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
You follow the officer up the steps of stone into the entrance
hall, and watch the men pass out of the dining-room up the
stairway into the chapel; then you follow and are led to a seat
near the pulpit, facing the assemblage. Your eyes wander quickly
over that strange lot of from two hundred to five hundred men,
and, in some prisons, over a thousand constitute the audience.
When all are seated, the guards seat themselves on high stools
placed along the sides of the room, facing the rear door, while
the prisoners face the pulpit at the farther end of the room.
Then the prison choir sings and the organ peals forth its
beautiful strains, the prisoners joining in the singing. You
cannot keep back the tears as you look into their faces and think
that only for sin they might be free. Verily, "the way of the
transgressor is hard." Prayer is offered, and the chaplain, and
those who have permission, talk from the written word of eternal
life. Invariably your eyes sweep over that strange audience, and
here and there you see a man, or perhaps a young boy, in tears,
and you know the tender chord in their hearts has been touched.
God grant it may be so! Several testify to hope in Christ.
Services over, the prisoners are marched to their cells and
locked in. They must all attend the morning service, but are not
compelled to attend the Sunday school in the afternoon. Few
prisons conduct Sunday schools. In the afternoon, in company with
the chaplain and some of the guards, you may visit the cell
rooms, and are allowed to distribute papers and tracts, and speak
personally with each prisoner.
THE CELL ROOM is a long room with a stone floor and whitewashed
walls, the cells running through the middle of its entire length.
The cells are narrow, little rooms, perhaps four feet wide and
six or seven feet long. They vary somewhat in size. They have
doors of strong bars of iron, and no windows. All the air
received must enter through this grated door in front. The back
of each cell joins with the back of the row of cells on the other
side, thus forming a double row facing in opposite directions.
Rows of cells are built in tiers, one row above another, with a
narrow platform running along in front, with an iron railing.
Each man's name, and the number of his cell, is placed over his
door. A wide corridor runs all around the main room, which admits
the circulation of air from the large grated windows. Sabbath is
rather a hard day for the men, for they had rather be at work
than locked in lonely cells, with only their own thoughts and
troubled consciences for company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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