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
This man was married to a Christian woman and has done much to rescue
men from the pit from which he had been taken, and is still preaching.
IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.
One Sunday I sang perhaps thirty hymns and preached seven times to
prisoners in solitary confinement, where I dare not see them or clasp
their hands as I do in other prisons. There are hundreds there, and as
I sang in all the prison wards or corridors many different hymns, the
dear souls cheered and responded with their clear voices as best they
could to show their sincere appreciation of my efforts to brighten
their lonely prison life. Each was "some mother's boy." Reader, is
there not a sympathetic chord in your heart for these poor
unfortunates?
CRAPE ON THE DOOR.
I once felt impressed to go to a certain prison and hold services.
Arriving at the place early in the morning, I thought I would go to
the prison first before I would telephone for a cousin who often
helped me in the singing. When I arrived at the prison, the chaplain
said, "Mother Wheaton, the Lord sent you to help me. To-day I have a
funeral service of a prisoner, something we have never had at this
prison." I did not telephone then for my cousin, as the services were
arranged. I worked all day in the prison, holding services with both
men and women prisoners, visited the hospital, and went to the city
jail at 5 p. m. and held services, and then went to my relative's home
and was greatly shocked to find crape hanging on the door. I found my
cousin cold in death. Relatives asked me, "Who told you?" I said, "God
impressed me to come at this time." And I went with them to the grave
of my dear cousin, and kneeling beside the open grave, I promised to
faithfully do God's holy will, and meet the departed one in Heaven.
IN A POLICE STATION.
In 1903, while I was in San Francisco, I was impressed to go to the
police station about nine o'clock one night. I found, on arriving, an
ambulance bringing in prisoners, among them a woman who was arrested
for drunkenness. I talked and prayed with her. Hearing a noise like
one in distress, I walked on through the corridors and I found a young
soldier who was badly wounded in one eye and the head. He was standing
alone in his cell in great pain. The bandage had been torn off, and
the blood was running down his face, though his wounds had evidently
been dressed by a physician before coming there. He was crying from
the pain, and was under the influence of drink. I wiped the blood off
his face, and put the bandage on his eye again. Then I knelt in prayer
with him. I left the city on an early train, and never saw him again,
but I believe God heard and answered my prayer for his salvation.
BURNED IN HIS CELL.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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