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db: 5RH
pt: Advent Review and Sabbath Herald
dt: 04-13-97
at: Words to Parents [Concluded]
pr: 9
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Parents should set their children an example of strict
truthfulness. They should never utter one word that is not true. They
should train their children to respect Christians. Parents, do not
allow your children to see that you take their word before the
statements of older Christians. You cannot do them a greater injury. By
saying, I believe my children before I believe those whom I have
evidence are children of God, you encourage in them the habit of
falsifying.

Parents and teachers, be true to God. Let your life be free from
deceitful practises. Let no guile be found in your lips. However
disagreeable it may be to you at the time, let your ways, your words,
and your works show uprightness in the sight of a holy God. O, the
effect of the first lesson in deceit is terrible! Shall any who claim
to be sons and daughters of God give themselves up to deceitful
practises and lying?

Never let your children have the semblance of an excuse for

saying, Mother does not tell the truth. Father does not tell the truth.
When you are tried in the heavenly courts, shall the record be made
against your name, A deceiver? Shall your offspring be perverted by the
example of those who ought to guide them in the way of truth? Instead
of this, shall not the converting power of God enter the hearts of
mothers and fathers? Shall not the Holy Spirit of God be allowed to
make its mark upon their children?

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db: 9RH
pt: Advent Review and Sabbath Herald
dt: 02-02-11
at: A Warning Against Hypocrisy
pr: 18
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From the stern punishment meted out to Ananias and Sapphira, God
would have us learn also how deep is his hatred and contempt for all
hypocrisy and deception. In pretending that they had given all, Ananias
and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit, and as a result they lost this
life and the life that is to come. The same God who punished them
condemns all falsehood today. Lying lips are an abomination to him. He
declares that into the holy city there shall in no wise enter "anything
that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a
lie." Let truth-telling be held with no loose hand or uncertain grasp.
Let it become a part of the life. Playing fast and loose with truth,
and dissembling to suit one's own selfish plans, means a shipwreck of
faith. "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth." He
who utters untruths sells his soul in a cheap market. His falsehoods
may seem to serve in emergencies. He may seem to make business
advancement because he gains by falsehood what he could not gain by
fair dealing. But he finally reaches the place where he can trust no
one. Himself a falsifier, he has no confidence in the word of others.
*********************************************************************
db: 4OM
ti: Other Manuscripts Volume Four
cn: 224
ct: Ellen G. White Letters to Young Christians
pr: 2
pg: 176
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You ought to be my noble, truthful boy, a staff to your father,
who is worn with care and constant labor, a comfort to your mother who
has nursed you in sickness and cared for you in health. What can cause
greater sorrow to parents with high principles and a keen sense of the
beauty and importance of truth than to become convinced of the fact
that their children are not truthful, that they have learned to
deceive? . . . Thorns and briers have sprung up in my garden and choked
the seed which I have tried to sow. You may say, "Dear me, Mother feels
very keenly over trifles. I may not have been exactly truthful in
little trifles." Trifles! Dear boy, there are no such things as
trifles. Till truth itself is a trifle and valueless, no departure from
it in any case can be called so. . . .

You have so long cherished little habits of concealment

(especially from your dear father), so long retreated from openness and
candor, that you have become habitually secretive, even when there is
often no inducement to be so. This makes you unsatisfactory, unstable,
and insincere in character. Your habit of excusing and justifying
yourself is often contrary to your conviction of truth. Every act of
this kind is doing much toward forming your character. . . .
Edson, in youth or early years we can trace the characteristics of
riper years. The rank and noisome weeds of falsehood and deceit, which
choke the precious plants of candor and truth, are sown in the
springtime of youth. . . . After indulging in deception or concealing
things from your parents, prevarication comes next; which is a mean,
cowardly sort of lying. The path of truth is always safe, straight, and
easy; that of deceit has so many windings and turnings that one
deviation from uprightness and candor may lead to a thousand deceptions
which were not anticipated at the first. A love for candor and truth is
respected and loved by everyone not excepting those who place no
estimate upon it for its own sake. Concealment, my dear boy, is [a]
child of transgression. . . .
......
My dear Edson, you must render an account for the influence you
exert. You have been blessed with good instruction and more is expected
of you than of boys generally. I do not love to cause you pain, but I
dare not withhold from you the light in which I view your case.--Letter
4, 1865, pp. 1-7. (To "My Dear Son Edson," June 20, 1865.)

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db: 4OT
ti: Testimony For The Church, No. 4
pg: 71
pr: 1
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Some fond mothers suffer wrongs in their children, which should
not be suffered in them for a moment. The wrongs of the children are
sometimes concealed from the father. Articles of dress or some
indulgence is granted by the mother, with the understanding that the
father is to know nothing about it; for he would reprove for these
things.

Here is a lesson of deception effectually taught the children.

Then if the father discovers these wrongs, vain excuses are made, and
but half the truth told. The mother is not openhearted. She does not
consider as she should that the father has the same interest in the
children as herself, and that he should not be kept ignorant of their
wrongs or besetments that ought to be corrected while young. Things
have been covered. The children know the lack of union in their
parents. It has its effect. The children begin young to deceive, cover
up, tell things in a different light from what they are, to their
mother, as well as their father. Exaggeration becomes habit. Blunt
falsehoods are told with but little conviction or reproof of
conscience.

