ng how he had not dared
to sell it lest it should lead to his discovery and imprisonment. It
never brought him anything but anxiety and pain.

Everything you steal is a curse to you in that way. The sin
overreaches itself. A man who takes money that does not belong to him
never gets any lasting comfort. He has no real pleasure, for he has a
guilty conscience. He cannot look an honest man in the face. He loses
peace of mind here, and all hope of heaven hereafter. "As the
partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth
riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days,
and at his end shall be a fool. . . . Let no man go beyond and defraud
his brother in any matter; because that the Lord is the avenger of all
such."

I may be speaking to some clerk who perhaps took five cents to-day out
of his employer's drawer to buy a cigar; perhaps he took ten cents to
get a shave, and thinks he will put it back to-morrow--no one will
ever know it. If you have taken a cent, you are a thief. Do you ever
think how those little stealings may bring you to ruin? Let your
employer find it out. If he doesn't take you into court, he will
discharge you. Your hopes will be blasted, and it will be hard work to
get up again. Whatever condition you are in, do not take a cent that
does not belong to you. Rather than steal, go up to heaven in
poverty--go up to heaven from the poor-house. Be honest rather than go
through the world in a gilded chariot of stolen riches.

RESTITUTION.

If you have ever taken money dishonestly, you need not pray God to
forgive you and fill you with the Holy Ghost until you make
restitution. If you have not got the money now to pay back, will to do
it, and God accepts the willing mind.

Many a man is kept in darkness and unrest because he fails to obey God
on this point. If the plough has gone deep, if the repentance is true,
it will bring forth fruit. What use is there in my coming to God until
I am willing to make it good, like Zacchaeus, if I have done any man
wrong or have taken anything from him falsely? "If the wicked restore
the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of
life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not
die. None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto
him." Confession and restitution are the steps that lead up to
forgiveness. Until you tread those steps, you may expect your
conscience to be troub