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We are now in the second part of the eighth commandment.

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Thou shalt not steal.

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Just four little words.

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Yet there is such great truth, so much involved in just these four words,

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in just this one commandment, that this is the second part of our study

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regarding this eighth commandment.

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Now, the command is, in the first instance, a recognition of the rights of property.

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Remember that.

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Property is not theft.

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God gives man, God gives you, gives me the right to own property.

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Man is, by his creation, able to possess,

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and to deny the possibility of possessing property is to make theft impossible.

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In the last analysis, all possessions belong to God.

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Never forget that.

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Everything that you and I have, all possessions,

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we say, of course, that this is mine.

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You proudly boast of your possessions and say, this is mine,

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or you say, I have accumulated this or have accumulated that,

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but in reality, in the final analysis, all possessions belong to God,

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as all wealth is created by God.

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Thus, recognizing the rights of property,

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the commandment forbids any violation of these rights for illustration.

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Let it be taken for granted that men do possess the things which they call their own.

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It will once be seen that there are only three ways

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in which man can come into possession of anything, anything that you have,

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anything that you possess, any property that you might have.

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You have come in possession of that which you possess by one of three ways,

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either by the free gift of another person,

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or by toil, which receives something as legitimate return,

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or by theft, having taken it from someone else,

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something that belongs to another person.

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The commandment recognizes the first two and forbids the third,

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and the reason for this will be discovered by an examination of the three.

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The first two are based upon the essential laws of human interrelation,

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namely, love and work.

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The first of such is the law of love,

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the gift bestowed by one upon another, or by another upon one,

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is an expression of love and becomes the property of the one to whom it is given.

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It is something earned by toil, by hard work,

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for the possession of which the work done has been a legitimate return.

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You have been paid for it.

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You have received a legitimate return for it,

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in that it has also benefited the person who received it.

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That, too, is property rightfully acquired.

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Theft violates both of these laws.

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The thief cannot love the person from whom he steals.

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Know that.

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It's very difficult for the person from whom the theft is made to love the thief.

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The thief violates the law of toil by attempting to possess without toil,

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without work, and thus to take from another something for which

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no equivalent return is made.

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And thus the commandment recognizes the true rights of property,

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the rights of love and work, and forbids the possession of anything

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except upon the condition of obedience to these laws.

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That's the reason I say to you, remember, broadly speaking, broadly stated,

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the Eighth Commandment forbids all forms of communism,

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which deny man's right to property.

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God clearly states, man can possess.

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You have a right to property.

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You have a right to possession if you have gotten it the right way.

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But it must be gotten either by love, by gift, or by toil, by work.

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But what something, and to me this is very beautiful,

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if you turn to the fourth chapter of Ephesians, the 28th verse,

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let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor,

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working with his hands a thing which is good, that he may have whereof why.

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Oh, oh, here's a stickler.

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Here is something that's going to be hard for somebody to take.

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That's somebody who's worked hard.

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You've earned that which you've gotten.

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Someone may have given you a substantial gift,

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and you've got it all tucked away, you know, that little nest egg of yours.

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You've got it all put away, as someone has said of another.

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You have the first nickel they ever earned.

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Oh, that somebody you may not feel as though you've been hoarding anything,

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but as sure as you're born,

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you're one of the biggest hoarders of property,

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of possessions of anybody in your block, of anybody in your hometown,

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of all of your relatives.

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God gives man the right of possession for one reason.

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It's the scripture.

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I'm giving the word of God.

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That he may have whereof to give to him that hath need.

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You said I never dreamed it was in the Bible.

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Sure it is. Read it.

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That's God's word.

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The fourth chapter of Ephesians, the 28th verse.

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God gave you, God blessed you.

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You have the right to possessions for one purpose and one purpose only,

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that you may give to him that hath need.

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Do you want to know something?

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This wonderful plan of economics that God has for men and women is one of the greatest.

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And the reason that we're in the mess that we're in nationally, internationally,

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and even with ourselves is because we're living contrary to God's word.

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Even our plan for economics, we're living contrary to God's wonderful plan.

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It was never in God's plan that a government was supposed to support its people.

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God's real plan was the way those precious old fashioned Missouri farmers used to do it.

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Oh, you say you're old fashioned, Miss Cooman.

