With the growth of greed, the increase of avarice, there is an increase in the harshness with which many corporations are grinding the face of the poor; and these who feel the pressure and the rasping of the upper and the nether mill-stones grow more bitter in the hatred which they feel for that power that turns the mill, and bolts the product of the grinding. The elements of a terrible strife are in the situation as it exists to-day. The capitalist does not sense it; for he has only time to think of margins, compound interest, and stock dividends; but in the breast of the masses there is a smouldering fire being fanned into life by oppression, which will one day burst out into a terrible conflagration—an uprising of the masses which dollars can not buy off nor bayonets subdue. It is coming. The Word of God predicts it, and the elements are at work to-day to bring it about.
The following excerpts from an article in the International Socialist Review for March will give the reader an idea of how the toilers themselves are looking at the situation, and are quoted only to show the feeling that exists, and not for the purpose of arraying one class against another, or of taking up the controversy ourselves:—
“The miners and railroad boys of Birmingham, Ala., entertained me one evening some months ago with a graphic description of the conditions among the slaves of the Southern cotton mills. While I imagined that these must be something of a modern Siberia, I concluded that the boys were overdrawing the picture, and made up my mind to see for myself the conditions described. Accordingly I got a job, and mingled with the workers in the mill and in their homes. I found that children of six and seven years of age were dragged out of bed at 4:30 in the morning when the task-master’s whistle blew. They eat their scanty meal of black coffee and corn bread mixed with cotton-seed oil in place of butter, and then off trots the whole army of serfs, big and little. By 5:30 they are all behind the factory walls, where amid the whir of machinery they grind their young lives out for fourteen long hours each day. As one looks on this brood of9helpless human souls, one could almost hear their voices cry out, ‘Be still a moment, O you iron wheels of capitalistic greed, and let us hear each other’s voices, and let us feel for a moment that this is not all of life.’”
“We stopped at 12 for a scanty lunch and a half-hour’s rest. At 12:30 we were at it again with never a stop until 7. Then a dreary march home, where we swallowed our scanty supper, talked for a few minutes of our misery, and then dropped down upon a pallet of straw, to lie until the whistle should once more awaken us, summoning babes and all alike to another round of toil and misery.”
“I have seen mothers take their babes and slap cold water in their faces to wake the poor little things. I have watched them all day long tending the dangerous machinery. I have seen their helpless limbs torn off, and then when they were disabled and of no more use to their master, thrown out.”
The Rope Factory.
“I visited the factory in Tuscaloosa, Ala., at 10 o’clock at night. The superintendent, not knowing my mission, gave me the entire freedom of the factory, and I made good use of it. Standing by a siding that contained 155 spindles were two little girls. I asked a man standing near if the children were his, and he replied that they were. ‘How old are they?’ I asked. ‘This one is 9, the other 10,’ he replied. ‘How many hours do they work?’ ‘Twelve,’ was the answer. ‘How much do they get a night?’ ‘We all three together get 60 cents. They get 10 cents each, and I 40.’”
“I watched them as they left their slave-pen in the morning, and saw them gather their rags around their frail forms to hide them from the wintry blast. Half-fed, half-clothed, half-housed, they toil on, while the poodle dogs of their masters are petted and cuddled and sleep on pillows of down, and the capitalistic judges jail the agitators that would dare to help these helpless ones to better their condition.”
“The town of Gibson is owned by a banker who possesses both people and mills. One of his slaves told me she had received one dollar per week for her labor for one year. Every weekly pay day her employer gave her a dollar. On Monday she deposited that dollar in the ‘pluck me’ store to secure food enough to last until the next pay day, and so on week after week.”
“There was once a law on the statute books of Alabama prohibiting the employment of children under twelve years of age more than eight hours each day. The Gadston Company would not build their mill until they were promised that this law should be repealed.”
“I asked one member of the House why he voted to murder the children, and he replied that he did not think they could earn enough to support themselves if they only worked eight hours.”
