A FEW years ago a mother bought some oranges, and, placing them in a drawer, bade her children not to touch them without permission. A day or so after, the youngest girl went into the room where the oranges were, and she thought within herself, “I will just open the drawer and look at the oranges.” By so doing she fell into the snare, for she could not resist taking one or two of them out. Then, putting them into her pocket, and covering them over with her hand kerchief, she skipped downstairs as if nothing were wrong, But the child’s heart was heavy, and when only half-way down the stairs God spoke to her through her conscience; she felt she had sinned, and a voice within her said, “You have done wrong. Satan is your master.”
This brought the little girl to a sudden standstill― her heart began to heave with fear―and in a moment she was upstairs again, when, stamping her foot down firmly, she said, “Get behind me, Satan: you won’t be my master now,” and in an instant the oranges were out of her pocket and back again into the drawer.
With a lighter heart she hurried downstairs, and, going straight to her mother, told her what she had done. Her mother’s heart was lifted up to God in gratitude for the acknowledgment of the wrong by her little daughter, and she thanked Him for the victory.
As soon as her elder brother came home the little girl must needs tell him also how she had disobeyed, and how she had owned her fault, for this brother was a teacher in a Sunday-school, and the little girl felt that he loved God. Dear young friends, God says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Beware of the first wrong step! Had our little friend obeyed her mother, and not looked into the drawer, she would have been safe from the temptation into which she was ensnared, but of which God gave her the victory. G. A. S.