The Nation Behind Prison Bars Part 2

There was, perhaps, a flickering intention to do better, to cut loose from the bands that bound him, but good resolutions were made only to be broken, and the cords of sin drawn tighter than ever.

-------- Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?--Acts 9:6.

Follow thou me.--John 21:22.

None but G.o.d can realize the extreme bitterness of that bondage, the depths of that dark and unrelieved despair. Without light, without hope, without rest, and worst of all, without Christ? With not one friendly hand held out to greet him, with not one word of encouragement, but rather the cold glance of scorn, the bitter sneer of contempt, it is not strange that there stretched out before him apparently nothing but a drunkard's life, a drunkard's death and an endless eternity in a drunkard's h.e.l.l.

Then the fearful temptation of suicide met him; but G.o.d, in his infinite mercy, destined him to pa.s.s through even this fearful ordeal unharmed and spared him that he might carry the gospel of a Savior's love to a lost and ruined world. Then a helping hand was extended. A lifelong friend, meeting him one day, and overcome with pity, gave him one more chance to make a man of himself, fitted him out with clothes, gave him a railroad ticket and money, advising him to leave Louisville and start life afresh elsewhere. But the fetters of sin were riveted so strongly that the well-meant advice of his boyhood friend was unheeded, and a few hours found him in as fearful a plight as ever. Then there came into this, the darkest hour in all his life, the experience of the prodigal son. A determination came into his life to sever forever all ties binding him to the life of degradation he was then living and to take the first step back into the narrow path of righteousness.

-------- Show me thy ways, O Lord.--Ps. 25:4.

It was then that the Rev. Steve P. Holcombe of Louisville, Ky., took him to the Union Gospel Mission.

At this critical period there came within the radius of his sphere of existence a n.o.ble, devout woman, who proved to be the one thing needful to round out the life now worth living. In spite of all remonstrances on the part of her friends, she was greatly interested in the welfare of this man and prayed earnestly that G.o.d would make him a strong Christian man.

Her tireless energies, endless prayers and earnest teachings were ever present to hold him up and help him onward in the new life. G.o.d placed her in the sphere of George Herr's experience at a critical stage, using her as a medium for cementing his faith and determining his purpose to devote his remaining years to the work of redeeming unfortunates sunk in the darkness of sin. Their destinies were welded together by mutual interest in the work of saving lost men and the affinity of feeling between them developed into a bond of love, each seeing within the other those qualities necessary to happiness in wedded life, and on the 14th of April, 1898, George L. Herr and Miss Lillie M. Joyce, the woman who was such an essential portion of his existence, were joined in the holy bonds of matrimony by the Rev. Carter Helm Jones, D.D., pastor of the Broadway Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky.

-------- The meek will he teach his way.--Ps. 25:9.

Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.--Ps. 51:11.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REV. STEVE P. HOLCOMBE

The founder of the Holcombe Mission of Louisville, Ky.]

George Herr says that the old life, with its bondage in sin and its darkness of evil, is a thing of the eliminated past. Finding happiness in his new life, he has consecrated his time, energy, ability and talents to continuous devotion to the task of spreading the gospel among the fallen. Into the gloomiest recesses of penitentiaries, workhouses and jails, beyond portals where visitors are excluded, he has carried the message of Christ's saving grace into the darkness of despairing men's and women's lives.

G.o.d has blessed George L. Herr in many ways, giving him daily recompense for the days of misery, shame and degradation, giving him a happy home, glorified by the presence of a loving, devoted wife and the precious daughter, and this story is sent forth with the earnest prayer that G.o.d may use it, with its message of hope and cheer, for the salvation of many despairing, discouraged ones who are bound by the awful fetters of sin as he once was.

-------- All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.--John 6:37.

One of the greatest privileges accorded man is to be a messenger for Christ. George Herr has tasted the sweets of liberty in Christ and he loves to tell those in the terrible bondage of sin that there is an avenue of escape. In his rescue work he has been able to take a great number of homeless, friendless and hopeless men and women by the hand.

Does it pay? The results of George Herr's labors among the unfortunates are a satisfactory answer to this question. It pays a hundredfold in the feeling of duty well done, in the knowledge of many useful lives saved.

It pays in words of grat.i.tude feelingly uttered by n.o.ble men and women, who, formerly sunk in the quicksands of despair, are now restored to a world of happiness and peace.

-------- Jesus own words are: "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick, for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."--Matt. 9:12, 13.

It is our earnest prayer to the Father of all good, that this story of George Herr's redemption from the clutches of sin may, through his unfailing love for all suffering ones, carry its message of hope, its promise of salvation from eternal despair, into the hearts of many who are despondent, discouraged, despairing. May it instill into the hearts of the unfortunate a desire to come back into the fold of the Father's unending love, bringing with it the sweet conviction that no matter how far we have wandered from within the radius of his love, we are still his children, the erring ones for whose redemption he gave his Son to be offered upon the altar of human sacrifice that we, through the atonement of his innocent blood, should inherit the kingdom of heaven.