“The Phoenix mills in Georgia were considering the possibility of a cut in wages something over a year ago; but after making one attempt, they reconsidered, and started a savings bank instead. At the end of six months the board of directors met, and found out that the poor wretches who were creating wealth for them were saving 10 per cent. of their wages. Whereupon they promptly cut them that 10 per cent., and the result was the ’96 strike. I wonder how long the American people will remain silent under such conditions as these.”
“Almost every one of my shop-mates in these mills was a victim of some disease or other. All are worked to the limit of existence. The weavers are expected to weave so many yards of cloth each working day. To come short of this estimate jeopardizes their job. The factory operator loses all energy either of body or of mind. The brain is so crushed as to be incapable of thinking, and one who mingles with these people soon discovers that their minds, like their bodies, are wrecked. Loss of sleep and loss of rest give rise to abnormal appetites, indigestion, shrinkage of stature, bent backs, and aching hearts.”
“Such a factory system is one of torture and murder as dreadful as a long-drawn-out Turkish massacre, and is a disgrace to any race or age. As the picture rises before me, I shudder for the future of a nation that is building up a moneyed aristocracy out of the life-blood of the children of the proletariat. It seems as if our flag is a funeral bandage splotched with blood. The whole picture is one of the most horrible avarice, selfishness, and cruelty, and is fraught with present horror and promise of future degeneration. The mother, over-worked and under-fed, gives birth to tired and worn-out human beings.”
“I can see no way out save in a complete overthrow of the capitalistic system; and to me, the father who casts a vote for the continuance of that system is as much a murderer as if he took a pistol and shot his own children.”
When time is called on the continuance of that system, it will be the fulfilment of that scripture which says: “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers which have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.” James 5: 1-4. The day of the fulfilment of this scripture is not far distant. When the misery of the rich is such that the pen of inspiration records it, we may know that it is no ordinary time of trouble. When God tells a class to “weep and howl,” there is reason for it. We do not know just how it is going to come, or when; but we see it coming, fulfilling the Word of God step by step; and as sure as these conditions exist to-day, so surely is there coming a time of terror for those who have piled up treasure by fraud and oppression. That fraud and that oppression are being practised now, and the cry of the poor is growing louder and more desperate.
But while we see all these omens of the coming strife, and know what is before this generation, the Lord speaks these comforting words to those who have put their trust in Him, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” James 5: 7. Thus the omens of strife become to God’s children harbingers of the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven.
C. M. S.
News from Russia, Denver, and Cuba
The nervousness of the Russian Government over the recent disturbances is strikingly shown in a late order suspending the publication for one week of one of the most influential and conservative journals in all Russia. This paper has usually been allowed greater latitude than any of the others in discussing government affairs, and the editorial to which the government objected was a mild suggestion in reference to the betterment of the condition of the laboring classes. The suspension of its publication has caused much excitement. Rioting is said to be now spreading to South Russia. At Kutais thousands of persons congregated around the theater and stoned the police, whereupon a detachment of Cossacks charged and dispersed the crowd. In the melee 13 policemen, 15 Cossacks, and 3 officers were severely injured.
A saloon-keeper of Denver, Colorado, has enjoined the Fire and Police Board from interfering with the sale of liquor to women. The saloon-keeper contends that the constitutional amendment which gave women the electoral franchise abolished all sex discrimination, and that the city ordinance prohibiting women from frequenting saloons is class legislation and invalid. The judge has admitted that the position is well taken, and has issued the injunction.
Serious reports are said to be coming to the Vatican in reference to the condition of the Catholic Church and the monastic orders in the Philippines and Cuba. According to this information, the pope sees the necessity of compelling the orders to adapt themselves to the situation created by the American occupation. Cardinal Gibbons is said to have made it clear to the pope that unless the orders give way, the American Government may expel them.
