PARTICULAR IN LITTLE THINGS.
Deut. 4: 2: “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” The wreck of the Channel excursion steamer off the south coast of England, not long ago, was owing to the captain losing his course in the fog. The ship was only a little off, but that little deviation sent it to its watery grave. The following incident points a lesson for every soul of us, as human nature is prone to compromise:— A gentleman crossing the English Channel stood near the helmsman. It was a calm and pleasant evening, and no one dreamed of a possible danger to their good ship. But a sudden flapping of a sail, as the wind had shifted, caught the ear of the officer on watch, and he sprang at once to the wheel, examining closely the compass. “You are half a point off the course,” he said, sharply, to the man at the wheel. The deviation was corrected, and the officer returned to his post. “You must steer very accurately,” said a looker-on to the officer, “when only half a point is so much thought of.” “Ah! half a point in many places might bring us directly on the rocks,” he said. So it is in life. Half a point from strict truthfulness strands us above the rocks of falsehood. Half a point from the course of perfect honesty, and we are steering right for the rocks of crime. And so it is with all kindred vices.