Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-07-10

they had not enough of moral remains
left to make decent funeral. They
went into office with the huzza of the
multitude. They came out with the
anathema of all decent people. There is
not one man out of hundred that can
endure the temptations of the common
councilmen in our great cities. If man
in that position have the courage of a
Cromwell, aud the independence OF an
Andrew jackson, and the public spirit
edness of a John Frederick Oberlin, and
the piety Of an Edward Payson, he will
have no surplus to throw away. Pray
for these men. Every man likes to be
prayed for Do you know how DIR. Nor
man Mcleod became the queens chap
lain? 1t was by warm hearted prayer
in the Scotch kirk in behalf of the roy
al family one Sabbath when the queen
and her son were present incognito.
Pray For the Police.
Yes, go further, my friends, and pray
for your police-their perils and temp
tations, best known to themselves. They
hold the order and peace of your cities
in their grasp. But for their interven-
ton you would not be safe for an hour.
They must face the storm. They must
rush in where it seems to them almost
instant death. They must put the hand
of arrest on the armed maniac and cor
ner the murderer. They must refuse
large rewards for withdrawing COM
plants. They must unravel intricate
plots and trace dark labyrinths of crime
and develop suspicious into certainties.
They must be cool while others are
frantic. They must be vigilant while
others are somnolent, impersonating the
very villainy they want to seize. In the
police forces of our great cities are to-
day men of as thorough character as
that Of the old detective of New York
addressed to whom there came letters
from London asking for help ten years
after he was dead-letters addressed to
Jacob Hayes, High Constable of New
York" Your police need your appre-
citation, your sympathy, your gratitude,
and, above all, your prayers Yea, l
want you to go further and pray every
day for prison inspectors and jailkeep-
ers-work awful and benefcent. Rough
men, cruel men, impatient men, are
not fit for those places. They have un
der their care men who were once as
good as you, but they got tripped up.
Bad company, OF strong drink, or
strange conjunction of circumstances
flung them headlong. Go down that
prison corridor and ask them how they
got in. and about their families and
what their early prospects in life were,
and you will find that they are very
much like yourself, except in this, that
God kept you, while he did not restrain
them. Just one false step made the diff
ference between them and you. They
want more than prison bars, more than
Jail fare, more than handouts and hop
pies, more than vermin covered couch,
10 reform them. Pray God day by day
that the lneu who have these unfortu-
mates in charge may be merciful, Chris
tianly strategic, and the means OF ref
ormation and rescue.
Some years ago a city pastor in New
York was called to the city prison to
attend funeral. A young woman had
committed crime and was incarcerat-
led, ard her mother came to visit her,
and died on the visit. The mother, hav-
ing no home, was buried from her
daughters prison cell. After the service
was over the imprisoned daughter came
up to the minister of Christ and said,
"Wouldn't you like to see my poor
mother?" And while they stood at the
coffin the minister of Christ said to that
imprisoned soul, Don't you feel today,
in the presence of your mothers dead
body, as if you ought to make VOW
before God that you will do differently
and live better life?' She stood for a
few moments, and then the tears rolled
down her cheeks, and she pulled from
her right hand the worn out glove that
she had out on in honor of the obsequies,
and, having barred her right hand, she
put it upon the chill brow Of her dead
mother, and said: "By the help of God
I swear will do differently God help
mep' And she kept her VOW. And years
after when she was told Of the incident,
she said: "When that minister of the
gospel said, God bless you and help you
to keep the VOW that you have made,
cried out, and said: You bless me!
Do you bless me? Why, that's the first
kind word I've heard in ten years, and
it thrilled through my soul, and it was
the means of my reformation, and ever
since, by the grace of God, I've tried
to live Christian life. =" Oh, yes, there
are many amid the criminal classes that
may be reformed. Pray for the men
who have these unfortunates in charge,
and who knows but that when you are
leaving this world you may hear the
voice of Christ dropping to your dying