{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_35221/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_35221","id":"gutenberg_35221","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35221","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - American","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Church work with criminals","Evangelists"],"text":"</pre>\n\n\n\nProduced by David Garcia, Leonard Johnson and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby The Kentuckiana Digital Library)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: GEORGE L. HERR AND WIFE]\n\n\n\n\n                                  THE\n\n                        NATION BEHIND PRISON BARS\n\n\n                                  BY\n\n               GEORGE L. HERR, Prison Evangelist\n\n\n\n              \"_I was in prison, and ye came unto me_\"\n\n\n\n                             PUBLISHED BY\n\n                     THE CARTER PRINTING COMPANY\n\n                       LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY\n\n\n\n                            COPYRIGHT 1913\n\n                                 BY\n\n                    GEORGE L. HERR, LOUISVILLE, KY.\n\n\n\n                              To My Wife\n\n                        WHOSE CONSTANT HELP AND\n\n                             ENCOURAGEMENT\n\n                MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO DO THE WORK\n\n                               TO WHICH\n\n                                  God\n\n                    HAS CALLED ME, THIS VOLUME IS\n\n                         INSCRIBED WITH THE\n\n                              PRAYER THAT\n\n                                  God\n\n                    WILL USE IT TO SAVE MANY SOULS\n\n\n\n\nThe Nation Behind Prison Bars\n\nBY\n\nGEORGE L. HERR, Prison Evangelist\n\n    Author of \"Light in Dark Places,\" \"You Are My Prisoner,\" \"The\n    Life Line,\" \"Man's Worst Enemy,\" \"Nothing Better,\" \"The\n    Missionary,\" \"The Bethel,\" \"Lost and Is Found,\" and \"A Glorious\n    Rescue.\"\n\n    THE WORLD OF PRISONERS UNKNOWN TO MANY BROUGHT FORWARD IN\n    DESCRIPTIVE SPEECH AND VIVID PICTURES\n\n\nThere are enough people in prison in these United States to furnish a\ncitizenship to a considerable territory, or to populate a good-sized\ncity. For the psychological student, they form the most interesting of\nall objects of study. For the philanthropist, and for the Christian\nmissionary, they constitute a wonderful field of activity. How to lift\nthem out of the criminal strata is the question to which Mr. Herr is\ndevoting his life, in an effort to answer. In a good measure he is\nanswering it. Many prisoners to whom the grace of God has appeared,\nbringing salvation, will rise to call him blessed.--Rev. Jno. Paul,\nMississippi.\n\n[Illustration: MY DEVOTED FATHER\n\nTHE LATE HON. RICHARD S. HERR\n\n\"And their works do follow them.\"]\n\n[Illustration: MY PRECIOUS MOTHER\n\nThe Late Mrs. RICHARD S. HERR\n\n\"Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in\nthe gates.\"]\n\n\n\n\nForeword\n\n\nGathered within these pages are recitals of scenes and incidents in a\nfield of existence fortunately unfamiliar to the majority of our\nreaders. The subject has been handled without any attempt to embellish\nthe hard facts or gloss over the cruel details--the paramount desire\nupon the part of the author being an endeavor to show the crying\nnecessity for a constant, earnest labor among the unfortunates who are\nshut away from God's sunshine; whom God still loves, despite their sins\nof omission and commission. If the perusal of this volume brings to the\nreader a belief that the cause is worthy, that labor in this field\nbrings a reward which amply compensates for the time and effort\nexpended, the author will rest in the knowledge of a duty well\nperformed. There has been no effort at exaggeration in presenting these\nsketches of daily experiences among the outcasts of society, no\nstraining for effect, no striving to paint word pictures that may touch\nthe heart. It is simply the story of everyday life in the field of the\nprison missionary's labor, and is given to the public with a fervent\nprayer that God, in His infinite wisdom, will instill in the hearts of\nour readers a feeling of charity toward those whose burden is almost\ngreater than they can bear.\n\n                                                Faithfully,\n                                                       G. L. H.\n\n\n\n\nContents\n\n\n  Title                                                               i\n\n  Copyright                                                          ii\n\n  Dedication                                                        iii\n\n  Advertisement                                                      iv\n\n  Foreword                                                            v\n\n  Contents                                                          vii\n\n  Illustrations                                                      ix\n\n  Commendations from Louisville Ministers                             x\n\n  Story of the Life of Geo. L. Herr                                xiii\n\n  Subscription Card                                                 xvi\n\n  Chapter First--Life of Geo. L. Herr                                 1\n\n  Chapter Second--\"Lost, and Is Found\"                               10\n\n  Chapter Third--\"Political Peril,\" Sermon by Dr. E. L. Powell       23\n\n  Chapter Fourth--\"Christ the Interpreter,\" Sermon by Dr. Hawes      34\n\n  Chapter Fifth--Throwing Out the Life Line                          41\n\n  Chapter Sixth--Reformation of Criminals                            46\n          Visit to Nashville Prison                                  52\n\n  Chapter Seven--Does Prison Work Pay?                               54\n          The Work of a Prison Evangelist                            57\n          Youtsey, Kentucky's Famous Prisoner                        66\n          Practical Religious Work in County Jail                    67\n          Praise for Prison Evangelist                               69\n          Sermon in State Prison                                     70\n          Revival Stirs Up Inmates                                   72\n\n  Chapter Eight--A Man of Honor                                      74\n\n  Chapter Nine--Jim O'Brien, the Modern Miracle                      76\n          Jim O'Brien Passes Away                                    83\n\n  Chapter Ten--Columbus Ohio Prison                                  85\n               The Big Ohio \"Pen\" Week by Week                       88\n               Chapel Services                                       89\n  Chapter Eleven--Incontestable Proof                                92\n\n  Prison Evangelist's Good Work                                      97\n  A Grand Work Highly Commended--John R. Pflanz                      98\n  \"Worked Wonders\"                                                  100\n  Strong Endorsement                                                101\n  Speaks to Prisoners                                               102\n  Sad and Pitiful Story                                             103\n  Resolution Never Broken                                           104\n  What is a Friend?                                                 106\n  \"Another Chance I Crave\"                                          108\n  Letter from Col. Will S. Hays                                     110\n  Letter from Capt. Scheider                                        111\n  Profanity Shows Mental Deficiency                                 112\n  Cincinnati Work House                                             115\n  Extermination of Habitual Criminals                               116\n  Criminal Becomes Minister                                         120\n  Poem to Brother Herr                                              122\n  Success of Reform Criminals--Wm. A. Pinkerton                     124\n  Letter from Editor Star of Hope                                   137\n  Lost and is Found                                                 138\n  Christmas at the Frankfort Prison                                 139\n  Hundreds of Letters                                               144\n  A Tribute from Jos. M. O'Hara                                     145\n  Fishing for Men                                                   147\n  Branch Library in the Jail                                        149\n  Change comes in Curt Jett                                         151\n  Christian Endeavor at Frankfort Prison                            158\n  Capital Punishment                                                165\n  Indiana Reformatory                                               168\n  Indiana Reformatory Chapel Services                               169\n  Clinging to the Bible                                             172\n  Tree of Life and Knowledge                                        173\n  The World Dying for Love                                          174\n  George L. Herr's New Book                                         176\n\n\n\n\nIllustrations\n\n\n  Geo. L. Herr and Wife--Frontispiece                                 i\n  The Late Mr. and Mrs. Richard S. Herr                              iv\n  Rev. Chas. R. Hemphill, D.D.                                       xv\n  Rev. Steve P. Holcombe                                              6\n  The Late Mr. George Gaulbert                                        8\n  Rev. Carter Helm Jones                                              9\n  The Late Rev. E. A. Ferguson                                       10\n  Rev. E. L. Powell                                                  22\n  First Christian Church and Presbyterian Theological\n  Seminary                                                           28\n  Rev. T. M. Hawes, D.D.                                             34\n  Rev. Henry Clay Morrison, D.D.                                     40\n  Rev. John Paul                                                     46\n  Dwight L. Moody                                                    48\n  Valentine Burke                                                    50\n  The Late Col. Mat. Ragland                                         54\n  Jefferson County Jail                                              58\n  The Late Hon. J. C. Bohart                                         60\n  Hon. John R. Pflanz                                                64\n  Rev. C. S. Hanley                                                  92\n  Hon. Chas. F. Grainger                                            106\n  Judge Aaron Kohn                                                  108\n  Rt. Rev. Chas. E. Woodcock, D.D.                                  112\n  The Hon. and Mrs. John L. Whitman                                 116\n  Gospel Service at the County Jail, Chicago, Ill                   118\n  Wm. A. Pinkerton                                                  124\n  Louisville Free Public Library                                    149\n  Curtis Jett                                                       151\n  Henry E. Youtsey                                                  158\n\n\n\n\nCommendation from Louisville Ministers\n\n\n                                   Louisville, Ky., Jan. 27, 1910.\n\n To His Honor Judge Muir Weissinger,\n      Judge of the County Court,\n            Jefferson County, Ky.\n\nDear Sir:\n\nThe undersigned Ministers of the Gospel in the city of Louisville, being\nmembers of the Ministerial Association, do hereby recommend to your\nHonor the appointment of the Rev. George L. Herr, a regular ordained\nminister of the gospel, as Chaplain of the Jefferson County Jail, in\naccordance with Part 9, Sections 627-632 Russell Statutes, 1909,\ninclusive.\n\nThe Rev. Mr. Herr is thoroughly well qualified to fill the position of\nChaplain at the County Jail, he having for seven years previous to the\nenactment of the present law given up his time and money in this noble\nwork, without compensation from any source whatever, either state,\ncounty or city, as the present Jailer of Jefferson County and many other\nwill testify.\n\n  R. D. SMART,\n      Pastor Broadway Methodist Church.\n\n  CHARLES R. HEMPHILL,\n      Professor Presbyterian Theological Seminary.\n\n  W. N. BRINEY,\n      Pastor Broadway Christian Church.\n\n  W. J. CLARKE,\n      Minister Clifton Church.\n\n  A. R. KASEY,\n      Pastor Clifton Crescent Hill Methodist Church.\n\n  S. G. SHELLEY,\n      Pastor Jefferson St. Methodist Church.\n\n  THAD. S. TINSLEY,\n      Pastor Third Christian Church.\n\n  W. F. IRWIN,\n      4th Ave. Presbyterian Church.\n\n  E. B. PATTERSON,\n      Pastor Trinity Church.\n\n  W. R. HENDRIX,\n      Pastor Methodist Temple.\n\n  J. T. RUSHING,\n      Pastor Virginia Ave. M. E. Church, South.\n\n  D. B. GREGORY,\n      Pastor Woodland Pres. Church U. S.\n\n  G. W. NUTTER,\n      Pastor Parkland Christian Church.\n\n  B. F. ATKINSON,\n      Pastor Rivers Memorial M. E. Church, South.\n\n  C. F. WIMBERTY,\n      Marcus Lindsay Memorial.\n\n  CHAS. A. HUMPHREY,\n      Pastor Portland M. E. Church, South.\n\n  J. D. SIGLER\n\n  E. L. POWELL,\n      Pastor First Christian Church.\n\n  S. H. LOVELACE,\n      Pastor Oakdale Methodist Church.\n\n  C. R. CROWE,\n      Pastor Highland Park and Hill Street.\n\n  T. R. KENDALL,\n      Lander Memorial Church.\n\n  T. L. CRANDELL,\n      Dumesnil M. E. Church.\n\n  C. E. CARTER,\n      Asbury M. E. Church.\n\n  ARTHUR W. BROOK,\n      M. E. Church, South.\n\n  W. B. BEAUCHAMP,\n      Pastor Fourth Ave. M. E. Church, South.\n\n  J. R. McAFEE,\n      West Broadway M. E. Church, South.\n\n\n\n\nStory of the Life of Geo. L. Herr\n\n\nThe Rev. George L. Herr, prison evangelist, has received from Chicago\nhis book entitled \"The Story of His Life,\" by Edward De Alma. Mr. Herr\ndistributed 100 copies yesterday in the Jefferson County jail, and the\nmen received them with great eagerness. Mr. Herr will place the story in\nall penal institutions. A letter from the Rev. James M. Taylor,\ncomplimenting the book, says: \"I have read with soul-stirring interest\nthe sad, heart-rending experience of Brother Herr, and the miraculous\ndeliverance by the grace of God; how, by a life of sin, he squandered a\nfortune; how God found him and gave him deliverance; the romantic way in\nwhich his God-given companion entered his life and how they are being\nused, perhaps, as no other persons to-day in helping those behind the\nbars. This story will warn the reckless, encourage the 'outcast,' and\nput a desire in the hearts of thousands to lead better lives.\"\n  --_Louisville Courier-Journal_\n\nThe Rev. Paul, of Meridian, Miss., says: \"The story of Brother Herr's\nlife, 'Redeemed from the depths of sin to the mountain top of\nsalvation,' is a thrilling narrative, published as a warning to the\nfallen.\"\n\nThe Rev. J. B. Foote, chaplain of the Onondaga county penitentiary, in\nNew York, acknowledging receipt of the life story of Mr. Herr and\nthanking him for it, states in his letter that he will use the book in\nhis preaching in prison.\n\nWhen asked if prison work paid, Mr. Herr said: \"Who will ever know the\nvast number that will attribute their first impulse to a better life,\nformed while in the seclusion of a prison cell, while reading this book.\nThe world will never know how many, when sitting in judgment upon\nthemselves, have learned the great secret, that it takes an omnipotent\npower to change the current of their lives and give them deliverance\nfrom the power of sin, and enabling them to go forth, not to live a new\npurpose, but a new life.\"\n\nIn 1909 Mr. Herr published 150,000 sermons, books and tracts.\n\nThe Rev. George L. Herr, whose address delivered in our chapel last\nSunday morning was charmingly refreshing, is a man whose vicissitudes of\nlife lead through a labyrinth that would require a half century of years\nto make its journey at an ordinary pace.--Rev. D. J. Starr, D.D., Ohio\nPenitentiary.\n\nBro. Herr knows the prison work as few men do. He is a man of large\nsympathy, and having had an experience of fifteen years as an\nevangelist, knows how to reach the hearts of the men. He has the entire\nconfidence of both prisoners and officials and is always given a most\nhearty welcome by all.--Jos. Severance, Chaplain.\n\n\"The large number who have been helped by hearing your message will be\nstill further benefited by reading your book.\"--Rev. Albert J. Steelman,\nPh.D., Chaplain, Illinois State Penitentiary.\n\nGet Rev. Herr's book for your good, but chiefly for the good of others.\n\nRev. C. R. Hemphill, D.D., Louisville, Ky.: \"I believe Rev. George L.\nHerr especially equipped for the difficult work of an evangelist to\nthose in prison and to the neglected.\"\n\nRev. Wm. Edmond Foster: \"His love for lost souls and his zeal knows no\nbounds. I bespeak for him a life of great usefulness to his fellowmen\nwithout hope and without God.\"\n\n[Illustration: REV. CHAS. R. HEMPHILL, D.D.\n\nPresident Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky. One of the\nSouth's greatest scholars and teachers; whose heart is full of sympathy\nfor and helpfulness of the unfortunate.]\n\nRev. Horace G. Ogden, D.D., New York: \"I have been placed where I have\nknown intimately his work as prison evangelist. I can say he has made a\nsuperb record. He has taken an enlarged field of work, and I have every\nconfidence in his increased usefulness. His book merits a large\ncirculation.\"\n\nRev. Ed. Ferguson: \"For years he, with his most estimable wife, have\ngiven their time and talent to the uplifting of the down-trodden of this\ngreat metropolis and they have the respect and hearty co-operation of\nthe best people in Louisville.\"\n\nRev. James M. Taylor: \"The story will warn the reckless, encourage the\n'outcast,' and put desire in the hearts of thousands to lead better\nlives.\"\n\nRev. T. T. Taliaferro, Chaplain Kentucky State Prison: \"Your sermons are\nblessed of God to the furtherance of the works of grace in our midst.\nMay God bless you in your noble work.\"\n\nRev. W. O. Vreeland, Chaplain Kentucky State Prison: \"You are worthy of\nthe highest commendation.\"\n\nMen's Bible Class, James Lee Memorial Presbyterian Church: \"Rev. George\nL. Herr's talk at last Sunday's session was a treat.\"\n\nRev. George L. Herr, 195 Coral Avenue, Louisville, Ky.: \"Who will ever\nknow the vast number that will attribute their first impulse to a better\nlife, formed while in seclusion of a prison cell while reading this\nbook.\"\n\nThe Rev. George L. Herr is bringing out a book on prison life which is\nabundantly capable of two effects, namely: Enlisting the attention of\nreaders, like a romance, and benefitting the class of whom he writes. It\nis a two-hundred page book, illustrated with pictures of prisons, and\nscenes behind the bars.\n\n\n\n\nDEAR FRIEND:\n\nWe know you will rejoice with us in the work being accomplished behind\nprison bars. Many thousands we are preaching the gospel to every year.\nThere are converts all over the United States that we hear from. The\noutlook of the work was never more encouraging. May we submit to you our\nplan to secure auxiliary memberships at $10.00 each?\n\nWill you be one?\n\n                                            GEO. L. HERR AND WIFE,\n                                                   Prison Evangelists.\n\n\nDEPARTMENTS OF WORK.\n\nDistribution of thousands of papers, tracts, and other religious\nreading.\n\nVisiting the sick and poor.\n\nStreet work in the slums.\n\nEvangelistic work in the different penitentiaries a specialty.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER FIRST\n\nLIFE OF GEORGE L. HERR\n\nBY EDWARD DE ALMA\n\nA BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING.\n\n\"As we sow so shall we reap.\"\n\n\nBorn in the city of Louisville, of an old Kentucky family, whose\nescutcheon had never been shadowed by smirch or breath of shame or\nignominy, it might truthfully be said of George L. Herr that he had been\nushered into this world with the proverbial \"gold spoon in his mouth,\"\nhis father, the late Richard S. Herr, being a prominent and highly\nesteemed and wealthy citizen of the grand old state of Kentucky. Though\nsurrounded by the luxuries of life, by environments unusually favorable\nfor the development of a strong, healthy, vigorous and clean life, yet\nBrother Herr's life from his youth up to the period of this writing,\npresents an aspect checkered with the lights and shadows of temptation,\nsin, remorse, repentance, redemption and restful peace of heart in\nsalvation through Jesus.\n\n  --------\n    Give us help from trouble; for vain is the help of man.--Ps.\n    108:12.\n\n    God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in\n    trouble.--Ps. 46:1.\n  --------\n\nAt the age of three months, the death of his precious mother caused him\nto be given into the keeping of his aunt, a noble Christian woman, and\nit was due to her teachings that the seeds of reverence for God, belief\nin his dearly beloved Son and faith in the promise of a life of\neverlasting happiness were planted deep in the recesses of George Herr's\nheart, while his father, a Christian gentleman, spared no efforts in his\nendeavor to bring up his son in the way he should go.\n\nAt the age of eighteen years, through the death of his father, he came\ninto the possession of a large estate, but lacking the experience which\nusually comes with maturity, he developed a spirit of independence which\nsoon brought in its train of attendant evils.\n\n  --------\n    Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak; O Lord, heal me.--Ps.\n    6:2.\n\n    My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect\n    in weakness.--2 Cor. 12:9.\n  --------\n\nThe story of George Herr's experience is the recital of a man's gradual\nsurrender to the power of drink, until the enormity of his fall can but\nbe depicted by contrasting his condition with that as it was a few years\nbefore. Then he was a well known young man of Louisville's elite\nsociety, wealthy, respected, esteemed and sought after. Friends without\nnumber, well wishers innumerable, the door of any refined home in the\ncity would have swung wide open in welcome at his knock. Now the other\npicture: A drunken outcast, a prey to the buffetings of every chance\nwind of fate, deprived of friends, stripped of wealth, position and\nreputation; exposed to every form of evil, subject to the cruelty of\nevery character of temptation that assails human nature. Ostracized from\nsociety, barred from contact with any self-respecting acquaintance of\nformer days, can you imagine a more potent example of the victory of\nSatan through the agency of his chief field marshal, Drink? God grant\nthat this may come as a warning to some one of the thousands of young\nmen who, with prospects as bright or even more flattering than were\nthose of George Herr at the age of eighteen, are at this moment entering\nupon the path which will lead them, as it has countless thousands, into\nthe abyss of eternal destruction! God grant that the moral to be drawn\nfrom this picture will burn itself in indelible letters of fire upon the\nvery soul of each young man who reads this.\n\n  --------\n    I am poor and needy; make haste unto me, O God.--Ps. 70:5.\n\n    My God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in\n    glory by Christ Jesus.--Phil. 4:19.\n  --------\n\nThese were indeed dark days, the past a record of sin, the present a\nnightmare of misery and shame, the future black with the darkness of\ndespair, with not the faintest gleam of hope to pierce the gloom. \"Poor\nfellow,\" you say, \"only one of a multitude.\" Yes, only the prototype of\none of the thousands who are traveling the same broad thoroughfare at\nthis moment.\n\nIt was at this critical juncture, when reputation was blasted, hope\ndeparted and the future barren of promises, that a remnant of respect\nfor his home and the associates of better days awakened the residuum of\npride remaining and brought the determination to remove his unwelcome\npresence from the scenes of former pleasures. He went West, but his\nhopes were blasted, and penniless, homeless, wretched, obliged to accept\nany kind of menial work in order to eke out a bare living, he wandered\nabout until an overwhelming homesickness brought him back to Kentucky.\nThere was, perhaps, a flickering intention to do better, to cut loose\nfrom the bands that bound him, but good resolutions were made only to be\nbroken, and the cords of sin drawn tighter than ever.\n\n  --------\n    Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?--Acts 9:6.\n\n    Follow thou me.--John 21:22.\n  --------\n\nNone but God can realize the extreme bitterness of that bondage, the\ndepths of that dark and unrelieved despair. Without light, without hope,\nwithout rest, and worst of all, without Christ? With not one friendly\nhand held out to greet him, with not one word of encouragement, but\nrather the cold glance of scorn, the bitter sneer of contempt, it is not\nstrange that there stretched out before him apparently nothing but a\ndrunkard's life, a drunkard's death and an endless eternity in a\ndrunkard's hell.