I remember thinking, “Surely this case is beyond help,” but God is
better than we even dare hope. Several prayers were offered in his
behalf, then he prayed for himself, and lo! he prayed with the tongue of
the learned. He said, “O God, if there be a God, hear the prayer of the
very lowest of Thy children. I need Thee, I am totally undone, I put
myself in Thy hands for forgiveness and for discipline. O Lord, save
me!”
He kneeled a moment longer, then rose to his feet with a clear brain,
and, looking about like one dazed, said, “What has happened, you all
look different?” Mr. Kline laid his arm lovingly over the man's
shoulders as he said, “Brother Connaught, you have received your sight.
The Lord Jesus has come into your soul.”
The next morning the Associated Charities had him arrested for
non-support of his family. Judge DeLacy, a good man, was on the bench.
One of our workers said to the judge, “This man was converted last
night, and if you will give him a chance he will now support his
family.” “Oh, yes, most anyone would be converted rather than go to
Occoquan” (name of the workhouse). “But, judge, this is no fake case;
try him.”
The bloated face, the soiled clothing were against him, and the judge
sent him up for eleven weeks. The little woman and her children were
sent to her relatives in North Carolina by the Board of Charities and
Children's Guardians. Some of our workers kept at his side, reminding
him that he had put himself in God's hands for discipline, and assuring
him that if he could stand true, God had a useful life in store for him.
A marked New Testament was given him when he left for down the river.
There his head was shaved in the very cold weather, his clothing
changed, so that he took a severe cold which came near carrying him off
with pneumonia. It took about two weeks to bring political and social
influence to bear to have him paroled and sent back to the Mission.
January and February of 1912 were very cold months, it was hard to get
any kind of work for men to do, and the only thing we could secure for
Connaught was passing circulars at sixty cents a day. That amounts to
$3.60 per week; of this he was obliged to pay to the judge $3, to be
sent to his wife. In two or three days Mrs. Kline phoned me, “Connaught
is trying to live on the rolls and coffee given in the bread line at six
o'clock in the morning.” I replied, “Connaught must have oatmeal with
cream—real cream, for his diseased stomach; he must have eggs and meat
and strong coffee, or he will lose his religion.” “Well, who is going to
provide all that?” “The Lord has money enough for that.” “Well, suppose
you bring some of it right along,” which of course I did.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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