Lying to the Spirit

But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?” — ACTS v. 3.

OfheyLE to the Holy Ghost,” that is surely a strange phrase. Why does not Peter say that Ananias had told himself a lie? Because Ananias had not done so. His was not a spoken but an acted lie. He was not doing anything which the world would have called dishonourable. In honour he was not bound to give more than part. True, others were giving the whole, but they were giving it voluntarily. Ananias wanted to seem like other people without the trouble of being so. He tried to come in with the stream and to be thought a part of the stream. He laid down the money and said he got it for the land, and that was true. It was the truth in the ears of men but not in the eye of the Spirit. The thing most visible to the eye of the Spirit was the thing unrecorded to the ears of men; it was the part of the price kept back. It was a silent falsehood, a falsehood where there was no speech and no language; it was uttered only to the Holy Ghost.

Spirit of truth, there are some untruths that I tell only to Thee. There are unspoken falsehoods not heard by the ear of my brother man which yet are audible to Thee. Sometimes I hear one maligned whom I do not love. I know that the charge is untrue, yet because I do not love the man I am not sorry that others should not love him; therefore I keep silent. I think I have done well not to have joined in the calumny, but to Thine ear I have joined in it. I have kept back part of the price of duty. My silence has evaded the law of man, but it has lied unto Thee. O Thou divine Spirit, cleanse me from the deceit of my own heart. Reveal to me that the majesty of truth is seated not without but within. Reveal to me that it is not enough that my charity should say no evil; it must not keep back the good. Reveal to me that there are times when silence is not golden, when silence is the absence of gold. Lift me above that spirit of detraction which fears to strike but has not the grace to succour. Raise me above the meanness that keeps back the price of justice from an injured foe. I shall be as transparent as the day when I have spoken the truth to Thee.