Chapter LII: On Honesty

THERE is one golden sentence of Holy Scripture which ought to be deeply impressed on the heart of every girl who aims at making progress in the love of God. It is this: “But having food and raiment, let us be therewith content” (1 Tim. vi. 8). I call it a golden sentence because it expresses so well the limits a good Christian should put to his desires if he would enjoy true contentment of mind.

Would that we could all of us be satisfied, when God supplies the reasonable wants of the body without craving and worrying for those things which are not required, and which we are, for the most part, much better without.

If we have enough food to keep us in good health and strength, and clothes to keep us decent and warm, we have all that we can make use of. The rest is superfluous, and when life has gone by, even if it lasts ninety years, we shall come to its end, not a bit better for all of it. As Scripture says: “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out” (1 Tim. vi. 7).

The practical meaning of being content with food and raiment is, that each one should be satisfied with that portion of this world’s goods which God assigns him, without repining and fretting because he has not more, and without taking any unjust means to get more. “For covetousness is the root of all evils, which some desiring have erred from the faith, and entangled themselves in many sorrows” (1 Tim. vi. 10).

We are very apt to regard life and happiness as consisting in the possession of those superfluous goods, called riches. It is not so. Riches are very often but sorrows which entangle us, and snares which entrap us into the captivity of the devil. “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God” (St. Mark x. 23).

If any have cause to complain of God, it is not the poor, but the rich; for their chance of salvation is the worst. But no one has any right to complain. God distributes riches just as he pleases, and makes it best for each one to be just as he is: the rich to be rich, and the poor to be poor. The rich can be poor in spirit, and the poor rich in faith; and that will bring all things right for both rich and poor.

And God, having fixed matters in this way, will not allow the poor to steal away the goods of the rich. “Thou shalt not steal” (Ex. xx. 15) is the commandment which applies to all, and which no one is at liberty to transgress. If you have food and raiment you must be contented with it; and if your neighbor has a thousand times more than this of all kinds of luxuries, and conveniences enough for years on years, you cannot reach out your hand to steal the smallest thing of his. This is the will of God; and His commandment, (Thou shalt not steal,” stands like a wall of iron against it.

I wish I could impress on each heart, so that it would never be forgotten, the necessity of perfect honesty in all things, small and great. It is difficult to perceive the evils likely to arise from the least want of principle in this respect. St. Paul expresses it very well when he says, “Covetousness is the root of all evils.”

From this root grows loss of character and happiness here, and loss of heaven hereafter. The love of money and possessions is so captivating, that when it has once taken root it is hard to pull it up from the heart. It grows stronger and stronger, until it takes up all the room in the heart, and leaves no place for the love of God.

One would think that it would die away in old age and disappear; it is so foolish to be taken up with perishable and valueless things; but no, it grows stronger and stronger to the very grave. For a handful of yellow dirt the soul is sold to the devil, and that dirt has to be left behind.” We can carry nothing out.”

How often it involves loss of happiness and character in this world! A girl has a good character. She is esteemed. She can easily get her living and have all she wants. But she begins to pilfer. It goes on from one thing to another, from small to great, until she is detected and disgraced.

The only way is, to stop at the very beginning; to refrain from taking a pin’s worth. Have this principle, and there is no danger.

I dare say you have heard the story of the young man who was condemned to be hanged for robbery, and who called to his old mother, as he stood under the gallows, to come up to him, as he had a word to whisper in her ear. She came up, sobbing and crying, when he, instead of saying anything to her, bit off her ear.

“O my son!” she cried, “what have I done that you should serve me so cruelly?” “It is,” he replied, “for your cruelty to me in not correcting me for my first theft. If, instead of rewarding me for it, you had given me a sound whipping, I should have taken warning in time. That first theft has brought me to the gallows.”

So, a little tea, or a little coffee or sugar, or an article of clothing of not much value, has brought many a poor girl to the loss of character, and the loss of her soul. Many a weak, foolish girl, who has stood at a counter selling articles of finery, would have been horrified when she took that first bit of ribbon if she could have seen the long line of pilferings that were to follow, until she stood a convicted thief behind prison bars. Give no heed to the devil who tempts; who says, “Oh! it is not much, nobody will miss it; the owner is rich, and has more than he knows what to do with; you are poor, and it will do you good”; but give heed to God, who says, “Thou shalt not steal,” and “Neither thieves, nor the covetous, nor the unjust,” etc., “shall enter the kingdom of Heaven” (1 Cor. vi. 10).

We have a most fearful warning in the case of the Apostle Judas, who sold our Lord for thirty pieces of silver. How did he get so far as to betray his Lord and Master? It was just in this way: by little and little. He let a covetous spirit have its way, first, in small things.

He carried the bag in which the alms were placed which good people gave for the support of the Saviour and the Apostles. He looked with greedy eyes upon them, and began to pilfer what he thought would not be missed. That cursed, avaricious feeling took root and grew in his heart, until he even bargained to betray the Lord Jesus Christ for thirty poor miserable pieces of silver.