1 O `tis a lovely thing for youth
To walk betimes in wisdom's way;
To fear a lye, to speak the truth,
That we may trust to all they say.

2 But lyars we can never trust,
Though they should speak the thing that's true,
And he that does one fault at first,
And lyes to hide it, makes it two.

3 Have we not known, nor heard, nor read,
How God abhors deceit and wrong?
How Ananias was struck dead
Catch'd with a lye upon his tongue?

4 So did his wife Sapphira die
When she came in, and grew so bold
As to confirm that wicked lye
That just before her husband told.

5 The Lord delights in them that speak
The words of truth; but every lyar
Must have his portion in the lake
That burns with brimstone and with fire.

6 Then let me always watch my lips,
Lest I be struck to death and hell,
Since God a book of reckoning keeps
For every lye that children tell.