Prisons and Prayer; Or, a Labor of Love — John Shaqi
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
which is in the rear of the chapel, and in the same building.
Here are sights that touch hearts. Some are dying with
consumption, and some with broken hearts. One poor boy's sunken
cheeks and thin, wasted hands especially touched me. Taking him
by the hand, I began to talk to him. He said: "No one cares for
_me_." "Yes, God cares for you and He loves you." "Why does He
let me stay here and die if He loves me?" "Have you a mother?"
"Yes, I have a good Christian mother, but she doesn't know I am
here." "May I write and tell her you are sick? I am sure she
wants to know about you?" "Oh, no; I had rather die all alone
than to have mother know I am here."
So it is all through these places. For, though I have briefly
described one prison, they are all in a great measure alike, yet
vary in different states to some extent. All are not so clean
and neat as this one spoken of, and though a prison might be
lined with costly gems, it is still a prison, and without Jesus
in the heart it is only a living tomb to those confined therein.
Let none think that it is a pleasant place to be. One man may
want to be a Christian, or at least a moral man and a man of
cultured tastes, and such men find it doubly hard when they must
work side by side with the most degraded criminals. One may leave
the prison worse than when he went in.
In these places children hide their ruined lives and breaking
hearts from their dearest earthly friends. No mother to smooth
the dying one's pillow, though small it may be! No sister or
brother to wipe away the bitter tears that _will_ fall; no father
to say good-bye. O mothers, let the memory of your boy's innocent
childhood fan all your tenderness and love into a flame that
would leap over the highest breastwork Satan could erect and take
your boy or girl back to your heart. If you have been a true
Christian and have done your duty faithfully, trust still in God.
What we need is faithful teaching among the unsaved, to warn them
against their danger, before they get into such awful places.
[Illustration: NEW FEDERAL PRISON AT FT. LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS.]
CHAPTER V.
Letters of Introduction and Kind Words from Governors, Prison
Officials, Etc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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