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
I praise God for the privilege of adding a few words for your book.
May the blessing of God rest upon it. To the readers I will say: I
first met Mrs. Wheaton in Boston, in February, 1893, in the home of H.
L. Hastings, the well-known publisher, where she was a guest. She had
then spent ten years in prison and other evangelistic work. I had
visited a jail and stationhouses, but never a penitentiary. We first
went to the Boston and Maine Railway office. Sister Wheaton said: "You
pray while I go and ask for a pass to go to the Thomaston, Maine,
prison." In about ten minutes she returned with the desired
transportation. By the kindness of the railroad officials from ocean
to ocean they have helped to forward the work of God. Many earnest
prayers are offered by Mrs. Wheaton for these men. We never boarded a
train without asking our Heavenly Father to bless the train men from
the engineer to the flagman. Many times we have spoken to conductors
who have said, "No one ever talks to railroad men about their souls."
At Thomaston we had to wait until Sunday morning to enter the prison.
If ever the Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself in a prison chapel He
was in the midst that Sabbath day. While "Mother Wheaton" preached, I
prayed for her and the presence of the Holy Spirit was so manifest
that every man expressed a desire to serve God. The result of that
day's work for the Master will not be known until we meet when Jesus
will reward his servants.
We next went to the jail in Bangor, Maine, and God blessed the work
there in the salvation of souls. Then we went to the prison in
Wethersfield, Connecticut, and from there to the Vermont State Prison
at Windsor. But I cannot tell about them all! But wherever we went I
saw that the prisoners, both men and women, greeted "Mother Wheaton"
with a heartfelt welcome.
We went to the prisons of New York state--to Auburn, Sing Sing, the
Troy jail and on to Buffalo. We visited the penitentiaries in
Philadelphia and Baltimore, and the workhouses of Maryland and the
District of Columbia. We met in these places many precious souls whom
the Lord gave his life to redeem and many of them were Christians. The
blood of Jesus is all powerful to reach any man or woman who will
repent and forsake sin and believe in Him. We have great reason to
praise God for the power of the Holy Spirit to reach the hardest
hearts. But O, there are behind the bars and "in the shadow of the
walls" loving and tender hearts. O, that professors of religion would
wake up to the fact that when Jesus, the King of Glory, shall come He
will say, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my
brethren ye have done it unto me."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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