The Lost Hammer | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · May 10, 1877

The Lost Hammer.

A RELIEF light boat was built at New London many years ago. While the workmen were busy over it one man lost his hammer. Whether he knew it or not, it was nailed up in the bottom of the boat. Perhaps if he found it out, he thought the only harm done was the loss of the hammer. But the boat was put to the service, and every time it rocked on the waves that hammer was tossed to and fro. Little by little it wore for itself a track, until it had worn through planking and keel, down to the very copper plating, before it was found out. Only that plate of copper kept the vessel from sinking.

It seemed a very little thing in the start, but see what mischief it wrought. So it is with a little sin in the heart. It may break through all the restraints around us, and but for God's mercy, sink our souls in endless ruin. A few evil words in a child's ear have rung in his soul for twenty years and brought untold harm. It is the sin hidden in our hearts that we should most fear. There are none who do not need to offer up the prayer: “Cleanse thou me from secret faults.”—Golden Censer.