A few years ago I spent part of the winter in a village among the mountains, and I was staying in a rooming house there. Apples were very scarce and expensive that winter, and especially so in that out-of-the-way village. One morning my landlady bought six apples, which she had placed in a dish, and that afternoon when she came back from a short walk, she found only five left.
“Lizzie! Lizzie! where are you?” called the mother to her little girl. “I’m upstairs, Mother.”
“Come down, I want you at once. When I went out, Lizzie, I left six apples in the dish, but now there are only five, and I am afraid you have taken one.”
“No, Mother, it was not me.”
“But, my child, who else could have taken it? You were left alone to mind the house, and I am sadly afraid you stole the apple.”
“No, indeed, Mother, I would not think of stealing it.”
But that night poor Lizzie could not sleep. She heard the clock strike ten, then eleven, — twelve, — one, — two, and still she could find no sleep. All was so quiet, except for the tick, tick, tick, of the grandfather clock on the stairs; and Lizzie was so miserable, for the clock seemed to be talking to her, and saying: “Lizzie! Lizzie! Lizzie! Thief! thief! thief! Tick! tick! tick! Lizzie! Lizzie! Lizzie! Thief! thief! thief! Lizzie, thief! Lizzie, liar! Lizzie, thief!!” She had very little sleep that night, poor child.
The next evening I had to take a service in a little hamlet two-and-a-half miles away, and walked back in the drenching rain pretty tired out. After supper I got into the easy chair to rest, when I heard tap, tap, at the door. “Come in,” I cried, and in walked Lizzie, followed by a neighbor friend called Mary.
“Well, Lizzie, what do you want?”
“Please, sir, I did steal the apple, and I could not sleep last night because I am a thief and a liar: will you talk to me, and pray for me? And Mary wants you to talk to her too.”
So I was very glad to talk with her, as the Holy Spirit had shown her what a sinner she was, and I pointed her to several passages of Scripture, among others Rev. 21:8, where it says so solemnly that “ALL LIARS shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone”; and then I showed her 1 John 1:7: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from ALL sin.” Tears flowed down Lizzie’s cheeks and we all knelt down, and had a time of earnest prayer.
That was a night of salvation. I had no doubt that Lizzie and Mary both decided for Christ, and became new creatures in Christ Jesus.
“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Prov. 28:13. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7.
“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Cor. 5:17.
ML 01/11/1959