\n\nThen the fearful temptation of suicide met him; but God, in his infinite\nmercy, destined him to pass through even this fearful ordeal unharmed\nand spared him that he might carry the gospel of a Savior's love to a\nlost and ruined world. Then a helping hand was extended. A lifelong\nfriend, meeting him one day, and overcome with pity, gave him one more\nchance to make a man of himself, fitted him out with clothes, gave him a\nrailroad ticket and money, advising him to leave Louisville and start\nlife afresh elsewhere. But the fetters of sin were riveted so strongly\nthat the well-meant advice of his boyhood friend was unheeded, and a few\nhours found him in as fearful a plight as ever. Then there came into\nthis, the darkest hour in all his life, the experience of the prodigal\nson. A determination came into his life to sever forever all ties\nbinding him to the life of degradation he was then living and to take\nthe first step back into the narrow path of righteousness.\n\n  --------\n    Show me thy ways, O Lord.--Ps. 25:4.\n  --------\n\nIt was then that the Rev. Steve P. Holcombe of Louisville, Ky., took him\nto the Union Gospel Mission.\n\nAt this critical period there came within the radius of his sphere of\nexistence a noble, devout woman, who proved to be the one thing needful\nto round out the life now worth living. In spite of all remonstrances on\nthe part of her friends, she was greatly interested in the welfare of\nthis man and prayed earnestly that God would make him a strong Christian\nman.\n\nHer tireless energies, endless prayers and earnest teachings were ever\npresent to hold him up and help him onward in the new life. God placed\nher in the sphere of George Herr's experience at a critical stage, using\nher as a medium for cementing his faith and determining his purpose to\ndevote his remaining years to the work of redeeming unfortunates sunk in\nthe darkness of sin. Their destinies were welded together by mutual\ninterest in the work of saving lost men and the affinity of feeling\nbetween them developed into a bond of love, each seeing within the other\nthose qualities necessary to happiness in wedded life, and on the 14th\nof April, 1898, George L. Herr and Miss Lillie M. Joyce, the woman\nwho was such an essential portion of his existence, were joined in the\nholy bonds of matrimony by the Rev. Carter Helm Jones, D.D., pastor of\nthe Broadway Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky.\n\n  --------\n    The meek will he teach his way.--Ps. 25:9.\n\n    Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit\n    from me.--Ps. 51:11.\n  --------\n\n[Illustration: REV. STEVE P. HOLCOMBE\n\nThe founder of the Holcombe Mission of Louisville, Ky.]\n\nGeorge Herr says that the old life, with its bondage in sin and its\ndarkness of evil, is a thing of the eliminated past. Finding happiness\nin his new life, he has consecrated his time, energy, ability and\ntalents to continuous devotion to the task of spreading the gospel among\nthe fallen. Into the gloomiest recesses of penitentiaries, workhouses\nand jails, beyond portals where visitors are excluded, he has carried\nthe message of Christ's saving grace into the darkness of despairing\nmen's and women's lives.\n\nGod has blessed George L. Herr in many ways, giving him daily recompense\nfor the days of misery, shame and degradation, giving him a happy home,\nglorified by the presence of a loving, devoted wife and the precious\ndaughter, and this story is sent forth with the earnest prayer that God\nmay use it, with its message of hope and cheer, for the salvation of\nmany despairing, discouraged ones who are bound by the awful fetters of\nsin as he once was.\n\n  --------\n    All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that\n    cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.--John 6:37.\n  --------\n\nOne of the greatest privileges accorded man is to be a messenger for\nChrist. George Herr has tasted the sweets of liberty in Christ and he\nloves to tell those in the terrible bondage of sin that there is an\navenue of escape. In his rescue work he has been able to take a great\nnumber of homeless, friendless and hopeless men and women by the hand.\n\nDoes it pay? The results of George Herr's labors among the unfortunates\nare a satisfactory answer to this question. It pays a hundredfold in the\nfeeling of duty well done, in the knowledge of many useful lives saved.\nIt pays in words of gratitude feelingly uttered by noble men and women,\nwho, formerly sunk in the quicksands of despair, are now restored to a\nworld of happiness and peace.\n\n  --------\n    Jesus own words are: \"They that be whole need not a physician,\n    but they that are sick, for I am not come to call the righteous,\n    but sinners to repentance.\"--Matt. 9:12, 13.\n  --------\n\nIt is our earnest prayer to the Father of all good, that this story of\nGeorge Herr's redemption from the clutches of sin may, through his\nunfailing love for all suffering ones, carry its message of hope, its\npromise of salvation from eternal despair, into the hearts of many who\nare despondent, discouraged, despairing. May it instill into the hearts\nof the unfortunate a desire to come back into the fold of the Father's\nunending love, bringing with it the sweet conviction that no matter how\nfar we have wandered from within the radius of his love, we are still\nhis children, the erring ones for whose redemption he gave his Son to be\noffered upon the altar of human sacrifice that we, through the atonement\nof his innocent blood, should inherit the kingdom of heaven.\n\n  --------\n    Hold up my goings in thy path, that my footsteps slip not.--Ps.\n    17:6.\n  --------\n\n[Illustration: THE LATE MR. GEORGE GAULBERT\n\nOne of my best friends. Many heart-to-heart talks I have had with this\ngrand and wealthy merchant]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER TWO\n\n\"LOST AND IS FOUND\"\n\n\nJesus said, \"A man had two sons; and the younger one of them said to his\nfather, 'Father, give me my share of the inheritance!' so the father\ndivided the property between them. A few days later the younger son got\ntogether all that he had and went away into a distant land; and there he\nsquandered his inheritance by leading a dissolute life. After he had\nspent all that he had, there was a severe famine through all that\ncountry, and he began to be in actual want. So he went and engaged\nhimself to one of the people of that country, who sent him into his\nfield to tend pigs. He even longed to satisfy his hunger with the bean\npods on which the pigs were feeding; and no one gave him anything. But\nwhen he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants\nhave more bread than they can eat, while here am I starving to death; I\nwill get up and go to my father and say to him, 'Father, I have sinned\nagainst Heaven and against you; I am no longer fit to be called your\nson; make me as one of your hired servants.' And he got up and went\nto his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him\nand was deeply moved; he ran and threw his arms around his neck and\nkissed him. 'Father,' the son said, 'I sinned against Heaven and against\nyou; I am no longer fit to be called your son; make me one of your hired\nservants.' But the father turned to his servants and said, 'Be quick and\nbring a robe, the very best, and put it on him; give him a ring for his\nfinger and sandals for his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it,\nand let us eat and make merry; for here is my son who was dead, and is\nalive again, was lost and is found.\"\n\n  --------\n    For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the\n    government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be\n    called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting\n    Father, The Prince of Peace.--Isa. 9:6.\n  --------\n\n[Illustration: REV. CARTER HELM JONES, D.D.\n\nThe late Pastor Broadway Baptist Church Louisville, Ky.]\n\nThis younger son thought he was wiser than his father and wanted to\nmanage his own affairs. So it is with men who think they can manage\ntheir own affairs without God.\n\n  --------\n    He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all\n    thy ways.--Ps. 91:11.\n  --------\n\nA case in hand: An acquaintance of mine in Louisville, a young man of\nhandsome face and fine physique, with all the advantages wealth,\neducation and social position could give him, started out at the age of\ntwenty-one with unfaltering prospects of a prosperous, useful and happy\nlife, but, like the young man in our lesson, thought he could manage his\nown affairs without God; in other words, he refused to give his heart\nand life to Jesus Christ, and not having Christ to protect, shield,\nrestrain, and assist him, in a time of temptation he was led along\nlittle by little, almost without knowing it, until he was ready to\ncommit any crime. One day in a house of ill repute he shot and killed a\nyoung man; for this crime he was arrested, tried and convicted, but the\nwealth and influence of his family secured him a pardon. Even this\nbitter experience failed to teach him that he had made a mistake in\nthinking he could manage his own affairs, for, after regaining his\nliberty, he plunged deeper and deeper into sin, ending in himself being\nmurdered.\n\nAs the prodigal in the parable wanted to get as far from his father's\npresence as possible, \"into a far country,\" so the man when he\ndetermines to give himself up to others. He does not want to hear about\nGod or even think about him. Reader, was not this so with you? The\nfather did not compel the son to stay at home; he allowed him to choose\nwhat he preferred. So it is with God; he does not compel us to\nobedience. For my part I wish he did. \"He wasted his substance in\nriotous living;\" and so it is with the sinner, in the service of sin;\nhe wastes and destroys his property, his health, his reputation, his\nintellect, his conscience.\n\n  --------\n    Fear not; for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy\n    name; thou art mine.--Is. 43:1.\n  --------\n\n[Illustration: THE LATE REV. E. A. FERGUSON One of the Author's best\nfriends]\n\nThere is nothing in this world valuable enough to recompense such a\nloss, or balance the misery of a tormenting conscience. If you violate\nit for the sake of a gratification of the body it will remember the\ninjury many years after. Gen. 42:21; Job 13:26. It will not only retain\nthe memory of what you did, but it will accuse you for it. Matt. 27:4.\nIt will not fear to tell you that plainly, which others dare not\nwhisper. It will not only accuse, but it will also condemn you for what\nyou have done. This condemning voice of conscience is a terrible voice.\nYou may see the horror of it in Cain, the vigor of it in Judas, the\ndoleful effects of it in Saphira. It will produce shame, fear, and\ndespair, if God give not repentance to life. The shame it works will so\nconfound you, that you will not be able to look up. Job. 31:14; Psa.\n1:5. The fear it works will make you wish for a hole in the rock to hide\nyou. Isa. 2:9, 10, 15, 19. And its despair is a death pang.\n\n  --------\n    \"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though\n    your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though\n    they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.\"--Is. 1:18.\n  --------\n\nYoung man, consider the nature of your present actions; they are seeds\nsown for eternity, and will spring up again in suitable effects, rewards\nand punishments, when you that did them are turned to dust. What a man\nsows, that shall he reap. Gal. 6:7. And as sure as the harvest follows\nthe seedtime, so shall shame, fear, and horror follow sin. Dan. 12:2.\nWhat Zeuxis, the famous painter, said of his work, may much more truly\nbe said of ours: \"I paint for eternity.\" Ah! how bitter will these\nthings be in the day of reckoning, which were pleasant in the acting! It\nis true our actions, physically considered, are transient. How soon is a\nword or action spoken or done, and there is an end of it! But morally\nconsidered, they are permanent, being entered upon God's book of action.\n\n  --------\n    I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and,\n    as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed\n    thee.--Isa. 44:22.\n  --------\n\nLet me illustrate: Some time ago a young man, son of a nobleman of\nGermany, came to our home poorly clad, without money, without friends,\nrealizing to some extent the depth to which he had fallen, filled with\nremorse on account of disgrace he had brought upon himself and his\nfamily, and like the prodigal in the parable he said, \"I will arise and\ngo to my father.\" He left our home for his home in New Orleans, La.\nAfter his arrival there we received the following letter:\n\nMy Dear Brother Herr: My letter to you from San Antonio told of the\nhappiness which had come to me as a result of the reunion of my wife and\nlittle ones. Can you realize how full those days were spent in the sweet\ncompanionship of those who are so dear to me? I would have wished to\nhave remained with them until Christmas, but my obligations to business\nintervened, and I was compelled to leave in order to attend to matters\nhere.\n\nMy thoughts are with you so much that I often feel as though I could\nreach out and grasp your hand; and so often during the day there goes up\na whispered prayer from my heart that our Father will bless you in just\nproportion as you have been a sweet, helpful blessing to others.\n\nMy route includes Louisville, and while I may not be in there on this\ntrip, it will not be many days before I will have an opportunity to\ngreet you in person. May God bless Sister Herr and yourself if only in\nrecompense for your kindness to me.\n\n                                                           EDWARD.\n\n  --------\n    Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy\n    God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will\n    uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.--Isa.\n    44:10.\n  --------\n\nDoes not the life of this man preach a more eloquent sermon, and tell a\nmore powerful tale, and teach a more eloquent lesson than I or any other\npreacher could do? Reader, you cannot ignore, disregard, or shut your\neyes to the lesson which this man's life teaches, impresses and enforces\nof the awful danger and the deadly and destructive effects of sin.\n\n  --------\n    Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from\n    before mine eyes; cease to do evil.--Isa. 1:16.\n  --------\n\nHere is a lesson in life that appeals to us and bids us stop in our mad\nway. This parable of the prodigal son shows that we can have our own way\nif we determine to do it; father and mother can't keep us from it, and\nGod by force will not keep us from it; but we will certainly pay for it,\nand pay the price of tears and sorrow, remorse and ruin. This nobleman's\nson, by refusing to heed God's warning, was brought to want. No matter\nwhose son it is, if he determines to have his own way and give himself\nup to self-indulgence and riotous living, he will come to want, shame,\nbitterness, and many are the men who tried to master themselves but\nfailed. Some evil habit had fastened itself upon him, and realizing\nhimself a slave, tries to shake it off, but, alas! the will has been\nparalyzed, and it does not respond in warding off the fearful habit.\nDefeat after defeat occurs until the poor fellow, discouraged,\nbroken-hearted, gives up and goes down to utter ruin. Man is no match\nfor the devil. How hopeless would be the outlook for the great army of\nmen whom we labor with were it not for a Deliverer. \"The cross held his\nbody; the sun hid his face for shame, and the bowels of the earth were\nmoved in compassion, when Jesus expired on Calvary's rugged tree, thus\npurchasing redemption for every man from the curse of sin. It is\npossible through Christ for every man to be a Christian.\"\n\n  --------\n    \"Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.\"--John 6:37.\n    What a wonderful invitation--these words of the Savior!\n  --------\n\nAnd now here are some of the ways God has taken to tell you of his love:\nPsalm 103:13: \"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord\npitieth them that fear him.\" Isaiah 49:15: \"Can a woman forget her\nsuckling child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her\nwomb? yea, they may forget, yet I will not forget thee.\" Luke 11:13: \"If\nye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how\nmuch more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that\nask him?\" Luke 18:13-14: \"And the publican, standing afar off, would not\nlift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast,\nsaying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you this man went down\nto his house justified rather than the other: for every one that\nexalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be\nexalted.\" Luke 15:7: \"I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in\nheaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine\njust persons, which need no repentance.\" Luke 15:10: \"Likewise I say\nunto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one\nsinner that repenteth.\" Luke 7:36-50: \"And one of the Pharisees desired\nhim that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house,\nand sat down to meat. And behold a woman in the city, which was a\nsinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house,\nbrought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him\nweeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with\nthe hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the\nointment.\n\n  --------\n    Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise\n    her in the gates.--Prov. 31:31.\n  --------\n\n\"Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within\nhimself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who\nand what manner of woman this is that toucheth him; for she is a sinner.\nAnd Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto\nthee. And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which\nhad two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.\nAnd when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me,\ntherefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I\nsuppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast\nrightly judged. And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest\nthou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for\nmy feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the\nhairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman, since the\ntime I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou\ndidst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.\nWherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for\nshe loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.\nAnd he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.\n\n  --------\n    And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying,\n    Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.--Matt. 8:2.\n  --------\n\n\"And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who\nis this that forgiveth sins also? And he said to the woman, Thy faith\nhath saved thee; go in peace.\"\n\nA father whose son had gone away to California, and was a gambler in San\nFrancisco, sent him word by a friend: \"Your father loves you still.\" And\nit made him ashamed; it broke his heart; he repented, returned home and\nwas saved. \"God, your heavenly Father, loves you still.\" Will you not\nbelieve it and come to him for safety? He will not abuse you for your\nsins. He will save you from your sins, and make you happy.\n\n\"And he began to be in want.\"\n\nThat is what sin brings a man to--want.\n\nAnd it was this which brought him to his senses--\"he came to himself\"\n(verse 17).\n\nAnd when he does come to himself he can think of only one place where he\ncan hope to find relief, and he bravely determines to go straight to the\nvery father he had so shamefully abandoned, and to make a full\nconfession and throw himself on that father's mercy with the hope of\nbeing taken back as a hired servant. He is willing to take the humblest\nand meanest place if he can only get back to that home he was, a short\ntime before, so eager to leave. Nor does he offer any excuse; he calls\nhis sin by the right name and confesses it without trying to excuse it\nor justify it.\n\n  --------\n    And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will;\n    be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.--Matt.\n    8:3.\n  --------\n\nAnd how did his father receive him? Why, he did not wait till his poor,\nragged, worn and wasted boy got in and made his confession; but he saw\nhim a great way off (verse 20) and he knew what had passed in the boy's\nheart and life, and moved with compassion toward him, he ran and fell on\nhis neck and kissed him a glad welcome back to his heart and home. But\nthe son goes on to make his confession and his offer to be a hired\nservant anyhow, and yet the father says, \"No! no! bring forth the best\nrobe and put it on him.\"\n\n  --------\n    \"And their works do follow them.\"--Rev. 14:13.\n  --------\n\nA man married a young widow with a small son. Her former husband had\nleft her $10,000 in his will. The man said: \"I will take care of you and\nwe will lay away that $10,000 for your boy.\" Two other sons were born to\nthem. The stepson was educated and taught habits of business. At\ntwenty-one years of age he asked for the money his father had left. He\nwas told that instead of being $10,000, it had been invested for him and\nwas now $50,000. He was asked to let the money stay in the business and\nto become a partner with his stepfather. The young man refused, took his\n$50,000, fell into bad habits and lost it all and came home in rags, a\ntramp. His stepfather met him at the train, took him to the barbershop\nand clothier and presented him to his mother at the house as a\ngentleman. The nicest room in the house was assigned him and he was told\nthat it was his permanent home. He was also told by his stepfather that\nhe was to be taken into the business firm composed of the father and the\ntwo half-brothers. This was more than he could stand. He began to weep\nat his ingratitude and at the love which had been lavished upon him. He\ndevoted himself to business, was devoted to his stepfather, and was as\nloyal to his interests as his own sons. This picture, though it seems\noverdrawn, is one of real life. The stepfather had a good disposition\nnaturally, but his magnanimous treatment of the prodigal was out of his\nsincere affection for his wife. There were few ties of love that bound\nhim to the bad boy, only the love of his faithful wife. He loved the boy\nfor the sake of his mother. Our Father loves his children and receives\nthe prodigals returning to him for their own sake and the sake of his\nSon who died for them, and treats them, in his affection, as though they\nhad never sinned against him.\n\n  --------\n    The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and\n    the good.--Prov, 15:3.\n  --------\n\n[Illustration: DR. E. L. POWELL\n\nPastor First Christian Church, Louisville. One of the ablest ministers\nof the Christian Church who has done a wonderful work among the\nmasses.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER THREE\n\nPOLITICAL PERIL\n\n    Sermon by Dr. E. L. Powell, on \"The Need of Prophets in a Time\n    of Political Peril,\" delivered at the First Christian Church,\n    Louisville, Ky.\n\n    \"And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear,\n    (for they are a rebellious house,) shall know that there hath\n    been a prophet among them.\"--Ezekiel 2:5.\n\n\nHe thought it would not be questioned by thinking persons that we are\nliving in a time of political peril. He did not mean that revolution was\nat our door; he did not mean that we are threatened with a reign of\nterror; he did not mean that there was any prospect of immediate\nbloodshed.\n\n  --------\n    I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I\n    have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest.\n\n    I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have\n    declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation; I have not\n    concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great\n    congregation.--Psalm 40:9, 10.\n  --------\n\nOur perils spring from our state--the state of our own souls. They are\nlacking in moral sensibility--we are in danger. We are told on every\nhand our country was never more prosperous--that is unquestionably so.\nThe same might be said of Rome when that colossal empire was tottering\nto its fall. There were persons then who paid from $200,000 to $400,000\nfor a single feast. It is recorded of one man that, after spending\nseveral millions of dollars in luxurious living, he committed suicide\nbecause he had only $400,000 between him and starvation. National\nbankruptcy does not stare us in the face. Fortunes grow up in a\ngeneration--the dollar smiles upon us as a beneficent sun. Yet our moral\ncondition is such as to call forth from thinking men serious and earnest\nfear. We are as a man living in a luxuriously appointed house, and yet,\non account of invalidism, unable to appreciate his splendid home and\nenvironments.