Chinese troops from some of the southern provinces of China are said to be massing for the purpose of driving out the troops of the foreigners. The Chinese are embittered by the raids of foreign troops on inoffensive villagers. Many Chinese Christians are said to be traveling from Peking to Tientsin with all their effects because of their fear of further disturbances.
An explosion of dust in a coal mine at Dayton, Tennessee, on May 27, resulted in the death of 21 of the miners who were below at the time of the accident. Nine others are reported terribly burned. The force of the explosion caused much caving in the mine, and many of the dead and injured were covered with rock and earth.
The force of rebels now in the field in Colombia is said to number about 14,000. The report indicates that the port of Buenaventura is in the hands of the insurgents, and that they are planning the capture of Panama. The people generally are said to be in sympathy with the insurgents.
Organized resistance to the British in South Africa has not yet been brought to an end, tho very few engagements are reported. On May 26 a strong force of Boers attacked a British convoy, but was finally driven off, the British losing in the encounter 4 killed and 30 wounded.
The Presbyterian General Assembly, at its session of May 27, at Philadelphia, voted unanimously for the creed revision which has been the topic of discussion in Presbyterian circles for more than a year. This action came at the close of a four-days’ debate upon the question.
An explosion of fire-damp occurred in the coal mine at Senghenydd, Wales, on May 24, entombing 78 of the miners. All hope of saving any of them has been abandoned. On May 26, 32 of the bodies had been taken out of the mine.
President McKinley and party left San Francisco for Washington, D.C., on the morning of May 25, having cut short their tour in the West on account of the illness of Mrs. McKinley.
A despatch from Batavia, island of Java, states that in the recent eruption of the volcano of Keloet 3 Europeans and 178 natives perished.
An Italian anarchist who had been chosen by lot to assassinate Emperor William, attempted to commit suicide recently rather than carry out the decree of his society. He gave also the names of two of his comrades who had been chosen to take the lives of the President of France and the Czar of Russia. The body of another anarchist who had been selected to kill the German Emperor has been found in the Danube near Budapest.
The Taft Commission has been steaming around the island of Mindanao, Philippines, during the past week, visiting the various ports and interviewing the leading inhabitants in reference to future government. Two important points are said to have been settled by this trip of the commission, namely, that Mindanao shall not be given local governments, and that slavery must be abolished there.
Germany is preparing to reduce the number of her troops in China, and Count von Waldersee is preparing to leave that country. A portion of the British troops has also been ordered to move. In view of this movement of troops the Chinese emperor is said to have ordered his agents to prepare the palaces at Peking for the reoccupation of the Chinese court.
Two French expeditions into northern and western Africa have demonstrated the navigability of several of the rivers of that part of Africa, and have also demonstrated the existence of vast areas of fertile land in that region. The French nation is planning to take advantage of these discoveries and assume control of that portion of Africa.
The lower Yukon River, in American territory, is reported to be overflowing and doing much damage. The principal loss was sustained at Forty Mile, which was completely inundated. The loss is placed at $100,000, but is thought to exceed that amount. Many dumps of gold-bearing dirt have been completely or partially washed away.
On May 26, two crowded electric cars on an Albany, N. Y., road came together at a high rate of speed while running for a switch. One of the cars was nearly telescoped by the other. Both of the motormen and three of the passengers were killed, and nearly every person on the cars was more or less seriously hurt.
The King of England had a narrow escape from death on May 22 while sailing with Sir Thomas Lipton on the new yacht Shamrock II. A sudden squall swept everything from the deck of the vessel, and a falling spar barely missed the king. The Shamrock II. was taking a trial spin in preparation for the American cup race.
John Alexander Dowie, concerning whose faith-cure doctrines much has been said of late, is now held for trial by the Chicago grand jury, on account of the death of one of his disciples who was denied medical attention. Two women attendants are also held for trial, being accused of criminal responsibility.
A terrific wind-storm swept over Nevada, Utah, Southern Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado from May 23 to 25, doing damage to the amount of several hundred thousand dollars. Many buildings were unroofed or totally demolished, and telegraph and telephone lines in some sections were completely wrecked.
