Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

things, yet certainly in little things; and is more broken perhaps by boys than by girls, since temptations come generally on boys at an earlier age, and certainly come on them more frequently. The young child, while yet in a happy home, surrounded by loving parents and indulgent friends, has seldom, unless of a wayward temper, any reasonable wish ungratified. Almost every child of religious parents is moreover surrounded at home by watchful eyes to observe, and careful monitors to reprove and to check every evil inclination at its first rising up in the mind. But when the scene is removed from home to school, where the same attention cannot be paid to the individual wants or the particular conduct of every child, the case is altered. When no friend or relative is at hand to supply the trifles which he may fancy, or to warn him against setting the heart on those trifles too eagerly, the temptation to steal often puts on a dangerous form, a form which proves to be dangerous even to many who we might think could not fall into it. There are also children who at home fear the vigi

lance of their father or mother, and who yet at school vainly flatter themselves that they may be safe among a multitude from being found out.

But this is all from want of principle, or from want of the proper fear of God. No one would else dare so to disobey His express command, Moreover, let the thing stolen be ever so trifling, yet the taking anything, knowing it to be another's, is still a theft. I have seen children try to excuse themselves, nay, I have even seen others try to excuse them, by saying that the thing taken was a mere trifle; that the owner would never miss it, would never grudge it. But say that it is only a pen or a sheet of paper, still, though the theft is but of a trifle, the guilt of stealing is great. In the sight of God, the greatest treasures of the earth are of no more value than the things I have named. The sin itself of stealing is the sin which he forbids. His mercy is indeed great, and over all, even over sinners; and, in that mercy, he may, and he will, take into his account with us the degree of temptation to which we

were subjected, and also every other excuse which can fairly be made.

But it is not for us to presume to make such reckonings with Him, and with our consciences. We all know that to steal is

sin; and that it is our duty, as creatures of God and servants of Christ, to avoid sin of every kind. The love and fear of God, and of our Saviour, are the best preservatives against the sin of stealing, as well as against every other sin. But it will also be a very great and useful safeguard to children from this sin in particular, if they accustom themselves to the most scrupulous exactitude in all the very minutest matters in which right and wrong, honesty and dishonesty, are any way concerned. Many persons who would shrink from direct stealing, yet do not scruple to borrow, and are careless as to returning the thing borrowed. What is this but dishonesty? a dishonesty arising perhaps from the not having acquired in childhood habits of exactness. What is it but dishonesty to run up bills to tradesmen without having the means of paying them?

The spirit of dishonesty is often seen in the bargainings which children enter into with one another. Whenever these bargainings are carried on with any overreaching or tricky design, and for the sake of getting anything for ourselves for less than it is worth, they amount to the sin of coveting what belongs to another, and are to be regarded as a breach of the spirit, at least, of the commandment, "Thou shalt not steal."

And this leads me to speak particularly of the exchangings of their toys and little possessions, which are common among children. This, when done out of generosity, or for the sake of benefiting or pleasing another, though to our own loss, is not only blameless, but is also praiseworthy. This, however, is seldom the case. Self-gratification is the usual motive of each party, without either of them caring, though it be at the expense of the other. A" fair exchange," you have heard it said, "is no robbery." But then it must be a fair exchange, otherwise it is neither more nor less than a fraud practised by the artful and designing on the simple and un

wary. Nor do I entirely approve of exchanges of any kind. The habit of making them is apt to render young persons dissatisfied with what is their own, and inclines them to look about for ways and means and opportunities of gaining subtle advantages. And all this naturally fosters a grasping disposition of mind, which, if great care be not taken, will lead to actual dishonesty and fraud.

You will have observed that what I have been saying to you in this sermon has been more particularly addressed to those children whose parents are in circumstances which enable them to supply all their reasonable wants. At the same time, if I were to speak to children of even the poorest parents, or to servants, who perhaps have known privations, or have suffered even actual poverty, I should hardly speak to them as if the dif ference of their situation from yours made honesty of less importance to them than it is Persons in their situation may indeed make out to themselves some pleas of temptation which the more affluent cannot know. But still, if they will only compare the

to you.

« ForrigeFortsæt »