I KNEW a little boy who had done something wrong and had been hiding it all day. It was only a small wrong that he had done, and many children do the same thing and have no conscience about it.
But Arthur could not forget it. He had gone to the cupboard and taken some sugar. He ate it and went back to his play as if nothing had happened.
All that day Arthur was unhappy; and conscience, like a voice within him, seemed to remind him of what he had done. It was like darkness in his heart which he could not shake off.
At last, when bedtime came, and he had said “good-night” to his grandmother, he went upstairs in his little room and his aunt kneeled down beside him and began to pray.
Presently she found that Arthur was really praying himself, while she said the words. He looked up for a moment and said, “Tell God about that sugar, auntie.”
Many of our young readers may think the act of taking sugar when no one is looking is such a small wrong, but, dear children, one who will begin by taking sugar or any other small thing when he thinks no one is looking, in later years will take things of more value, which is sure to end in serious trouble.
I beg of you, dear children, do not take anything that is not your own, no matter how small it may seem, but ask for what you want and get the consent of the one who owns it, that you may have it. Then you will be happy about it.
Arthur went to bed feeling so much happier than he had been all day, before he had told the truth about what only God and Arthur himself knew.
This shows us that when anything wrong has been done, the only way to get forgiveness and be relieved from the sorrow it brings, is to confess it to God, and if we have wronged any one to confess it to him also.
ML 10/11/1925