The big strike of New York bricklayers has been declared off, the builders agreeing to the bricklayers’ demand for a rate of 60 cents an hour. The former rate was 55 cents an hour. The settlement of this strike, which has been in force for two weeks, will affect more than 20,000 men.
Plans are now being pushed forward for the combination of all the labor unions of the country whose members are workers in metal. Such an organization is bound to be brought about in time, and when completed, will be a powerful force in the ranks of the trade unions.
The machinists in the employ of the New York Central Railway have made a demand for a nine-hour work-day with the same pay they are now receiving, and threaten to tie up the road with a strike in case of the refusal of the company to grant their demand.
The national strike of machinists is still in progress, and the strikers are claiming additions to their ranks. Many of the shops have granted the demands of the men for the shorter hours and higher rate of pay, and in such shops operations have been resumed.
Because of certain rulings made by the British War Office which are objectionable to British army officers, 1,000 of the latter are reported to have resigned from the service. This concerted action of the officers is regarded as a serious matter in military circles.
Work on the rapid-transit tunnel under the city of New York is now seriously impeded by a strike of the workmen. A complete tie-up of the work on the tunnel is threatened unless the demands of the laborers are granted.
During the year past nearly 8,000 persons in Germany committed suicide. Half of these were victims of strong drink.
The steamer Baltimore foundered on Lake Huron, on May 24, and 12 of her crew were drowned.
TAKING CARE OF THE LITTLE ONES.
SUMMER care of the children is given a few timely words by Hester M. Poole in a recent number of Good Housekeeping. She says special care is necessary. Dress them in a couple of garments so they can tumble about easily, and let them play in a shady place with plenty of clean sand. For their sake the mother needs to be admonished to look well after the cleansing of all vessels in which milk is kept or used. When emptied, milk dishes should be washed at once in cold suds, then scalded in hot suds, rinsed, and, if practicable, daily sunned. Should they be scalded first, particles of curdled milk will adhere to sides and crevices, and, souring, will provoke all sorts of stomach disorders. Carelessness or thoughtlessness in these respects has robbed many a home of its little prattlers.
Let them have fresh, ripe fruit, never the stale, and see that if unpeeled the fruit is well washed. Between the visitations of insects, dust, and unclean hands, without washing fruit, one may consume deleterious matter. It would be well for grown people to remember this fact.
Also look well to remnants of food kept in safes or refrigerator. Since science has diagnosed ptomain poison, which too often festers in cheese, meat, and milk as well as fish, much acute suffering and many deaths, formerly unaccountable, have been traced to the subtle action of bacteria.
One good rule is never to set aside in a close receptacle any article of warm food. Everything should be well aired before putting in a cool place, and no food, in warm weather, should be cooked or kept in tin. Acids, particularly, are made poisonous by carelessness. Decaying fruit, withered vegetables, are, to say the least, dangerous to the most healthy.
Eternal care and cleanliness are the price of well being.
Among other things let the beds be taken apart and given a daily airing, and not pass over the unspeakable filth of leaving the chamber with sheets fetid with the emanations of the night, thrown and tumbled just as sleepers have left them. Children at four years of age can be taught to turn back their little bedding; such lessons are never forgotten.
As a beverage we have previously pointed out the need of sterilizing milk for babies and children. The danger of contracting typhoid and consumption from using milk drawn from cows that are often in apparent11health is emphasized by the statements made by the health boards of various States and cities. Milk is sterilized by bottling, corking with cotton, and after placing the bottles in a kettle having a false bottom, filling the vessel with cold water, and allowing it to come to a boil. At the end of half an hour, the bottles may be removed and closely corked. Whatever unwholesome bacteria the milk might have contained are killed by the heat.
