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."