The old sailor looked at him with a puzzled expression.
"You know," he said; "surely, boy, you know the difference between right and wrong?"
Bert made no reply.
"You know that it's wrong to tell lies, or steal, or do murder?"
Bert nodded. He had once received a beating from his father for telling a lie. He knew how the law punished the other offences.
"Well, those are sins. And yet sin means more than that, for one may do none of those things and yet be a great sinner. Paul called himself the chief of sinners, and yet he was no law-breaker. Really, I never thought till now how difficult it is to say what sin means, and yet, I know! I know! Sin, it seems to me, is just loving ourselves instead of God, and doing what pleases ourselves instead of what pleases God."
"But how can we know what pleases God?" asked Bert, with wonder in his eyes.
"Oh, in many ways. There's a little voice in our hearts that warns us when we are going to do what is wrong; and then there is Jesus Christ to show us what God would have us to be. He is our example, our copy, you know. You write copies at school, don't you?"
Bert nodded.
"And there's a fine bit of writing at the top of the page, and you have to look at that and try to make your writing like it?"