Part 1.
NOW, my friend, your time will soon be up. What will you do, when you are set free?” The speaker was a tall, broad-shouldered police officer, with an open, pleasant face, and a winning way of talking.
The person addressed, presented the fullest contrast to the other. Not only was he clothed in simple dark prison garb, but it would have been difficult to picture a less trustworthy countenance, or a more hateful, repulsive appearance than this man presented.
Both men stood on the bank of a harbor; the prisoner was occupied in placing a boat in position to carry himself and other fellow prisoners to their daily toil on the other side of the harbor.
It was still early in the day, and the boat rocked lightly on the waves, glistening in the rising sun. While the officer stood waiting for an answer to his question, he felt his heart move with pity as he perceived the hard, wild look of the old man who was bending sullenly over his work. The officer was one of the few among his class, under whose uniform, not only beat a soft heart, but who knew the One who once came down to call prisoners to freedom and to bring the glad tidings of the love of God to the poor.
Ah! he thought, if this poor old man knew something of the love of God, what a different look it would give to his hard, obstinate face. Perhaps there was something of his thoughts and feelings conveyed in the tone of his voice, when after waiting in vain for an answer to his question, he repeated it once more, for the old man raised his head and asked abruptly “What?”
“You are an old man, and you will not find it easy to get employment. What do you think you will do when you leave the prison?”
The old man raised himself to his full height, and his face assumed, if possible, a still more malignant expression, as he looked the questioner full in the face, and in snarling tones said: “The first thing I will do, when I am free, will be to blow the life out of one of your kind.”
“What? The first thing you will do, when you are free will be to murder a police-officer?” repeated the other slowly, and apparently scarcely believing his ears. “Yes,” replied the prisoner, “that will be my first work. He gave false evidence against me, that is, he said more than was true, and he shall pay for it with his life.”
I received a letter recently from an old chum, in which he informed me that “growler” (he meant by that his gun) was in good order and had plenty to eat and drink (this is plenty of ammunition).
“Well, and if you murder the policeman, what then?”
“Then I will be arrested and imprisoned again. For at my age, a man can’t get far away.” He said this with a short bitter laugh, and in the most indifferent tone possible. “Quite right: and when you have been arrested and imprisoned, what next?”
“Then, I’ll be tried and condemned.
“Yes; and after you have been tried and condemned, what then?”
“Then they’ll likely execute me.”
“Yes, and if you are executed, what then?”
To this question there was no answer. The thoughts of the poor man had apparently never yet been exercised about death. The question however had visibly startled him. “Have you a Bible in your cell?” asked the officer at last. “Yes, and I have read it through fully a hundred times just to kill time.
Have you never read, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”? Slowly and solemnly were these words spoken and they appeared to break in on the listener, for after a brief pause he replied: “No, these words are not in my Bible. I have read the whole book through again and again, and these words are not found there, ‘For God so loved the world’”—the man talked softly and thoughtfully— “no, they are not in my Bible.” “Yes, my friend, they are there. Will you promise me to find John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) in your Bible when you return to your cell this evening? There you will find these words.”
“John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16),” repeated the mail, “yes, I will look up the, place because you are the only man who has ever spoken to me kindly, one excepted. I will search for the place in my Bible though I am convinced they are not there; not in my Bible.”
When he had spoken these words, the prison-overseer, with a number of prisoners came up and stepped into the boat. The conversation was at an end, but the good seed had been sown, and the officer prayed in his heart to God that it would bring forth fruit from the hard ground into which it had fallen.
ML 01/14/1912