“A child four years of age lay sick and at death’s door. The physician decided that he must die. The mother agonized in prayer. God spared his life. That boy grew to manhood and at the age of twenty-eight robbed and murdered his grandfather and was hung. Did faith save the boy for such an awful crime, and death on the gallows? If so, it accomplished an awful work! Far better had the boy died in his innocent childhood! Faith should behold not merely the substance of things hoped for but should go far beyond this and see that the things hoped for will permanently and soulfully benefit the petitioner!
“At the close of the service the pastor said to me, ‘Your discourse was forceful and original, and stimulated my mind and has given birth to thoughts hitherto unknown to it. You interfered somewhat with the old orthodox line of belief but have nevertheless done us much good. You have quickened and driven us from the old ruts which we have followed for many years. I believe my people are very much pleased with the sermon.’
“The next day I was taken about the city and shown the different points of interest and introduced to a number of the leading citizens.
“To this day I think the worthy pastor and his noble wife fully believe that they entertained the Rev. —— —— of Detroit.
“In December, 1889, I was arrested 400 miles from a city where I had obtained $1,400.00 on a forged draft. While escaping, I changed my clothes, and had my mustache removed, and hair dyed a jet black. When arrested it flashed through my mind as quick as lightning, ‘Feign deafness and dumbness, and that you can neither read nor write.’ I was taken back to the city where I had cashed the draft, and so changed was my appearance, that the cashier was in doubt as to my identity, but they placed me in jail and finally succeeded in holding me for the grand jury. For sixty days I was closely watched, four different men were placed in the cell with me and, instructed by the police, did their utmost to induce me to talk or to write, but by the utmost care I evaded all their little artifices and cunning, and the grand jury did not find a true bill. Thus did I obtain my liberty after maintaining silence for two months and not placing pen or pencil to paper. The most trying time of my life, but I never regretted playing the part inasmuch as it saved me from a sentence of not less than ten years!
“That I sorrow o’er the evil I have done is to be believed. I have often wondered why I have had such a wayward career. I sincerely desired to be one of the best men in the world, and in my early manhood believed that I was to become such a man. I am well nigh a fatalist. What God foresees must be equivalent to a law that cannot be evaded. He foresaw my career. I could not do otherwise than I have done. I sometimes so reason. I am grateful to God that in all my unrighteousness I never wholly lost my belief in his saving grace and that he loved me; that there was a glorious reality in the religion of our Saviour; and that the uplift of fallen men and women and their leading noble, useful lives was and is an unanswerable argument in support of his gospel of love, mercy and helpfulness. That I may become a humble, earnest follower of him who made known God the Father unto men, is my earnest prayer. I am soul weary of a life of sin. I have had an unspeakably wretched life for the past twenty-eight years. I mean to get away from my old wayward sinful self—out of self and into Christ! I am glad that I can truthfully say, that there has never been a period in my life when I did not love Christ and venerate God, never a time since I was twelve years of age that I did not at some hour in the day fix my mind on God and ask him for his mercy and guidance. But for all this I have had a very checkered career. Still I believe he heard my prayer and will yet enable me to lead a righteous life.
“If I can say anything which will induce any wayward fellow creature to depart from evil and walk Godward—heavenward, I should be most happy to do so. God’s mercy is for all. He never turned a deaf ear to the prayer for mercy. Nothing so beautiful to the angels as a sinner on his knees imploring the mercy of the merciful and loving God!
“I have written the foregoing for the Rev. J. J. Munro, Chaplain of the City Prison, New York City. Interested for my spiritual welfare he won my confidence and gratitude by his sincerity and the spirit of helpfulness that dominates him. He is doing a noble work at the prison and cannot be too highly commended, and the good people of the city should earnestly and generously aid him that he may be enabled to extend his noble, Christian work in behalf of the fallen and the neglected who, if properly befriended, may be restored to honest and useful lives.
“E. S. S.”