"Thou shalt not steal."
During the time of slavery, a slave was preaching with great power.
His master heard of it, and sent for him, and said:
"I understand you are preaching?"
"Yes," said the slave,
"Well, now," said the master, "I will give you all the time you need,
and I want you to prepare a sermon on the Ten Commandments, and to
bear down especially on stealing, because there is a great deal of
stealing on the plantation."
The slave's countenance fell at once. He said he wouldn't like to do
that; there wasn't the warmth in that subject there was in others.
I have noticed that people are satisfied when you preach about the
sins of the patriarchs, but they don't like it when you touch upon the
sins of to-day. That is coming too near home. But we need to have
these old doctrines stated over and over again in our churches.
Perhaps it is not necessary to speak here about the grosser violations
of this eighth commandment, because the law of the land looks after
these; but a man or woman can steal without cracking safes and picking
pockets. Many a person who would shrink from taking what belongs to
another person, thinks nothing of stealing from the government or from
large public corporations, such as streetcar companies. If you steal
from a rich man it is as much a sin as stealing from a poor man. If
you lie about the value of things you buy, are you not trying to
defraud the storekeeper? "It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer:
but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth."
On the other hand, many a person who would not steal himself, holds
stock in companies that make dishonest profits; but "though hand join
in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished."
A young man in our Bible Institute in Chicago got on the grip-car, and
before the conductor came around to take the fare, they reached the
Institute and he jumped off without paying his fare. In thinking over
that act he said: "That was not just right. I had my ride and I ought
to pay the fare."
He remembered the face of the conductor, and he went to the car barns
and paid him the five cents.
"Well," the conductor said, "you are a fool not to keep it." "No," the
young man said, "I am not. I got the ride, and I ought to have paid
for it." "But it was my business to collect it." "No, it was my
business to hand it to you." The conductor said, "I think you must
belong to that Bible Institute."
I have heard few things said of the Institute that pleased me so much
as that one thing. Not long after that the conductor came to the
Institute and asked the student to come to see him. A cottage-meeting
was started in his house; and not only himself but a number of others
around there were converted as a result of that one act.
You can hardly take up a paper now without reading of some cashier of
a bank who has become a defaulter, or of some large swindling
operation that has ruined scores, or of some breach of trust, or
fraudulent failure in business. These things are going on all over the
land.
I would to God that we could have all gambling swept away. If
Christian men take the right stand, they can check it and break it up
in a great many places. It leads to stealing.