These wrongs commenced by the mother's concealing things from the

father, who has a mutual interest in the character his children are
forming. The father should have been consulted freely. All should have
been laid open to him. But the opposite course taken to conceal and
hide the wrongs of the children, encourages in them a disposition to
deceive, a lack of truthfulness and honesty.

The only hope of these children, whether they profess religion or

not, is to be thoroughly converted. Their whole character must be
changed. Thoughtless mother, do you know, as you teach your children,
that their whole religious experience is affected by their teaching
when young? Subdue them young; teach them to submit to you, and the
more readily will they learn to yield obedience to the requirements of
God. Encourage in your children a truthful, honest disposition. Let
them never have occasion to doubt your sincerity and exact
truthfulness.

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db: MB
ti: Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing
pg: 134
ct: Not Judging, but Doing
pr: 3
cn: 6
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In your association with others, put yourself in their place.
Enter into their feelings, their difficulties, their disappointments,
their joys, and their sorrows. Identify yourself with them, and then do
to them as, were you to exchange places with them, you would wish them
to deal with you. This is the true rule of honesty. It is another
expression of the law. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
Matthew 22:39. And it is the substance of the teaching of the prophets.
It is a principle of heaven, and will be developed in all who are
fitted for its holy companionship.

********NOTE: this is especially directed to the SDA publishing houses**********

db: PC
ti: The Paulson Collection of Ellen G. White Letters
pr: 3
pg: 368
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Let it not be necessary for God to send rebuke to men in
responsible positions, who should be guardians of the people,
especially of the interests of those who have long served in the cause
of God; whose pen and voice have been active in bringing up the work to
its present proportions. I wish I could lay these matters before these
men in their true light. Ever since the Publishing Association was
formed, light has been given in cases of perplexity. The Lord has often
spoken, laying down principles and rules which must be carried out by
all the workers. The grave responsibilities resting upon those in
positions of trust have been continually kept before us, and we have
sought the Lord from three to five times a day to give us heavenly
wisdom that we might sacredly guard the interests of the cause, and of
his chosen people. I have been repeatedly shown that we must do this.
It was shown me that those who preside over these institutions should
ever bear in mind that there is a Chief Director, even the God of
Heaven. There should be strict honesty in the business transactions in
every department of the work. While there should be firmness in
preserving order, there should also be compassion, mercy and
forbearance incorporated into the character. Justice has a twin sister
- love - and they should stand side by side.

It has been repeatedly presented before me that God is observing

every transaction in that office. "Thou God seest me," should be ever
in mind; courtesy and Christian politeness should be exercised by every
one who bears responsibilities in the office. They should have a sense
of the encroachment upon others' rights which is so common in the
world's practice, but which is an offense to God. The board of
directors should ever act as under the divine eye, with a continual
sense that they are finite men, and are liable to make mistakes in
judgment, decisions, and plans, unless they are closely connected with
God, and seeking to have every deficiency removed from their
characters. As they are only weak and erring men themselves they should
feel kindness and pity for others who may err. The divine standard must
be met. You should take the Lord with you into every one of your
councils. If you sense that God is in your assemblies every transaction
will be conscientiously carefully and prayerfully considered. Every
unprincipled act will be repressed, and uprightness will characterize
the dealings in small as well as in large matters. There should be
cultivation of universal kindness with the workers. First seek counsel
of God, for this is necessary for you to properly counsel together.
....
The spirit of Christ
must be an abiding, controlling power over the hearts and mind. In the
world the god of traffic is the god of fraud. It must not be so with
those who are dealing with God's cause. The worldly principle and
standard is not to be the standard of those who are connected with
sacred things.

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db: 28OT
ti: Testimony for the Church, No. 28
pg: 73
pr: 1
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Adam and Eve suffered the terrible -- consequence of disobeying
the express command of God. They might have reasoned, This is a very
small sin, and will never be taken into account. But God treated the
matter as a fearful evil; and the woe of their transgression will be
felt through all time. In the times in which we live sins of far
greater magnitude are often committed by those who profess to be God's
children. In the transaction of business, falsehoods are uttered and
acted by God's professed people, that bring his frown upon them and a
reproach upon his cause. The least departure from truthfulness and
rectitude is a transgression of the law of God.

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db: 8ST
pt: The Signs of the Times
dt: 02-24-09
at: Business Principles of the Christian
pr: 1
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In his business life the Christian is to stand as a representative
of the principles of heaven. He is bound by sacred obligations to bear
witness to truth in its virtue and holiness. Gentleness and kindness
and strict truthfulness should mark his words and actions.

He who stands prepared to do the works of righteousness will not

be deceived by the allurements of the enemy. His actions will be guided
by an exalted sense of right, and he will be enabled to distinguish
between right and wrong, between truth, exalted truth, and error. Those
who enter the kingdom of heaven will be those who have reached the
highest standard of moral obligation, those who have not sought to hide
the truth or to deceive, those by whom God has been exalted and His
word defended, those in whom principle has not been misapplied to
vindicate the wiles of Satan.

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db: 7RH
pt: Advent Review and Sabbath Herald
dt: 03-10-03
at: The Workers Needed
pr: 13
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God calls for those who will be workers together with him.
Connected with Christ, human nature becomes pure and true. Christ
supplies the efficiency, and man becomes a power for good. Truthfulness
and integrity are attributes of God, and he who possesses these
attributes possesses a power that is invincible. Mrs. E. G. White.