\n\n  --------\n    Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my\n    brethren, ye have done it unto me.\n  --------\n\nHe had called the attention of the congregation last Sunday night to\nwhat was the fundamental source of our political corruption--the\nunnatural separation of religion and politics. He did not mean\nseparation of Church and State; that was right and proper; but he did\nmean that we need the reign of truth, purity and righteousness, because\nof the ills to which attention was called last Sunday night. His lecture\ntonight would be on \"The Need of Prophets in a Time of Political Peril.\"\nHe did not wish to call attention to the peculiarly inspired Bible\nprophet. So far as he was concerned he was a man apart, who could not be\nour example--he constituted an order of his own; but we mortals can to\nsome extent, recognizing our limitations, reproduce the power of the\nprophets, and it is not limited by arbitrary metes and bounds, as God\nsends his teachers to every age and every clime. If there ever was a\ntime when we stood in need of moral leadership it is now. We want men\nwho come like the prophets of old, who shall come before us as genuine\nleaders to take us out of this wilderness in which we find ourselves. A\nfine moral leadership is the exception rather than the rule. Unless the\nstandard be lifted up the hosts will not rally. Truth will not win its\nway on its own merits. Let the call come from the lips that speak not\nlies, but the truth, and there is that in the humblest of men that will\ngive back an amen. And when our leaders come we shall recognize them. We\nare not likely to mistake the rumble of cart-wheels for thunder. The\nleader carries his credentials. When a community is visited by a prophet\nit is known by that community that a prophet has been among them. You do\nnot mistake genuine fire. You are never deceived by a genuine voice. It\nhas been true in all ages of the world that wisdom is recognized by its\npeople. Deep down in the hearts of the people are the instincts of\ntruth. When we find men willing to pay the price of leadership we shall\nhave leaders. It is as true today as it was in the days of prophecy that\nsuch leaders as we have have taught us to err. We need men with\npolitical consciences--men who recognize that there are such things as\ntruth, purity and righteousness in the world.\n\n  --------\n    What must I do to be saved?--Acts 16:30.\n\n    Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.--Acts\n    16:31.\n  --------\n\nIn speaking of moral leadership the all-inclusive qualification is\ninspiration. He did not mean the exceptional inspiration that applies to\nthe Bible prophets. He meant that inspiration which kindles the powers\nwe already have into life. When he spoke of inspiration he meant the\nenlivening, the stirring up of the powers we already have as opposed to\nthe shallow indifference of one who draws about him the robes of his\nsilken selfishness and says, \"Let well enough alone\"--a man whose\ninspiration glows and glows intensely. The inspired man feels the\ndegradation of his country as a personal infliction. Those who dishonor\nher are his own foes, and insults flung in the face of political liberty\nare felt by him as an affront to himself. Our prophets must be men who\nfeel the woes that they oppose, men who feel the humiliation before they\ncan strike with the right arm clothed with power. Indifference to the\npublic weal on the part of the average political leader is one of the\nmost distressing features of our political situation. These people do\nnot seem capable of feeling righteous indignation in the presence of the\nmoral infamy by which they are confronted, and hence their words do not\ncome forth as thunderbolts, but as spent balls. Beware of the man whose\nheart has not been pierced by the woes of his country. The sting is the\nneeded spur to effort. The sleeping lion is not dangerous; but let him\nbe wounded and his roar shall ring as the trumpet of doom in the ears of\nhis enemies. We must seek our leaders among those who can feel the woes\nof humanity--men of profound feeling--as those are the best prophets.\n\n  --------\n    Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from\n    the hand of the enemy;\n\n    And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the\n    west, from the north and from the south.--Psalm 107:2, 3.\n  --------\n\nHe believed that we must strike at the evil of social indifferentism.\nWho does not feel profound shame that the law against carrying concealed\nand deadly weapons is not strictly enforced, which made possible\ntragedies such as that at Frankfort, which has disgraced the fair name\nand fame of our State. The leaders' voices should ring throughout our\nland until we are bowed to the earth in shame in view of the infamies\nwhich disgrace us.\n\n  --------\n    Lord, save us; we perish.--Matt. 8:25.\n\n    There shall not a hair of your head perish.--Lu. 21:18.\n  --------\n\nAnother element required for leadership was the power of vision. There\nmust be a clear recognition of evils. The idealist is not a mere\ndreamer, but acquainted with the actual wants of the people. In fact our\nleaders must see something better. The man who is working in the slums\nmust keep his eyes fixed on the stars. There can be no change for the\nbetter until the better is made to shine with the brightness of a\nbeckoning angel.\n\n  --------\n    I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my\n    heart.\n\n    I am a companion of them that keep thy precepts.--Psalm 119:63.\n  --------\n\nHere is the opportunity and duty of newspapers. James Russell Lowell\nsays: \"What a pulpit the editor mounts daily, sometimes with a\ncongregation of fifty thousand within reach of his voice, and never so\nmuch as a nodder, even, among them! and from what a Bible can he choose\nhis text--a Bible that needs no translation, and which no priestcraft\ncan shut and clasp from the laity--the open volume of the world, upon\nwhich with a pen of sunshine or destroying fire the inspired Present is\neven now writing the annals of God!\"\n\n[Illustration: PROMINENT IN THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF LOUISVILLE]\n\n[Illustration: PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY]\n\nBut has the editor no mission other than to tell us of partisan\npolitical measures? To be a simple annalist who shall bring before us\nthe events of the day, but who creates no perspective along which we may\ntread to better customs, better men and better times? He never leaves us\nin doubt--\"Let us do the best we can, and leave the rest alone.\" In\nGod's name, is there not something better? \"Let us go up and possess the\nland.\" Standing on the mountain height up there we shall all see fairer\nlands below. The inspired editor not only sees the battle from afar, but\nalso the coming of the imperial guard of righteousness with victory.\nThere is that in the heart of every man that responds to the ideal. No\nleader has ever succeeded in having an evil reformed who wanted an\nideal. Napoleon, when he said, \"Beyond the Alps lies Italy,\" was\nappealing to that sentiment--to something beyond--to something in the\nfuture. When Cortez drew an imaginary line before his men, who had\nbecome mutinous, and said \"On this side lies danger, death, duty and\nglory; on that, safety, shame and infamy. Choose ye whether you will\nstep this side of the line or remain where you are,\" he was appealing to\nsomething in their hearts--put there by the Almighty himself. Editors\nshould not think it their only mission to mirror forth things as they\noccur, but say to their 50,000 readers, \"Let us go up and possess the\nland\" of truth, purity and righteousness. This is not weakness on their\npart but evidence of the profoundest philosophy. Fifty years ago we had\nsenatorial utterances that would reach across the continent. The secret\npower of those utterances was that they were ideal. In the days when\nboys spoke pieces in school we declaimed them, and we feel their\ninfluence today.\n\n  --------\n    Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.\n\n    When wilt thou comfort me?--Ps. 119:82.\n\n    Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the\n    fulfilling of the law.--Rom. 13:10.\n  --------\n\nAnother element of leadership is moral enthusiasm. The idealist in art\nis so for the love of art. He enters into the discussion of art subjects\nwith enthusiasm. So with the moral enthusiast. Sin is hateful to him,\nand he seeks to crush it as he would a viper, and instinctively and\nspontaneously his denunciations come forth. Truth is his pole-star, and\nhe will tell his best friend, \"I will do anything but lie for you.\" Try\nto bribe him, and you will think that the central fires of the earth\nhave been concentrated into his blistering rebuke. Suggest a compromise\ninvolving dishonor, and if you escape a blow you will be fortunate. Like\nLuther he says: \"Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.\" He would\nnot go with the crowd to moral destruction. Moral enthusiasm has been\nthe virtue of all epoch-making men. Men do not die for fancies; they do\nnot die for offices. They die for what they believe is right. Give them\nsomething that appeals to their moral nature and they will die for it.\nThe grand martyrs were men who laid down their lives for what they\nbelieved to be right. There came to them those lines of James Russell\nLowell:\n\n    \"Once to every man and Nation\n      Comes the moment to decide,\n    In the strife of truth and falsehood\n      For the good or evil side;\n    Love's great cause, God's new Messiah,\n      Offering each the bloom or blight,\n    Parts the goats upon the left hand\n      And the sheep upon the right,\n    And the choice goes by forever\n      'Twixt the darkness and the light.\"\n\n  --------\n    As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.--Is.\n    66:13.\n\n    He who loveth God loveth his brother also.--1 John 4:21.\n  --------\n\nWe must have leaders who possess the elements of leadership for the\ngreat task of making the world better--who possess the elementary\nvirtues of honesty and truth. He had indicated some of the elements of\nmoral leadership that these times demand. He did not mean to say that\nthe political stage had not such leaders. Certainly there were a few;\nbut we can make it possible to have a thousand. When we can see one we\nare surprised. In the past, thank God, we have had such leaders, and in\nthe future we shall have such leaders again.\n\nIt is slumbering in the hearts of men and women all around us. It needs\nonly some one to sweep the harp strings. The trouble is with ourselves.\nHow can we be leaders with sensual and selfish appetites and desires?\nDoes God no longer speak to man? Burns there no fire upon the altar? He\ndid not believe God had exhausted himself. God had not exhausted himself\nby casting out a few bright stars from his own luminous presence. There\nis power for him to bring to the front the men we are longing and\npraying for.\n\n  --------\n    He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea in seven there shall\n    no evil touch thee.--Job 5:19.\n  --------\n\nIn conclusion, he wished to say only these few words--that every leader\nis a man that must bring to us the message of hope. The prophets through\nall those weary years carried the torch of hope and handed it to their\nsuccessors. Abraham believed with all his soul that he should have a\nposterity as numerous as the stars. He died leaving only one heir.\nMoses, the great law-giver, had a vision that a community of slaves\nshould be made into a great nation. He went up into Pisgah and died,\nleaving them still slaves. Long ago a prophet looked over the sea at a\nvision of a new heaven and a new earth. Two thousand years have passed\naway and no new heaven or new earth has come--but as sure as truth is\nstronger than falsehood it will come--just so sure we shall one day see\na new heaven and a new earth, where dwelleth no political corruption,\nbut righteousness. Not in our time, perhaps, not in our children's time,\nshall the thing be; but it will come. Let us pray, then, that we may\nanswer in the language of the great poet.\n\n    \"Oh, well I know that to him who works, and knows he works,\n    This same glad year is ever at the door.\"\n\n  The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:\n\n  The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:\n\n  The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER FOUR\n\nCHRIST THE INTERPRETER OF THE PICTURE\n\nA Sermon preached by Rev. T. M. Hawes in the Slums\n\n\n    \"I have somewhat to say unto thee.\"--Luke 7:40.\n\nThe scene presented in this narration is worthy of the painter's brush.\nWe have a beautiful and striking presentation of the gospel--not set\nforth in theological terms as abstract truth--but presented in the form\nof a concrete example--a picture with Christ himself as the interpreter.\n\nAnd now as we look at this picture with Christ to explain and interpret\nit to us, let us see what he will teach us concerning the gospel.\n\nFirst, we can learn here for whom the gospel is not intended.\n\n  --------\n    Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one\n    another.--1 John 4:11.\n  --------\n\nEvidently it is not intended for those who find fault with it. Christ is\namong a people who seem determined not to be pleased. He has just\nwondered to whom he could liken them, and observing a number of children\nat play he likens them to children playing in the market place. \"We\nhave piped unto you and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you and\nye have not wept.\" They found fault with John the Baptist because he was\ntoo severe--they found fault with Jesus because he was too liberal. And\nhere Simon is finding fault with him because he is allowing this sinful\nwoman to wash his feet. Am I saying too much when I say that there is\nthat same trait in human nature today, and that it keeps people out of\nthe kingdom? Yea, more than that, it often keeps those who are in the\nkingdom from receiving the blessings which otherwise might be theirs.\nThere are those on the outside who remain out because they are\nconstantly finding fault. There are those on the inside who are always\nunhappy for the same reason. If the preacher hews to the line they say\nhe is a scold--if he doesn't they say he is afraid to stand up for what\nhe believes, and so it goes.\n\n[Illustration: REV. T. M. HAWES, D.D.\n\nThe beloved pastor of the Highland Presbyterian Church. The \"Beloved\nJohn\" of the Louisville ministry.]\n\nLet us learn from this picture that the gospel is not for faultfinders.\nOur late Mr. Moody says a true thing when he says that a faultfinder is\nusually a lightweight.\n\n  --------\n    He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me\n    was love.--S. of S. 2:4.\n  --------\n\nAgain we can learn from this picture that the gospel is not intended for\nthose who do not think they need it; not intended for self-righteous\npeople. No one is ever going to appreciate the gospel until he feels the\nneed of it. The spirit of the Pharisee will shut us out from the\nblessings of the gospel whether we are church members or not. Simon\nlooked down on the sinful woman and felt that he was far superior to\nher. Evidently he felt no need of a Saviour. The Scribes and Pharisees\nrejected Christ on the very grounds that he was the friend of publicans\nand sinners. Oh, yes, in the very nature of the case the gospel cannot\nreach those who do not feel their need of some power beyond themselves.\n\nFurthermore, the gospel is not meant for those who are ashamed of it.\nThere is something very touching and beautiful in this picture of the\nwoman who was a sinner coming into this public court to do honor to\nChrist. She had true humility. Simon was far from doing anything of this\nkind, he was willing to show a certain sort of respect for Christ, but\nhe would have been too proud to have ever done such a thing as this.\n\n    \"Ashamed of Jesus, sooner far\n    Let evening blush to own a star.\"\n\nIs it not true that a sense of being ashamed of the gospel shuts out\nfrom its blessings those who entertain such unworthy feelings?\n\n  --------\n    Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.--Mk. 12:30.\n  --------\n\nFinally, let us learn from this picture that the gospel is not meant for\nthose who are not glad to make a free-will offering of sacrifice as a\ntoken of this grateful love. This woman brought an alabaster box of\nointment.\n\n\"My head with oil thou didst not anoint; but this woman hath anointed my\nfeet with ointment.\" Christ did not exact this of her--it was a\nfree-will offering. If the gospel does not draw out our gratitude and\nliberality, then it has never touched us. It is not because of our gifts\nthat we are forgiven, but it is because of our forgiveness that we give.\n\"To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.\"\n\n    \"That man may last but never lives,\n    Who much receives but nothing gives;\n    Whom none can love, whom none can thank,\n    Creation's blot, creation's blank.\n\n    \"But he who walks from day to day\n    In generous acts his radiant way,\n    Treads the same path his Saviour trod--\n    The path to glory and to God.\"\n\nNow, having learned from this picture for whom the gospel is not\nintended, let us learn for whom it is intended. Ah! how with a few bold\nand simple strokes the whole matter is made plain.\n\n  --------\n    Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.--Mark 11:31.\n  --------\n\nFirst, I notice that it is meant for sinners. \"Behold a woman in the\ncity which was a sinner.\" Jesus \"a friend of publicans and sinners.\"\nThat tells the story. \"I came to call not the righteous, but sinners.\"\nSome people find fault with the church because there are so many sinners\nin the church. Just as well find fault with a hospital for having sick\npeople in it. Just as well find fault with the doctor for visiting\ninvalids. \"Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee; you are finding\nfault with me for allowing this sinful woman to touch me. Let me tell\nyou, Simon, that it is just for this very purpose that I am come into\nthis world.\" \"This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation,\nthat Christ came into the world to save sinners.\" He was the great\nPhysician and great physicians are those who have a specialty. This was\nChrist's specialty--to save sinners. Who is this that forgiveth sins,\nalso?\n\n  --------\n    The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart.--1 Tim.\n    1:5.\n  --------\n\nSecondly, I learn from our Saviour's interpretation of this picture that\nthe gospel is for the very greatest of sinners. \"Simon, I have somewhat\nto say unto thee. There was a certain creditor who had two debtors,\"\netc. Our Saviour proceeds with an illustration which shows that this\nwoman was one of the greatest of sinners. She was ten times worse than\nthe average sinner, and yet she was more welcome to the Saviour than\nthis proud, self-righteous Pharisee. Oh, men and women! if you are in\nthis hall, feeling that you are unworthy to be here, your very unfitness\nmakes you fit. Draw nigh to this Saviour from sin and hear him say, \"Thy\nsins are forgiven; go in peace.\" Let no pharisaical Simon frighten you\naway--the Saviour will give him the rebuke which he deserves and will\nwhisper into your ear words of pardon and of peace.\n\n  --------\n    Many waters cannot quench love neither can the floods drown\n    it.--S. of S. 8:7.\n  --------\n\nI learn from this picture which Christ interprets that the gospel is for\npenitent sinners. \"Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee; seest thou\nthis woman? She hath washed my feet with her tears.\" Oh, those were\nprecious tears in the sight of our Saviour. Every tear-drop was a jewel.\nThe breaking of the alabaster box of ointment was a sweet incense to\nJesus, but this ten-fold sinner bathing his very feet with her\npenitential tears was a sight which made the angels in heaven rejoice,\n\"for there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth than\nover ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.\" Simon despised\nthis woman's tears and sat unmoved at the pathetic scene--but not so\nwith Jesus. He could refrain himself no longer, but speaking out before\nall the company he said, \"Thy sins are forgiven.\" Oh, gracious words!\nHow sweet and soft must have been this music to the ears of this sinful\noutcast.\n\n    \"They fall as soft as snow on the sea\n    And melt in the heart as instantly.\"\n\nFinally, I learn from this picture which Christ is interpreting for us\nthat the gospel is for sinners who commit themselves in implicit faith\nto Christ. \"Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee.\" \"Behold this\nwoman; you have done a great deal of talking--this poor woman has not\nspoken a word--but behold how she has thrown herself upon my mercy with\nunquestioning confidence! Do you think I will disappoint such trust as\nthat? She has heard me say, 'Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise\ncast out' and has taken me at my word, and I consider it an honor to\nturn from thy company to the company of this sinful woman.\"\n\nAnd he said to the woman, \"Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.\"\n\n  --------\n    Without faith it is impossible to please God.--Hebrews 11:6.\n  --------\n\n[Illustration: REV. HENRY CLAY MORRISON, D.D.\n\nA Giant Against Unrighteousness]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER FIVE\n\nTHROWING OUT THE LIFE-LINE\n\nBy Rev. H. C. Morrison, D.D.\n\n\n\"Ye are the salt of the earth,\" \"Ye are the light of the world,\" \"Let\nyour light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and\nglorify your Father which art in heaven.\"--Matt. 5:13, 14, 15.\n\nThese sayings of Jesus from the sermon on the mount are quite\nremarkable. No other teacher ever used such words to his disciples, \"Ye\nare the light of the world.\" Had the Jewish doctor of the law heard\nthese words of our Lord to his humble sun-tanned, bare-footed,\nshaggy-browed fishermen, he would have been quite disgusted with what to\nhim would have seemed the consummate egotism of the Nazarene.\n\nThe meaning of the words of Christ is very plain. The disciples, their\nlives, character, spirit, the power of the Christ in them must, and\nwould, permeate society like salt, and purify and save from sin. They\nmust illuminate the world, so dark with vice, and show it the way back\nto God.\n\n  --------\n    Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with\n    God.--Rom. 5:1.\n  --------\n\nThese words of Jesus to the disciples who sat before him that day, are\naddressed by him to all of his followers for all time, to all of those\nwho trust him and gladly obey him (and only such are disciples). He\nsays, \"Ye are the salt of the earth,\" \"Ye are the light of the world.\"\n\"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works,\nand glorify your Father which is in heaven.\"\n\n  --------\n    I have somewhat to say unto thee.--Luke 7:40.\n  --------\n\nWe must not forget that God's plan is to save the lost, through the\ninstrumentality of those who were themselves once lost, but are now\nsaved from sin. If we would have a great testimony meeting in the city\nof the skies, and all of the countless hosts there should one by one\nstand up to tell how they were brought from sin to Jesus, each one of\nthem would point out some person who had been the chief instrument in\nhis or her salvation. There is this one characteristic of all who are\ntruly saved--they desire the salvation of all souls. In fact, this is a\nvery good thermometer with which to get the correct temperature of one's\nspiritual life. Does he long for the salvation of the lost? If so, in\nthe nature of things he must be in a state of salvation. Is he\nindifferent to the condition of the lost? Then he is himself in a lost\nstate. Let us here impress the important truth that Jesus did not say to\nhis disciples, \"Ye must try and salt the earth,\" but said, \"Ye are the\nsalt of the earth.\" He did not say, \"Ye shall kindle a flame that shall\nilluminate the world.\" He said, \"Ye are the light of the world.\" We are\nnot, as the disciples of Christ, to be makers of light and salt, but we,\nby the power of Christ, must be made into salt and light. It will be\ninteresting to notice the processes through which one must pass in order\nto become salt and light. Let us go back to the beginning of this sermon\nof our Lord and we will hear him saying, \"Blessed are the poor in\nspirit.\" First of all to become salt and light one must be poor in\nspirit; he must awake to the fact that he owes a million and has not one\ncent with which to pay. From his heart he must say,\n\n  --------\n    \"Nothing in my hands I bring,\n    Simply to thy cross I cling.\"\n\n    Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit\n    within me.