False witness.
God's brand is here placed upon the crime of false witness. It was to be severely punished. Every one is interested in the suppression of such a crime-the parties whose interests are involved, society at large, the Church, the magistracy, God himself, of one of whose commandments (the ninth) it is the daring violation. The rules here apply primarily to false witness given in courts of justice, but the principles involved may be extended to all forms of the sin.
I. FALSE WITNESS IS IN GOD'S SIGHT A GREAT EVIL.
1. It indicates great malevolence.
2. It is grievously unjust and injurious to the person wrongfully accused.
3. It is certain to be taken up and industriously propagated.
A calumny is never wholly wiped out. There are always found some evil-speaking persons disposed to believe and repeat it. It affixes a mark on the injured party which remains on him through life.
II. FALSE WITNESS ASSUMES MANY FORMS. It is not confined to law courts, but pervades private life, and appears in the way in which partisans deal with public men and public events. Persons of a malicious and envious disposition, given to detraction, can scarcely avoid it—indeed, live in the element of it. Forms of this vice:
1. Deliberate invention and circulation of falsehoods.
2. Innuendo, or suggestio falsi.
3. Suppression of essential circumstances—suppressio veri.
4. The distortion or deceitful coloring of actual facts.
A lie is never so successful as when it can attach itself to a grain of truth—
"A lie that is all a lie may be met and fought with outright;
But a lie that is part of a truth is a harder matter to fight."
III. THE FALSE WITNESS BORNE BY ONE AGAINST ANOTHER WILL BE EXPOSED AT GOD'S JUDGMENT SEAT. The two parties—he who was accused of bearing false witness and he who alleged himself to be injured by it—were required to appear before the Lord, and to submit their cause to the priests and judges, who acted as his deputies (Deuteronomy 19:17). It was their part to make diligent inquisition, and, if the crime was proved, to award punishment (Deuteronomy 19:18, Deuteronomy 19:19). The punishment was to be on the principle of the lex talionis (Deuteronomy 19:19-21). So, at Christ's judgment seat, the person who has long lain under an undeserved stigma through the false witness of another may depend on being cleared from wrong, and the wrong-doer will be punished (Colossians 3:25). Meanwhile, it is the duty of every one to see to the punishment of this crime, not only in cases of actual perjury, But in every form of it, and not only by legal penalties, but—which is the only means that can reach every case—by the emphatic reprobation of society, and, where that is possible, by Church censures.—J.O.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR