Prisons and Prayer; Or, a Labor of LoveWheaton, Elizabeth Ryder
Religion
Prisons and Prayer; Or, a Labor of Love
Wheaton, Elizabeth Ryder
Evangelistic work; Prisons
But a year later I found these women still in the fields laboring and
suffering as before. I again went to the governor. He was now so
changed I hardly knew him. I said to him, "Well, governor, I see the
affairs of state wear heavily upon you. You look ten years older than
you did a year ago when I was here. Why did you not fulfill your
promise to me about transferring those women from the stockades to the
prison here at the capital? I promised that I would not make public
the condition in which I found them if you would look after them. You
promised to have them treated better, but it is just the same now." He
was surprised at my knowledge of affairs and my firmness and tried to
excuse himself, and said that he had brought some of them away to the
prison.
Upon one occasion in later years, in a place I had visited for some
years, I found that an old colored woman had been tied to a log and
severely whipped on the bare flesh. The other women could not bear to
see her so cruelly treated, and silently cried unto God to take the
cruel captain who had ordered her so punished out of the way. He did
so; for when I arrived there in a few days he was struck with death
and soon died. God did not allow him to compel the whipping of any
more women.
I think that upon only one occasion was I ever treated other than
kindly and with respect by any governor. In this case I insisted that
the women prisoners, especially, should be more humanely treated. The
governor refused to take any action regarding the cruelties practiced
but said, "Go to the Principal Keeper." I replied, "I have just come
from the Principal Keeper and he sent me to you, Governor. These
captains are not permitted to strike one blow without a license from
you. It is by your permission that they whip and punish them." He was
evidently annoyed to think that I so well understood the condition of
the prisons and their management. It was now election time and he was
running for office for another term, and he dismissed me without
further ado. Many like him are saying: "Am I my brother's keeper?"
Yes, you and I dear reader, and those in authority will surely have to
answer in the great day of reckoning, if we neglect to alleviate the
sufferings of our fellowmen, when it is in our power to do so. There
are many kind men in office who really desire better conditions of
affairs, but are only servants of those who are higher in authority.
Truly the penalty for crime must be paid, but give all a chance to
reform and do right before God and man. Can we not let poor fallen
human beings see that we do care for them? And that there is hope in
Christ for them if they will repent and confess their sin to Him? Did
He not come "to seek and to save that which was lost?"
BLOOD HOUNDS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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