--Psalms 51:10\n  --------\n\nHe must realize in his inmost soul his perilous condition, and pray from\nthe fullness of a deep conviction in his heart, \"Lord save, or I\nperish.\" Not only must he be poor in spirit, but our Lord says, \"Blessed\nare they that mourn.\" God loves to see the falling tears of sorrow for\nsin against himself. Those that truly mourn because of their sins will\nforsake them. How blessed for the returning prodigal to come with a\nheart all full of deep contrition. They that mourn because of their sins\nshall be comforted. After deep poverty of spirit and true mourning for\nsin and the comforting of the soul by the pardoning mercy of God. Then\nmeekness will most certainly follow.\n\nNow, the soul comforted, born of God, sitting in meekness at the feet of\nJesus, will \"hunger and thirst after righteousness.\" A dead man has no\nappetite or desire for food, but a living one must eat. The soul that is\nborn of God will at once begin to hunger for Godlikeness. The cry of\nsuch a soul is not so much for his blessings as it is for him. The\nPsalmist says, \"As the hart panteth for the water-brooks, so panteth\nmy soul for Thee, O God.\" Jesus says of such, \"They shall be\nfilled\"--filled with purity, love and peace; filled with the Holy Ghost;\nfilled with all the fulness of God. All such will be merciful, pure in\nheart, peace-makers, and be sure that persecution will follow. This\nworld that hated and killed our Lord will not let his followers pass\nthrough without persecutions. Of this we may be sure.\n\n  --------\n    Be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land.--Num.\n    13:20.\n  --------\n\nBut with all these graces and past experiences herein named the\npersecuted can rejoice and be exceedingly glad. And of such Jesus says,\n\"Ye are salt and light.\" Would the reader be salt and light? Then pass\nthrough the program laid down in the sermon on the mount. One must be so\npoor in spirit that he will be such a mourner, that he will receive such\ncomfort, that he will become so meek, that in him there will be such\nhungering and thirsting after righteousness, that he will be so filled\nwith righteousness, that he will become so merciful and pure in heart,\nthat he will be such a peacemaker, that he will be so persecuted, that\nhe will so rejoice, that he will be salt and light, so shining that men\nwill see it and glorify our Father in heaven. It is folly to be striving\nto do something before. By the grace of God and his divine power we are\nourselves made something. Make the tree good and the fruit will be good.\nIf by the power of the Holy Ghost we are made right it will be easy for\nus to do right. Salt salts, and light shines without effort. So with\ntrue disciples of our Christ. They cannot exist without proving a\nblessing to those with whom they come in contact.\n\n  --------\n    Pray for them which despitefully use you.--Luke 6:28.\n  --------\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER SIX\n\nREFORMATION OF CRIMINALS\n\n[Louisville Times]\n\n\nIn a sermon delivered in the Nashville penitentiary, the Rev. George L.\nHerr, formerly chaplain of the jail here, spoke encouragingly to the\ninmates, citing cases of reformation where reform seemed impossible. The\nRev. Mr. Herr took occasion to pay a high tribute to Jailer John R.\nPflanz, of Louisville. He said in part:\n\n  --------\n    Repent ye therefore and be converted.--Acts 3:19.\n  --------\n\nWhen I address you upon this subject I speak from the standpoint of one\nwho knows by bitter experience. I know that sin can rob man of fortune,\nand all the luxuries of life. I know that it can rob him of the love of\nall who ever loved him; I know that it can drag him down from a position\nof prominence, and make him a habitue of the dives; I know that it will\ncause him to place a rope around his neck and hang himself to a rafter\nin his own barn; I know that sin will lead him to pause at the railing\nof a bridge, his mind set upon the awful deed of self-destruction; I\nknow that it will tempt him to take a razor in hand and draw it across\nhis throat. I know that sin will reduce him from a position of\ninfluence, a welcome visitor to the homes of the elite, to a degraded\ndrunkard, homeless upon the streets of his native city, robed in a short\nlinen duster and a straw hat in the dead of a bitter winter's night.\n\n[Illustration: REV. JOHN PAUL\n\nHe gave the title to this book after reading the manuscript]\n\n\nRiver Thief's Reformation.\n\nJerry McAuley was a river thief, and, while serving a term in the\npenitentiary, caught a glimpse of what the life beyond with Christ would\nbe, and the verse, \"God so loved the world,\" etc, (John iii., 16), won\nhis heart and life, and this poor, weak vessel in the few years he\nlabored for Christ has planted the gospel light through some convert at\nevery port where a ship now lands throughout the world.\n\n\nCase of Sam Hadley.\n\nSam Hadley, who was saved through this man of God, was a poor friendless\ndrunkard, and at the time God spoke peace to his soul had committed\nalmost every crime in the calendar; over one hundred forgeries looked\nhim in the face when he confessed, but he had faith in God, and he led\nhim through all the dark valleys. Sam Hadley, was delivered.\n\n  --------\n    If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be\n    established.--Isa, 7:9.\n  --------\n\nI met in the office of the prison every day the jailer, and I can\nsafely state, without any fear of contradiction, that I have never met a\nwarden or jailer who has such mercy and charity.\n\n\nA Jail \"Miracle.\"\n\nI shall speak now of a miracle of the prison cell. Several years ago the\ngreat D. L. Moody was holding meetings in St. Louis, Mo. The Globe\nDemocrat announced that it was going to publish Mr. Moody's sermons. He\nmade up his mind that he would weave in plenty of Scripture for the\nnewspaper to carry into places that he could never enter. One night he\npreached on the Philippian jailer, and next morning the paper came out\nwith a sensational headline, \"How the Jailer of Philippi Was Caught.\" A\ncopy of the paper was carried into the city jail, and fell into the\nhands of a notorious prisoner. This man was one of the worst characters\nknown to the St. Louis police. He was about forty years old at that\ntime, and had spent about twenty years in prison, and was then awaiting\ntrial on a serious charge. As he glanced over the morning paper, the\nheadline caught his eyes. Thinking that it was some jail news he began\nto read it.\n\n  --------\n    This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our\n    faith,--1 John 5:4.\n  --------\n\nGod used it to convict him, and a sense of his responsibility before\nGod rushed upon him. There in his cell at midnight he prayed for the\nfirst time in his life. On the following Sunday he talked with Christian\nfriends who held service in the jail, and was led into the light of the\ngospel. From that night he was a changed man. The sheriff thought he was\nplaying the \"pious dodge,\" and had no confidence in his professed\nconversion. But when he came to trial the case against him was not\npressed, and he escaped through some technicality.\n\n[Illustration: DWIGHT L. MOODY\n\nWho sent the Gospel through the daily press that fell into the hands of\nValentine Burke. He was always interested in the lost man.]\n\n\nUnexpected Good Fortune.\n\nFor some months after his release Burke tried to find work, but no one\nwould take him, knowing his past history. He thought perhaps it was\nbecause of his ugly face. He went to New York and was taken in by a\nmember of the police force, who knew him, and who told him he would\nshoot him dead if he abused his confidence.\n\nBeing unsuccessful in New York, he returned to St. Louis. One day this\nman who had realized what the \"enemy\" had done for his life received a\nmessage from the sheriff that he was wanted at the courthouse. He obeyed\nwith a heavy heart.\n\n  --------\n    Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver\n    thee.--Dan. 16:6.\n  --------\n\n\"Some old case they've got against me,\" he said, \"but if I'm guilty I'll\ntell them so; I've quit lying.\" The sheriff greeted him kindly.\n\n\"Where have you been Burke?\"\n\n\"In New York.\"\n\n\"What have you been doing there?\"\n\n\"Trying to find an honest job.\"\n\n\"Have you kept a good grip on the religion you told me about?\" inquired\nthe sheriff.\n\n\"Yes,\" answered Burke; \"I've had a hard time, sheriff, but I haven't\nlost my religion.\"\n\n\"Burke,\" said the sheriff, \"I have had you shadowed ever since you left\njail. I suspected your religion was a fraud, but I am convinced that you\nare sincere, as you have lived an honest life, and I have sent for you\nto offer you a deputyship under me. You can begin at once.\"\n\n  --------\n    Yea, he shall be holden up; for God is able to make him\n    stand.--Rom. 14:4.\n  --------\n\n\nTribute to Burke's Honesty.\n\nThis was in 1880. When Mr. Moody was preaching in Chicago in 1890,\nBurke, who had not been off duty for the ten years, came to see him.\nDuring all that time there had been many changes in the administration\nof the sheriff's office, and they had changed every deputy but him.\nFinally they appointed the ex-convict treasurer of the sheriff's\noffice. Mr. Moody preached in St. Louis again in 1895. A short time\nbefore his visit an evangelist was called away in the middle of the\nrevival meetings. The committee wanted Burke to come and preach in his\nabsence, but the sheriff said he had just levied on a jeweler's store\nand had not had time to take an inventory, and Burke was the man he\ncould trust to put in charge of it.\n\n[Illustration: VALENTINE BURKE\n\nFac-simile of photograph taken for the Rogues' Gallery.]\n\n[Illustration: VALENTINE BURKE\n\nFrom a photograph taken in 1887, seven years after his conversion]\n\nHe was held in such confidence by the police that they did a most\nunusual thing; they gave him a photograph they had of him in the Rogue's\nGallery. He had his photograph taken again in 1887, and in sending a\ncopy of this along with the original Rogue's Gallery photograph, to Mr.\nT. S. McPheeters of St. Louis, to show the change in his features, Burke\nwrote a note:\n\n\"Notice the difference in the inclosed pictures. See what our holy\nreligion can do for the chief of sinners.\" On the back of the Rogue's\nGallery photograph he wrote:\n\n\"He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of\nthe dunghill, that he may set him with the princes, even with the\nprinces of his people.\" (Ps. cxiii, 7, 8.)\n\n  --------\n    Buy the truth and sell it not, also wisdom and\n    instruction.--Prov. 23:23.\n  --------\n\nThis incident shows what the grace of God can do for a hardened sinner.\nNot only can it save him, but it can keep him. Valentine Burke lived an\nactive, consistent Christian life in the position until God called him\nhome in 1895.\n\n\nVisit to Nashville, Tenn., Prison\n\nMrs. Wilburn, of Nashville, writes of Mr. Herr's visit to the Nashville\nprison as follows: It was my great pleasure as we reached the door to\nfind Brother Herr, of Louisville, Ky., awaiting admission. It was\nraining, cold and dreary without, but he carried sunshine on the inside\nof the prison to the sad prisoners. The large chapel was filled with\neager listeners and he received a most hearty welcome and all were\ndelighted to see their true friend Brother Herr. It was indeed a sight\nto make angels rejoice to see how eagerly they drank in every word. I\nbelieve many darkened lives from whom all hope had fled were encouraged\nonce more to look up. Hundreds of faces grew brighter as he told with\nburning words how God had saved convicts steeped in many crimes, causing\njudges in different states to set them free; when they were told that\nJesus had blotted out their past and made new men of them. At the close\nof his sermon Brother Herr asked all who would pray when alone in their\ncells that Christ would save them too from the power of sin, and\ntransform their lives as He had others, to hold up their hands; as quick\nas a flash hundreds of hands white and colored were raised above their\nheads and, oh, how our hearts rejoiced as we saw the hope in so many\nlives. We are looking to God who giveth the increase to bless the seed\nsown in those sad hearts, and earnestly pray that when the great harvest\nday comes many of these men may testify that the sunshine of God's great\nlove entered their hearts on that dark dreary day in December.\n\n  --------\n    Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.--Isa. 52:11.\n  --------\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER SEVEN\n\nDOES PRISON WORK PAY?\n\n\nWho will ever know the vast number that attribute the first impulse to a\nbetter life, formed while in the seclusion of a prison cell--alone with\nGod.\n\nThe world will never know how many, when sitting in judgment upon\nthemselves, have learned the great secret that it takes an _Omnipotent\nPower_ to change the current of their lives, and give them deliverance\nfrom the power of sin, and enabling them to go forth not to live a new\npurpose, but a new life.\n\nMany of these unfortunate ones, not remaining criminals from choice, but\nbecause they have never known there was an antidote provided for the\ndeepest-dyed criminals, \"a scarlet atonement for a scarlet sin,\" whereby\nthe power of evil possessing them could be eradicated from their lives,\nand they no longer victims. While some do not seemingly heed the kindly\nadmonition given, yet we believe the promise of God will be fulfilled,\nthat \"His word will not return void,\" and some time--somewhere--the\nfruition of their hopes will be realized.\n\n  --------\n    Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand\n    against the wiles of the devil.--Eph. 6:11.\n  --------\n\n[Illustration: THE LATE COL. MAT. RAGLAND\n\nWho aided the Author in securing a pardon from Gov. Beckham for a young\nman who is now at the head of a great firm]\n\nIf Mr. A. could speak for himself when 14 years ago he bowed in his cell\nas a poor forlorn sinner, and surrendered himself to God, and has since\nbeen testifying of his saving grace; Mr. B., after leading a criminal\nlife for years, but when touched by the mighty power of God, came forth\nto become a preacher of the gospel, and has since been magnifying the\ngrace that brought his deliverance; Mr. C., a desponding infidel,\npersuaded to believe there was efficacy in prayer, and in the atoning\nblood of the Lord Jesus Christ; if the multitude of witnesses who have\nbeen saved through the faithfulness of prison workers were known, the\nverdict would be--_it pays_.\n\n                                 Louisville, Ky., February 15, 1912.\n\nDear Brother Herr:\n\nWhen you handed me your little book \"Lost and is Found\" I had no idea\nwhat a treasure you were placing in my hands. Undisturbed in my cell\ntonight I read it through and wished for more. I read it the second and\nthird time, and your sermon so impressed me I read it the fourth time,\n\n  --------\n    Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues\n    of life.--Proverbs 4:23.\n  --------\n\nBefore I wandered away from my mother's teaching and fell into my awful\nsin and disgrace, I had heard many sermons on the \"Prodigal Son,\" but\nnone that in such a convincing way drives home the awfulness of sin as\ndoes your description of this, to me, the dearest of Christ's parables.\n\nWhat I like about you most in all your talks with the prisoners is this,\nyou never show a man how bad he is or how low he has fallen without\nshowing him how good he can become or how high he may rise, and it's\nalways in a way that appeals to the heart of the man.\n\nGod grant that while under your influence and in the knowledge of \"your\nway back to Christ\" I and many of the lost ones within the prison may be\nable to throw off the shackles of sin and return to our Father's love.\n\nYour noble work among fallen men will never be known in its entirety in\nthis world, but in that to come God will surely number you among those\nwho have brought unto him a great harvest of precious souls.\n\nMay God bless you and your dear Christian wife in uplifting the fallen\nones, is the earnest prayer of one who desires your influence over the\nremainder of his life.\n\n                                     Yours for a better life,\n                                                        CURTIS.\n\n  --------\n    My foot standeth in an even place; in the congregation I will\n    bless the Lord.--Psalm 26:12.\n  --------\n\n                                    Louisville, Ky., Dec. 26, 1911.\n\n Rev. Geo. L. Herr,\n    Jefferson County Jail.\n\nDear Brother Herr:\n\nI want to thank you for the Christmas service which you held in the\nchapel yesterday afternoon.\n\nI was greatly helped in my own spirit and I was profoundly impressed\nwith the very evident influence of the occasion and your address upon\nthe hearts and spirits of all the other prisoners.\n\nMay God richly reward you in your labors of love for these people.\n\n                                           Faithfully yours,\n                                                           HENRY.\n\n\nThe Work of a Prison Evangelist\n\nBy Geo. Wm. Wood\n\n[From the Courier-Journal Nov. 17, 1912]\n\nTo the right-thinking man there can be but one answer to the question,\ndoes the work of an evangelist pay? As well might we ask does the\nbeautiful life of a true Christian pay? As well might we ask the farmer,\nas he carefully tills the soil and sows the seed and labors to\ncultivate the grain, does it pay? What answer would you expect from the\nshrewd business man of today should you ask him the question does it\npay, when he labors and advises to keep down expenses. He would promptly\nanswer in the affirmative. Let us bring the question closer home. Ask\nthe prisoner behind the bars, does it pay to respect the law? He will\nanswer yes. So for the question does the work of an evangelist pay\nbehind prison bars there can be but one answer--yes.\n\n  --------\n    Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly.--1\n    Ch. 19:13.\n  --------\n\nSitting tonight in our lonesome cell, bounded on three sides by blank\nand barren walls of steel, through our two-by-six door, constructed of\nmassive bars of iron, there comes to us the conversation of our fellow\nprisoners, as with head pressed close against the bars to catch the\nother fellow's words, we listen to the talk of the men \"committed for\ncrime\"--men strong and healthy, who should be engaged in some honest\nlabor, but, instead, are \"doing time\" for a broken law. We had no idea\nof the meaning of the words \"doing time\" until being placed behind these\nbars, we took up the daily life of a prisoner, and with nothing but\n\"time\" to look to, began the task of trying to be contented. We believe\nfrom our own past ideas of prison life that very few of the outside\nworld have any conception of what the prisoner's life really is, or\nwhat it means to be sentenced to a term in prison.\n\n  --------\n    No good thing will he withhold from them that walk\n    uprightly.--Psalm 84:11.\n  --------\n\n[Illustration: JEFFERSON COUNTY JAIL, LOUISVILLE, KY.\n\nMembers of the International Prison Congress pronounced this prison the\nmodel jail of the world.]\n\n\nJudge Does Not Understand.\n\nThe judge who pronounces sentence upon the evil and unfortunate knows as\nlittle of the meaning of the terms he uses in meting out punishment as\nthe mail clerk knows of the contents of the letters he handles at his\ndaily task. \"Danger\" conveys but little meaning to the mind of the\nengineer who has never had a wreck. By the standard of freedom, a day in\nprison is a year, and it is only those who mingle daily in our midst can\ntalk to the \"man behind the bars,\" who can have a fair idea of what the\nprisoner suffers daily in \"doing time.\" The world that lies beneath the\nbars is a strange world to the average citizen, the citizen blessed with\naverage good fortune. Prison life is a queer and twisted one, and a law\nto itself.\n\n  --------\n    Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of\n    Christ--Ph. 1:27.\n  --------\n\nBut to return to the prisoners' conversation, of which we spoke.\nVile--yes, dear reader, this word does not convey to you the full\nmeasure within the writer's mind. At times it seems that some have sunk\nso low that all conception of honor and truth have passed entirely away.\nNo reverence whatever for such words as \"mother, home or heaven\" left\nwithin their minds, for they are rendered entirely void of good thoughts\nor honest ideas, having been so long filled with the one thought--crime.\n\n\nPrison Record for Life.\n\nMen who started on their \"career of crime\" as mere boys, with years of\nyouth spent in reform schools only to be developed into men of crime,\nhave prison records to follow them through life. Many of these men feel\nthat they have lost all hope of any but the criminal's life. Many of\nthem have been forsaken by family and friends. So to the man or woman\nwho is at all interested in the uplift of his fellow man, can you think\nof any field where the labor of an evangelist is more needed than it is\namong the men we have attempted to describe to you?\n\n  --------\n    Stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong--1\n    Corinthians 16:13.\n  --------\n\nThen there is the paramount reason why the evangelist is needed. Men who\nwould not on the outside of prison give one minute of their time to\nlisten to the evangelist as he tried to persuade them to take a new\nlease on life let him engage their attention by the hour as he shows\nthem the error of their way and points them to a better life. There are\nthose that listen to his talk and turn away in scorn to ridicule his\nteaching. But as the days follow on, and the newness of the prison life\nbegins to wear away, they listen with more respect to the \"man of God.\"\n\n[Illustration: THE LATE HON. J. C. BOHART\n\nof Chicago, one of the Author's main supporters while living in Chicago,\nIll.]\n\nWe have seen men behind the bars who never before bent their knee in\nprayer. After listening to the evangelist's story of God and his love,\nthey go to their cells, and upon bended knees, beg for mercy and help.\n\nBrother George L. Herr has taken the word of the Master into many of the\nprisons of the United States, but the jails and penitentiaries of his\nnative State of Kentucky have claimed much of his time and attention. We\nmust confess when first coming in contact with him, our feeling against\nhim was bitter, we did not want his friendship nor his help, only\nbecause we were angered by his denouncing our pet sins. But as days\nlengthened into weeks, and weeks into months, the truth of his kindly\nspoken words came home to us. Life was stripped of all its so-called\npleasure, with nothing but its disgrace and shame left to mock us,\nhaving sold out to the \"demon of crime.\"\n\n  --------\n    Why art thou cast down? Hope thou in God.--Psalm 42:5.\n  --------\n\nThen we began to feel the need of his wise counsel and to realize the\ngood of having him among us. He was always ready and willing to help\neach and every man, not only with advice and counsel, but in so many\nsubstantial ways, trying to lighten the prisoner's burden and make his\nlife better and brighter.\n\nHe has also devoted part of his time to writing books. Those we call to\nmind are \"Light in Dark Places,\" \"You Are My Prisoners,\" \"The Life\nLine,\" \"Man's Worst Enemy,\" \"Nothing Better,\" \"The Missionary,\" \"The\nBethel,\" \"Lost and is Found,\" \"A Glorious Rescue,\" and his new book,\n\"The Nation Behind Prison Bars,\" soon to be brought out. Hundreds of\nthousands of these books have been sent broadcast over the world, and\nthrough them great good has been accomplished. Well might he be called\nthe \"Prisoner's Friend,\" for his desire to aid each and every man gives\nto him this well-earned title.\n\nFull of generosity, kind far beyond the ordinary meaning of the word,\nalways ready to forgive the aggressor and to forget the offense, he wins\nhis way into the hearts of wicked and violent men in a manner that makes\nthem his lasting friends, and turns their words of condemnation into\nwords of praise.\n\n  --------\n    He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that\n    believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God\n    abideth on him.--John 3:36.\n  --------\n\nWe fancy, as we write tonight, while, for the moment, the stillness of\ndeath has fallen upon the entire prison, we can hear his voice, as it\nrings out in righteous indignation, through the prison corridors,\ncalling some man to account for his vile language or his taking in vain\nthe name of God.\n\n\nWorks Without Pay.\n\nIf you were to ask a prisoner to what church Brother Herr belongs he\nwould no doubt plead ignorance, as no faith nor creed is known in his\nwork among the men. He makes no distinction between chapel-goers and\nnon-attendants, and will do a favor for the worst man in prison as\nreadily as for the leader of the chapel quartet; but ask the same\nprisoner, \"Who is it that speaks to judge and the warden about the sick\nmother who longs to see her imprisoned son before she dies? Ask him.\n\nWho pleads with the Governor?