Even then, milk must be sipped. Taken at one draught it is coagulated by the gastric juice the moment it reaches the stomach. There it remains in one large lump, upon which that digestive fluid can not act. There results disturbance or pain, and the person supposes the milk disagrees with him or her. The fact is that the same amount of milk, slowly sipped, would present to the gastric juice small, separate masses of coagulum that are readily acted upon. Hence all depends upon the manner in which fluids are imbibed.
It must be borne in mind, however, that milk should never be taken at the same meal with meat or with acid fruits. Think of the mass of complicated stuff taken at one meal by the careless eater, who declares that he can digest anything, and wonder not when he breaks down in health and becomes an invalid. That we can eat anything that is not poisonous if taken in the right way, is true. Still, unhappy mixtures, too many kinds of food at one meal, and such things as pickles and milk or ice cream or edibles that are violently antagonistic, excesses, and combinations that require great difference of time in order to complete digestion, all these are unreasonable, exhausting, and intemperate. Temperance means something more than abstinence from alcohol. It is moderation in all foods and drinks.
COALS OF FIRE.
By Pauline Fife
MISS RODGERS was a church-member, but a very proud one. The gossips said, however, that she had good reason to be vain.
She was about fifty years of age, tall, well-built, very good-looking, and an excellent business woman. Altho her education had been neglected in youth, she had become well-informed by reading and private study. She was generous and social among those whom she considered aristocratic. In earlier years she had lived in a tiny cabin with her brother, who died, leaving to her his share of the untilled claim. Thrift and business ability do not usually remain unrewarded; and when I first passed her farm, I saw a large white house, surrounded by a flourishing, old-fashioned garden. Tall pines grew along the road and about her large barns.
No farmer in that vicinity ever told his wife that women knew nothing about business and good farming who was not immediately reminded of Miss Rodgers. “But,” said her friends, “if there is a sin that will keep Miss Rodgers out of heaven, it is pride. She considers herself a little better than the rest of us. How mean she has been to the widow Gray, these twenty years.”
Mrs. Gray lived in a small cottage on a ten-acre lot next to Miss Rodgers’ farm. As Miss Rodgers was a social leader among the neighbors, her dislike for Mrs. Gray led many to pass her by, and after the death of her husband and children, Mrs. Gray was very lonely. Still, she had a few staunch friends; for she was an excellent nurse and a true Christian, tho she worried them a little by teaching doctrines strange to them, and keeping Saturday holy. She was poor; but as her affections were on things above, she bore poverty bravely. Most grievous of her trials was Miss Rodgers’ unjust coldness. She tried in vain to make peace with her haughty neighbor. Tho Miss Rodgers bowed stiffly when they met, she had never called on Mrs. Gray; and if she overtook her on the way to the town, two miles distant, she did not ask the weary woman to ride.
Secretly Miss Rodgers felt ashamed of her conduct, and could not give herself a just reason for it. “I never could bear her,” she would say; “one of these mortally meek people who make one feel as if they were mats, made to be walked on. Then she has some queer religion, too; so I just let her alone from the first, and have never got out of the way of it. I do not like to associate with the poor. It seems natural to look down on her, and my dislike, strange as it is, seems to increase. She is so thin, and looks so sad, that I could not conscientiously recommend her as a nurse. People seem to think I ought to know.” In this way Mrs. Gray lost many rich patrons; and year by year she grew poorer and more lonely.
In spite of her trials Mrs. Gray’s trust in God did not falter. “No honest prayer of mine ever failed to bring an answer, even if I had to wait twenty or thirty years for it,” she would say to herself; “I want to see Miss Rodgers in the new earth. She is a good woman, all but that pride, and there will come a time when God will, by some lesson or other, cure her of that fault.” The time came.
One afternoon Miss Rodgers awoke in a strange bed. Wonderingly she looked about, noticing the furniture, which was not her own. Her face and hands were bandaged, and her whole body seemed to burn; and as she tried to rise, she sank back upon her pillow in extreme pain.
When she opened her eyes again, she looked into the gentle face of the widow Gray, who said tenderly, as she noted the change in her patient, “Poor soul, you had a narrow escape. Do you remember what has happened? There, there, I see you don’t; but when the doctor tells me I may talk to you, I will explain.”
