Having thus briefly noticed some objections which I had reason to anticipate, I shall proceed with the subject before me; and I propose, in the first place, to state how repentant criminals are treated by those who call themselves christians, and even by christian ministers, after they are released from prison.
In the second place, I shall shew how they ought to be treated, according to the divine principle of the text.
And lastly, I shall glance at the good that would flow from such treatment not only to them, but to the community, and to the cause of religion.
I. I am to state how repentant criminals are treated by those who call themselves christians, and even by christian ministers, after they are released from prison. In doing this, I shall confine myself to positive facts; and of these, I shall select only such as have come under my own knowledge, or which were related to me by those who either observed or experienced them.
The first individual whom I shall cause to pass before you in connexion with the treatment which he has received from professing christians and christian ministers, is the Rev. J. Robbins, a man of uncommon powers of mind, and of unquestionable piety, and who has more divine seals to his commission, than many of his opposers.
While he was suffering for his sins within the dreary walls of a State prison, he was led to think on his ways and reform his life. At the expiration of his sentence, he was let out into the world, without money, and very thinly and uncomfortably clothed. In this situation, destitute of all things, and far from his friends, he went into the adjoining city of Boston, and went to work with a hand-cart. The weather was cold, and he was not able to obtain clothes enough to keep him warm.
In this forlorn and suffering condition, he applied to the Rev. Mr. ****, who had been Chaplain of the prison in which he had been confined, for some relief, or assistance to obtain employment. This Rev. gentleman was personally acquainted with him; knew that he had resolved on leading a christian life; and knew that he was at that time in need of a friend. What did he do for him? Why, he said—"Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding he gave him not those things which were needful to the body."
If these things are right, let it be known. If this is the christianity of the Bible, let it be avowed—let the preachers from their desks declare it, and bring the high standard of christian benevolence down to the muddy surface of their practical illustrations of it. Let there be harmony between doctrine and conduct. Either give us a revision of the Scriptures, to accord with the morality of the church, or let its maxims as they now stand in capitals on all its pages, be copied in the every day and every where conduct of those who profess to be the salt of the earth, and the light of the world.
Here is a minister of the everlasting gospel; and in the person of one of his followers, he turns away the Saviour himself, "hungry, naked," and from "prison."—Rev. Sir, for just such conduct as you have been guilty of, in the instance alluded to, the Son of man will one day say to some,—"Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire!"
After some time Mr. Robbins obtained help from his distant friends, and was enabled to make a respectable appearance. But in the interim he learned by hard experience, that shivering and half-clad limbs can, even in the benevolent, philanthropic, and christian city of Boston, pass by the priest and the Levite, and range the streets, impurpled by the wintry blasts, uncompassionated and unrelieved.