A Lie Never Justifiable | Page 2

Basil the Great.--Deceit in Interests of Harmony.--Chrysostom's Deception of Basil.--Chrysostom's Defense of Deceit.--Augustine's Firmness of Position.--Condemnation of Lying.--Examination of Excuses.--Jerome's Weakness and Error.--Final Agreement with Augustine.--Repetition of Arguments of Augustine and Chrysostom.--Representative Disputants.--Thomas Aquinas.--Masterly Discussion.--Errors of Duns Scotus.--John Calvin.--Martin Luther.-- Ignatius Loyola.--Position of Jesuits.--Protestants Defending Lying. --Jeremy Taylor.--Errors and Inconsistencies.--Wrong Definitions.-- Misapplication of Scripture.--Richard Rothe.--Character, Ability, and Influence. in Definition of Lie.--Failure to Recognize.--Error Love to God as Only Basis of Love to Man.--Exceptions in Favor of Lying.--Nitzsch's Claim of Wiser and Nobler Methods than Lying in Love.--Rothe's Claim of Responsibility of Loving Guardianship--No Countenance of Deception in Example of Jesus.--Prime Error of Rothe. --Opinions of Contemporary Critics.--Isaac Augustus Dorner.-- Character and Principles.--Keen Definitions.--High Standards.-- Clearness and Consistency.--Hans Lassen Martensen.--Logic Swayed by Feeling.--Right Premises and Wavering Reasonings.--Lofty Ideals.-- Story of Jeanie Deans.--Correct Conclusions.--Influence of Personal Peculiarities on Ethical Convictions.--Contrast of Charles Hodge and James H. Thornwell.--Dr. Hodge's Correct Premises and Amiable Inconsistencies.--Truth the Substratum of Deity.--Misconceptions of Bible Teachings.--Suggestion of Deception by Jesus Christ.--Error as to General Opinion of Christians.--Dr. Hodge's Conclusions Crushed by his Premises.--Dr. Thornwell's Thorough Treatment of Subject.-- Right Basis.--Sound Argument.--Correct Definitions.--Firmness for Truth.--Newman Smyth's Manual.--Good Beginning and Bad Ending.-- Confusion of Terms.--Inconsistencies in Argument.--Loose Reasoning. --Dangerous Teachings.--James Martineau.--Fine Moral Sense.--Conflict between Feeling and Conviction.--Safe Instincts.--Thomas Fowler.-- Higher Expediency of Veracity.--Importance to General Good.--Leslie Stephen.--Duty of Veracity Result of Moral Progress.--Kant and Fichte.--Jacobi Misrepresented.--False Assumptions by Advocates of Lie of Necessity.--Enemies in Warfare not Justified in Lying.--Testimony of Cicero.--Macaulay on Lord Clive's Treachery.--Woolsey on International Law.--No Place for Lying in Medical Ethics.--Opinions and Experiences of Physicians.--Pliny's Story of Roman Matron.--Victor Hugo's Sister Simplice.--Words of Abbé Sicard.--Tact and Principle.--Legal Ethics.--Whewell's View.--Opinion of Chief-Justice Sharswood.--Mistakes of Dr. Hodge.--Lord Brougham's Claim.--False Charge against Charles Phillips.--Chancellor Kent on Moral Obligations in Law and in Equity.--Clerical Profession Chiefly Involved.--Clergymen for and against Lying.--Temptation to Lies of Love.--Supreme Importance of Sound Principle.--Duty of Veracity to Lower Animals.--Dr. Dabney's View.--Views of Dr. Newman Smyth.--Duty of Truthfulness an Obligation toward God.--Lower Animals not Exempt from Principle of Universal Application.--Fishing.--Hunting.--Catching Horse.--Professor Bowne's Psychological View.--No Place for Lying in God's Universe.--Small Improvement on Chrysostom's Argument for Lying.--Limits of Consistency in Logical Plea.--God, or Satan.
VII.
THE GIST OF THE MATTER.
One All-Dividing Line.--Primal and Eternal Difference.--Lie Inevitably Hostile to God.--Lying Separates from God.--Sin per se.--Perjury Justifiable if Lying be Justifiable.--Lying--Lying Defiles Liar, apart from Questions of Gain in Lying.--Social Evils Resultant from Lying.--Confidence Essential to Society.--Lying Destructive of Confidence.--Lie Never Harmless.
INDEXES.
TOPICAL INDEX. SCRIPTURAL INDEX.

I.
A QUESTION OF THE AGES.
Whether a lie is ever justifiable, is a question that has been in discussion, not only in all the Christian centuries, but ever since questions concerning human conduct were first a possibility. On the one hand, it has been claimed that a lie is by its very nature irreconcilable with the eternal principles of justice and right; and, on the other hand, it has been asserted that great emergencies may necessitate a departure from all ordinary rules of human conduct, and that therefore there may be, in an emergency, such a thing as the "lie of necessity."
It is not so easy to consider fairly a question like this in the hour when vital personal interests pivot on the decision, as it is in a season of rest and safety; yet, if in a time of extremest peril the unvarying duty of truthfulness shines clearly through an atmosphere of sore temptation, that light may be accepted as diviner because of its very power to penetrate clouds and to dispel darkness. Being forced to consider, in an emergency, the possible justification of the so-called "lie of necessity," I was brought to a settlement of that question in my own mind, and have since been led to an honest endeavor to bring others to a like settlement of it. Hence this monograph.
In the summer of 1863 I was a prisoner of war in Columbia, South Carolina. The Federal prisoners were confined in the common jail, under military guard, and with no parole binding them not to attempt an escape. They were subject to the ordinary laws of war. Their captors were responsible for their detention in imprisonment, and it was their duty to escape from captivity, and to return to the army of the government to which they owed allegiance, if they could do so by any right means. No obligations were on them toward their captors, save those which are binding at all times, even when a state of war suspends such social duties as are merely conventional.
Only he who has been a prisoner of war in a Southern prison in midsummer, or in a Northern prison in the dead of winter, in time of active hostilities outside, can fully realize the heart-longings of a soldier prisoner to find release from his sufferings in confinement, and to be again at his post of duty at