-------- Hold up my goings in thy path, that my footsteps slip not.--Ps.

17:6.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LATE MR. GEORGE GAULBERT

One of my best friends. Many heart-to-heart talks I have had with this grand and wealthy merchant]

CHAPTER TWO

"LOST AND IS FOUND"

Jesus said, "A man had two sons; and the younger one of them said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the inheritance!' so the father divided the property between them. A few days later the younger son got together all that he had and went away into a distant land; and there he squandered his inheritance by leading a dissolute life. After he had spent all that he had, there was a severe famine through all that country, and he began to be in actual want. So he went and engaged himself to one of the people of that country, who sent him into his field to tend pigs. He even longed to satisfy his hunger with the bean pods on which the pigs were feeding; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have more bread than they can eat, while here am I starving to death; I will get up and go to my father and say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against Heaven and against you; I am no longer fit to be called your son; make me as one of your hired servants.' And he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was deeply moved; he ran and threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. 'Father,' the son said, 'I sinned against Heaven and against you; I am no longer fit to be called your son; make me one of your hired servants.' But the father turned to his servants and said, 'Be quick and bring a robe, the very best, and put it on him; give him a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for here is my son who was dead, and is alive again, was lost and is found."

-------- For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty G.o.d, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.--Isa. 9:6.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REV. CARTER HELM JONES, D.D.

The late Pastor Broadway Baptist Church Louisville, Ky.]

This younger son thought he was wiser than his father and wanted to manage his own affairs. So it is with men who think they can manage their own affairs without G.o.d.

-------- He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.--Ps. 91:11.

A case in hand: An acquaintance of mine in Louisville, a young man of handsome face and fine physique, with all the advantages wealth, education and social position could give him, started out at the age of twenty-one with unfaltering prospects of a prosperous, useful and happy life, but, like the young man in our lesson, thought he could manage his own affairs without G.o.d; in other words, he refused to give his heart and life to Jesus Christ, and not having Christ to protect, s.h.i.+eld, restrain, and a.s.sist him, in a time of temptation he was led along little by little, almost without knowing it, until he was ready to commit any crime. One day in a house of ill repute he shot and killed a young man; for this crime he was arrested, tried and convicted, but the wealth and influence of his family secured him a pardon. Even this bitter experience failed to teach him that he had made a mistake in thinking he could manage his own affairs, for, after regaining his liberty, he plunged deeper and deeper into sin, ending in himself being murdered.

As the prodigal in the parable wanted to get as far from his father's presence as possible, "into a far country," so the man when he determines to give himself up to others. He does not want to hear about G.o.d or even think about him. Reader, was not this so with you? The father did not compel the son to stay at home; he allowed him to choose what he preferred. So it is with G.o.d; he does not compel us to obedience. For my part I wish he did. "He wasted his substance in riotous living;" and so it is with the sinner, in the service of sin; he wastes and destroys his property, his health, his reputation, his intellect, his conscience.

-------- Fear not; for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.--Is. 43:1.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LATE REV. E. A. FERGUSON One of the Author's best friends]

There is nothing in this world valuable enough to recompense such a loss, or balance the misery of a tormenting conscience. If you violate it for the sake of a gratification of the body it will remember the injury many years after. Gen. 42:21; Job 13:26. It will not only retain the memory of what you did, but it will accuse you for it. Matt. 27:4.

It will not fear to tell you that plainly, which others dare not whisper. It will not only accuse, but it will also condemn you for what you have done. This condemning voice of conscience is a terrible voice.

You may see the horror of it in Cain, the vigor of it in Judas, the doleful effects of it in Saphira. It will produce shame, fear, and despair, if G.o.d give not repentance to life. The shame it works will so confound you, that you will not be able to look up. Job. 31:14; Psa.

1:5. The fear it works will make you wish for a hole in the rock to hide you. Isa. 2:9, 10, 15, 19. And its despair is a death pang.

-------- "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."--Is. 1:18.

Young man, consider the nature of your present actions; they are seeds sown for eternity, and will spring up again in suitable effects, rewards and punishments, when you that did them are turned to dust. What a man sows, that shall he reap. Gal. 6:7. And as sure as the harvest follows the seedtime, so shall shame, fear, and horror follow sin. Dan. 12:2.

What Zeuxis, the famous painter, said of his work, may much more truly be said of ours: "I paint for eternity." Ah! how bitter will these things be in the day of reckoning, which were pleasant in the acting! It is true our actions, physically considered, are transient. How soon is a word or action spoken or done, and there is an end of it! But morally considered, they are permanent, being entered upon G.o.d's book of action.

-------- I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.--Isa. 44:22.

Let me ill.u.s.trate: Some time ago a young man, son of a n.o.bleman of Germany, came to our home poorly clad, without money, without friends, realizing to some extent the depth to which he had fallen, filled with remorse on account of disgrace he had brought upon himself and his family, and like the prodigal in the parable he said, "I will arise and go to my father." He left our home for his home in New Orleans, La.