oO<) 



GLliAKlNGS In j]1':e duLtuliE. 



July 



I was very anxious to make my poultry ven- 

 ture a surress. I was raKins' aiitl scraping 

 every ihmg to feed my ••biddies." 1 am 

 sorry to say tiiat 1 got iiito a way of letting 

 my broom brush into the edge of the feed in 

 a way that I would not have UiougJit of doing 

 had the miller's eyes been upon "me. 1 had 

 got the poultry fever, and was full of enthu- 

 siasm, and I listened to the voice of the 

 tempter under circumstances when I would 

 not have done it otherwise. It pains me to 

 speak of this; but the question my friend 

 propounds some way seems to make it nec- 

 essary, to bring it out. I can not remember 

 that I was ever discovered in this little bit 

 of theft. It amounted to only a few cents, 

 it is true ; but it was a start in dishonesty. 



Not long after. I wanted to buy some corn 

 of my father to carry my poultry through 

 the winter. Uf course, my father let me go 

 to the corn-crib and measure it out myself. 

 He was away from home, and I had charge 

 of every thing, and of course no one knew 

 what sort of measure I gave myself. Well, 

 1 got into a habit of measuring up a bigger 

 l)ushel of ears of corn than I ought to have 

 done ; bigger, in fact, than they would have 

 been had my father been around where he 

 might have seen my heaped-up bushels. 

 You may say this was' only a small matter ; 

 that my father should have given me what 

 corn I wanted for my poultry. Even if this 

 were true, it was dishonest in me to take 

 more than afaii\just bushel. I can remem- 

 ber distinctly how these experiences hurt 

 and crippled me. 



Not long after. I took my younger brother 

 to the mill one day. that I might please him 

 l)y a sight of the great wheels going aromul. 

 I wanted to show iiim the great water-wlieel ; 

 but to do so a little door had to be opened. 

 I did not know whether I ought to open it 

 without asking leave or not, but I took the 

 chances. One of the hinges was broken ; 

 and when I unhooked the door it fell down 

 so as to drag on the \yater-wheel. I slipped 

 away ; and when the miller came around, I 

 either pretended or told him outright I did 

 not touch it. You see how easily one sin 

 follows after another. 1 did remember that 

 my younger brothei- was a witness to my un- 

 truthfulness, and it troubled me some. At 

 tins very time I was learning verses from 

 the IJible, in the Sunday-school. My moth- 

 er talked to me over and over again" in re- 

 gard to the practical application of these 

 Scripture texts. She told me that (Jod saw. 

 even if nobody else did. She did not know- 

 about the sweepings in the mill, nor the 

 heaped-up bushels; but I did, and it did 

 not take me long to connect the two. If 

 there (rf^.v a (iod— an (ill-srciiK/ (Jod, as she 

 and the Bible taught— he looked on, even if 

 the miller and my father did not. Then the 

 question aiises. Is there truly a (Jod, and 

 (loes he look down and see all "these things, 

 or is this only all a niythV 



We lived in a conununity composed large- 

 ly (»f inlidels and skeptics. The teachings 

 (if these inlidcl men would be, that it was all 

 a myth, and tliat I did not need to trouble or 

 worry myself about these trilling dishonest 

 tricks 1 have mentioned. My friend, where 

 do you think safety lay— with my mother 



and the Sunday-school, or with these men 

 that talked •• modern science "" and lio per- 

 sonal (iodV Of course I can not say positive- 

 ly that other children are inliuenced in their 

 actions as I was l)y these teachings ; but all 

 along those years", and clear up through my 

 teens, I was vascillating between the (Jod of 

 my fathers and the teaj-hings of modem 

 skepticism. At times I accepted my moth- 

 er's teachings, and I used to have "a little 

 prayer to say at night before I went to sleep. 

 The little prayer is the same one that we 

 furnish free of charge on the little i)rinted 

 cards we give away. When I went through 

 the day striving to do right, it was a pleasure 

 to me to repeat this prayer before going to 

 sleep. A\'hen in my zeal to make my poul- 

 try or something else prosper, I yielded to 

 temptation, and was dishonest. 1 felt like 

 skipping my little prayer, and 1 either said 

 it mechanically, without either thinkhig or 

 caring what the woids meant, or I omitted 

 it entirely. Sometimes for long months the 

 prayer was dropped and forgotten ; but 

 again, when I felt bad, or got into trouble, I 

 would go back to my little prayer, and may 

 be stick to it for weeks or even months. If 

 it is indeed true, that children are influenced 

 by little things like these, how very impor- 

 tant is it that they be watched and looked 

 after! Can any thing atone for a parent's 

 neglect? Fathers and mothers whose eyes 

 are on these pages, do you not know that it 

 is not only possible but highly probable that 

 your boy or your girl is even now subject to 

 temptations, such as I have mentioned? 

 May be a little talk about (Jod the Father, 

 and a few Scripture texts reminding them 

 of that all-seeing Eye, may strike just in 

 time to save from a w'rong jict. and. may be, 

 save a soul as well. 



Well, I went on through life until I was 

 about oo years old, in much after the fashion 

 I have "narrated. Sometimes I accepted 

 Christ as the Savior, and sometimes I did 

 not. In using the word " accepted "" I mean 

 that I decided in my own mind that I ac- 

 cepted him as the Savior of the world, but 

 did not make any public acknowledgment. 

 During these 35 years of my life I reserved 

 the privilege of accepting "or rejecting, as 

 circumstances miglit make it convenient; 

 for if I said nothing to anybody about it, no 

 one could call me inconsistent. Of course, I 

 7»//.sr7/ saw my own inconsistency ; but as 

 long "as nobody else saw it. it was not much 

 matter. cspeciaJJii if I decided it was all a 

 myth any way." When I became a man, of 

 course temptations of a ditferent sort pre- 

 sented themselves; but it did not take me 

 very long to decide, as perhaps the world at 

 large decides— at least on general principles 

 — tliat honesty is the best policy, so I always 

 paid my debts, and as a rule kept my prom- 

 ises, lam ashamed to own it, butmy life 

 was in some sense like goods in the haiid of 

 an auctioneer— I was prepared to sell it to 

 the higiiest bidder. If Satan liad any thing 

 in store sutliciently attiactive. why." then I 

 would accept Satan: if religion or any thing 

 of that sort had something to present that I 

 liked better than any of Satan's wares, why, 

 common prudence "would dictate that I 

 should become a Christian. It was all self 



