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This Commandment requires us, as the Catechism says, "to keep our tongues from evil-speaking, lying, and slandering." Slandering means saying anything that will injure the character of another person. There was a company of ladies once at the house of a clergyman. As he entered the room he heard them speaking in a low voice of an absent friend. "She's very odd," says one. "Yes, very singular indeed," says another. "Do you know, she often does so and so?" says a third, mentioning certain things to her discredit. The clergyman asked who it was. When told, he said, "Oh yes, she is odd; she's very odd; she's remarkably singular. Why, would you believe it?" he added, in a slow, impressive manner; "she was never heard to speak ill of any absent friends!" A clergyman was once examining the children of an infant school upon the Commandments. He put his hand on the head of a little boy, and said, "My little man, can you tell me what the Ninth Commandment means by "bearing false witness against thy neighbour"? The boy hesitated a while, and then said, "It means telling lies, sir." The minister didn't exactly like this answer, so looking at a little girl who stood next to him, he asked, "What do you say?" Without waiting a moment, she replied, "It's when nobody does nothing, and somebody goes and tells of it." "Very good," said the minister. The little girl's answer was a very funny one; but the little boy's was true. Bearing false witness is telling lies, and telling lies is bearing false witness. We break the Ninth Commandment every time we tell a lie.

I. The first reason why we should never bear false witness or tell a lie is, because it is a MEAN thing. Who was the first person of whom we know that ever told a lie? Satan. Where was this lie told? In the garden of Eden. Satan bore false witness against God. He contradicted God. This was mean of Satan. He did it out of spite. A gentleman once sent his servant to market with the direction to bring home the best thing he could find. He carried home a tongue. He was sent again with the direction to bring home the worst thing he could find. Again he brought home a tongue. This was right; for the tongue is the best thing in the world when properly used, or the worst when not so used.

II. The second reason why we should not do it is, because it is aa UNPROFITABLE thing. People generally expect to make something when they tell a lie.

III. The third reason why we ought not to do this is, because it is DANGEROUS. Lying is like letting water through a bank. When it once begins to run, there is no telling where it will stop. Now, suppose it were possible all at once to draw every bolt and fastening out of that ship as she sails over the ocean, what would become of her? She would fall to pieces directly, and all her cargo would be lost. Well, every family, every village or town, is like such a ship. It is made up of a number of persons bound together. And what binds them together? Why, truth or confidence. Truth among people in society is like the bolt in the ship. If nobody told the truth, and people had no confidence in one another, they could no more live together in families or communities, and do business together, than a number of pieces of timber without bolts to fasten them together could make a ship. Would it not be very dangerous to have a person on board a ship who had a machine for drawing the bolts out, and who was trying to use it all the time? Certainly it would. Well, lying is such a machine.

IV. Our fourth and last reason is, we ought not to do it because it is a WICKED thing. This is shown by —

1. What God .says of liars (see Proverbs 6:19; Proverbs 12:5).

2. What God does with liars (see Revelation 21:8).

(R. Newton, D. D.)

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KJV: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

WEB: "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.