The Nation Behind Prison BarsHerr, George L. (George Lewis)
Religion
The Nation Behind Prison Bars
Herr, George L. (George Lewis)
Church work with criminals; Evangelists
"Christ in His charity taught those who came to Him,
Ill deeds should pardoned be seventy times seven;
Succor the least here and you do the same to Him;
These are his precepts on earth and in heaven.
Oh, then, when laboring hard for humanity,
Never believe that your labor is vain.
Kindness will conquer the criminal insanity;
Speak to him gently and try him again."
Criminal Becomes Minister
[Courier-Journal]
"Do you know who I am?" once said a person in the jail here to the Rev.
George L. Herr, prison evangelist. "I will tell you. I am the worst and
most treacherous man in this prison." Then the Rev. Mr. Herr says he
told him the story of his fearful crimes. "I have been in prison North,
South, East and West, I have been in the dismal, solitary cell for one
year, have been put in large tanks of ice water, have been punished over
and over again, but it has always made me more of a demon. Would you
like to know what the officer who last locked me up said about me?"
"'Take him and lock him up like a brute beast, for that is what he is.'"
Then he turned and said: "Do you think there is any hope for me?" "I was
at once on ground where I could speak without hesitation," said Mr.
Herr, "and I told him simply that if he was through with an evil life,
if he was tired of wrong-doing and was determined to do right, there was
a love that could forgive him, and a power that could help and keep him
in the future. When at last we knelt together there I prayed that God,
who could bring light into our darkness, might dispel the thick clouds
that had shut in this soul from hope, and bring to him the revelation
that would change his life. There were tears in our eyes as we parted,
and, taking my hand in his he said: "I will try, Brother Herr."
"He did try, and, more than that he conquered. At first it was a stern
battle of an awakened will and conscience fighting against desperate
odds. The feeling that friends were watching and waiting anxiously for
good reports proved an undoubted incentive. It was not long before he
sought and found Christ as his Saviour, and he became an earnest
Christian, and to-day is an ordained Methodist minister, at the head of
a great rescue work in an Eastern city, and also chaplain of a model
penal institution."
* * * * *
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"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,
that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have
everlasting life."--John 3:16.
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To Brother George L. Herr
By Joseph M. McGuire
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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