I was very much touched by a mark of appreciation of our work shown
by a number of the men who subscribed nearly one hundred dollars out
of the money they had on deposit towards our Hope Hall fund. Does
not this show how truly they appreciate our plans and schemes and
efforts for their future? I think this should make the fortunate and
wealthy outside the prison eager to follow their example in generous
and loving sympathy with the good work. The officers of the prison
among themselves subscribed fifty-five dollars as a testimony of their
indorsement of the movement.
From men all over the country, in prisons not yet visited, comes the
plea to go to them and my heart longs to answer it, but so far we have
had to go slowly.
I was visiting recently for the first time a new prison, and was much
touched by a remark made by one of the men to the chaplain. He is
serving a life term and has proved himself to be an earnest Christian.
Meeting the chaplain the day before my expected visit he said,
"Chaplain, when there is some special request I have made in prayer, I
write it down and when the answer comes, I put O.K. against the prayer.
To-day I can do that again, for I have prayed so long that the Little
Mother might come to us, and at last my prayer is answered." Is it a
wonder that my heart turns longingly to the great wide field where the
harvest awaits us, to the many whose call to us is as clear as ever
the Macedonian call could be from heathen lands?
Alas, all too much of my time has to be filled with money-raising
lectures, so that long lecture-trips for this purpose keep me from the
work where I know I could do so much to cheer and comfort these waiting
hearts.
We do not want our labors in the prisons to be a mere evangelizing
effort, but we wish to establish a permanent work, and hence of course
we have had to move slowly. On the other hand the effect has been
much more lasting. How much it has meant of cheer and sunshine to the
men, can only be realized as we gather from day to day the news that
comes to us from all over the country. It must be remembered how shut
off these men are from friendship, from the world, from all matters
of interest that can carry them out of their dull, dreary routine in
cell and workshop life, to understand what this link with the outer
world has proved to many of them. We send to each prison a large
number of _Volunteers' Gazettes_, the official organ of our movement
and its pages are read with deepest interest giving, as they do, news
of progress of each prison League, and also constant reports of the
successes of men once their fellow-prisoners, who are now living free
and honest lives in the path that lies before them also. They look
forward intensely to their League meetings. The whole tendency of the
work is to stir up a new interest in life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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