TELLING THE TRUTH

New Zealand Tablet, 4 November 1909, Page 1757

TELLING THE TRUTH

Speaking the truth certainly does not make any one pleased or glad that you have had the accident and broken something of value; you may probably be blamed, but that is nothing compared with being shamed, and I can't think of any greater shame than being proved a liar. There is something so utterly mean about, a lie, whether ' spoken, acted, or implied. .-If you break something and keep silence you know perfectly well that some day when the' breakage is found out it will be much more difficult to stand for-

far worse than any blame you would have had to bear in confessing at once; the shame of being 'found out' will be far worse than any blame you would have had to Ixiar in the first instance. What if you have to stand by and hear. another blamed for something you have done? If you don't speak up at once, what a miserable, shamed feeling will be yours when, as is pretty sure to be the case, the truth gets known at last. What a difference there is in the very "look of a truthful person; the eyes. are so straightforward and clear, and meet those of the person they are speaking to ; _ whilst one telling an untruth (unless, which is saddest of all, it is a hardened liar who is speaking) has a shifty; uncertain look, as if saying, ' I wonder if they will believe me or not ? ' If you do wrong or commit some fault, bear the blame quietly, but don't ever allow yourself to have the shame of lying. 7 '