A Letter to My Prison Children.
You, dear ones, are my especial care and have been for over twenty
long years; and your eternal good will continue in a sense to be first
in my thoughts while life lasts.
My own childhood was lonely and desolate. As I have already told you,
my father died when I was one year old, and mother died when I was
only six. I was taken from my mother's grave by an old man who had,
with his wife, asked mother for me before she died. My stepfather went
to law with my grandfather, who was guardian for myself and sister,
for my father's fortune, and the suit was carried from one court to
another until all was gone and we little children were penniless.
Sister and I were reared by our grandparents, and were given a very
limited education. We were taught to work as rigidly as if we were
paupers. The experience was hard but I can now see how good it was for
me in after years to know how to do all kinds of work and be able to
do with my might what my hands found to do.
All my life I have known much of SORROW AND DISAPPOINTMENT. It has
seemed that I have never been allowed to keep long anything that I
loved. When I was a child, my pets would sicken and die, and the
friends that I loved best would either move away from me or die; and
my heart was being continually crushed and broken by these trials.
I loved to learn and was passionately fond of music, but I was not
permitted to gratify my desires in either direction. Why all this was
true, I know not, unless it was that I might learn deeper lessons of
sympathy and compassion for others that are in trouble.
Perhaps, dear ones, because of these very experiences I can feel more
deeply and tenderly for you and I want to tell you that amid all the
sorrows of earth I have found _one Friend_ that has never forgotten or
forsaken me and that has promised never to leave me. _And this same
Jesus loves you._ If you but give Him your hearts He will never fail
you. Though all the world should forsake and despise you, Jesus loves
you just the same.
It is He that has put into my heart this love for you and your souls'
salvation that I cannot explain; this love that grows deeper and
stronger and that can only be made plain in the judgment. He has
taught me to feel for you when you are forsaken and forgotten, when
even friends turn away because you are doomed to the prison cell, the
stripes, and even the scaffold.
Often you are misunderstood and misjudged, and sometimes you grow
bitter towards every one, and sometimes you censure your best friends.
I plead with you to look on the bright side. Think of all God has done
for you and how wonderful it is that He loves you with all your sins,
that He loves your precious, immortal souls.
You are my children. For Jesus' sake, and yours, I am a homeless
wanderer on earth. I have given up home and friends and have gone into
the darkest places of earth, and have endured hardships and faced
danger of every kind. I have endured untold sorrow of mind and heart.
I have wept and prayed night and day, and for you I have sacrificed
all.
But dear ones, notwithstanding all this, I am happy in the love of
Jesus. His love is everything to my heart. His love and sympathy is
enough for me, and I know that He is able to provide all that I need.
He has kept me nearly sixty years, and I am sure that He will not now
forsake me.
Let this encourage you, dear prisoners, to know that God loves and
cares for you. When the way looks the darkest, when all hope fails,
when the last friend has forsaken you, then look up to Jesus and
believe His word. I know your trials are hard to bear. I think of you
as you leave the jail for the penitentiary with the handcuffs on and
the sheriff and the deputy guarding you so closely, and the world
against you. I think of you as the prison doors close behind you. I
think of you in your loneliness as the days and months and perhaps
years go by, and again I say, yes, I know your trials are hard to
bear. But look up through the dark clouds and remember that God lives
and that He loves you. In your little lonely prison cell He is with
you and is waiting to save you. Do not conceal your sins, for God's
Word says, "He that covereth his sin shall not prosper; but whoso
confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy."
Let the past be cleansed by the blood of Jesus. If you trust Him, He
has promised to separate your sins as far from you as the east is from
the west. Do not rest until His Spirit tells you this is done. Then,
"forgetting the things that are behind," press forward to those things
that are before.
Obey the rules. Show by your daily life that you intend to do right,
the very best you know. If those in authority over you seem to be
unkind or unjust, bear what comes as brave soldiers. Even inside of
prison walls you can win glorious victories over self and sin.
There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. I seek to show
you the way to the kingdom of heaven, where there is no more
temptation, no sin, no sorrow, no pain; to the place where Jesus has
gone to prepare a home for those who love Him, follow Him and trust
Him.
My heart yearns over you in your sad exile from wife, children,
mother, father, husband, brother, sister, friends. Truly the way of
the transgressor is hard.
But, my prison children, I beg of you do not go from one prison to
another. Flee from sin. I do not and dare not smooth over your sins.
Prove yourselves worthy of the confidence of good people. Give God
your hearts and be true to Him and He will not forsake you.
Some of you are doomed to the scaffold! How long, O Lord, how long
must such things be in a Christian land? O, that I had the power to
abolish capital punishment! But I will do all I can to help you
prepare for death. Jesus loves you. He was taken from prison and
executed as a criminal. He was innocent, yet He suffered death for a
guilty world. He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without
sin. "And being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted."
And though you pass through the valley of the shadow of death, if you
but trust Him, He will go with you and you need fear no evil.
[Illustration: GIVING THE BOYS COUNSEL.]