A NEW YEAR'S GIFT IN PRISON

XXIV.

A NEW YEAR'S GIFT IN PRISON.

There

The year 1915 closed and the first day of the New Year opened. Early in the morning a special New Year's meal was brought to me instead of the ordinary prison fare, and I was told that two ladies by the names of Miss West and Miss Macdonald had sent it to me. Who could these two persons be, I wondered. I had never seen nor heard of them before. was no reason why I should receive anything from people I did not know, and I told the official that I could not accept the gift. The official said that these ladies were Christian missionaries, and had sent the food out of kindness and sympathy, and so I need not hesitate to accept it. As I look back now I cannot but think how perverse is the heart of a wicked man! It cannot be described either by word or by parable. When I was out in the world I robbed people without compunction, but now when something is offered to me freely, I naïvely refuse it. What kind of foolish perversion can this be?

The food was sent to me during the first three days of the New Year. A few days later a New Testament and two or three other Christian books were received from the same source, but I put them up on the shelf and did not even look into them.

*During the first three days of the New Year, which are universally celebrated in Japan, everyone, even down to the poorest, eats a certain kind of rice food, called mochi, specially prepared for the occasion.

XXV.

A VISIT FROM MISS WEST.

One day a person by the name of Miss West came purposely to visit me, and talked to me about Jesus Christ. I shall tell you exactly what I thought at that time. When I was out in the world I had not listened seriously even to talks about my own religion, and so naturally I had never wanted to hear about Christianity. Although I thought it was very kind of Miss West to come to talk to me, I did not pay much attention to what she said. Of course I behaved with decorum as the occasion demanded. These visits continued from

time to time,

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

XXVI.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

One day I got tired of sitting by myself with nothing to do, and just for the sake of putting in the time, I took the New Testament down from the shelf, and, with no intention of seriously looking into it, I glanced at the beginning and then at the middle. I was casually turning over the leaves when I came across a place that looked rather interesting and I began to read:

And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his face; and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.

I laid the book down thinking that these were surely the words of some one who wanted to teach men the path of virtue, but otherwise I was not specially moved by them. Later on I picked up the book again and read these words:

Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep that was lost! I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance.

Still I was not sufficiently impressed to have any special belief in what I was reading. I simply thought these were words that any preacher might use. I put the New Testament on the shelf again and did not read any more for some time. A little later, when I was tired of doing nothing, I took the book down once more and began to read. This time I read how Jesus was handed over to Pilate by his enemies, was tried unjustly and put to death by crucifixion.

As I read this I began to think. This person they called Jesus was evidently a man who at any rate tried to lead others into the path of virtue, and it seemed an inhuman thing to crucify him simply because he had different religious opinions from others. Even I. hardened criminal that I was, thought it a shame that his enemies should have treated him in this way.

"FATHER, FORGIVE THEM!"

XXVII.

"FATHER, FORGIVE THEM!"

I went on, and my attention was next taken by these words: And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. I stopped: I was stabbed to the heart, as if pierced by a five-inch nail. What did the verse reveal to me? Shall I call it the love of the heart of Christ? Shall I call it His compassion? I do not know what to call it. I only know that with an unspeakably grateful heart, I believed. Through this simple sentence I was led into the whole of Christianity.

This is how I thought it out:-I suppose a man's greatest enemy is the one who seeks to take his life from him. There is surely no greater enemy than this. Now at the very moment when Jesus' life was being taken from him, he prayed for his enemies to the God of Heaven. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. What else could I believe but that he was indeed the son of God? I argued that an ordinary man is filled with anger and hatred and every other spiteful passion on the slightest provocation. Jesus, on the other hand, prayed for his enemies at the very moment his life was being taken,—that life which was so precious that nothing could take its place. Was an act like this possible for an ordinary man? I do not think so. Then we cannot but say that he was God.

Again, chaplains and pastors, and those who see men die, agree that the last words a man utters come from