many places. It leads to stealing.

WHERE THE STREAM STARTS.

The stream generally starts at home and in the school. Parents are
woefully lax in their condemnation and punishment of the sin of
stealing. The child begins by taking sugar, it may be. The mother
makes light of it at first, and the child's conscience is violated
without any sense of wrong. By and by it is not an easy matter to
check the habit, because it grows and multiplies with every new
commission.

The value of the thing that is stolen has nothing to say to the guilt
of the act. Two people were once arguing upon this point, and one
said: "Well, you will not contend that a theft of a pin and of a
dollar are the same to God?" "When you tell me the difference between
the value of a pin and of a dollar to God," said the other, "I will
answer your question."

The value or amount is not what is to be considered, but whether the
act is _right_ or _wrong_. Partial obedience is not enough: obedience
must be entire. The little indulgences, the small transgressions are
what drive religion out of the soul. They lay the foundation for the
grosser sins. If you give way to little temptations, you will not be
able to resist when great temptations come to you.

GOD'S WEIGHTS.

_Extortioner_, are you ready to step into the scales? What will you do
with the condemnation of God--"Thou has taken usury and increase, and
thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbor's by extortion, and hast
forgotten me, saith the Lord God?"

_Employer_, are you guilty of sweating your employees? Have you
defrauded the hireling of his wages? Have you paid starvation wages?
"Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant that is poor and needy,
whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy
land within thy gates. . . . What mean ye that ye beat my people to
pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts.
. . . Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your
fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of
them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of
sabaoth."

And you, _employee_, have you been honest with your employer? Have you
robbed him of his due by wasting your time when he was not looking? If
God should summon you into His presence now, what would you say?

Let the _merchant_ step into the scales. See if you will prove light
when weighed against the law of God. Are you guilty of adulterating
wha