For several hours Miss Rodgers looked at her bandaged hands, and wondered how she had been burned. She noticed also that Mrs. Gray’s head was bandaged. The doctor soon allowed Mrs. Gray to talk to her patient.
“’Twas strange that you did not smell the smoke, and awaken before I did,” Mrs. Gray said. “Away in the night I got up, and after making sure that the fire was not in my own house, I looked out of the window and saw the flames and smoke pouring from your house and barns. My, but how I ran! I did not suppose I could run so fast. I expected, of course, that when I reached your house I should find you flying around getting things out; but there wasn’t a sound to be heard but the roar of the flames and noise of beams falling. All the doors were locked, so I threw a board into the front window, and in a minute was inside, running around, nearly blinded with smoke. When at last I found your room, you lay as if dead, stupefied with smoke. Just as I lifted you out of the parlor window, a beam fell, burning you. Fortunately for us both, it did not hurt me much, so we were soon safe. Of course the house and barns burned. You have been near to death many times since; but you will be well in a few weeks.”
Miss Rodgers’ mouth was too well bandaged to admit of much talking, but she had plenty of time to think. Many a tear fell silently on her pillow.
No nurse could have been kinder or more thoughtful than Mrs. Gray, who said nothing of her own pain.
“Strange,” thought Miss Rodgers, “that I have been so blind all these years. What heavenly ways she has!” Nevertheless Miss Rodgers felt rather uncomfortable during the long weeks of her illness; for she thought of a multitude of kindnesses the poor widow might have received at her hands. Bitterly she remembered how cruelly she had snubbed her, just for a whim and—pride.
One morning, when Miss Rodgers was well again, two gray heads might have been seen close together; and there was a very tender light and a suggestion of tears in Miss Rodgers’ eyes, but not the least touch of pride in her voice or manner, as she said, “Good-by for awhile. God bless you. I’ll never forget the lesson in meekness you’ve taught, nor the wonderful way in which you have returned good for evil. When we get settled in the new house, we will study the Bible together. Your religion does not seem queer to me now, and I realize that I need some of it myself.”
On almost any summer afternoon, when passing Miss Rodgers’ new house, two old ladies may be seen rocking on the front porch, reading or knitting. No line in the Bible is more clear to both than that which reads, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
PAULINE FIFE.
Reno, Nevada.
LIVING TO GOD.
By Mrs. E. S. Armitage
O LORD of life and love and power,
How joyful life might be
If in Thy service every hour
We lived and moved with Thee!
If youth in all its bloom and might
By Thee were sanctified,
And manhood found its chief delight
In working at Thy side!
'Tis ne'er too late while life shall last
A new life to begin;
'Tis ne'er too late to leave the past
And break with self and sin.
And we this day, both old and young,
Would earnestly aspire
For hearts to nobler purpose strung
And purified desire.
Nor for ourselves alone we plead,
But for all faithful souls
Who serve Thy cause by word or deed,
Whose names Thy book enrols;
O speed Thy work, victorious King,
And give Thy workers might,
That thru the world Thy truth may ring,
And all men see the light.
—Mrs. E. S. Armitage.
DRUNK AT FIVE.
By Flora B. Nelson
RECENTLY one of the workers while walking on the street where she was helping in a meeting, saw a little boy lying on the ground. She went to him, and tried to help him up and ascertain the cause of his being there, but he fell back again, swearing and cursing. He was drunk, tho only five years old. It was learned that his father had died a drunkard, and his mother took no care of the child, often going to bed without any knowledge of his whereabouts.
What a heritage that father left to his boy, and what an influence goes out from that mother's life, bringing swift destruction to her child thru neglect and carelessness.
The seeds of sin and drunkenness were sown in that child's nature before it ever saw the light of day. Evil tendencies of all kinds,—lust, pride, anger, bitterness, drunkenness, etc., are often the fruit of the parents' sin, manifest in the life of the offspring.
