One morning there came into Sunday-school class a very ordinary looking little girl of ten years.  Her father was a truck driver, her mother had been a domestic.  There were four children in the home, the little girl being next to the youngest.  The parents had no relation to any church.  The two older children had turned out great disappointments to them and when a neighbor invited the ten-year-old to go to Sunday-school the mother gave her consent, saying that perhaps the church could keep her from following her brother and sister.  It did.

In that home there was no moral instruction, no moral suasion.  When the children had told a lie directly to the mother they were punished severely.  When they told a lie to a teacher or neighbor the mother was their defender and they escaped punishment.  They heard their mother lie to her husband, to her neighbors, to the rent collector and the grocer.  They learned not to fear a lie but to fear being discovered in it.  They became clever liars and the little girl at ten was an adept.  For disobedience, cheating, taking food and pennies they were alternately turned over to their father for punishment or shielded from his wrath according to the mother’s temper at the time of the offense.  They were not taught or helped to hate sin or to see it in its hideous aspect. Thou shalt not was a matter of convenience, not of principle.

The teacher into whose class the little girl came was a woman of experience who before her marriage had been a teacher in the public school.  She called in the home, she learned the standing of the girl in the day school, in less than a month she knew her.  What she found out made her determine to help the child hate falsehood and cheating in every form.  By story and incidents she showed Sunday after Sunday, side by side, the cowardice and unhappiness of the liar, the distrust of his fellowmen, the misery which he must suffer and the courage, happiness and freedom of the truth-loving and truth-telling child.  Every lesson said “don’t lie” and “speak and act the truth.”  One day the little girl was invited to her teacher’s home to look at pictures and choose some books to read, for the teacher had discovered her love for pictures and books.  After a very happy hour, while saying good-by in the hall, the child suddenly seized her teacher’s hand and stammered, “How can you help telling lies?” The teacher says, “As I looked into her plain little face with its quivering lips, I loved her.  I determined to fight for her and with her.”  It was a fight, for habit was strong and environment did not change.  For over five years that teacher faithfully presented the “thou shall not” and “thou shall” which shaped the girl’s ideals and helped her reach them.  She taught her to pray; she inspired her with a genuine love for God the Helper, who would “see her through,” she opened doors of service for her.  At twenty she is a truthful and truth-loving girl, she has been