\n\nWho tries to soften the heart of the prosecutor?\n\nWho provides shoes and clothing for the poor prisoners?\n\nWhat unpaid messenger runs the errands of the prisoners?\n\nWho reconciles the erring son in prison with his mother and father?\n\nHe will answer, \"Brother Herr.\"\n\n  --------\n    I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.--Psalm 101:2.\n  --------\n\nNow, the average prisoner may be deficient in the matter of mental\nbalance, but he is not an imbecile. He is a better judge of character\nand a keener observer than the more honest and commonplace fellow man.\nBy the same keen powers of observation that belong to the criminal type,\nhe notes that Brother Herr differs from many other prison evangelists,\nfor he helps without asking questions. He has no theory or dogma to\nexploit, and he labors for the uplift of humanity.\n\n\nTribute to Jailer.\n\nMuch that we have written of this great work was made possible by Jailer\nJohn R. Pflanz, who for the past twelve years has been at the head of\nthe Jefferson County jail. He is constantly laboring to better the\nconditions of the prisoners and give to the people an honest\nadministration and progressive system of prison management.\n\nTo him Louisville and Jefferson County owe a great deal for the good\nwork accomplished among the criminals. Brother Herr says:\n\n  --------\n    Deal courageously, and the Lord shall be with the good.--2 Ch.\n    19:11.\n  --------\n\n\"If such men as John R. Pflanz, of Louisville; John L. Whittman, of\nChicago; Co. E. E. Mudd, of Frankfort, and Col. Dan Bartley, of\nCincinnati, were placed in office for life the criminal world would\ngreatly decrease every year, instead of being on the increase.\"\n\n[Illustration: HON. JOHN R. PFLANZ\n\nJailer of Jefferson County. A friend of the unfortunate.]\n\nWe have never heard of any prisoner complain of unjust treatment by him,\nbut on the other hand, many are the unfortunate men who leave this\nprison to take their places in business again, because of assistance\ngiven them by Mr. Pflanz.\n\nHis regular rounds through the entire prison are always hailed with\ndelight by the prisoners, as he is ever ready to hear their complaints\nand remedy any existing evil. He listens to all the appeals for help by\nthe prisoners and leaves no unfulfilled promises.\n\nHis personal inspection of the \"cell-house\" and inquiries about the\nhealth and general welfare of all the prisoners, make him always a\nwelcome visitor among the men.\n\nMr. Pflanz's desire to change the criminal into a respected citizen and\nthe assistance he gives to bring about this result proves his thorough\nunderstanding, brought about by years of study and personal contact, of\nhow to deal with this class of our citizenship.\n\n  --------\n    Be strong and of a good courage; for the Lord thy God is with\n    thee whithersoever thou goest.--Joshua 1:9.\n  --------\n\n\nYoutsey, Kentucky's Famous Prisoner\n\n[Louisville Herald]\n\nHenry E. Youtsey, sentenced to life imprisonment in the penitentiary for\nhis complicity in the murder of Governor Goebel, and at the present time\nthe most distinguished prisoner confined behind the cold, gray walls of\nthe State prison at Frankfort, has at last \"got religion.\"\n\nThe man who has succeeded in reaching the heart of this man whose name\nemblazened the front pages of newspapers from coast to coast almost ten\nyears ago, is the Louisville prison evangelist, the Rev. George L. Herr.\nThe medium he employed was a little pamphlet containing the simple story\nof the reformation of one Dad O'Brien, an erstwhile scalawag who was\nfinally converted to a new life.\n\n  --------\n    As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our\n    transgressions from us.--Psalm 103:11.\n  --------\n\nRev. Herr, who has carried the gospel into the cells of many a poor,\ncrime-stained wretch, not only here in Louisville, but in every\nprison-house in the country and has accomplished a great amount of good\namong the outcasts of society, recently received a letter dated October\n16, 1909, which reads:\n\n\"I am delighted to learn that you visited all the cells today and left\nin each one the tract, 'How Dad O'Brien Became Converted.' I have read\nit, and it is simply an additional evidence of a truth that has long\nbeen known to sincere evangelists like yourself to the effect that no\nmatter how hardened and steeped in sin a poor fellow may be, the love of\nGod can win him and Jesus can save him, and he can start life anew,\nsinging praises to his Redeemer, and winning the lives of his old\ncompanions for the Master. I believe that the happiness of O'Brien's\nlatter years more than made up for all he suffered--for he enjoyed a\nportion of the most glorious life that could be lived here below. When\nyou get into heaven, as you surely will, Dad O'Brien will be the\nbrightest star in your crown. Yours most sincerely,\n\n                                                 HENRY E. YOUTSEY.\"\n\n\nPractical Religious Work in County Jail\n\nDear Brother Herr:\n\nWhenever I think of my confinement in the Louisville jail, a picture\narises before me in which I can clearly see in the main corridor in the\nbuilding, down the center of which extended a long table covered with a\nsnowy cloth, and then in charge of the Hon. John R. Pflanz, than whom\nthere never was a kinder-hearted jailer in all the world.\n\n  --------\n    Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and\n    I will receive you.--2 Cor. 6:12.\n  --------\n\nBut that table and its delicious burden: Turkey after turkey, four of\nwhich weighed more than twenty-five pounds each, with all the trimmings,\nincluding dressing, cranberry sauce, etc. There were oysters fried, and\noyster soup, with crackers and celery. And what an array of cakes! As I\nremember, there were chocolate and caramel, layer and black ones, in\nshort, almost every kind of cakes and pies known to the culinary art.\nThen there were bushels of oranges, apples and mixed nuts, and for a\ntime all of us forgot about stone walls and iron bars, for what a merry\ntime we did have discussing that repast!\n\n  --------\n    For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,\n    that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have\n    everlasting life.--John 3:16.\n  --------\n\nWhence came all of those good things? Why, the little man who has so\noften walked a square or two further in the rain to buy one banana more\nfor a nickel for some poor prisoner, and who has worn out more\nshoe-leather in helping unfortunate men in durance vile than any other\nman in Kentucky: the Rev. Geo. L. Herr, affectionately called \"The\nLittle Missionary,\" made personal calls on the wealthy and charitable\nmerchants in the city of Louisville, soliciting this food and dinner in\nthe name of humanity, and may God richly bless all those who helped him\nmake it such a grand success.\n\n                                                HENRY E. YOUTSEY.\n\n\nPraise for Prison Evangelist\n\n[Courier-Journal]\n\nTo the tributes that have been paid to the Rev. George Herr, after\nfilling the pulpit of the Clifton Baptist church, of Louisville, the\nRev. James A. Clark yesterday added a testimonial, in which he praised\nthe prison evangelist for work which he considers \"little short of\nwonderful.\"\n\n\"It gives me pleasure to add my testimonial to the many I have seen\nconcerning the work of the Rev. George Herr as prison evangelist,\" says\nthe Clifton Baptist church pastor. \"Three times I have heard him tell\nthe simple gospel story of Jesus and his love. He has a message few\npreachers have, and tells it with power and effect. He has a message the\nworld needs to hear, because it is an example of the power of God to\nsave to the uttermost.\n\n  --------\n    My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.--Prov. 1:10.\n  --------\n\n\"Mr. Herr has had a wonderful, but costly experience, which fits him\npeculiarly for the special work among prisoners. From a wealthy man,\nliving in a mansion, sin blindly led him to poverty, robbed him of his\nmoney, property and friends; but God came into his life and now he\nrejoices that he is a child of the King.\n\n\"George Herr is doing a work little short of wonderful. He deserves the\nco-operation of the Christian brotherhood, and I take pleasure in\ncommending him.\"\n\n\nSermon in State Prison\n\nRev. Jos. Severance, Chaplain, says in the Courier-Journal:\n\nOne of the most remarkable meetings in the annals of the prison was held\nin the chapel of the penitentiary at Frankfort, Ky., Sunday morning.\nGeorge L. Herr, of Louisville, a friend of Chaplain Severance, was\npresent and spoke from the fourth and twelfth verses of the 103rd Psalm.\nThe sermon was a strong appeal to the men for gratitude to God for the\nrich provision for the redemption of the race and urging them to accept\nthe mercy of God and allow him to remove their sins from them \"as far\nas the East is from the West.\" The chapel was crowded to the doors, and\nduring the sermon that lasted for an hoar no one moved and none went\nout.\n\n  --------\n    My feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped.--Psalm\n    73:2.\n  --------\n\nAt the close of the sermon the gospel invitation was given and a total\nof forty-two men came forward, some to confess faith in Christ (of these\nthere were thirty-seven) and others to renew their vows. Hundreds asked\nfor prayer in their behalf. Among those who came were some of the\nhardest men in the prison and more noted for insubordination and\ndisobedience than for piety and morality.\n\nBut the Chaplain believes that the per cent. of those who remain true is\nas great among prisoners as among those outside.\n\nBro. Herr knows the prison work as few men do. He is a man of large\nsympathy, and having had an experience of fifteen years as an evangelist\nknows how to reach the hearts of the men. He has the entire confidence\nof both prisoners and officials and is always given a most hearty\nwelcome by all.\n\nThe baptism of the thirty-seven men who made confession Sunday will be\nattended to next Sunday morning. Mr. Herr will return to the baptism.\n\n  --------\n    Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my\n    brethren, ye have done it unto me.--Matt. 25:40.\n  --------\n\n\nRevival Stirs Up Inmates\n\n[Courier-Journal]\n\nThe Rev. George L. Herr preached yesterday at the Frankfort penitentiary\nfor the Rev. Joseph Severance, who was filling another engagement.\nSeveral hundred men and women asked for prayer, and fourteen confessed\nChrist and were baptized in the prison pool in the afternoon by the\nchaplain, assisted by the Rev. C. R. Hudson and the Rev. Herr, prison\nevangelist.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe prisoners in the Frankfort penitentiary were again blessed by a\nvisit from Bro. Geo. L. Herr, the Louisville prison evangelist, who came\nunexpectedly to us. It was doubly fortunate, for the reason that Bro.\nJos. Severance, the chaplain, was absent from the city and therefore\ncould not fill his appointment.\n\n  --------\n    He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth\n    not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the\n    name of the only begotten Son of God.--John 3:18.\n  --------\n\nBro. Herr read that most beautiful 37th Psalm, which is replete with\ncomfort for those who are in dire distress and in need of consolation,\nplacing special emphasis on those passages which teach patience and\nfaith in \"The God who is mighty to save and strong to deliver.\"\n\nBro. Herr never fails to extend the invitation of the gospel; in fact,\nthat is his strong point, and is recognized by him to be the most\nimportant part of his work as an evangelist. His labor was rewarded, as\nhe won eight souls for our Lord and Saviour.\n\nThe following representatives, members of the present General Assembly,\nwere present at the morning services: W. H. Jones, Princeton, Ky.; John\nT. Shanklin, Johnson, Ky.; W. A. B. Davis, Mt. Vernon, Ky.; Albert\nButler. These gentlemen have been coming regularly, which proves that\nthey are interested in our welfare, and also devoted to the church\nservices. We are always proud of their presence, and invite all their\ncolleagues.\n\nAt the afternoon Christian Endeavor service, Bro. Herr made an\nextemporaneous address in which he revealed the secret of his wonderful\nsuccess as a soul-winner, which the writer would call unlimited charity,\nand inexhaustible brotherly love; the love that always instantly\nforgives, and as quickly extends a hand to help a fallen brother rise.\n\nThe eulogy he paid his wife, whom he acknowledged to be the inspiration\nto his life, was most beautiful. At this service he won five more souls\nfor his hire, making thirteen for the day. HENRY E. YOUTSEY.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER EIGHT\n\nA MAN OF HONOR\n\n\nFor several years I have been deeply interested in the men confined in\nthe prison, and in the betterment of their condition. Each time I held\nservice in the prison I came in contact with, and was very much\nencouraged and assisted by the warden's great kindness. He did much to\nimprove the conditions of life within the prison walls. G. L. H.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n[Evening Post.]\n\nFRANKFORT, Ky., Jan. 23.--The body of Edward E. Mudd, late warden of the\nFrankfort State Reformatory, who died yesterday morning, was taken this\nmorning to his former home at Glendale, in Hardin County, where it will\nbe buried this afternoon.\n\nYesterday afternoon the body lay in state in the prison chapel and was\nviewed by 1,300 convicts.\n\n  --------\n    My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.--Prov. 1:10.\n  --------\n\nFive floral designs were sent from the penitentiary. The guards and the\ndeputy wardens and the clerks sent two, a few of the \"trusties\" sent\nanother, and the white prisoners and the colored prisoners each sent a\ndesign. These latter were paid for in 5 and 10-cent contributions.\n\nThe Prison Commission, which is in session, ordered flowers sent from\nLouisville, and adopted the following resolution:\n\n\"Resolved, That in the death of Edward E. Mudd, warden of the State\nReformatory at Frankfort, the State of Kentucky has lost a valuable\npublic official, and the prison has been deprived of an ideal executive.\n\n\"His long experience in prison work had supplemented his natural\nability, with the result that he brought to a difficult task a trained\nmind and an admirable judgment. He was firm without being severe; gentle\nwithout being weak; with a heart full of kindness for the unfortunates\nunder his control.\n\n\"The Board of Prison Commissioners recognized his worth; had the fullest\nappreciation of his manliness, his integrity and his devotion to duty.\nThey sought his advice on all important matters, and in his demise they\nrealize that the State has sustained an irreparable loss. The sincere\nsympathy of the board is hereby extended to his bereaved wife and\nchildren.\"\n\nUntil a successor to Warden Mudd is appointed one of the commissioners\nwill be constantly in Frankfort.\n\n  --------\n    Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more.--Jno. 8:11.\n  --------\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER NINE\n\nJIM O'BRIEN: MODERN MIRACLE\n\nBy George L. Herr\n\n\nSeveral years ago I met in the Jefferson County jail, Louisville, Ky.,\n\"Dad O'Brien,\" one of the worst criminals I have ever known. Fifty odd\nyears of age, forty years a thief and twenty-five years behind the bars.\nThe sentence in the jail was a light one--one year and a half--for\nhaving received stolen property, but he had stolen from one to tens of\nthousands. He was son of a prominent physician of Cincinnati, for twenty\nyears professor of anatomy in the Ohio Medical College. He began by\nstealing from his mother's purse and then, when punished by his father,\nwould steal his father's instruments and sell them for revenge. His\nfather, being a very stern man, drove \"Billy\" from home, and the night\ncame on with no place to go.\n\n  --------\n    Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and\n    believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall\n    not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto\n    life.--John 5:24.\n  --------\n\nHe led a low, degraded life, and was finally arrested and sentenced to\nserve ten years in the Columbus penitentiary. When he was about to serve\nhis first sentence--which seemed to him a lifetime--a young lady, an old\nschoolmate and who had been visiting him in jail, proposed marriage to\nhim, so she could have the right to visit him in Columbus and provide\nhim with the comforts of life, as far as possible. She was a girl of\nmeans, and he was stunned by the proposal. For, he said, he had not\nthought of such a thing as a wife. But he told her to come back the next\nday and he would let her know. She did, and he accepted and they were\nmarried on the eve of his leaving for the penitentiary. He only served\npart of the sentence, and when released went to the home of the girl and\nbegan life in a new way, only to fall in the old rut in a short time. He\nkept up his criminal life for years.\n\n  --------\n    \"But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them\n    snared in holes, are for a prey, and none delivereth: for a\n    spoil, and none saith, Restore. Who among you will give ear to\n    this? Who will harken and hear for the time to come?\"--Isaiah\n    42:22.\n  --------\n\nThe good wife died, and after her death he became one of the most\nnotorious bank robbers in this country. While in the county jail at\nLouisville, Ky., Dad's friends were standing nobly by him. He had plenty\nof money sewed in his clothes to meet his every need. I tried hard to\nreach him, but he was determined not to have anything to do with a \"Sky\nPilot,\" as he called me. The first time I spoke to him he almost spit in\nmy face, but that never daunted me. I was more determined to win him. I\nsaw he was a diamond in the rough. He had a bright mind, a man filled\nwith history.\n\nWhile in prison in Louisville, Ky., he became interested, and determined\nto quit the old life. After this determination he immediately wrote his\nintentions to his old pals on the outside, and told them not to send him\nany more money, for he was done with that life. They told him he was a\nfool and had gone crazy, and everything else they could think of.\n\nBut he was that kind, when he made up his mind to do a thing he did it.\n\n  --------\n    The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our\n    refuge.--Psalm 46:7.\n  --------\n\nThen it was my opportunity for the practical side of Christianity, for I\nbelieve in that side. His clean laundry must be supplied, extra food\nthat his old companions had been having sent in from the restaurants\nmust now be brought by the missionary from home. Many are the baskets of\nfood I have carried from my cottage home to this man. But the time was\ncoming when he was to be released and nowhere to go, and that was the\nthing that seemed to trouble him most.\n\nI said: \"Never mind, 'Dad,' when you get out of this prison-house come\nto my home, I'll take care of you and help you to a good life.\" Well,\none night, at about 8 o'clock he knocked on the door. How glad wife and\nI were to see him! He often said, \"How warm the fire looks and how\nhome-like to see you all sitting around.\" We gave him a good warm\nsupper, a good bed, the best room in the house, but that was not all he\nneeded. The next day was the beginning of the real battle. The\ndetectives were hounding him. But to keep them from rearresting him we\nsent him across the river until we could plead with the officers to give\nthis man another chance. We believe had it not been for the great\ninterest taken by John R. Pflanz, the jailer, at this time for this man,\nthat he would have died in a cell in some far Eastern prison. He said,\n\"What's the use? Let me alone; there is only one thing for me and that\nis to go back to the old life.\" We said, \"'D,' we'll see you through.\"\n\n  --------\n    I know not how to go.--1 Kings 3:7.\n  --------\n\nAll this time we were trying to find employment for him. All this time\nhe was growing impatient and would say: \"A great big husky fellow like\nme laying around on a little man like Brother Herr.\" He weighed about\n190 pounds, but we would encourage him by saying, \"Well, Dad, you know\nGod's people have all things in common, and he knows you are here, and\nwhen he sends to us he sends it for you as well.\"\n\nOne day when we were talking, he said: \"Brother Herr, those old charges\nin Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburg, Cincinnati and New York are hanging\nover me and I must face them.\"\n\nWe said, \"Well, Dad, if you have made up your mind you would rather live\nfor God behind the bars than to live for the devil on the outside or the\ninside, God will see you through. Go and face these charges, and if you\nmean business, God will take care of you.\"\n\n  --------\n    I will guide thee.--Ps. 32:8.\n  --------\n\nHe went first to St. Louis and told the judge on the bench that he had\nquit the old life forever. They looked at him, and even those who were\nhis bitter enemies, said, \"Give him another chance; go and be a man and\nwe will help you.\" He came back to our home from St. Louis, stayed a few\nweeks and started for the other charges, encouraged by the last trip. He\nwent to Chicago first, and they told him the same thing there; then he\nwent to Cincinnati, then to Pittsburg, and they said, \"Dad, if you mean\nbusiness you shall have a chance.\" Then he went to New York where he\nand three other men had robbed a bank of $175,000. When he went in to\nsee the New York people they did not know him. He had been living a\nChristian life for several months. Salvation changes the looks of a man,\nand takes away the hard lines and softens the eye; and when he told them\nwho he was, they said: \"My God! where did you come from and what are you\ndoing here?\"\n\nHe told these gentlemen what had taken place in his life, and of his\ndetermination for the future. Said one wealthy man, \"Well, Dad, go on\nyour way and may God be with you and help you.\"\n\n  --------\n    Fear thou not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy\n    God. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee.--Is. 41:10.\n  --------\n\nHe went on a hunt for the old friend \"Hinky Dink\" down in the first\nward. \"Hinky Dink\" saw him, paid for a week's lodging at the Mills\nHotel, and gave him money for meals each day. Finally one day \"Hinky\nDink\" and Dad, standing in the front of his (Hinky Dink's) saloon,\ncalled \"the workingmen's bar,\" where they line up by the fifties at a\ntime, looking in, \"Hinky Dink\" said, \"Dad, you are worth $18 a week to\nme behind that bar.\" Dad said, \"Me? Not me for $1,800 a week. I am a\nChristian, I have quit all that, never to return again.\" \"Hinky Dink\"\nsaid: \"Well, what do you want, anyhow?\" Dad said: \"I want to go to\nCincinnati to the Holiness camp meeting.\" \"Hinky Dink\" said, \"Where?\"\n(this being all Greek to him), as it was not in his line, he knew.\n\n\"Dad\" repeated what he had said, and \"Hinky Dink\" said: \"Come right over\nhere and I'll buy you a ticket.\" He took him over to the railroad\noffice, and bought him a limited ticket to Cincinnati. Dad said, when\ntelling us, \"He thought he was shipping me in the quickest way possible,\nbut it was the Lord taking care of 'Old Dad,' and sending him in\nfirst-class style.\"\n\nAgain he came back to our home, stayed several weeks, then we got him\n$20 worth of religious books to travel around to the camp meetings to\nsell, and to tell his experience, for the people were eager to hear this\nwonderful experience of God's transforming power, wherever he went. We\nstarted him off, and he soon felt his call to preach the gospel. He was\nordained in Indianapolis in 1905, and preached up and down the land,\nwinning lost men and women for Jesus. His life was a miracle of what\nGod's grace can do. He married a fine Christian woman, who was a great\nhelp to him in his work.\n\nIn the fall of 1908 he died a triumphant death, leaving a glorious\ntestimony behind.\n\n\nJim O'Brien Passes Away\n\nThe Courier-Journal republishes herewith from the Indianapolis Herald an\neditorial by the Rev. George E. Bueler, pastor of the Methodist\nEpiscopal church, Indianapolis, Ind.:\n\n\"The Rev. William H. Frazier, alias Jim O'Brien,\" died at Indianapolis\non Monday, October 30, 1908.