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
He will forgive you now, only believe on
Him." He replied, "I do believe He does save me just now." Glory to
God! He is a present help in time of need; a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. Dear reader, it is better to be saved before
the crash comes. The man was suffering terribly. The women, thinking
they must do something, had poured turpentine into the wounds thinking
it was camphor. We washed the wounds and I assisted the physician in
setting the broken limbs. God wonderfully helped me there to practice
what I preached, and I found what it means to love my neighbor as
myself. These railroad men were my neighbors, and they were suffering
and in a dying condition. One of the poor men cried piteously for his
mother. I traveled on the train on which one of the wounded men was
taken to the city where his mother lived and helped to care for him on
the way. We were delayed at that camp for two days. I will never
forget those days of service and suffering.
THE SUGAR CAMPS.
At one time, I went into the Sugar Refining Stockades in Texas.
Leaving the train, we had to walk a long distance to the first camp.
The superintendent was angry at us for coming, and ordered us to go to
the next camp. He said there were women at the other stockade and that
he would not let us have any meeting, any way, with his men. We asked
him if he would please send a boy to carry our luggage, and he
refused, so we started on alone, to walk a long way. When we arrived
at the second camp we found only one guard and a couple of prisoners
working, and no women within miles. When the guard saw the situation,
he seemed sorry for us, and we were allowed to rest and wait until
the return of the prisoners, who were at work at a distance on
railroad repairs. In the meantime he sent a man to another stockade
some miles away, and the captain's wife there agreed to entertain us,
for which we were thankful. We had a meeting after the men came to
camp, and the guards came to us and said that the women at the camp
mentioned before had sent word that they would not keep us over night.
What _could_ we do? Finally I said, "Can you take us to the depot?"
They answered that they had no conveyance but AN OLD MULE AND A CART.
I said, "That is all right." So they got the mule and cart and helped
us in, and handed us our luggage. Then they sent a colored boy to go
before the mule with a lantern, and another followed after. In this
way we went on until we reached the little country depot, which was
all dark. One of the prisoners, who went with us, lighted the lantern
inside, and we called to the ticket agent, who had retired, asking him
to please check our luggage to San Antonio. This he refused to do, so
I said, "We are Christian women and will give you almost any price, if
your wife will allow us to stay with her until morning." He was angry,
still refusing to get up to check our luggage. He said he was not paid
for night work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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