I want to tell you about a little boy who lived in the country. Near his home was a field where he and his friends were allowed to play.
In a garden near there was a young apple tree with some rosy cheeked apples growing on it.
The little boy looked with longing eyes at the apples. Then he began to think that if he took some of them they would not be missed.
One day when no one was near, he and a little girl he knew crossed the field, and soon reached the apple tree. He climbed up the tree, and looked about to see if anyone was watching, then he put several apples in his pockets.
No one had seen the little boy stealing the apples but God’s eye had been upon him all the time. No sooner were the apples in his pockets than he wished he had never taken them. He felt so unhappy, He would not eat even one of them, but gave them all to the little girl. His conscience told him he had done wrong, and it made him feel very miserable.
Many years after, when he had grown up, he remembered stealing the apples, and again his conscience troubled him about it. So he found out the gardener from whom he had stolen them, and paid him for them.
But this did not give him happiness, for there were many other wrong things he had done, and God knew them all.
It was not until he trusted in the Lord Jesus, Whose blood cleanses from all sin, that he knew that God had forgiven him, and then he was really happy.
ML 03/19/1939