“Because that would be stealing, and since I have been going to Sabbath-school, I’ve learned that God’s commandment is, ‘Thou shalt not steal.’”
“Well, and didn’t you learn that another of God’s commandments is—‘Children, obey your parents?’”
“Yes, father,” answered the boy.
“Well, then, mind and do what I tell you.”
Johnny was perplexed. He knew there must be some way of answering his father, but he did not know exactly how to do it. The right thing would have been for him to say that, when our parents tell us to do what is plainly contrary to the command of God, we must obey God rather than men. But Johnny had not learned this yet. So he said:
“Father, please excuse me from stealing. I’ll ask God to send us some wood. Praying’s better than stealing. I’m pretty sure God will send it. And if it don’t come before I come home from school at noon to-morrow, I will go and work for some, or beg some. I can work, and I can beg, but I can’t steal.”
Then Johnny crept up into the loft where he slept, and prayed to God about this matter. He said the Lord’s prayer, which his teacher had taught him. And after saying—“give us this day our daily bread;” he added—“and please Lord send us some wood too, and let father see that praying is better than stealing—for Jesus’ sake. Amen.”
And at noon next day when he came home from school, as he turned round the corner, and came in sight of their home, what do you think was the first thing he saw? Why, a load of wood before their door! Yes, there it was. His mother told him the overseers of the poor had sent it. He did not know them. He believed it was God who sent it. And he was right.
The first lesson from Gethsemane is about prayer.
The second lesson from this hallowed spot is—about sin.