The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-05-06
PASTOR TALKS ON
THE JAIL QUESTION
Present Conditions VIII Bring
State to Deserved Shame
THE PARABLE0F "PIG" FORD
Our JaiIs Are But Little More Than
Schools for the Making and
Graduating of the Crim-
nails.

The Rev. DR.. A. j. Dickinson preached
at the First Baptist church yesterday
morning on, The Parable Of Pig Ford,
or, What Jehovah Saw in Jail" his text
being from the twentieth and twenty-first
verses of the thirty-ninth chapter of
Genesis: Thus he was there in prison
But Jehovah was with Joseph"
DR.. Dickinson spoke in part as follows.
Some of the best men earth ever saw
have spent a time in Jail Joseph. Jerc-
mah, John the Baptist the Apostles
Peter. Paul and John, Ignatius, John
Bunyan, john Knox and many a Baptist
preacher of Virginia hundred and TWEEN
ty-five years ago az well as many others
of whom the world was not worthy Be-
cause You find a man In jail does not
prove that he is not the best man in the
community. There have been plenty of
men in our county Jail who were far bet
ter than most OF these who managed t.
keep out of It,
1 undertake to prove that the proportion
of preachers who have been put In Jail
is as large as that from any other pro-
fession; and they have been the very best
men in the ministry If any one THINKS
alone, and attend to their own business,
he shows himself but poorly acquainted
with the facts of history concerning
preachers and jails. AS matter of fact
If did our duty l suspect that you
would put the last one of us in jail. But
what is more, even though during his
earthly life he escaped the prison walls,
Jesus, the Lord, has often been in Jail;
while the text distinctly says Jehovah
was i'm Jail in his presence with Joseph.
In that day of judgment the King win
say, Il was in prison." and we shall
answer in amazement, Lord, when saw
we Thee in prison?' And he shall answer,
"In one of the least of these my
man to carry Jehovah to jail. but only
this Hebrew servant" Joseph one of
the least of the brethren of the King.
We are proposing to build a Jail which
shall be occupied by God in the least of
his people, and may well pause to con-
slider what 1t Is that we are proposing to
do, and for what.
1t is to be place where people who,
though suspected of crime, are as yet as
innocent in the eyes of the law as you or
l, are to be kept safely until their guilt
may be established. 1t is a place for in
nocent people. How shall we provide for
the safekeeping of men who are not I'M
der punishment, but only retained by the
law for judicial Investigation? How do
the people II AiaRana and of Jefferson
county in pdrtiea Xxsnare for their fellows
who are in) their hands for detention?
What sort Of hospitality do we show to
the men who are compelled by us to be-
come our guests for a time? The state
Jail inspector has answered that ques-
ton after digent investigation, and says
we put them into a place which is not
fit for the habitation of cattle. The state
of Alabama, the county of Jefferson, puts
these people, deprived of their liberty,
into a pen not fit for beasts. What will
you and / think when the judge shall
say "Inasmuch as you did it unto one
of the least of these, my brethren. we did
it unto me-"
Nor will 1t avail for us to plead ig
norance in this matter, saying. Lord,
when saw we Thee nj prison. and did not
come unto Thee?" For it is our bound
duty as citizens to take cognizance of the
condition of the wards in our own keep
ing, and our failure is nothing less than
criminal negligence