A FEW YEARS ago I spent part of the winter in a mountain village, 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.
“Lindy! Lindy! 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, Lindy, 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 Lindy 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 Lindy was so miserable, for the clock seemed to be talking to her, and saying: “Lindy! Lindy! Lindy! Thief! thief; thief! Tick! tick! tick! Lindy; Lindy; Lindy! Thief! thief! thief! Lindy; thief! Lindy! liar! Lindy, thief;” She had very little sleep that night, poor child.
The next evening I had to take a service in a little village 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 Lindy, followed by a neighbor friend called Mary.
“Well, Lindy, 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 Revelation 21:88But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Revelation 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 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7): “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from ALL sin.” Tears flowed down Lindy’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 Lindy and Mary both decided for Christ, and became new creatures in Christ Jesus.
ML-02/08/1970