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You think so?

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Not one of them ever thought about the government supporting them.

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Why, I don't think that there was a farmer in Missouri way back there when Papa was living

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that ever got a check from the government,

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ever sat and waited for that day on the calendar when the government would be sending him his allotment.

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No.

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Those old Missouri farmers helped each other out.

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And I tell you if the crops were bad, why,

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the one who had a little more than the other would share what he had with his neighbor.

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And when it came time to harvesting, why, they didn't have to have unions.

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They had an unwritten union among themselves.

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They never thought of paying somebody for coming in and doing the work.

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Why, when it was time for Papa to harvest, Mr. Borksted and Mr. Tebencamp

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and all the neighbors would come over and help Papa do all of his harvesting.

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Then when his crops were all harvested and they got the wheat in,

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then they'd all go over to Mr. Borksted and they had such a good time doing it.

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Honestly, I can remember Mama telling what good times they had.

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The women, why, they never thought of hiring women to cook the meals.

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No, they had no problem about how they can get their meals cooked.

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And do you want to know something?

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Those women in those days never had nervous breakdowns.

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They didn't have to have psychiatrists.

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Why, my word, I don't think they even knew they had nerves.

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They were too busy baking biscuits.

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They were too busy making cornbread.

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They were too busy feeding those men of theirs who were out in the field working.

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And those men were working 14, 16 hours a day.

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Papa got up 4 o'clock in the morning.

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They tell me that he even put lanterns on his binders and on his farm equipment

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and worked after the sun went down and after it got dark at night,

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especially if he thought it was going to rain the next day, and he had to get his weed in.

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They never thought about nervous breakdowns.

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They never thought about psychiatrists.

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That's right.

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Sure, and happy.

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Oh, they were happy.

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If one needed something, they shared it with his neighbor.

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If one had more than the other, they shared it with the one who needed it.

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My friend, that's God's word.

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Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor,

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working with his hands, the thing which is good,

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that he may have whereof to give to him that hath not.

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God has blessed you.

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God has prospered you, not that you might hold it unto yourself

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and use it selfishly, but he's given it to you to give

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and to use in helping those who are less fortunate.

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Oh, God's plan of economics is one of the greatest in the world,

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and we need to get back to it.

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I'm telling you people, that's why.

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Do you know something right here in the office?

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I just had a telephone call, and a man said,

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Ms. Kuhnman, would you please, if you have somebody who needs a job,

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would you please contact them?

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I have no plea.

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We had three such calls in one week.

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We contacted every man that we knew who was receiving

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a monthly allotment from the government.

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Not one would take the job because he said that it didn't pay

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as much as the paycheck he was getting from the government,

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and he would make more by not doing anything,

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and so we had to call the men back and say,

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we're sorry, but we can't get anybody to take the job.

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Because men are so spoiled, people are so spoiled now,

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that they make more doing nothing.

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I tell you, my poor papa and dear Mr. Borgstedt

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and precious Mr. Temkamp back there would turn over in their graves

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if they knew what was going on now.

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And you cannot be happy.

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You cannot be contented.

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You cannot feel good on the inside.

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You cannot have the blessing of God.

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You cannot expect heaven's best if you are not living

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according to God's rules and God's plan for man is to work.

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And it's just like that.

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I'm giving you the word of God.

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This is it.

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We are allowed to possess that we may pass on to others.

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Now, somebody says, oh, Miss Cooman, I do.

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I tell you, I take care of my wife's mother.

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I always am amused at that.

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A man will never say his mother-in-law.

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My wife's mother and I take care of the grandmother

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and all the rest of it.

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I sure do my part.

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Just a minute, Stella.

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You may be stealing from the person who is more important

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to you than any human being in the whole world.

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You may not think of stealing a thing as small as a coffee bean.

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You pride yourself in the fact that you have never stolen

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and the thought of stealing is far removed from your mind.

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And yet God's word teaches that in his great plan of economics

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for man, if out of that which you are permitted to possess,

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you are not giving him his part, then you are a thief.

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You are a robber.

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Will a man rob God?

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He asks the question and then answers it.

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Yet ye have robbed me.

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I shall continue with God's great plan of economics

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in our next heart to heart talk.

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God bless you.