“Brought to justice at last!” he said to himself, with deep emotion.  “Convicted on the charge of open insolvency, and sent to state prison.  So much for the man who gave me in tender years the first lessons in wrong-doing.  But thank God! another lesson,—­the words of the judge, spoken to me so many years ago,—­have been remembered.  ’When you come forth again, may it be with the resolution to die rather than commit crime!’ and I have kept these words in my heart when there seemed no way of escaping except through crime.  And God helping me, I will remember them as long as I live.”

[Illustration:  “Is your boy sick?  He was not in school to-day."]

“A PICTURE OF GOD.”

It is fairly pathetic what a stranger God is in His own world.  He comes to His own, and they who are His own kinsfolk keep Him standing outside the door while they peer suspiciously at Him through the crack at the hinges.

To know God really, truly, is the beginning of a normal life.  One of the best pictures of God that I ever saw came to me in a simple story.  It was of a man, a minister, who lived in a New England town, who had a son, about fourteen years of age, going to school.  One afternoon the boy’s teacher called at the home, and asked for the father, and said:—­

“Is your boy sick?”

“No.  Why?”

“He was not at school to-day.”

“Is that so?”

“Nor yesterday.”

“You don’t mean it!”

“Nor the day before.”

“Well!”

“And I supposed he was sick.”

“No, he’s not sick.”

“Well, I thought I should tell you.”

And the father said, “Thank you,” and the teacher left.

And the father sat thinking.  By and by he heard a click at the gate, and he knew the boy was coming, so he went to open the door.  And the boy knew as he looked up that his father knew about those three days.  And the father said:—­

“Come into the library, Phil.”  And Phil went, and the door was shut.  And the father said:  “Phil, your teacher was here this afternoon.  He tells me you were not at school to-day, nor yesterday nor the day before.  And we supposed you were.  You let us think you were.  And you do not know how badly I feel.  I have always trusted you.  I have always said, ’I can trust my boy Phil.’  And here you’ve been a living lie for three whole days.  And I can’t tell you how badly I feel about it.”

Well, that was hard on Phil to be talked to quietly like that.  If his father had spoken to him roughly, or—­had asked him out to the woodshed for a confidential interview, it would not have been nearly so hard.  Then, after a moment’s pause, the father said, “Phil, we’ll get down and pray.”  And the thing was getting harder for Phil all the time.

He didn’t want to pray just then.  And they got down.  And the father poured out his heart in prayer.  And the boy knew as he listened how badly his father felt over his conduct.  Somehow he saw himself in the mirror on his knees as he had not before.  It’s queer about that mirror of the knee-joints.  It does show so many things.  Many folks don’t like it.