HIS BEGINNING | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 20, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 33.

HIS BEGINNING.

Idleness is productive of mischief. Those whose minds and hands are busy with useful work have no time to think of evil and are not easily tempted. That Satan finds work for idle hands is proved by the various reformatories in the land.

A convict sentenced to the penitentiary for life, was interviewed by a visitor, who asked him this question:—

“To what do you attribute your early wrong-doing?”

After a moment’s reflection the man replied in a single word:—

“Idleness.”

“Didn’t you have anything to do?”

“Yes, but I wouldn’t do it. My parents were poor people, who tried to give me an education, but I simply wasted my time. I played truant more than half the time.”

“And you got into mischief while you were playing truant?”

“Yes, the first theft I ever committed was when I was a little fellow playing truant from school. Another boy of about my age was with me. We were going off to the woods to spend the day, and both of us stole some cakes at a baker’s for our dinner. After that we stole things right along.”

“And it grew easier each time, didn’t it?”

“O, yes; it wasn’t very long before it was as natural for us to steal as to eat. We hardly ever played truant without stealing something.”

“Then truancy was really your first step in wrong-doing?”

“Yes; truancy and its consequent idleness. I don’t believe that any habitual truant can keep out of mischief, and the same may be said of the habitually idle.”

“I am sure of it,” said the visitor. “It is the beginning of many a man’s criminal career.”

“Yes, it is,” said the convict, simply, but

soberly. “Hard, honest work is good for folks.”

So it is. God never intended that any one should spend his time in idleness, and sin is sure to result from the wasting of his time.—Young People’s Paper.