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
Another watchnight I spent in St. Louis, Missouri. Feeling weary, I
was about to retire for the night, when the Lord showed me to go on
the street and do service for Him. So, doubting not, I pressed out for
a cold night's work in the slums. The sister who entertained me went
with me to the places of sin and also to six different watch-meetings,
at which we witnessed for the Master, leaving the results with the
Lord, who said: "And the books were opened, and another book was
opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of
those things which were written in the books, according to their
works."
ONE WEEK'S WORK.
A few years since, on arriving in Omaha after returning from the East,
I telephoned the jailer at the county jail: "Can I have a meeting?"
"Yes," came the reply. There were a good many prisoners and we had a
good service. Sister Kelley, of Tabor, Iowa, was with me. Our singing
seemed much appreciated. Went from there to the city jail. Held
services there, and in the evening in a Rescue Mission.
At midnight we boarded the train for Deer Lodge, Montana. En route our
train stopped for a couple of hours at Ogden, Utah, and while there we
visited the Florence Crittenton Rescue Home--where we were warmly
welcomed by both the matron and the girls and had a blessed service.
God bless them all!
[Illustration: PRISON AT DEER LODGE, MONT.]
We arrived at the State prison at Deer Lodge on Saturday, and had the
privilege of preaching to the many prisoners the following day. God
blessed me in speaking, both to the men and women. We sang many
old-time hymns and some new ones. Took each prisoner by the hand as
they passed out, visited the sick prisoners and went to two churches
that night, and visited the women prisoners on Monday morning, and had
real victory in prayer for them. Then bidding goodbye to all we left
for the prison at Boise City, Idaho, where we arrived Tuesday.
Telephoned the warden asking permission to hold service at the prison.
The privilege was granted and a team was sent for us. We found a large
number of prisoners and the officials kind, and had a good service of
an hour. Visited the poor, condemned men in their cells, prayed and
wept with them, and commended them to the great loving God who said:
"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." After seeing the
sick we left the prison; but my heart was greatly drawn out for those
men under death sentence. I felt that one of them (a foreigner) was
innocent. I was almost overcome with sorrow. They were my "children"
and I never would see them again in this world, and yet I was
powerless to help them!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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