Instead of that, I placed him on probation for a year.
"He must report once a week to the probation officer. Also, he is watched, not suspiciously, but merely as a matter of precaution. If he is caught entering a saloon—I warned him of this—he will be punished. It's simply giving him a chance to make good.
(2520)
See Exclusion from Heaven.
Problems, Gaging—See Distance. PROCRASTINATION He meant to insure his house, but it burned before he got around to it. He was just going to pay a note when it went to protest. He was just going to help his neighbor when he died. He was just going to send flowers to a sick friend when it proved too late. He was just going to reduce his debt when his creditors "shut down" on him. He was just going to stop drinking and dissipating when his health became wrecked. He was just going to provide his wife with more help when she took her bed and required a nurse, a doctor and a maid.—Success Magazine.
(2521)
PRODIGAL, THE
Theodosia Garrison shows in these verses the melting power of love:
When I came to you banned, dishonored,
Brother of yours no more,
And raised my hands where your roof-tree stands,
Why did you open the door?
When I came to you starving—thirsting,
Beggared of aught but sin,
Why did you rise with welcoming eyes
And lift me and bid me in?
You have set me the first at the feast
And robed me in tenderness,
Yet, brothers of mine, these tears for sign
That I would your grace were less.
For I had not been crusht by your hate
Who courted the pain thereof,
But you stab me through when you give anew,
O brothers, your love—your love!
(Text.)
(2522)
This pathetic incident is told by Dr.
J. Wilbur Chapman:
Mr. Moody told me that he was once invited
to luncheon in one of the great homes
in the city of New York. He noticed that
his hostess was continually rising and leaving
the room. He said to himself, "She must be
in trouble. If she goes again I will follow
her." She did go out again and our great
evangelist rose from the table and went out
into the next room. When the mother saw
him she was plunged into confusion. Her
face flushed a fiery red. Seated upon the
couch in the room was a boy with dishevelled
hair, with bloodshot eyes, with clothing in
rags. The mother recovered herself in a
moment, walked across the room as if she
had been a queen, threw her arms around her
boy. Then, walking over to our great
preacher, she said: "Mr. Moody, I do not
think you have ever met my son. This is
my boy, Mr. Moody; he is a prodigal, but I
love him." Mr. Moody said she put her lips
up against the boy's cheek and he suddenly
burst into a flood of tears, dropt on his
knees and, after Mr. Moody had spoken to
him, he came to Christ. (Text.)
(2523)
PRODIGY, A
Professor Boris Sidis has given, in response
to requests, an authentic account of
the scope and aims of his son's intellectual
career. "I do not believe in the prevailing
system of education for children," writes
Professor Sidis. "I have educated my son
upon a system of my own, based to some
extent upon principles laid down by Professor
William James." This system, Professor
Sidis insists, has justified itself by its
results in the case of the boy prodigy of
Harvard. He knows as much at eleven, the
father says, "as a gifted professor of mature
years," and when he grows up "he will
amaze the world." Nor is the result due to
heredity or to abnormality of the child's
brain. The results achieved in the case of
this eleven-year-old lad are due wholly to the
methods of training pursued. To quote the
father's words as given the New York
American:
"As the baby grows more rapidly after birth than at any other time, so his brain develops most rapidly then and becomes less sensitive to impressions as he grows older. The process of education can not begin too soon.
