A fine Scottish Christian man, who was a successful businessman, had one son. He was proud of his boy for he was for all outward purposes a splendid, well-educated, and respected young fellow—until one day he was arrested for embezzlement. At the trial he was found guilty. And all through the trial, and even up through the rendering of the verdict, the young man appeared essentially unconcerned and proud and nonchalant. Certainly, he was not humbled or broken by the experience thus far.

But then the verdict was brought in. The judge told the young man to stand for the sentence. He stood, still somewhat cocky and proud. And he glanced around the courtroom, only to notice that over at his attorney's table his father too was standing. His father had recognized that he was involved with the problem of what his boy had become.

He looked and saw his father—who once had walked and stood erect with head and shoulders straight, as those of an honest man with a clear conscience. And now those same shoulders were bowed low with sorrow and shame as he stood to receive, as though it were for himself, his son's sentence from the judge. At the sight of his father, bent and humiliated, the son finally began to weep bitterly and for the first time repented of his crime.