A boy once received from a. store-keeper more change than he ought to have received. He said nothing about in but put it into his pocket, giving the correct change to his employer. The amount was small, and the matter passed without any further notice. The boy’s employer knew nothing of his dishonesty, and continued to treat him with confidence.
Years afterward, when that boy became a man, he fled from the country, having robbed his employer of large sums of money. His ruin dated from the day when he put the trifling sum into his pocket which did not belong to him.
Another boy received in much the same way two dollars in excess of what he ought to have received. He took it and went home, feeling all the time that he was doing wrong. At length the words flashed into his mind; “Thou, God, seest me,” and summoning up courage he went back to the man and returned the two dollars. Very little notice was taken of the act, but it was not really forgotten. It so happened that the business man had an opportunity of doing the boy a service later on, and that led to the boy becoming a prosperous merchant.
O, let us judge the little things. In God’s sight they are as terrible as the so-called “big” sins. If left unjudged, no telling what they might lead to.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse is from all unrighteousness,’’ I John 1:99That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (John 1:9).
ML 02/11/1940