TRUTH IN BEECHER STYLE

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 13, 1862

TRUTH IN BEECHER STYLE.

THE man that steals one penny is—just as great a transgressor as if he stole a thousand dollars? No, not that. The man that steals one single penny is—as great a transgressor against the laws of society as if he stole a thousand dollars? No, not exactly that. The man that steals one penny is—just as great a transgressor against the commercial interests of men as if he stole a thousand dollars? No, not that. The man that steals a penny is just as great a transgressor against the purity of his own conscience as if he stole a million of dollars. When a man makes up his mind that he will be a thorough-paced villain, and steal like a cashier, he does not do himself any more damage in his moral sense, than when he says, "I will filch a penny." To steal large sums damages the firm, damages the bank, damages the commercial interests of the community. These things go by the ratio of quantity; but so far as moral deterioration is concerned, the moment a man says, "I will do wrong," the damage is done; the glass is broken; the mirror is defaced; the conscience is soiled. He cannot do more if he says, "I will do a double wrong or a triple wrong." And there is the great mischief of it. There is an impression that the culpability of things bears some proportion to their magnitude. To steal an apple is not much. In stealing it you do not get much; but you get all the damage that you would if it was a golden apple. To betray a small trust has the same moral effect as to betray a large one.

Do you stand at a bank counter, and present a check for a thousand dollars? and does the man behind the counter, hand you eleven hundred dollars? and do you walk away, saying, "It is his business to take care of his affairs: I will take care of mine?" You are a thief! The law is that no man shall take a thing without rendering an equivalent, and that law you have violated. If that man blunders in finance, it is no reason why you should steal. And yet how many men are there, that if they were to take a thousand, a hundred, or ten, or five dollars too much, would think of returning it? You say that corporations have no souls. You will not have any that is worth anything long if you pursue such a course. It is a question that is to be settled, not on that side of the counter, but on this side.

How many men are there, that when looking over the money that they have received during the day, see a bill that appears like a counterfeit, do not like to look at it again, and thrust it into the drawer? You have taken a circuitous way to make yourself a scoundrel. You saw it sufficiently to produce the conviction on your mind that it was counterfeit; and the moral effect of passing it is the same as though you knew it to be counterfeit. Or, do you take it up and say, "Well, somebody has passed it on me, and I have a right to shove it along?" Why, you are a counterfeiter! I tell you, my friend, it only requires the opportunity to lead you to forge bills, and put them on other men! Do you protest and say, "Do you expect that I am going to lose that money?" It is a choice between losing the money and your conscience. I do not know what a person would not do who is willing to throw his manhood away for the sake of a little money. And if you are going to sell yourself, do not sell yourself for a dollar bill, or a five-dollar bill—though I think you would get enough for yourself even at such a price.

I do not know of any buyer that pays such high prices as the Devil pays when he buys men. Here is a man that sells himself for about one-eighth of a pound of chiccory in a pound of coffee. He sells himself to every customer that comes in. He adulterates. He prepares his commodity with a lie, and retails it with

another lie. Every time a man commits a known dishonesty he sells his soul; and thousands of men are selling themselves by little driblets. And I think that a man who sells himself thus—cheats himself? No, he cheats the Devil. The Devil pays too much for him!

How many men are there who, if, through carelessness, the conductor neglected to punch their railroad ticket, and they found it in their pockets the next day, would not take it out, and look at it, and say, "I think I will use that again?" You paid for that ticket a dollar? Yes. You have had service to the amount of a dollar? Yes. If, then, you ride with that ticket again, you steal one dollar from the railroad company as much as if you went to the till and took a dollar. And yet, how many men would not ride twice with a ticket under such circumstances—yes, forty times?

I am informed that before the commutation system was abandoned by the ferry company, men of property and good standing in society would boldly declare that they had a commutation ticket in their pocket when they had none, for the sake of going through without paying! They did this when the ferriage was but one penny. They lied for one cent!

I pity the devil! I do not know what he does with such men! It is awful to be chief magistrate of a parcel of men like them! I cannot understand how these exiguous, thrice-squeezed men can be managed.

I have given you but one or two instances of this kind; but if you comb society you will find it to be full of just such little meannesses—things that men do with the cock of the eye, or with dexterity of finger; misunderstandings; overreachings; underplottings; all sorts of trickery—which pivot on essential dishonesty.

And these rebound. They destroy the moral sense. They undo a man. If you go to-night to a bank, and break through the door, and rob the safe, or work above it, and split the granite over it, and get at it in that way, you are not more dishonest than you would be if you only ran away with a sixpence that did not belong to you.

The danger of these little things is veiled under a false impression. You shall hear a man say of his boy, "Though he may tell a little lie, he would not tell a big one; though he may practice a little deceit, he would not practice a big one; though he may commit a little dishonesty, he would not commit a big one." But let me tell you that these little things are the ones that destroy the honor, that destroy the moral sense, and throw down the fence and let a whole herd of buffaloes of temptation drive right through you. Criminals that die on the gallows; miserable creatures that end their days in poor-houses; wretched beings that hide themselves in loathsome places in cities; men that are driven as exiles across the sea and over the world—these are the ends of little things, the beginnings of which were thought to be safe. I tell you, it is these little things that are your peculiar temptations, and your worst danger.

Without following this theme any further this morning, I will close with that solemn declaration, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much."

Take heed, parents—you that are training your children—take heed what God says to you; ye that are young, take heed what God says; and let us all take heed.—Independent.