need you be disturbed by the geology or astronomy or history of the Old Testament.—N. D. Hillis.
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TRUTH FATAL
Of the great caution with which truth
must often be handled, I can not give you a
better illustration than the following from
my own experience. A young man, accompanied
by his young wife, came from a distant
place, and sent for me to see him at his
hotel. He wanted his chest examined, he
told me. Did he wish to be informed of
what I might discover? He did. I made the
ante mortem autopsy desired. Tubercles;
cavities; disease in full blast; death waiting
at the door. I did not say this, of course,
but waited for his question. "Are there any
tubercles?" he asked presently. "Yes, there
are." There was silence for a brief space,
and then like Esau, he lifted up his voice and
wept; he cried with a great and exceedingly
bitter cry, and then the twain, husband and
wife, with loud ululation and passionate
wringing of hands, shrieked in wild chorus
like the keeners of an Irish funeral, and
would not be soothed or comforted. The
fool! He had brought a letter from his
physician, warning me not to give an opinion
to the patient himself, but to write it to
him, the medical adviser, and this letter the
patient had kept back, determined to have my
opinion from my own lips, not doubting that
it would be favorable. In six weeks he was
dead, and I never questioned that his own
folly and my telling him the naked truth
killed him before his time.
Truth is the breath of life to human society. It is the food of the immortal spirit. Yet a single word of it may kill a man as suddenly as a drop of prussic acid. An old gentleman was sitting at a table when the news that Napoleon had returned from Elba was told him. He started up, repeated a line from a French play, which may be thus Englished:
"The fatal secret is at length revealed," and fell senseless in apoplexy. You remember the story of the old man who expired on hearing that his sons were crowned at the Olympic games. A worthy inhabitant of a village in New Hampshire fell dead on hearing that he was chosen town clerk.—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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TRUTH, GIRDLE OF
It is the universal custom among the
Parsees of the Far East to wear a girdle
around their waists, which is twisted into
three knots in a most complicated fashion.
In performing their daily ablutions this girdle
must be removed, and in replacing it certain
prayers are repeated for each knot. The
three knots represent good thoughts, good
words, and good deeds, all constituting a
threefold cord that is to be not easily broken.
A good companion to the "girdle
of truth" which the Christian may
wear. (Text.)
(3312)
Truth in Men—See Confidence in Men.
Truth not Static—See Creeds, Insecurity
of.
Truth, Standing for—See Arguing for
Truth.
Truth-telling—See Trustworthiness.
Truth Withheld—See Discretion.
TRUTHFULNESS REWARDED
I remember once hearing of a boy who
was very, very poor. He lived in a foreign
country, and his mother said to him one
day that he must go into the great city and
start in business, and she took his coat and
cut it open and sewed between the lining and
the coat forty golden dinars, which she had
saved up for many years to start him in
life. She told him to take care of robbers
as he went across the desert; and as he was
going out of the door she said: "My boy,
I have only two words for you, 'Fear God,
and never tell a lie.'" The boy started off,
and toward evening he saw glittering in the
distance the minarets of the great city, but
between the city and himself he saw a cloud
of dust; it came nearer; presently he saw
that it was a band of robbers. One of the
robbers left the rest and rode toward him,
and said: "Boy, what have you got?" And
the boy looked him in the face and said: "I
have forty golden dinars sewed up in my
coat." And the robber laughed and wheeled
round his horse and went away back. He
would not believe the boy. Presently another
robber came, and he said: "Boy, what have
you got?" "Forty golden dinars sewed up
in my coat." The robber said: "The boy is
a fool," and wheeled his horse and rode
away back. By and by the robber captain
came, and he said: "Boy, what have you
got?" "I have forty golden dinars sewed up
in my coat." And the robber dismounted
and put his hand over the boy's breast, felt
something round, counted one, two, three,