\n\n\"At an early age Frazier began associating with bad boys on the streets\nof Cincinnati and of course was soon drawn into sin. At the age of 14 he\nbegan stealing, at first on a small scale, and increasing with the years\nuntil he became one of the most daring and successful bank robbers known\nin America. He was arrested and in prison many times, but when at\nliberty he drifted back into crime again. For forty years he was a\ncriminal; of that time twenty-three years and six months was spent\nbehind prison bars. Although he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars\nhe was released from prison the last time in Louisville with only $2.40\nleft. What wages for forty years in the service of Satan! While\nincarcerated in the Jefferson County jail, at Louisville, Ky.,\nMissionary George L. Herr found this wretched man and through many\nmonths of persistent effort found a way to his heart. At first the\nmissionary was met with curses and abuses, but love conquered, and the\nresult was Jim's conversion, a miracle indeed, for, from that time in\nJanuary, 1903, \"Dad,\" as he was known, lived a godly life and retrieved\nfor the past by telling everywhere he went his life story, showing forth\nthe glory of God's redeeming grace. No one knew better than Bro. Frazier\nwhat it meant for a man to be released from prison and again face the\nworld. With the disgrace and odium upon him it is well nigh impossible\nfor him to find honest employment, for no one knowing him to be an\nexconvict wants him in their employ, the temptation to return to the old\nlife is strong. With this in view he began making homes for such men in\nlarge cities. While Bro. Frazier was working and starting a home in\nCincinnati he was made prison chaplain for the entire city. During the\npast summer he and his wife came to Indianapolis. While here his\nphysical condition gave way; he knew his end was near. To those who\nwaited on him in his last hours he constantly affirmed his faith in God\nand passed peacefully away. The funeral was conducted by the Revs.\nParker, Stevens and Bueler, with special singing by Mr. Maxwell, Mrs.\nBueler and Mrs. Nelson. All who want a more complete account of this\nwonderful life should read his book, \"From Crime to Christ.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER TEN\n\nCOLUMBUS OHIO PRISON\n\n[Ohio Penitentiary News]\n\n\nThe Rev. George L. Herr, prison evangelist, returned yesterday from St.\nLouis, where he went in the interest of the men \"behind the bars.\" The\nRev. Mr. Herr also had a delightful visit with his son, of St. Louis.\nMr. Herr, on his return home, received the following letter from the\nRev. D. J. Starr, D.D., chaplain at Columbus, O., penitentiary:\n\nDear Brother: I thank you for your letter informing me that you will\nspend Sunday, March 8, with us at this prison. We intend to make good\nuse of you for the Master's cause. We will wish you, unless it will\nweary you to do so, to speak to our Sunday-school at 8 o'clock; address\nthe prayer meeting at 9 o'clock; preach in chapel at 10 o'clock; attend\nFemale Bible class and talk at 3 p.m., and men's Bible class at 7 p.m.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  --------\n    \"I was in prison, and ye came unto me.\"--Matt. 25:36.\n  --------\n\nThe Courier-Journal republishes herewith from the Ohio Penitentiary News\nan editorial by the Rev. D. J. Starr, D.D., chaplain at the Columbus,\nO., prison:\n\n\"The Rev. George L. Herr, whose address delivered in our chapel last\nSunday morning was charmingly refreshing, is a man whose vicissitudes of\nlife lead through a labyrinth that would require a half century of years\nto make its journey at an ordinary pace. But George L. Herr is not the\nman to do anything in an ordinary way. The itinerary of his life shows\nfew curves--mostly acute angles. He was born in an old Kentucky family\nof the city of Louisville. His ancestral stock was golden, and his\ninfancy was fed with a golden spoon on sugar and cream. When he was\nthree months old his Christian mother went to be with God. When he was\n18 years old his father, Richard S. Herr, a capitalist of Louisville,\ndied and left George the heir of a large patrimony.\n\n\"The orphan was genial, sportive, rich and without domestic restraint.\nMen seized the opportunity to take advantage of his tendencies and youth\nto filch from him his wealth. He yielded, and threw on the neck of\nappetite the slackened rein and became woefully dissipated. He mounted\nthe toboggan and went down the slide, landing in a few years in the\ngulch of destitution and near the precipice of suicide.\n\n  --------\n    Teach me thy way, O Lord.--Ps. 86:11.\n  --------\n\n\"Here in destitution and despair on the day after Christmas, 1893, the\nRev. S. P. Holcombe, of Louisville, found the prodigal and led him into\nthe Union Gospel Mission, where he sought and came to know God as a\npersonal Saviour. What a change! New bottles for the new wine of the\nSpirit! As language cannot picture the degradation of the prodigal,\nneither can it picture the exaltation of the son restored to the Father.\nGeorge was as whole-hearted in his new life as in his old. He had beauty\nfor ashes and a spirit of praise instead of heaviness. After nearly five\nyears of the new life George L. Herr, in the city of his fall and his\nrecovery, was married by the Rev. Dr. Carter H. Jones, pastor of\nBroadway Baptist Church, to Miss Lillie M. Joyce. George says that if a\nman ever outmarried himself he's the man. He says God gave him this\npriceless treasure of a Christian wife in answer to prayer. Those who\nknow Mrs. Herr speak of her as sweet-spirited, noble, devout, gifted in\nsong and speech and one in spirit with her husband in the work of saving\nthose who are out of the way. Their home is filled with the aroma of\ngrace and their united lives are spent in doing good. How wonderfully\nGod fulfills His ancient promise to present-day prodigals: 'As ye were a\ncurse, so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing.'\"\n\n\n                The Big Ohio \"Pen\" Week by Week\n\n        Weekly Budget of Personal, Local and Other Newsbits.\n\n                   To-morrow in the Chapel.\n\n  Sunday School                                     8 A.M.\n  Prayer Meeting                                    9 A.M.\n  The Great Congregation                           10 A.M.\n  Entry March                                         Band\n                (Thomas McCaskie, Leader.)\n  Gloria Patri                         Entire Congregation\n      (Directed by Choirmaster Prof. J. H. Chavers.)\n\n                       Invocation.\n\n  Songs                               By Miss Luale Bethel\n\n                    \"A Rose in Heaven.\"\n                     \"Life's Lullaby.\"\n\n                  First Scripture Lesson.\n\n  Anthem                                             Choir\n  Morning Prayer                                  Chaplain\n  Lord's Prayer                          Response by Choir\n\n                  Second Scripture Lesson.\n\n  Hymn No. 3                                         Choir\n\n                    \"Within Thy Courts.\"\n\n  Sermon                               Rev. George L. Herr\n  Hymn No. 355                                       Choir\n\n                         \"Calvary.\"\n\n            Doxology.                Benediction.\n\n    Band.                  March.                 Exit.\n\n\nChapel Services\n\nIn the Bible-school at 8 o'clock through the doorway of life beyond,\nwhich Christ left open that men might both look in and go in, the 300\nstudents saw some of the things that \"God hath prepared for them that\nlove Him.\" The germinal thoughts of John 14:1-14 are that heaven is a\nplace--a roomy place, a prepared place, a place where the Lord abides\nand where he will have his prepared people to abide with him. And that\nin this doctrine is the cure for human sorrow. \"Let not your heart be\ntroubled * * believe.\"\n\nAt the 9 o'clock meeting the quotation of Scripture verses appeared like\napples of gold in pictures of silver. Rev. George L. Herr was introduced\nand the hearts of hearers beat warm under their jackets as the speaker\nsang and talked to them of Jesus and His love. It was good to be there.\n\nThe Great Congregation gathered at 10 o'clock and was welcomed with the\nstirring notes of the band men. The many voices lifted in the chant,\n\"Gloria Patri,\" showed how grand the effect would be if all would join\nin the song. Why not all?\n\n  --------\n    Give me understanding.--Ps. 119:34.\n  --------\n\n\"A Rose in Heaven,\" and \"Life's Lullaby,\" were admirably sung by Miss\nLucile Bethel with her sister Miss Bethel as accompanist at the piano.\nThe anthem, \"Ashamed of Jesus? Never, No Never,\" was sung by the choir\nas the author of the song might have wished to hear it rendered.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThat old story of the prodigal son was the subject on which Rev. George\nL. Herr of Louisville, Ky., preached to the inmates of the penitentiary\nSunday morning in the chapel, but it was the twentieth century prodigal\nwho formed his main theme.\n\nMr. Herr is known all over the country as the prison missionary. He has\nall the vivacity and warmth of the Southerner. He illuminated the old\nparable with the story of his descent from the position of a son of a\nwealthy Kentucky home, possessing a large estate, to the destitution of\na linen duster for a December coat, and from a seat in a Pullman to\nriding the bumpers of a cattle train. That was his condition sixteen\nyears ago. The men enjoyed the object lesson and cheered the moral\nheroism evinced in the life-story of the missionary.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  --------\n    I am understanding.--Prov. 8:14.\n  --------\n\nThe Courier-Journal republishes herewith from the Evangel an editorial\nby the Rev. L. B. Haines at Columbus, O.:\n\n\"The editors of the Evangel were pleased to meet Mr. George L. Herr\nwhile in Columbus a few days ago. He addressed the prisoners at the Ohio\npenitentiary and was heartily received by all who heard him. He is doing\na noble work in the prisons all over our country. We spent a pleasant\nafternoon together, visiting the sick in the prison hospital, and we\nbelieve God blessed the seed sown. The Evangel wishes him and his dear\nwife God speed in their self-sacrificing efforts for the lost. We take\ngreat pleasure in calling the attention of the readers of the Evangel to\nHerr's new book entitled \"The Nation Behind Prison Bars,\" a notice of\nwhich you will find on another page of this issue.--Eds.\"\n\n  --------\n    For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,\n    that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have\n    everlasting life.--Jno. 3:16.\n  --------\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER ELEVEN\n\nINCONTESTABLE PROOF\n\nOUR MOTTO:\n\n\"Seeking the Lost.\"\n\n\"Helping the Helpless to Help Themselves.\"\n\nJAILER PFLANZ PAYS A HIGH COMPLIMENT TO EVANGELIST GEO. L. HERR\n\n                                      Louisville, Ky., March 12, 1901.\n\nMr. Geo. L. Herr,\n\nDear Sir: I have recently been asked by several persons on different\noccasions if I thought much good could come out of the rescue work done\nat the county jail. In every instance I would answer \"yes.\" A great deal\nof good is done through the Christian workers, and especially by you,\nwho not only give your time and attention to this work, preaching the\ngospel on the Sabbath, but on every day of your life doing everything in\nyour power to lighten the burden of the unfortunates confined in the\njail.\n\n  --------\n    My glad heart says in the language of the Psalmist: \"Bless the\n    Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.\"\n  --------\n\n[Illustration: REV. C. S. HANLEY\n\nPresident of International Federation of Christian Workers, by whom we\nwere ordained in Chicago, Ill., in 1907.]\n\nI have known prisoners of all classes look forward to your arrival each\nday with gladness, knowing that if you did not have something to\ndistribute among them you would give them a cheery good morning.\n\nAs a rule you always have something to give them, which gladden their\nhearts and make them think better of our harsh world, wherein they are\nbuffeted around like so many things to be despised.\n\nI have never known you to come to this jail that you were not interested\nin some poor fellow's case, and often have I known you to call on either\nthe Judge of the Police or Criminal Court to intercede for some person\nconfined in our jail. I have noticed that whenever you come you are\nasked by more than one of our prisoners to go on some mission, either to\na father, mother, or some other relative. Distance and barriers have no\nterror for you, as was evidenced in your recent trip fifteen hundred\nmiles for one of our prisoners to see his parents.\n\nIn every case you have with promptness attended to requests, always with\na cheerfulness that is surprising to those who cannot understand and\nwill not learn. These are the things that lift up the hearts of the poor\nunfortunate prisoner and make him feel that there is something worth\nliving for.\n\n  --------\n    Draw nigh unto my soul and redeem it.--Ps. 69:18.\n  --------\n\nMy wish and prayer is that you may go on in the good work you are doing.\n\n                                                   Sincerely yours,\n                                                         JOHN R. PFLANZ.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFollowing are letters of endorsement to Missionary George L. Herr and\nhis wife in their life-work among outcasts, fallen ones and victims of\nsin. Among those who have lent substantial aid and hearty encouragement\nto the work will be noted many of our leading citizens, men of\nirreproachable character and standing in society, who have not hesitated\nto add their quota of praise to the universal word of approbation\naccorded the missionary in his efforts to lead the wayward ones back\ninto the path of self-respect and manhood.\n\n  --------\n    Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me; Lord be thou my\n    helper.--Ps. 30:10.\n  --------\n\n                                      Frankfort, Ky., Nov. 22, 1904.\n\nDear Bro. Herr: I regret that you and your good wife and \"Sunshine\" can\nnot be with us in our services next week at the Frankfort Penitentiary,\nbut am glad to have you promise to be with us soon. No one understands\nthis work for the salvation and elevation of those in our penal\ninstitutions,--the possibilities, the discouragements, the trials, the\ntriumphs, the rejoicing--as we do who are constantly engaged in it. Your\nfrequent visits to us are always appreciated both by the chaplain and\nthe prisoners, and your sermons and talks and songs are blessed by God\nto the furtherance of the work of grace in our midst. I can truly say\nthere are eyes that \"mark your coming and look brighter when you come.\"\nI wish also to say for your encouragement and those who work with you\nthat your faithful labors are plainly manifest in the lives of many whom\nyou come in contact with--the deep and lasting impressions made upon\ntheir minds and hearts so we are enabled to take up the well begun work\nand by God's help carry it on to salvation of the soul. May God bless\nyou abundantly in your noble work.\n\n                                             Truly yours,\n                                         T. T. TALIAFERRO,\n                               Chaplain Ky. State Penitentiary.\n\n  --------\n    Forsake me not, O Lord.--Ps. 38:21.\n  --------\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nRev. H. C. Morrison, D.D., Editor Pentecostal Herald, Louisville, Ky.,\nand President Wilmore College, Wilmore, Ky., says:\n\nI take pleasure in commending my friend and brother, Geo. L. Herr, as a\ndevout Christian and earnest worker for the salvation of men. He has\nhad wide experience on both sides of the line, and has been greatly\nblessed in rescuing men who have gone down into the depths of sin. He\nhas been especially blessed in prison work. Those who help him forward\nin the good work in which he is now engaged will do me a personal favor.\n\nWishing him and his wife great success as they shall go from prison to\nprison seeking after the lost,\n\n                               I am           Respectfully yours,\n                                                        H. C. MORRISON.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nRev. James M. Taylor, world-wide evangelist, says:\n\nI have read with soul-stirring interest the sad, heart-rending\nexperience of Bro. Herr, and the miraculous deliverance by the grace of\nGod, how by a life of sin he squandered a fortune, how God found him a\nbond slave of appetite and other sins and delivered him, the romantic\nway in which his God-given companion entered his life, and how they are\nbeing used perhaps as no other persons today in helping those \"behind\nthe bars.\" This story will warn the reckless, encourage the \"cast out\"\nand put a desire in the heart to help the fallen.\n\n                                          JAMES M. TAYLOR, Evangelist.\n  Knoxville, Tenn.\n\n\n(Frankfort Journal.)\n\nThe Rev. Geo. L. Herr, of Louisville, will spend the fourth as the guest\nof Rev. Jos. Severance, chaplain of the State prison, today. Rev. Herr\nis a widely known, talented and enthusiastic prison evangelist, and has\na national reputation as such. He will shortly publish his famous\nsermon, \"Man's Worst Enemy,\" and will place numerous copies of it in\nevery penal institution of the United States.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nPrison Evangelist's Good Work\n\n(Courier-Journal.)\n\n\nPrison evangelists published in 1906-07 36,000 sermons in booklet form\nand sent them North, South, East and West. The Rev. George L. Herr and\nwife closed a most remarkable year. The meetings which they have held\nfor the most part have been in large prison houses, erected for sinful\nmen and women.\n\nMr. Herr has delivered sermons to many thousand listeners; many have\nprofessed conversion and thousands have asked for prayer. The good that\nthis work has done will probably never be fully known until the business\nof this old world has been brought to a close. Influences have been set\nin motion that are going to roll on until time shall be no more.\n\nRev. W. O. Vreeland, chaplain Frankfort Reformatory, says:\n\nIt gives me great pleasure to testify of the splendid work among the\nprisoners done by a man I believe to be deeply consecrated to the work\nof rescuing the \"fallen brother.\" George Herr is worthy of the highest\ncommendation.\n\n                                               W. O. VREELAND.\n  Oct. 12, 1912.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nA Grand Work Highly Commended\n\n\n                                    Louisville, Ky., July 24, 1902.\n\nRev. Geo. L. Herr,\n\nDear Brother Herr: I regret very much to learn of your departure from\nthe city, and the work you have so nobly, and for so long a time,\nengaged in at this institution and elsewhere. To say that you will be\nmissed by us is but faintly expressing my feelings at your departure.\nYou will not only be missed by myself and other officials at the jail,\nbut by the poor unfortunates placed in my custody, for I know I can\ntruthfully say we will never be able to get any one who will take the\npains and do the great good you have done for all with whom you have\ncome in contact.\n\n  --------\n    I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.--Heb. 13:5.\n  --------\n\nI can assure you that your farewell sermon to all of the one hundred and\neighty prisoners in this jail on yesterday was the cause of great\ndepression in the spirits of all who heard you on that occasion, for\nevery one of them felt that he or she was about to lose their best\nfriend, who had not only ministered to their spiritual wants but made\ntheir troubles his own, and in every way in his power relieved them of\ntheir every ailment.\n\nYou and your good wife were as father and mother to them, their guardian\nangels, who made their rugged paths smooth and their futures bright and\nhappy.\n\nIt is with much sorrow that I write you today, and my only consolation\nis in the hope that you may some day return and take up the good work\nagain for the betterment of the unfortunates who may be confined in this\nand other institutions in which you have worked in this city.\n\n                                           Sincerely yours,\n                                                 JOHN R. PFLANZ.\n\n  --------\n    O Lord, make haste to help me.--Ps. 40:13.\n\n    I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One\n    of Israel.--Is. 41:14.\n  --------\n\n\n\n\n\"Worked Wonders\"\n\nDeclares Dr. Garvin, Physician Jefferson County Jail\n\n\n                                   Louisville, Ky., July 24th, 1902.\n\nRev. George L. Herr,\n\nMy Dear Brother Herr: It is with much regret I have heard of your\ndetermination to leave us. You and your good wife have now been engaged,\nfor about four years, in the noble work of saving souls in the Jefferson\nCounty jail, and to the success of your efforts I can truly bear\ntestimony.\n\nI must confess that at first I had little hope of much good being\naccomplished, but your constant devotion at all hours, night and day,\nhas worked wonders, and I am satisfied that many who came steeped in sin\nand in their own minds hopelessly lost, have left the prison at peace\nwith God, and with a determination in the future to lead a better life.\n\nWherever you go, may God be with you, is the wish of all who know you,\nand especially that of your friend,\n\n                                                   SAM'L H. GARVIN.\n                                      Physician to Jefferson County Jail.\n\n\n\n\nStrong Endorsements\n\nEvangelist Herr's work commended by Minister.\n\n[Louisville Evening Times]\n\nLouisville, Ky., June 21, 1905.\n\nRev. Horace G. Ogden, D.D., Pastor Trinity M. E. Church, Louisville,\nKy., says:\n\nTo Whom It May Concern:\n\nI take pleasure in commending Mr. Geo. Herr to the esteem and confidence\nof the public. I have been placed where I have known intimately his work\nas Prison Evangelist in Jefferson County Jail--a place incomparable in\nmy opinion for testing the character and power of a Christian worker. I\ncan say he has made a superb record and been able by divine assistance\nto rescue many from the life of crime. He has taken an enlarged field of\nwork because he has been convinced it was the call of the Highest, and I\nhave every confidence in his increased usefulness. I cheerfully commend\nhim and his work. His book is true and merits large circulation. Mr.\nHerr is a fine public speaker.\n\n                                           Sincerely,\n                                                       HORACE G. OGDEN.\n\n\n\n\nSpeaks to Prisoners\n\n\nThe Rev. J. A. Holton, Chaplain Eddyville Penitentiary, commends Rev.\nHerr's work:\n\nThe Rev. George L. Herr, the well-known Louisville prison evangelist,\nconducted the chapel services at the Eddyville State penitentiary,\nEddyville, Ky., on Sunday, February 16. Mr. Herr's address to the\nprisoners made a very decided impression upon the men. In a letter to\nLouisville, J. A. Holton, Chaplain of the penitentiary, writes of Mr.\nHerr's visit to Eddyville as follows:\n\n\"Brother Herr is a fluent and earnest talker and speaks from personal\nexperience and observation with telling effect, timely words that tend\nto the betterment of his hearers. No one who is acquainted with his\npersonal history and present effort in the cause of prison reform could\ndoubt his sincerity. It is not a surprise, therefore, that from every\nsphere of his labor along the line of evangelistic work in the prisons\nof the land come unsolicited testimonials commending him and his\nwork.\"--The Louisville Times.\n\n  --------\n    And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God,\n    which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the\n    house of bondage.--Ex. 20:1-2.\n  --------\n\n\n\n\nSad and Pitiful Stories\n\n[The Louisville Herald]\n\n\nFor fifteen years Mr. Herr has carried the great truths to the outcasts,\ngiving warning of the danger, and thousands have repented and have been\nrescued from lives of sin and shame and are now blessings to the\ncommunity. Hundreds of thousands of tracts, sermons, books, papers,\netc., have been distributed, the results of which can never be known.\n\n\"One of the saddest features of this work is that we are constantly\nbeset by the sad-faced, grief-stricken, broken-hearted mothers and wives\nwho have been so unfortunate as to lose their loved ones in sin,\"\ndeclared Rev. Herr. \"They come to us and plead for us to help find the\nwanderer.\n\n\"The pitiful stories of disgrace, shame and disappointment that come\nfrom the broken hearts who are victims are beyond expression and almost\nenough to melt the heart of stone into a river of tears, and to stir us\nwho hear them and see the helplessness of unfortunate ones.\n\n\"There never was a place where the gospel was needed more and where it\nwould do more good, than in the prison houses of our beautiful land.\"\n\n  --------\n    Open them mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of\n    thy law.--Ps. 119:18.\n  --------\n\n\n\n\nResolution That Was Never Broken\n\n    \"I am done with a life of thieving.\"--E. B.\n\n\nAnother of the days in jail that will long be remembered by some of the\npoor unfortunates who have been making this place their residence for\nsome time. The missionary who makes prison work the work of his life\npreached to the men today, the service being in the place of the regular\nSaturday services, because the convicted men were to go to the\npenitentiary Saturday morning, and Brother Herr intended to go to\nCincinnati, Ohio, this evening. So the good brother gave the men some\ngood, wholesome advice.