Martensen recalls the story of Jeanie Deans, in Scott’s “Heart of Midlothian,” who refuses to tell a lie of exigency in order to save her sister’s life; yet who, having uttered the truth which led to her sister’s sentence of death, set herself, in faith in God, to secure that sister’s pardon, and by God’s grace compassed it.  “Most people would at least be disposed to excuse Jeanie Deans, and to forgive her, if she had here made a false oath, and thereby had afforded her protection to the higher truth.”  And if a loving lie of exigency be a duty before God, an appeal to his knowledge of the fact is, of course, equally a duty.  To refuse to appeal to God in witness of the truth of a falsehood that is told from a loving sense of duty, is to show a lack of confidence in God’s approval of such an untruth.  “But she will, can, and dare, for her conscience’ sake, not do this.”

“But the best thing in this tale,” adds Martensen, “is that it is no mere fiction.  The kernel of this celebrated romance is actual history.”  And Sir Walter Scott caused a monument to be erected in his garden, with the following inscription, in memory of this faithful truth-lover: 

“This stone was placed by the Author of ‘Waverley’ in memory of Helen Walker, who fell asleep in the year of our Lord 1791.  This maiden practiced in humility all the virtues with which fancy had adorned the character that bears in fiction the name of Jeanie Deans.  She would not depart a foot’s breadth from the path of truth, not even to save her sister’s life; and yet she obtained the liberation of her sister from the severity of the law by personal sacrifices whose greatness was not less than the purity of her aims.  Honor to the grave where poverty rests in beautiful union with truthfulness and sisterly love.”

“Who will not readily obey this request,” adds Martensen, “and hold such a memory in honor?...  Who does not feel himself penetrated with involuntary, most hearty admiration?”

In conclusion, in view of all that can be said on either side of the question, Martensen is sure that “the lie of exigency itself, which we call inevitable, leaves in us the feeling of something unworthy, and this unworthiness should, simply in following Christ, more and more disappear from our life.  That is, the inevitableness of the lie of exigency will disappear in the same measure that an individual develops into a true personality, a true character....  A lie of exigency cannot occur with a personality that is found in possession of full courage, of perfect love and holiness, as of the enlightened, all-penetrating glance.  Not even as against madmen and maniacs will a lie of exigency be required, for to the word of the truly sanctified personality there belongs an imposing commanding power that casts out demons.  It is this that we see in Christ, in whose mouth no guile was found, in whom we find nothing that even remotely belongs to the category of the exigent lie.”