He must move on. He must do something. Perhaps he is
asked a question which he does not wish to answer: but he must. It
would be well worth his while to tell a lie. It would be very safe
for him, profitable for him; while it would be very dangerous for
him to tell the truth. He might ruin himself once and for all, by
being an honest man. Now which shall he do? He would be glad to do
both, glad to do neither: but choose he must; speak he must. He
must either lie or tell the truth. Then comes the trial, whether he
believes in God and in Christ, or whether he does not. If he only
believes, as too many do without knowing it, in a dead God, a God
far away, he will lie. If he only believes, as too many do without
knowing it, in a dead Christ, a Christ who bore his sins on the
cross eighteen hundred years ago, but since then has had nothing to
do with him to speak of, as far as he knows--then he will lie. And
that is the God and the Christ which most people believe in: and
therefore when the time of trial comes, they fall away, and do and
say things of which they ought to be ashamed, because their trust is
not in God, but in man.
But if that man believes in the living God, and believes that he
lives, and moves, and has his being in God, he cannot lie. As it is
written, 'he that is born of God, sinneth not, for his seed
remaineth in him, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
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