The Children's Repository—Be Slow to Accuse [pp. 151-152]

THE CHILDRErS REPOSIToR r.
was very unhappy, and had been so ever since
she heard Lucy's angry tone to her little brother,
and her impatient call to the nurse. She knew
that her little girl would feel happier after she
had confessed her faults, so she asked her to
give an account of all she had done that afternoon.
Lucy faithfully confessed all. She was greatly
distressed. While she could run about and
play she had not allowed her conscience to
trouble her much; but in the silence and darkness of the night the voice had again spoken,
and so plainly that she could not help listening
to it. She had waited in an agony of remorse
to hear her mother's step, that she might ask
her forgiveness.
When Lucy had finished her confession her
mother said, "You have, indeed, my poor child,
been very wicked; you have brought all this
misery upon yourself by yielding to your selfishness and anger; you have made your little
brothers unhappy, and have set them a very
bad example, instead of teaching them to do
right; you have pained your mother's heart,
and, worse than all the rest, you have displeased
your kind Heavenly Father. I feared you would
not be able to keep your resolution for several
reasons."
"Why, mamma," said Lucy, "I did really
want to be good."
"Yes, for the moment you did, my child.
But you resolved hastily to be so, without
realizing how necessary it is that your wicked
heart should be changed. Then, because you
were very happy with your new toys, and did
not wish to do any thing wrong just then, you
thought it would always be easy to do right.
You forgot that your heart is always full of evil
passions, read)y to break forth into wicked words
and actions when any thing happens to displease
you. And you felt so sure that you could not
be naughty again, that you did not watch your
heart as you should have done. If you had
thloughtfully determined to conquer yourself,
you would have feared temptation, and would
have watched for it. You would have asked
God to help you to remember and to try. That
you did not think of doing, because you felt
strong in yourself. This is the cause of all
your trouble; you felt that you could make
yourself good, and you did not ask God to help
you."
"O, mamma, I will try not to forget again.
I will ask him to help me. But will he, can he
forgive such a wicked girl as I am?"
"He not only can, my child, but he wishes to
forgive you and to help you. He wishes you
to be good and happy more than you can wish
It yourself. He surely will help you and save
you if you ask him."
Mrs. Nelson talked longer with Lucy, and
prayed earnestly with and for her, that God
would give her the help she needed in battling
with her evil passions.
And God answered her prayers, as he always
does the sincere requests of his children: Lucy
from that night gave evidence by her conduct
that she was trying to be a faithful, Christian
child. Her example had a most beneficial effect
upon her little brothers, and she had the satisfaction of knowing that, instead of making them
wicked as she had formerly done, she was aiding them to become good also.
Lucy's example should be a warning to us all
not to trust to our own strength to be good, but
to "watch and pray" continually, that we be
not overcome by temptation.
BE SLOW TO ACCUSE.
"/MjOTHER, I can't find my seventeen
cents anywhere," said Arthur, coming
into his mother's room with quite an anxious
face. "I put it right here in my pocket-book,
and that into my overcoat pocket. It had been
hanging up in the hall all day, and I do believe
that new girl has taken it out. She saw me
have it last night and put it away."
"Look in your pockets, Arthur. A little boy
who is so apt to forget things must not be too
positive that he put his money in his pocketbook. And never accuse any body of stealing
without a shadow of evidence. That is very
sinful as well as unkind. What if Susan should
lose her money and accuse you of stealing
it? Would you feel very pleasant about it?
Remember the golden rule."
"But, mother, she looked guilty when I said
I had lost it, and that I knew some one had
taken it out of my pocket.".
"Very likely she did look confused on hearing you make such an unkind speech. She
knew very well there was no one in the house
you could suspect of taking it but herself. You
might as well have said so in plain words. Aa
innocent person is more apt to look guilty,
when accused of a crime, than one who is
hardened in wrong doing. The latter usually
has a face ready made up to suit any occasion.
A gentleman once said that the most guiltylooking person he ever saw was a man arrested
for stealing a horse which afterward proved to
be his own."
"But what has become of my money, mother?
It is gone, that is certain."
I
I
i
i
I
i
I
I
S I'