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
Yours in Christ,
G. W. OLDHAM.
At the landing in Glasgow, I inquired of the policeman on duty and
secured a room with his family. Then I went in search of a meeting.
Found the car-fare a penny a mile and other customs quite different
from ours. The first meeting I found corresponded to our Y. M. C. A.
meetings. But our special mission was to the lost.
That evening I received permission from the policeman to hold open-air
meetings. Going along the street a woman who was drunk spied me and
rushed after me beating me on the back. As I made no resistance other
drunken women joined their companion in sin and I would have had a
hard time of it had not the police protected me. These drunken women
thought that I belonged to the Salvation Army, as the bonnet I then
wore was quite similar to the one dear Mother Booth had worn and I was
often told that I looked like her. I was in Scotland when she passed
to her reward in the land where there are no slums, no sinners to
rescue, to weep over and save. Had I been near enough how gladly would
I have joined the great throng that gathered to show honor to her
memory! Nearly every night while in Glasgow found us on the streets
preaching, singing, and praying, with those who never went to
church--many of them not even to the Salvation Army or missions. In
many respects we found worse conditions than in our home-land. The
public houses were always filled at night with men and often their
whole families--drinking all kinds of intoxicants--women with infants
in their arms as well as others drinking with men at the bar. And the
most beautiful girls to be found were secured by the keepers of these
houses to stand behind the bar and sell the drinks.
The prisons, my special burden, I found very difficult of access for
missionary work. I found that women were not expected, there, to do
that kind of work. Yet I fasted and prayed and wept before the Lord,
pleading that the prison doors might be opened to me and at last I was
successful in gaining admission to some of them. After some delay I
was admitted to Duke Street jail, in Glasgow, and there held several
services. It is a large prison, filled with the baser sort and those
whom the public houses had been licensed to make drunkards--to cause
to reel and stagger and abuse and kill when unconscious of what they
were doing. The Lord's presence was revealed in our services there and
souls got help from God, and I hope to meet many of them in heaven. We
visited the poor in their homes, different penal institutions--all of
the missions and Salvation Army Corps and many of the churches. While
time lasts we will find much to do to help those around us.
MY LIFE IN DANGER.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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