\n\nAnd in opening the services, that always appropriate song of \"Let a\nlittle sunshine in\" was sung, and the good God knows that if any one in\nthis world needs \"sunshine\" that person is the one who is behind prison\nbars.\n\n  --------\n    Thou shalt have no other gods before me.\n  --------\n\nI have seen some curious things in my wandering life, and some very\ncurious and saddening sights are to be seen in jail. To see men right in\nthe prime of their manhood going to a living tomb, to actually bury\nthemselves for years, is a sight not easily forgotten. Oh, the misery,\nthe shame, and the degradation of it all. It is no wonder that some of\nthe unfortunates weep. The sight of so much misery seen at one time is\nenough to melt the heart of the most hardened criminal. As I watched the\nmen put up their hands in reply to the question of \"How many of you men\nwant to lead a better life?\" I could not blame any one of the prisoners\nfor putting up their hands in a resolve to lead a clean life.\n\nMy sympathy is with the unfortunate. I have been placed in positions\njust like these men are placed in, but never again! Oh, I hope that when\nI finish this term of imprisonment that I may find some means of\nemployment that will bring me in enough money to keep body and soul\ntogether. From this time forward I am done with stealing. I hope that my\nright hand may lose its cunning and my eyes grow dimmer, so dim that I\ncannot see anything to steal. I am done, done with a life of thieving. I\ndon't know how I am going to exist, but I am not going to steal any\nmore. By the help of the good Lord I intend to reform.\n\n  --------\n    For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will lighten my\n    darkness.--Ps. 18:28.\n  --------\n\n\n\n\nWhat Is A Friend?\n\n\nA friend is the first person who comes in when the world has gone out.\n\nA bank of credit on which we can draw supplies of confidence, counsel,\nsympathy, help and love.\n\nOne who considers my need before my deservings.\n\nThe triple alliance of the three great powers--love, sympathy and help.\n\nOne who understands our silence.\n\nA jewel whose lustre the strong acids of poverty and misfortune cannot\ndim.\n\nOne who smiles on our fortunes, frowns on our faults, sympathizes with\nour sorrow, weeps at our bereavement, and is a safe fortress at all\ntimes of trouble.\n\nOne who, gaining the top of the ladder, won't forget you if you remain\nat the bottom.\n\nThe holly of life, whose qualities are overshadowed in the summer of\nprosperity, but blossom forth in the winter of adversity.\n\nHe who does not adhere to the saying that No. 1 should come first.\n\n  --------\n    God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in\n    trouble.--Psalm 41:6.\n  --------\n\n[Illustration:\n\nWhen the author left Louisville to 1905 for Chicago to be ordained, he\nwas greatly helped by his friend Chas. F. Grainger, kindness never to be\nforgotten.\n\nHON. CHAS. F. GRAINGER\n\nFormer Mayor of Louisville; now President Louisville Water Co.\n\nMr. Grainger says, \"Mr. Herr's work among prisoners has been very\nsuccessful, and through his efforts many have reformed.\"]\n\nA watch which beats true, for all time, and never \"runs down.\"\n\nAn earthly minister of heavenly happiness.\n\nA friend is like ivy--the greater the ruin, the closer he clings.\n\nOne who to himself is true, and therefore must be so to you.\n\nThe same to-day, the same to-morrow, either in prosperity, adversity or\nsorrow.\n\nOne who guards another's interest as his own and neither flatters nor\ndeceives.\n\nOne truer to me than I am myself.--Exchange.\n\n  --------\n    Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be\n    acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my\n    redeemer.--Ps. 19:14.\n  --------\n\n\n\n\n\"Another Chance I Crave\"\n\n[Courier-Journal]\n\n\nAustin, Tex., Dec. 2.--(Special.)--Jake McKinney, who was serving a life\nterm in the State penitentiary at Rusk for the murder of Robert Walker\nin Jones county seven years ago, has just received his pardon from Gov.\nO. B. Colquitt on the strength of an appeal for liberty in the form of a\npoem that he wrote and sent to the Governor. This poetic application was\nturned over to Mrs. Colquitt by the Governor and it was upon her\nrecommendation that McKinney was given his liberty. McKinney was\ntwenty-four years old at the time of his conviction. During the last\nfour years of his imprisonment he was editor of the prison newspaper,\nthe Alcalde Chronicle. He attended night school while in the\npenitentiary. His poems and articles in the little newspaper that he\npublished attracted much favorable attention. His pardon application\nreads in part as follows:\n\n    Another chance, 'tis all I ask,\n    In freedom's sun again to bask;\n    To hear the voice of loved at home,\n    And amid familiar scenes to roam.\n    What saith the Scripture? Is it wise\n    To gain a world and lose the prize\n    Of future Joys of Him above,\n    Who came to save because of love\n    For sinful men imprisoned here\n    In sin's corrupted atmosphere?\n    Another chance to know the life\n    Beyond the cruel prison strife,\n    Where Beauty, Truth and Culture reign,\n    And pleasure comes from Labor's gain;\n    To see the golden sun at dawn\n    Spring forth to kiss the rural lawn,\n    Wet with the kiss of midnight dew,\n    And brightens to a gorgeous hue,\n    To please the eye of all mankind.\n    A gift of God to man so blind,\n    Another chance to show the world\n    That darkness hid my flag unfurled;\n    That flame of ingenuity\n    Burns brightest where the darkest be;\n    As all is not as some would tell;\n    \"A soul defiled and booked for hell.\"\n    Another chance I crave of thee,\n    Oh, Governor, but feel and set me free!\n    Make the conditions what you may,\n    I will live up to them every day;\n    I have no friends to plead for me,\n    Dear Governor, can't you set me free?\n\n           Most sincerely\n                   JAKE MCKINNEY.\n\n[Illustration: JUDGE AARON KOHN\n\nOne of the greatest criminal lawyers of the American bar\n\nThere is none in this world who has been a greater friend in my sorest\nneed.]\n\n\n\n\nLetter from the Late Col. Will S. Hays\n\nEditor, Poet, and Song Writer\n\n\nMy Dear Rev. Geo. L. Herr: It is a pleasure to express the sentiment of\npure friendship I have for you and for the Christian work in which you\nare now engaged. Knowing you from boyhood, I am free to say you are one\nof God's chosen ones to do his will and work, and heaven never had a\nmore faithful representative than yourself. May your words and works in\nthe Master's cause result in adding souls to the kingdom of glory, and\nmay God and the angels watch over and guard you through life is the\nprayer of your friend,\n\n                                                        WILL S. HAYS.\n\n  --------\n    The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.--Ps. 19:7.\n  --------\n\n\n\n\nThe Late J. P. Scheider\n\nCaptain of Police\n\n\nI have met him at all times and in all places, from the palace to the\nprison, striving to better the conditions of his fellowmen. At the same\ntime serving our Lord in such a noble manner as to attract the attention\nof the least appreciative person. He has taken for his duty the task of\nworking principally among the criminal classes that frequent our city\nprisons, and to my personal knowledge has done more to benefit the\ninmates than any other man of his vocation. Oh! how far more pleasant\nthis life would be if the world was full of just such noble,\ngood-spirited men as my friend George L. Herr, whom I know to be serving\nour God in the most appropriate manner known to mankind.\n\n                             Respectfully,\n                                      JOHN P. SCHEIDER\n\n\n\n\nProfanity Shows Mental Deficiency\n\n[Louisville Herald]\n\n\nThe habitual user of profane and indecent language was mercilessly\nflayed by Bishop Charles E. Woodcock, of the Episcopal Church, at the\nBoard of Trade noon-day Lenten service yesterday, where in the course of\nhis sermon the Bishop pronounced the profane man to be intellectually\ndeficient, corrupt, morally and wholly unchristian.\n\n\"No gentleman will use profane language; it is only the low-born and\nvulgar-minded person who will do so,\" declared the Bishop. \"No man who\nbelieves in God and in God's commandments can be profane.\"\n\nAmong other things stated by the Bishop of a like nature are the\nfollowing:\n\n\"The profane man in God's eyes is on the same plane as the murderer or\nthief. He violates the ten commandments.\"\n\n\"Swearing, aside from being sinful, is low, vicious, vulgar and most\nreprehensible.\"\n\n\"The man who is well thought of in a community is nine times out of ten\nthe man who does not curse.\"\n\n  --------\n    Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God In vain; for\n    the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in\n    vain.\n  --------\n\n[Illustration: RT. REV. CHAS. E. WOODCOCK, D.D.\n\nEpiscopal Bishop of Kentucky]\n\n\"The profane man is in many cases and in most cases the man who will\nsteal, slander, lie and violate the every commandment of God.\"\n\nIn beginning his sermon the Bishop spoke of the work of the noon-day\nLenten services. He said in part:\n\n\"By coming before you men and preaching we rectors hope to arouse,\nencourage and bring out all the good in you. We aim to plant high ideals\nin your hearts and make you better men. It is one of the greatest\npleasures I have--preaching these noon-day Lenten sermons. It is my\nearnest and sincere wish to do good and to carry a message to you.\n\n\"Christ will lighten your eyes: He will enable you to see things worth\nbeing and worth doing. The worth while in life is what makes life worth\nliving. He will give you a view of yourself. He will make you see\nyourselves as others see you. He will not only do this, but he will set\na guard before your lips.\n\n  --------\n    The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God,\n    my strength, in whom I trust.--Ps. 18:2.\n  --------\n\n\"No man ever regretted keeping from impure speech. Habitual obscene\nstory telling grows like other vicious habits. It is a manly thing to\npossess clean lips. Does not the Bible say, 'Blessed are the pure in\nheart?' Well, no man can be pure in heart and impure in speech. Would\nyou tell some of the stories you tell your fellow men to your wives and\ndaughters? No, I do not think you would. Then say to yourself, 'Thou God\nhearest me.'\n\n\"Keep your lips from profanity. The profane man in God's eyes is on the\nsame plane as is the murderer and thief. He, like both, violates the ten\ncommandments. Swearing, aside from being sinful, is low, vicious and\nvulgar and most reprehensible. The man who will curse and swear is in\nmost cases the man who will steal, slander, lie and violate every\ncommandment of God.\n\n\"I have been in hotels and in public places where I have heard men swear\nas though they thought it a virtue. These men I find are seldom well\nthought of in a community. The man who is well thought of will not\nswear.\n\n\"The man who will swear will say mean things about his friend; he will\ngossip and slander. If you keep your lips clean you will never besmirch\na man's or woman's character. You will never speak until you know it is\ntime; you will be restrained from telling vicious things, because you\nwill reason whether or not it is right, and whether or not it ought to\nbe told.\"\n\n  --------\n    Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your\n    work shall be rewarded.--2 Chron. 15:7.\n  --------\n\n\n\n\nAt Cincinnati Workhouse\n\n[Louisville Times]\n\n\nNever did Mr. Herr have a more interested audience than greeted him in\nthe Cincinnati work house yesterday when he preached for an hour in the\nprison chapel. The men and women wept as his words brought conviction to\ntheir hearts. Were it not for this wonderful gospel, said the speaker,\nhe himself might be as the worst prisoner among them. At the close of\nthe sermon he asked all those who desired to lead better lives to bow\ntheir heads in prayer, and almost every man and woman in the chapel fell\non their knees, while the eloquent evangelist lifted his voice in their\nbehalf. The closest attention was accorded him during the whole time and\nwhen the prisoners were dismissed and passed out of the chapel amid a\nstillness that was very impressive, Mr. Herr spoke to a great number\npersonally shaking them by the hand and urging them to repent and\nbelieve the gospel.\n\n\n\n\nExtermination of Habitual Criminals\n\n\nThe extermination of the habitual criminal--his removal like a weed from\na garden--was advocated today in a startling address made in Minneapolis\nto the Interstate Sheriffs' Association by Charles W. Peters, chief\ndeputy sheriff of Cook County.\n\nThe unexpected suggestion that the man who will not reform ought to be\nslain by legal means aroused much discussion in Chicago among ministers,\nlawyers and laymen.\n\nLeniency for first offenders, parole for the worthy, an adult probation\nlaw, were advocated by Mr. Peters, who then insisted that in cases where\nlife has proved a failure, where efforts of reformation have been\nineffectual and the criminal is a body sore on the social system, that\nextermination should be resorted to.\n\n\nOnly One True Reform.\n\nFurthermore, he created intense surprise by his assertion that in twenty\nyears' experience in handling criminals he could recall only one case of\ntrue reformation on the part of an \"habitual.\"\n\n[Illustration: THE HON. AND MRS. JOHN L. WHITMAN, CHICAGO, ILL.\n\nMr. Whitman is Superintendent of the Bridewell. They have been friends\nto thousands in need of friends.]\n\n[Illustration: Gospel Service at the County Jail, Chicago, Ill.]\n\nIn his address to the Association, Mr. Peters recommended various ways\nof dealing with crime and its perpetrators, and then for the\nirredeemably incorrigible made this recommendation:\n\n\"And then if they fail to embrace the many opportunities offered them,\nand after everything has been done that is possible for mankind to do,\nthey repeatedly persist in returning to their old ways, I think in such\na case life has proven a failure, and they become a menace and a burden\nto our social welfare and should be exterminated.\n\n\nLike Weeds in a Garden.\n\n\"They are like weeds in a garden and unless removed will supersede the\nuseful plants.\n\n\"Many students of criminology have suggested life imprisonment, but in\nmy opinion that has proven a failure. By that method the menace is\nremoved, but the burden remains.\n\n\"I am sorry to acknowledge that in the twenty odd years of my experience\nin the handling of criminals I can recall only one case of true\nreformation on the part of habitual criminals, and that man is employed\nin a bridge works, where it would be impossible for him to carry\nanything off.\"\n\n\n\"Judge Not,\" Says Pastor.\n\nAmong the ministers who commented on the startling theory of\nextermination were:\n\nRev. P. J. O'Callaghan, pastor of St. Mary's Church and the priest who\nsaved Herman Billik from the gallows--What is man that he should put\nhimself in judgment on a fellow and say that the culprit is beyond\nreformation and redemption and slay him? Man is too fallible to condemn\nanother as an habitual criminal and exterminate him. No one knows when a\nman has passed beyond the pale of reform. As a matter of fact, many and\nmany a criminal branded as 'habitual' has been saved to a useful life. I\nmost heartily disagree with any suggestion to execute any man on the\ntheory that he is irredeemable.\n\n\nHope While There Is Life.\n\nRabbi Tobias Scharfarber--In the first place I am opposed to capital\npunishment, but, in any event, I should not agree with this suggestion\nof Mr. Peters. It is much like Osler's plan to kill off men of sixty or\nmore years of age, or Ingersoll's suggestion that when a man believed\nhimself to be a failure and useless to the world he should go and shoot\nhis brains out. While a man lives there is hope for him, and no one has\neither power or right to say that he will always be a menace to society.\n\n    \"Christ in His charity taught those who came to Him,\n      Ill deeds should pardoned be seventy times seven;\n    Succor the least here and you do the same to Him;\n      These are his precepts on earth and in heaven.\n    Oh, then, when laboring hard for humanity,\n      Never believe that your labor is vain.\n    Kindness will conquer the criminal insanity;\n      Speak to him gently and try him again.\"\n\n\n\n\nCriminal Becomes Minister\n\n[Courier-Journal]\n\n\n\"Do you know who I am?\" once said a person in the jail here to the Rev.\nGeorge L. Herr, prison evangelist. \"I will tell you. I am the worst and\nmost treacherous man in this prison.\" Then the Rev. Mr. Herr says he\ntold him the story of his fearful crimes. \"I have been in prison North,\nSouth, East and West, I have been in the dismal, solitary cell for one\nyear, have been put in large tanks of ice water, have been punished over\nand over again, but it has always made me more of a demon. Would you\nlike to know what the officer who last locked me up said about me?\"\n\n\"'Take him and lock him up like a brute beast, for that is what he is.'\"\n\nThen he turned and said: \"Do you think there is any hope for me?\" \"I was\nat once on ground where I could speak without hesitation,\" said Mr.\nHerr, \"and I told him simply that if he was through with an evil life,\nif he was tired of wrong-doing and was determined to do right, there was\na love that could forgive him, and a power that could help and keep him\nin the future. When at last we knelt together there I prayed that God,\nwho could bring light into our darkness, might dispel the thick clouds\nthat had shut in this soul from hope, and bring to him the revelation\nthat would change his life. There were tears in our eyes as we parted,\nand, taking my hand in his he said: \"I will try, Brother Herr.\"\n\n\"He did try, and, more than that he conquered. At first it was a stern\nbattle of an awakened will and conscience fighting against desperate\nodds. The feeling that friends were watching and waiting anxiously for\ngood reports proved an undoubted incentive. It was not long before he\nsought and found Christ as his Saviour, and he became an earnest\nChristian, and to-day is an ordained Methodist minister, at the head of\na great rescue work in an Eastern city, and also chaplain of a model\npenal institution.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  --------\n    \"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,\n    that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have\n    everlasting life.\"--John 3:16.\n  --------\n\n\n\n\nTo Brother George L. Herr\n\nBy Joseph M. McGuire\n\n\n    The days are long and dreary,\n      And the hours go slowly by,\n    While the prisoner, sad and weary,\n      Longs for the time to fly.\n    But one brings joy and sunshine\n      To the prisoners sad at heart,\n    And it is but a short time\n      'Till with him we'll have to part.\n    We cannot find another,\n      Search, I care not where,\n    Who will do as much for a brother\n      As our Bro. George L. Herr.\n\n    He comes early in the morning,\n      And never leaves till night;\n    He always seems untiring,\n      Helping wayward men do right.\n    He is always up and willing\n      Whene'er a prisoner call,\n    To go and do the bidding\n      Of a man behind the wall.\n    And then there is another,\n      Who shares his joy and strife;\n    She is called by the prisoners \"Mother,\"\n      And is Bro. Herr's good wife.\n\n    Early Sunday morning,\n      In rain, snow, sleet, or hail,\n    You will find him holding meeting\n      In the Jefferson County Jail.\n    I love to hear him tell the story\n      Of the \"Prodigal Son,\"\n    And of the \"Mighty Prince of Glory,\"\n      From whom salvation sprung.\n    Round his good face there seems a halo,\n      His work is for One on high,\n    He makes sunshine out of sorrow,\n      Whenever he is nigh.\n\n\n\n\nSuccess of Reformed Criminals\n\nAfter Blotting Out the Past\n\n\n\"Once a Thief, Always a Thief,\" has been disproved in thousands of cases\naccording to Mr. William A. Pinkerton.\n\n\"Do criminals ever reform, really turn over a new leaf and become good\ncitizens?\"\n\nI fired the question at random, little dreaming what a wealth of\ninteresting and convincing anecdote it would evoke. I expected the time\nhonored cynical reply, something to the effect of \"Once a thief, always\na thief,\" But I was disappointed--agreeably disappointed. For my answer\nwas a quick, emphatic, earnest \"Yes.\"\n\nAnd the man who said \"Yes\" was William A. Pinkerton, and he knows.\n\nProbably no living man knows more intimate details about the individual\nmembers of the underworld, those who are active criminals to-day, as\nwell as the notorious crooks of the past, than the head of the Pinkerton\nDetective Agency. And every crook will tell you, what every honest man\nwho knows Mr. Pinkerton will tell you, that when he says \"Yes\" there\nis no possibility that the correct answer should be \"No.\"\n\n[Illustration: WILLIAM A. PINKERTON\n\nHead of the Pinkerton Detective Agency\n\nNew York]\n\n\"I know what the average man thinks--that a real crook never turns\nstraight. But it isn't so. Thousands of crooks--and I don't mean\none-time offenders, but men in the class we call hardened\ncriminals--have become honest men to my knowledge. It is not true, as\nsome recent writer said, that as many crooks turn honest as there are\nhonest men turn crooked, but I believe that one of the reasons is that\nso few men are willing to lend a helping hand. I don't mean that every\ncrook is ready to reform if he is encouraged, but I do mean that society\nmakes it hard for any man who has once been a criminal to lead an honest\nlife.\n\n\"And I'll tell you another thing,\" continued Mr. Pinkerton: \"I'm prouder\nof the fact that I have helped a few criminals to become honest men than\nof all the work I have done in putting criminals behind the bars. I'm\nproud of the fact that every crook knows that Pinkerton will deal\nsquarely with him if he will deal squarely with Pinkerton--that I\nbelieve it is as important to keep faith with a bank thief as with a\nbank president.\n\n\"I know a score of business men in Chicago--not saloonkeepers, but\nreputable merchants--who have criminal records. These men have done time\nand have paid their debt to society for their crimes. I cannot tell you\ntheir names, for it would be unfair to them and to their wives and\nfamilies, many of whom have no suspicion that there is anything wrong in\nthe pasts of their husbands and fathers. Besides, when society discovers\nthat a man is a former criminal it is not content to cancel the debt no\nmatter how much imprisonment at hard labor the former crook may have\ngiven in expiation of his sin.\n\n\"I know men in trusted positions in New York who were convicts. In many\ncases only the man himself and his employer know the secret and\nsometimes the employer does not know it. I know men scattered all over\nthe West--business men, professional men, many of them wealthy and\nprominent citizens--who have seen the inside of Joliet, Moyomensing,\nSing Sing or Leavenworth. They have sons and daughters who never have\nsuspected and never will suspect the truth.\n\n\"These are good men--as good men as any living. They have turned away\nfrom their old ways, in many cases have changed their names, and who\nshall say they are not as much to be respected as the honest man who\nnever was tempted, never was forced into crime? I'll tell you about some\nof them.\n\n\"When I was a boy in Chicago there were two brothers, neighbors, about\nthe age of myself and my younger brother, and we were friends. When the\ncivil war broke out I went into the army secret service at the age of\nfifteen, and the older of these two boys, John, enlisted in an Illinois\nregiment. Jerry, the younger, was not old enough, but a little later,\nwhen the government began offering a bounty for soldiers, he became a\nbounty jumper. He would enlist, get the bounty money, then desert and\nenlist over again under another name. He was with a band of young\nfellows who were engaged in that way of getting easy money, and who\nfound it so easy that they turned to other kinds of crime.\n\n\"When the war was over John came back to Chicago and settled down as a\nrather plodding sort of a mechanic. He tried to get Jerry to straighten\nout, but the younger brother was too far along the road to prison.\n\n\"In those days the Northwestern Railroad used wood for fuel, and the\nwood agent of the road was Amos Snell--the same Snell who was later\nmurdered by 'Willie Tascott.' He lived in a suburb of Chicago, and one\nnight Jerry and his crowd went out there and 'stuck' up the whole\nfamily--robbed them of everything they had. John was along with them,\nlying in the bottom of the hack. The police got a clew through the\nhack-driver and rounded up the whole band. All of them, including John,\nwere sentenced to five years each except Jerry. When he came into the\nhands of the police a citizen who had been held up on the street some\ntime before identified him as the hold-up man, and on the strength of\nthat the Judge gave him fifteen years. It was an unjust sentence, for\nJerry had not committed the hold-up--that was found out later.