The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-24
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
PREACHING PRISONERS, A DIS
COURSE FOR PRISON SUNDAY.
BY the Rev. William y. Bait, Chaplain
of the Massachusetts State Re-
formatory, Concord, Mass.

Behold, the men whom We put in prison
are standing in the temple and teaching
the people-Acts V, %.
AS startling, no doubt, was this statement
to those who heard it as a similar one con-
corning men whom we put in prison
would be now. Prisoners are not expected
to become public teachers. Yet there are
weighty truths which our prisoners are
teaching the people to-day. The message
proclaimed by those prisoner-teachers Of
old probably received little attention from
the most influential citizens. They listened
to the regular and approved teachers Of
the time. They little thought that the
message which would best repay their at
tention was a message from the lips of
those they had put in prison. But what
ever they thought, they are forgotten and
their favorite teachers are forgotten, while
that message is still repeated in the world,
and the prisoner who brought it still COM
mands the attention of men.
The very general observance of a "prison
Sunday the country over indicates that
the people of to-day are more keenly alive
to the same message and it's practical APP
pIication to the needs of the time than
were those of old. What are some of the
LESSONS we may learn from Ln6SG IuSn9
First, our prisoners are teaching us to
offer more and more the Lords prayer
'Thy kingdom come" They are showing
us how imperfect our boosted society is,
and how great is the work We have yet
to do
In Massachusetts seven or eight thousand
are in prison to-day. The gross number
arrested in our State last year was enough
to divide into several fair sized cities. If
we count the whole number of prisoners
the country over, including juvenile delin-
quents, and including those who on
the verge of arrest, so that, almost equally
with the prisoners themselves, they be-
long to the prisoner class, we should have
company as large the great armies
that we had in the field thirty-fiye years
ago.
If one reflects what this great number
of prisoners means, how much a man is
worth and what it has cost society to pro-
duce him; what he is as God sees the pos
sibilities in him; what he was made to be;
how much he can do and enjoy, and how
much need of him there is in a country so
favored with resources; if one considers
how it smrches and mars, and sometimes
destroys a life to put a man in prison, he
cannot then help seeing that something
is greatly amiss; that our much-vaunted
civilization somehow is not doing it's full
work; our Christian culture, of which we
rightly think so well, has still fallen far
short, when such a host of men are held
behind prison bars The kingdom is yet
far off.
Secondly, our prisoners are impressing
upon US the Importance of following our
Lords example in regard to children. Je-
sus gave the greatest testimony that ever
has been given of the Importance of regard
for the children. He blessed them in most
significant ways, and he defended them
from harm by the most terrible penalties.
Neglect Of the children is largely respon-
sibIe for the crowded condition of prisons
everywhere. Our prisoners, as a rule, are
young men, A constant exclamation of
visitors to prisons, when they see the pris-
oners all gathered in the prison chapel for
instance, is "How young these men arei
1 had no idea they were so young" The
average age of prisoners in the Concord
Reformatory is about twenty-one years.
The same is true of the New York State
Reformatory at Elmira, where there are
about l. 400 prisoners. Those entering the
state prisons are somewhat older, but it
would hardly average thirty years of age,
not much over thirty.
The delinquent classes the country over,
taken altogether, are young. 1t is not pos
sible to look this fact in the face and not
see that our homes are far from what they
should be, and that more of that gospel
which magnifies the children, guards their
welfare and calls down the highest bless
ings upon them is what we need. A God
less school is bad enough, but a Goddess
home is worse. Anybody who stands at
the prison door and sees men as they come
in, and questions them with care, finds out
that a great many of these men had not
good homes.
When people are married that had no
moral right to be married; when people are
married at the altar of lust instead of the
altar of love; when they are married to-day
only to be divorced tomorrow; when mar
ried people hate the labor of maintaining
a home and shirk it in every way-what is
to be expected but perverted children,
starting prisonward as soon as born? Our
prisons, as we'll as our churches although
in different way, are pleading for intelli-
gent, thorough, patient, divine care of
childhood.
Third, our prisoners testify to the need
of Christian citizenship. They are largely
the victims of the saloon and of all kindred
evil places Lnat now nOurlSn IN the light
of day. Our laws fail to close these places,
not because they cannot be shut up, but
rather because there is no earnest deter
mined, lightning armed public opinion that
demands it.
We have not a citizenship yet that is
equal to the emergency. There is so much
neglect on the part of good men of the du-
ties Of citizens in regard to the nomination,
as well as the election, of good men to Of
fee; so much neglect in following up these
| officers when elected, strengthening and
reinforcing them, that the very safeguards
of easily tempted men are destroyed, and
| the very purposes of good government are
defeated.
| Fourth, our prisoners plead for the high
est exercise Of Christian charity. Many of
them never had fair chance. Many of
them were robbed of the biythright of
man before they were born. Multitudes of
them have grown up in such evil conditions
| that no tender-hearted mother would con-
slider her own child to have had any kind
of chance to do we'll if cursed with their
environment. The tendencies and tempta-
tons of some are far greater than others,
and their responsibility correspondingly
| less.
The commonness of our frailty is con-
stantly emphasized to one who lives with