From Our Paper, page 292, June 16, 1921, Massachusetts Reformatory, Concord, Massachusetts.

EMBLEMS OF RELIGION

A soldier was taken before a judge advocate. His offense consisted, not of playing, but of looking at the cards, one after another, during divine service.

He conducted his own case and testified as follows:

"I have been six weeks on the march. In action I lost both my Bible and prayer book, leaving me nothing but a pack of cards. I believe I can satisfy you, sir, of the purity of my intentions in using this pack of cards at chapel."

Spreading the cards before the judge, he began with the ace: "When I see the ace, it reminds me there is but one God. The deuce reminds me of Father and Son; the tray, of Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. When I see the four-spot it reminds me of the four Evangelists that preached, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The five recalls the five wise Virgins that trimmed their lamps. The six brings back the six days in which the Lord made heaven and earth. By the seven I am reminded that He rested on the seventh day from the great work He had created, and hallowed it. The eight recalls the eight righteous persons that were saved when God destroyed the world, viz, Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives. When I see the nine it reminds me of the nine lepers that were cleansed by our Saviour; there were nine out of ten who never returned thanks. The ten recalls the ten commandments which God handed down to Moses on tables of stone. The King reminds me of the King of Heaven; the Queen of the Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon.

"You have done well," said the judge, "but you have omitted one card, the Knave."

"The greatest Knave I know of," returned the soldier, "is the sergeant that brought me here."

"Granted," said the judge, "case dismissed."— Rehoboth Sunday Herald.