call has been unheeded by the many who are equally responsible with
the few who have heard and responded. From every pulpit, in every
Sunday-school, through the pages of the religious press, the need of
the heathen is constantly kept before the people and so impressed that
the youngest child knows all about it. What do the children in our
Sunday-schools or the congregations gathered in our churches know of
the need behind prison walls? Where has any large offering ever been
taken for this cause? Who has ever thought of leaving a generous legacy
for the redemption of these men? I do not for a moment grudge what has
been given to missions. I merely want to bring to remembrance these
others who have been overlooked, this occasion for help at our very
door, a need which may be unlovely and have nothing about it of the
glamour of romance which distance lends to a cause, but which all the
same concerns human souls divinely loved and groping in great darkness.
Those who have entered it can report that here is a glorious
opportunity. This field is indeed white to the harvest and there is no
reason why mighty results should not be gathered where people have been
inclined to look only for disappointment and failure.
In seeking for the cause of all this general indifference, I can
only conclude that the fact that these men have been wrong-doers and
are suffering in consequence, has robbed them of sympathy. If I were
pleading for the abolition of prisons, the lightening of punishment or
were making sentimental excuses for transgressors, I could understand
that the appeal might awaken no interest, for it would appear to be a
contradiction to justice. What we do advocate is the saving of these
derelicts, that while in prison and on their discharge, help be given
them in a practical way so as to prevent their relapse into crime.
From the purely worldly standpoint he who has sinned is unworthy
of help and therefore is not an object of pity or sympathy. From
the Christian side of the question he is more to be pitied and the
more earnestly to be sought after. Did not the Good Shepherd say He
would leave the ninety and nine to seek for the one straying sheep?
Surely his need of mercy is far greater with the guilt of sin on his
conscience, its haunting memory robbing him of confidence in himself or
faith in efforts at reformation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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