Our observation as a public worker has proved the awful fact that wicked men and seducers wax worse and worse. Our duty in the matter is to reach every erring one within the range of our abilities, and sow the gospel seed with tears for the lost, gathering in the jewels for the great crowning day. Let not one opportunity escape you unimproved. Follow up these lost ones to their homes and haunts of sin; and with love and pity expressed and demonstrated in your attitude toward them, tell them of a bleeding, compassionate Christ.—Flora B. Nelson.
BEING HONEST.
“PAPA! please give me my money,” said a little fellow, as he stood, cap in hand, ready for Sunday-school.
The father drew a handful of coins from his pocket, and selecting one handed it to the boy.
“Why, papa!” he exclaimed in delight, “did you mean it? It’s a dime.”
“Yes,” replied the father with a laugh, “it’s a punched one; but nobody will know the difference in a collection.”
The boy stood for a moment in thought, and then said slowly,—
“Don’t it make any difference unless folks know?”
“Of course not, you little goose,” answered the father; and the boy went to Sunday-school.
A few days later the father said with an air of satisfaction, “It didn’t cost me anything to come up on the train to-night.”
“How was that?” asked his wife.
“O, the train was full; and before the conductor got to me, we came to a station, and he went to see if any one got on, and I slipped ahead into the smoker. Nobody got on there, so he didn’t come into the smoker again, and I saved my ticket—great scheme wasn’t it?” Father and mother laughed heartily; but a sober face looked up, and the boy asked,—
“Don’t you have to pay unless the conductor asks you?” And again the father answered,—
“Of course not, you little goose.”
Another day the father came home and told with a chuckle how in paying a small account the man had by accident handed him back the bill he gave in addition to the change required. And our little inquisitor asked, “Did you keep it, papa?”
And was answered by,—
“Sure; it isn’t my business to keep accounts for other people; I look out for number one.”
With training like this, is it a wonder that the child grew up into young manhood with an ingrained conviction that a falsehood undetected was not a sin? But the words of God never fail; and “Be sure your sin will find you out,” proved true.
The boy, now a young man, finds that friends and employers alike say, “He’s a nice fellow, but he’ll bear watching; he doesn’t see straight unless somebody’s eyes are on him.”
This father is a professing Christian, attends church regularly, and would be amazed if any one should call him dishonest.
Who is to blame? Do you say, “He is old enough to see for himself and do right?” True; but habits of deceit weaken the will power, as well as darken the moral vision, and our young man, who, often mortified by detection, only tosses his head and says, “What a fuss about little things!” and the parents wonder why the boy can’t be trusted.
Is it surprising that with training like this in thousands of homes our young men are so often spoken of as “schemers” and “slippery fellows”? “Honesty is the best policy” may be true enough; but the sentiment is poor foundation for character-building. Absolute honesty is the only true principle.
Be honest with God and yourself, and you can not fail to be honest with the world.—Selected.
“A MISS IS AS GOOD AS A MILE.”
A GENTLEMAN crossing the English Channel stood near the helmsman. It was a calm and pleasant evening, and no one dreamed of a possible danger to their good ship, but a sudden flapping of a sail, as the wind had shifted, caught the ear of the officer on his watch, and he sprang at once to the wheel, examining closely the compass.
“You are a half point off the course,” he said sharply to the man at the wheel. The deviation was corrected, and the officer returned to his post.
“You must steer very accurately,” said the looker-on, “when only half a point is so much thought of.”
“Ah! half a point in many places might bring us directly on the rocks,” he said.
So it is with life. Half a point from strict truthfulness strands us upon the rocks of falsehood. Half a point from perfect honesty, and we are steering for the rocks of crime. And so of all kindred vices. The beginnings are always small. No one climbs to the summit at one bound, but goes the one little step at a time. Children think lightly of what they call small sins. These rocks do not look so fearful to them.—Sailors’ Magazine.