The Balance of Life (continued) man, and then turn around to rob or cheat someone else to make up for that which they have given. One of the greatest crises our Coun try faces is “what has happened to our individual and personal integrity.” Howard Whitman, writing in the Los Angeles Times, declared, “The Eighth Commandment should not read, ‘Thou shalt not steal’ but judging from the philosophy of the way in which people in our Country live, it would be better to have it declare, ‘Thou shalt not be caught stealing.’ ” An evangelist was holding meetings in a certain midwestem town. A young man had attended who seemed to be greatly burdened about a problem. He went to the preacher at the close of one of the services and testified, that while he was a Christian, he was most miserable in his own soul. “It’s all because of some copper nails”, he ex plained remorsefully. The minister in vited him to share the rest of the prob lem. So, sitting together at the front of the church, the young man explained that he worked for a boat builder. Copper nails were used in the vessels because they do not rust and would last much longer. In his spare time, because of his love for boats, the young man was building one of his own at home. Since his employer was quite wealthy, each night he had been tak ing home a few copper nails. He ra tionalized that they would never be missed and after all he deserved more pay than he received. His conscience had been dulled and he justified his action. But now the Holy Spirit had been speaking to him and had convicted his heart concerning the theft. He woefully told the preach er, “For months I’ve been trying to talk to my boss about his need of Jesus Christ as Saviour. He won’t listen to me. Now if he hears I’ve been steal ing from him, what do you think he’d say? What kind of a Christian witness or example do you think I would have been? What shall I do?” The minister had prayer with him and quietly sug gested that the Holy Spirit would re
veal the thing he would need to do to make things right. The next night the young man was at the service. He was hardly recog nizable in appearance, however, for his face positively was beaming. When the invitation was given, he rose from his seat and rushed to the front. He asked if he could talk to the minister. The preacher was anxious to know what had happened. The young man smiled and said, “Well, I went to my boss and told him the whole story. I told him I realized I had been a pretty mis erable example, taking the copper nails. But by the time I had finished he put out his hand and shook mine saying, “I’ve always thought Christians were just a bunch of hypocrites, but any way of life that can make a man come and admit such a thing is cer tainly something that I need.” Because of this confession, restitu tion, and awakening of the conscience, the Christian had the opportunity of leading his boss to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The Eighth Commandment, short as the Sixth in number of words, simply states, “Thou shalt not steal.” This de nies, in every aspect, any thought of cheating. This Commandment concerning steal ing includes many, many more than just those who have broken state and federal laws concerning robbery. The FBI interestingly reports that last year robbers took some one million three hundred thousand dollars from banks across the country. But during the same period of time, employees of American banks walked out with more than nine million five hundred thousand dollars. In other words, as a ratio of nine to one, are those, who, like the man with the copper nails, stole from their em ployers. But since it is on such a small scale, we try to justify what we do. It is all rationalized. There are many employ ees who stretch their so-called coffee break to more than the allotted time, or who linger at the water cooler, or who waste moments that could be giv en to the employer for his benefit. 4
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