The Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy (New Series, No. 47 and 48, January 1909) — John Shaqi
The Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy (New Series, No. 47 and 48, January 1909)Pennsylvania Prison Society
History
The Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy (New Series, No. 47 and 48, January 1909)
Pennsylvania Prison Society
Charities -- Periodicals; Prisons -- Periodicals
Now the people who help that man to his feet again are the true
disciples of Jesus. Excepting alone His purity, Jesus’ most striking
trait was His capacity for tenderness and helpfulness toward the
straying. He believed in giving the unfortunate another chance, and that
is what He meant when He said, “Go and sin no more.” Go, be a clean,
respectable and successful woman. Go, and I am with you.
Paul wrote Philemon to receive back the runaway slave, Onesimus, and
treat him as a brother. A prisoner is not fully saved until he is saved
to society. He is not saved to society until he earns an honest living,
and he cannot earn an honest living without the help of the more
fortunate.
Fiction tells of one injured by his own sin, brutalized by injustice,
and finally changed after nineteen years of imprisonment, who built
factories, became a banker, founded a hospital for sick women, and an
industrial school for children, and made a city and filled it with the
hum of industry.
One day my ’phone rang, and I was asked by a Hebrew merchant and banker
in this city to make an engagement to meet him and a young man in whom
he was interested.
I called at the appointed time at the bank, and the business man said:
“Doctor, this is Mr. Blank. He is one of the unfortunates. He ended his
term in the prison last week, and I have secured him a position in a
shoe factory. His mother is a Baptist, and I tell him he ought to be
under the wing of the church, and I know you will help him and be his
spiritual adviser.”
Beloved, that was a unique and joyful experience. A Jew committing to
the care of a Christian minister an ex-convict!
The young man was full of appreciation. He promised to meet me at the
Sunday school the following Sunday morning. He was there bright and
early. On his face shone the light that never was seen on land or sea.
With joyful emotion he confessed: “I have given my heart to Jesus since
I saw you. He forgave my sins at the tent meeting Wednesday night. My
mother wants me to join her church, and I told her I promised to meet
you here this morning, and I must keep my promise.”
You may be sure the minister was almost as happy as the convert, and
very heartily was the young man urged to join his mother’s church. He
did so, and is now a circumspect Christian and a self-supporting member
of the community.
Jesus in His day found the greatest faith in a Gentile, and, lo! in our
day, I have found the finest flower of Christian charity and helpfulness
in a Jew!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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