Chapter LIII: Continuation

IS not the same thing done nowadays? A girl comes to Confession. Everything goes on well enough until it comes out that she has stolen something of considerable though not very great value. She is admonished of the necessity of returning that amount, but absolutely refuses. She says, “I cannot.” “Why can you not?” says the confessor. “Because I do not wish to.” “But have you not the means of doing it?” “Yes,” is the reply, “but I don’t want to part with the money.” “But you cannot be forgiven unless you do; God’s law will not allow it.” She rises to go. “Stop,” says the confessor, “will you lose your soul for a trifling sum of money?” It seems so, for she persists, and goes away sorrowful. Money is more attractive to her than the grace of God, or the kingdom of heaven; like the young man who, when told by the Saviour to sell his goods and follow Him, would not do it, but went away in sadness.

I wish this were only a description of fancy. Alas! such cases have happened. And when the amount is greater, the difficulty of making good the theft becomes almost too great to be overcome.

How many hundreds and thousands give up the grace of God rather than give up those darling dollars they have unjustly acquired! It is this obligation to restore or give back what is wrongfully taken which makes the sin of theft so dangerous to our salvation. Other sins are forgiven when we are truly sorry and determined to commit them no more: but this is not enough when something has been stolen. If it be a thing of notable value, it must be given back when one has the ability to do so. Of course, so long as one has not the means it cannot be done, and God does not require an impossibility; but as soon as one has the means the obligation revives.

In this way a sin of theft may be hanging over one’s head the greater part of a life-time, causing immense uneasiness and trouble of conscience. Old men and women are often laden with the dishonesty of their youth. They have not been able to make restitution, or they have neglected to do so when they were, and now they see no prospect of ever doing it. They fear to appear before God while it is undone.

How much better, then, to keep one’s conscience entirely clear, that we may say at once: “As for dishonesty, I am entirely set against it, and would not for the world touch a penny’s worth of anything not my own.”

Do you know what comparison has often been in my mind when a girl accuses herself of taking little things? I think of a rotten apple. No matter how small a speck of rottenness there is in an apple, it destroys its value. That speck is sure to spread, soundness no longer belongs to that apple.

So the heart which displeases God by pilfering is specked; it is sound no longer. It is not that true heart it ought to be, and most likely that unsoundness or rottenness will spread until the whole heart becomes corrupt. On the contrary, how beautiful it is to observe justice in one’s dealings, to be perfectly reliable at all times and under all circumstances. It makes up for a great many other faults.