\n\n\"Well, John's old Colonel and some other army men and my father got\ntogether and got a pardon for John, who had merely gone along with the\ncrowd and had taken no part in the robbery. He went back to work at his\ntrade of brass finisher, but Jerry stayed in Joliet, rebelling against\nthose long unjust years of his sentence.\n\nJerry was put to work in the engine room of the prison and soon\ndisplayed great aptitude for machinery. He served out his term with time\noff for good behavior and finally got out. I met him in Chicago. He was\ndespondent. He felt that he had no chance to be anything but a crook,\nbut he knew the terrible chances a once convicted man runs if he returns\nto crime. I told him the best thing for him to do was to go to New York,\nand I sent him on to my brother Robert, who had also known him as a\nboy.\n\n\nReform of Jerry.\n\n\"Now, here's a part of this story that will interest you. Robert had a\nfriend who was chief engineer of a building in Ann street. He told this\nfriend about Jerry, and the engineer said he'd take a chance on him. He\nput Jerry to work stoking the boiler at a dollar and a half a day. After\na year or so there was a vacancy and Jerry became assistant engineer. A\nlittle while later the chief engineer resigned and Jerry after awhile,\nthe ex-crook, became chief engineer. He left there after awhile to take\ncharge of a big plant on Long Island, and he sent for his brother John\nand gave him a job.\n\n\"A few years later the two brothers called on me in Chicago. They had\nsaved about $6,000 between them and were on their way to a new town in\nthe West to start a manufacturing business of their own. Each had\nmarried a girl who knew nothing of their prison record and had children.\nThey prospered exceedingly. John died several years ago, but only a few\nmonths ago, when my brother Robert died, an old man, whom nobody but\nmyself recognized, came from the West for the funeral and shed tears at\nthe grave. It was Jerry. He is still living, and is the leading citizen\nof his town and worth at least half a million dollars.\n\n\"Criminals who reform? There are thousands of them. I remember a little\nLiverpool Irishman who was a pickpocket around New York. He was known as\n'Jimmy the Nibbler'. The police picked him up in Tennessee, where he\nlifted somebody's pocketbook, and he was sent to Nashville for seven\nyears. In the prison they put him to work in the hospital. Then the\ncholera epidemic broke out. \"Jim\" helped the doctors and nurses, and\nwhen the doctors got sick he nursed them and the warden and his family\nand helped save a good many lives. After the epidemic was over the\nwarden and the Prison Board were so grateful they got \"Jim\" a pardon and\nmade up a purse of $350 for him. With the money in his pocket he came\nright to Chicago to see me. I began to lecture him on the futility of\ngoing back to the life he had led before.\n\n\"'I've cut that all out,' he said. 'I'm not going to be a gun any more.\nI've been studying medicine down there in Nashville. The doctors have\nbeen telling me things and giving me medical books to read and now I\nwant to get into one of these colleges where I can get a diploma quick.'\n\n\"There were a number of diploma factories, as the lower class of medical\ncolleges were called, running in Chicago then, and Jim found he had\nmoney enough to go through one of them--in the front door and out the\nback. But he got his diploma and license to practise and started for one\nof the new towns in the West. I looked him up a while ago. He comes\npretty near being the most prominent citizen in the town. He is a\ndirector in a national bank and the leading physician, and has\nofficiated at the births of half the present population. Moreover, he is\nan enthusiastic church member. But how long do you think it would take\nfor the whole town to turn against him if they should ever learn out\nthere that he is 'Jimmy the Nibbler'?\n\n\"Crooks that turn straight? Your next door neighbor, your family\nphysician, even your clergyman, may be one of them. The world is full of\nthem. There was one man, a professional thief, a fellow who had done\ntime in half a dozen State prisons and penitentiaries, whom I used to\nlabor with earnestly every time he got out, but he apparently never\ntried to reform. He was always doing time, it seemed.\n\n\"I lost track of him for several years. Then two years ago, when the\nNational Association of Chiefs of Police was in session in Buffalo, I\nfound a note in my box in my hotel signed by this man's name. He said he\nwas going to call at seven o'clock. There was a banquet on for that\nevening, and hundreds of police officials from every part of the United\nStates were there. I wondered if he knew what sort of a lion's den he\nwas walking into. Sure enough he came into the hotel and spoke to me.\n\n\"'Don't you know that you are surrounded by policemen, some of whom are\nsure to spot you?' I asked him.\n\n\"'You're the only man in the world who knows me,' he said, 'My name now\nis So and So'--giving me another name--'and I'm a respected and\nprosperous man. I just wanted to let you know before you found it out\nfor yourself, for I knew you'd be on the square with me.' And I was. So\nfar as I knew he was not wanted for anything, and what good would have\ncome of exposing him?\n\n\"Thieves who resist the temptation to steal? Hundreds of them. There's\none right here, only a few blocks from where we are talking. He's the\nwatchman in a big silk warehouse--and if there's anything your\nprofessional thief likes to steal, short of money or diamonds, it's\nsilk, for you can get so much value into so small a package. This man\nwas a professional safe blower, and did several big jobs. When he got\nout of prison I helped him to get the job he has now. His employer knows\nhis record. I told it to him on the man's own request. When work stops\nfor the day this man is left alone in charge of hundreds of thousands\nof dollars worth of valuable silks. He isn't bonded, for he couldn't get\na bondsman if he wanted to. He has held the job seven years now, and not\na cent's worth has been taken from the warehouse in that time.\n\n\"You may say that he does not dare to steal--that he knows a single\nfalse move on his part will bring instant punishment. But I say he has\nno desire to steal--that he has reformed. And thousands of other\ncriminals would reform if society would give them half a chance.\n\n\nBaffling Hotel Robberies.\n\n\"Several years ago there was a series of hotel robberies in New York\nthat baffled the police. The thief always worked with keys, opening\ndoors and then unlocking baggage left in rooms, and he always got away\nwith the goods. At last one night the word came to headquarters that a\nman had been caught in one of the big hotels who was suspected of being\nthe author of all the robberies. I was visiting Chief Devery at the time\nand he asked me to go with him to the West Thirtieth street station to\nlook the man over.\n\n\"The man arrested was a well dressed, respectable looking little man,\nwith a white beard--the last man who would be taken for a thief if seen\nin a hotel corridor. His face was vaguely familiar to me, but I had\nsome difficulty in placing him. Finally it struck me. I had seen him\nnearly thirty years before on the occasion of a big prize fight in New\nOrleans, when he had been arrested for the same trick. It came over me\nlike a flash and I told him I knew him.\n\n\"'What's the use of making trouble?' he asked. 'These fools don't know\nanything about me unless you put them wise.'\n\n\"I told Chief Devery what I remembered about the man, who protested\nviolently that he had never been in New Orleans in his life. Then\nanother thought struck me.\n\n\"'You've been in New Orleans more than once,' I said. 'The last time was\nabout six months ago, when you got Denman Thompson's diamonds in the St.\nCharles Hotel.' I remembered the report of that case, but it was a\nchance shot on my part, for no one had seen the thief. The old fellow\ndenied this vigorously.\n\n\"He was wearing a new derby hat. I don't know what impulse prompted me,\nbut I took the hat off his head and looked inside. It bore the mark of a\nNew Orleans hatter.\n\n\"The Chief and I left the station and had just turned into Sixth avenue\nwhen I remembered the old fellow's name. We went back to the station\nhouse and I confronted him again. I told him his name. He denied that\nit was his.\n\n\"'What's the use of making trouble, Mr. Pinkerton?' he pleaded. His\ninadvertent use of my name, which had not been mentioned there, gave him\naway.\n\n\"'I don't know what kind of a case the police here have on you,' I told\nhim, 'but we are retained by the Jewelers' Protective Association, and\nif you get after any jewelry drummers I'll make it hot for you.' And as\na precaution I got his photograph from the New York police. They didn't\nhave much of a case on him and he got off.\n\n\"Not long after a jewelry drummer was robbed in a Chicago hotel of about\nthree thousand dollars' worth of diamonds which he had carelessly left\nin his grip instead of putting them in the safe. The same day a friend\nof mine who was stopping in another hotel lost his new overcoat and told\nme about it. I thought of the old man in the first job, and found a\nchambermaid and bellboy who had seen him on the floor, but didn't\nconnect him with the second because he had never stolen anything but\nvery valuable articles, so far as I knew. My friend had to leave for New\nYork that night, and some time in the evening I got a telegram from him\nwhich had been filed in Fort Wayne.\n\n\"'Positive man who got my coat is in same sleeper, ticketed to New\nYork,' it read. I wired my friend at a point further along the line to\nget off at Pittsburg and hold a white handkerchief in his hand so he\ncould be identified and be prepared to point out the thief. Then I got\nin touch with Pittsburg by wire, and sure enough back came a wire after\na while to the effect that they had got the man, whom my friend\nidentified, and found on him besides the overcoat about $3,000 worth of\ndiamonds. I asked for a description and the one they wired fitted that\nof the man I had seen in New York. I referred Pittsburg to the man's\nphotograph, which had been published that week in a police periodical,\nand they were sure they had the same man. And so it proved. He was\nbrought back to Chicago and convicted of the jewelry theft. He served a\nshort sentence, and when he got out he came to me.\n\n\"Mind you, this was an old man, who had been a thief all his life--I had\nknown him as a thief more than thirty years before. It is criminals of\nthat kind that are commonly regarded as the most difficult to reform,\nbut even hardened and lifelong offenders like this man will go straight\nif they get the right kind of encouragement. I found this old man\napparently anxious to be honest, but he had never had a chance after\nhis first slip as a young man. I determined to do what I could for him\nand I got him a job in New York. He is more than seventy years old now,\nbut he is still holding that job, and he hasn't made a false step since\nhe got out of prison the last time.\n\n\"Do criminals ever reform? I think I have told you enough to prove that\nthey do--and I could tell you of hundreds of other instances if you\nneeded any further proof.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nA LETTER FROM EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF THE \"STAR OF HOPE\" PAPER PUBLISHED IN\nSING SING PRISON.\n\n\n                                  Ossining, N. Y., April 9, 1906.\n\nDear Brother Herr:\n\nYour book, \"Light in Dark Places,\" received. I do so much appreciate\nyour kindness in remembering poor me in durance. I not only voice the\nsentiments expressed in this precious book, but add thereto my message\nof Christ's power to cleanse the wicked one and bring back into God's\npath the weak and unfortunate. May God spare you and yours many years,\nand give you manifold blessings in your great work.\n\n                                      Sincerely yours,\n                                               54179,\n                                                   Editor in Chief.\n\n\n\n\n\"Lost and Is Found\"\n\nNoted Prison Worker issues an Interesting Book\n\n(Louisville Herald)\n\n\nAn interesting booklet containing the sermon \"Lost and Is Found,\" the\nnewest publication of the Rev. George L. Herr, the noted prison\nevangelist whose home is in this city, has just been issued from the\npress. The sermon is one of the strongest yet issued by the Rev. Herr,\nand is written in the characteristic vein which marks all those issued\nby the prison worker.\n\nRev. Herr holds a unique position in the evangelistic field. He is\nconsidered the greatest evangelist among prisoners in the United States.\nScarcely a big prison in the country has not been visited by him in his\nwork, and the number of men in stripes who have been reformed by the\nindefatigable prison worker reaches into thousands.\n\nSome of the most notable redemptions of so-called \"hardened criminals\"\nknown to evangelistic work have been accomplished by the Rev. Herr. All\nof the booklets by him have been extensively read and quoted, and it is\nprobable none will attract more interest than that which has just been\nissued by him.\n\n\n\n\nChristmas at Frankfort Prison\n\n\nThe prisoners had what was unanimously voted the best Christmas dinner\nin many years. There were 1100 lbs. of turkey, cranberries, mashed\npotatoes, oranges, and bananas. There were about 75 fine cakes, 68 of\nwhich were sent from Lexington by Mrs. Frances H. Beauchamp, Pres. W. C.\nT. U. The entire dinner was well cooked and heartily enjoyed by all.\n\nAt 11:30, Bro. Jos. Severance, Chaplain, Bro. Geo. L. Herr, of\nLouisville, Mrs. M. B. R. Day, of Frankfort, and Miss Nellie E.\nWilliams, Junior C. E. Superintendent, of Maysville, entered, and took\nseats on the stage; these are four of our truest and strongest friends\nand are most heartily welcomed.\n\nBro. Severance opened the services by reading the Christmas lesson, i.\ne., the 2nd chapter of Matthew, which gives the most beautiful\ndescription of the birth of the lowly Jesus.\n\nBro. Herr then offered a fervent prayer.\n\nBro. Severance' remarks were few; he is still grieving over the loss of\nhis two children, and simply said that this Christmas had lost all of\nits charms for him, for instead of feeling joyful, he felt sad all of\nto-day and yesterday, and that we understood why, for instead of four\nlittle girls, he had only two. He felt his inability to proceed further,\nand gave the meeting over into the hands of Bro. Herr to conduct as he\nsaw fit, and catching an idea from the foregoing remarks, Bro. Herr\nreferred to the fact that years ago, Christmas was very sad to him. That\nhe was lying in a saloon in the city of Louisville without friends and\nwithout hope. Then in a jovial manner showed by comparison what a\ndifference then and now.\n\nHe then said: \"I am so glad that Jesus said: 'Him that cometh to me, I\nwill in no wise cast out; I am so glad that he is the same yesterday,\nto-day and forever. He said: 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of\nmen. There is not a man behind prison bars that Jesus Christ cannot\nclean up and make him a man.\"\n\nThe audience sat up and took notice when he mentioned a man who had been\na homeless wretch, and a degraded sinner, who had spent thirty-two years\nof his life behind prison bars, but had been converted in the Louisville\njail and was now a man of God, the leader in a Rescue Mission in one of\nour largest cities, and had the financial support of eight of the\nwealthiest men in that city. He said that whenever a man goes blind, or\ndeaf, or is afflicted in any other way, he is sent to a hospital for\ntreatment, and that this prison is a sort of hospital, and that some of\nus are so blind that we cannot tell the difference between our own and\nother peoples' horses. This simile was put forth in such a humorous\nmanner as to cause much laughter.\n\nHe then launched into an earnest exhortation to the men to do better. To\nquit their meanness, as Sam Jones said. \"Cease from evil and learn to do\nwell.\" That to quit one's evil ways was only half the duty, and that the\nremainder consisted in doing the right thing, and you may have this\nassurance that the man who is serving the Lord will not get into\ntrouble. \"An idle mind is the devil's work-shop.\" In this connection he\ngave a very pretty illustration of how one's energies are used in either\nthe right way or wrong way; that if you build a fire under a steam\nboiler, place the proper quantity of water in it, and then open the\nthrottle and allow the steam to get into the engine, the entire\nmachinery will perform a good work, but if you shut off the steam and\ntie down the safety valve, the steam is going to exert itself in a\ndisastrous manner by an explosion, and the killing of several men.\n\n\"The wages of sin is death, and if you can only open your eyes and see\nthat, you can also see that \"The gift of God is eternal life.\" The only\nway under heaven by which a man can be saved, is to come over to the\nservice of God and begin to do that which is right.\n\nNow what is the purpose of Christmas day? The world has agreed that this\nis as near the birth of Christ as we can possibly figure it; it means\nthat 1907 years ago Jesus was born into the world, and the star of\nBethlehem came and stood over the place where the young child lay; the\nangels sang \"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will\ntowards men,\" and we celebrate the day in memory of that event.\n\nWhat is the trouble to-day that causes all these penitentiaries over our\nland; why all these jails and the strong arm of the law? It is because\nmen will not allow the gospel of Jesus Christ to reign in their hearts.\nAs long as the children of Israel served the Lord, they were happy and\nprosperous, but as soon as they turned to the flesh pots of Egypt, they\nbegan to despair and shame came upon them.\n\nIf you were asked what you would rather have above all things, you would\nsay, Just a piece of paper with the great seal of the state impressed\nupon it, and the signature of the Governor attached. Why? Because prison\nlife is a hard life and you are tired of it. If I were a prisoner, I\nwould want to make my confinement as pleasant as possible and I would\nbecome converted immediately, for of all men on earth the man in prison\nshould be the quickest to accept Jesus Christ. I would not want to be a\nprisoner all my physical life, and then a spiritual prisoner throughout\neternity. Did it ever occur to you that hell must be infinitely worse\nthan it is pictured? We read of a place \"Where their worm dieth not, and\nthe fire is not quenched.\" If this is a picture of hell, then what must\nthe reality be? There is a chance for every man to get out of this\nprison, but there will be no chance whatever to get out of hell.\n\n  --------\n    The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath\n    anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent\n    me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the\n    captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are\n    bound.--Isa. 61:1.\n  --------\n\n    Oh, my friend, there is hope,\n      Will you come this hour;\n    For Jesus is yours\n      With all His Power;\n    Look upward, not back.\n      Or in, or around;\n    But up to Christ,\n      Where hope is found.\n\n\n\n\nHundreds of Letters\n\n    Below appear but a few of the Hundreds of Letters we have\n    received from those Helped by Our Work\n\n\nIf you have asked the question, \"Does it pay to labor among the fallen\nones in prison--are the results from this work permanent in character?\"\nlet the answer be found in these letters. They come from writers'\nspontaneous offerings of gratitude, who have been restored to society as\nuseful respected citizens:\n\nMy Dearest Friend: It is very gratifying to find myself alone long\nenough to pen you a few lines.\n\nArrived at 6:05 p.m. Well, I cannot tell you how very pleased everyone\nwas to see me. Went in at once to see the president of a concern and\ntold him everything. He was entirely satisfied and told me to commence\nwork in the morning, which I did. They all have used me fine, and I\nwould never know I had been away for no one mentions it. Brother, I\nthink of you fifty times a day, of the unselfish, never fatiguing\ninterest you manifested in my behalf, of the hundred and one favors, and\nwhen I think that was only a single factor in your work, I cannot but\nwonder how you stand the strain.\n\nCannot tell you how much I prize liberty, and I owe having it, to a\ngreat extent, to your dear self. I assure you your efforts and prayers\nof yourself and wife for me done wonders. I have fully resolved to be a\ngood man.\n\nBrother Herr, I am going to close, for I am going to write to you every\nfew days, as I consider you as dear as an own brother. Give my sincere\nregards to any inquiring friends. My heartiest to your dear wife, and\nmay God bless you both. I do.\n\n                                           I am affectionately yours,\n                                                          W.\n\n\n\n\nA TRIBUTE FROM JOS. M. O'HARA.\n\n\nThe success that has attended the efforts of this truly pious and\nangelic woman in her noble and heroic work of rescuing sinful men and\nwomen from the vortex of ruin and perdition is marvelous; and her labor\namong the prisoners of the county jail is not less remarkable. Mrs.\nHerr, unlike many religious workers, realizes that before attempting to\nmoralize with a prisoner, his confidence must first be gained, and to\naccomplish this she invariably succeeds in dispelling that false and\nerroneous opinion so prevalent among criminals, that they are held in\ncontempt by society and are considered undeserving of sympathy and\nassistance; then, by kind and encouraging words and gentle deed,\ninstills, not by the dry and laborious way of the brain, but into the\nheart, the story of the kind and loving Saviour.\n\nLike her contemporary, Mrs. Ballington Booth, Mrs. Herr possesses that\ndivinely urgent and persistent, yet gentle and sympathetic spirit that\ncan persuade where others cannot convince; that can subdue where others\ncannot conquer.\n\nThe writer of this article through her kind and encouraging words, has\nbeen led from the error of his way, and to take up again the thread laid\ndown in early years; has realized that though the fruitage of the tragic\nand pathetic life that ended in the ignominious death of Him who was the\ngrandest character, the most sublime ideal and the highest type of\nhumanity the world has ever seen--Jesus of Nazareth--we can, if we come\nwith faith and hope, be cleansed from our sins and iniquities. May the\nOmnipotent God, who holds the destiny of nations, pour out his blessings\nupon this saintly woman and her noble hearted husband and guide them\nthrough long and honored days, and when the \"shadows of even\" gather and\nthe sun of life is setting, show them in the darkness of the end, \"words\nof light we never saw by day.\"\n\n                                                     JOS. M. O'HARA.\n\n\n\n\nFISHING FOR MEN.\n\n\nDear Brother Herr: We, as prisoners in the Jefferson County Jail,\ndesire, for your encouragement, and because it is the spontaneous\nexpression of our hearts, to thank you for your continued, untiring and\nunselfish devotion to our interests, spiritual and temporal. We desire\nin this manner to show you and the public that we thoroughly appreciate\nthe efforts of those who try to draw us from the broad road of vice and\ncrime into the narrow path of virtue where we are satisfied alone peace\nand happiness can be found. Many persons, Bro. Herr, who have attempted\nthe task of rescuing the fallen have become discouraged and given up the\nwork because they could see no good resulting from their efforts. Those\npersons had not the faith to continue their work and leave results with\nGod. A prisoner who was an inmate of this jail several years ago\nrecently found himself again an inmate, and expressed surprise at the\nchanged tone, as it were, of the jail, and he laughingly asked if the\nworld was getting better, for he said the men now in jail were more\nrefined in their conversation, more unselfish in their actions toward\neach other, and of a higher moral tone generally. What this man said is\nundoubtedly true, and it is the result of the efforts of yourself and\nother Christian workers who do not become weary in well-doing. But it is\nyou, Brother Herr, whom we especially desire to thank, because you are\nwith us daily and no day passes that you do not perform some act of\nkindness for some one of our number, who, but for you, would have no\nfriend. That perfect man, Jesus of Nazareth, has said, \"by their fruits\nye shall know them,\" and it is by this standard we as prisoners have\nmeasured you and have not found you wanting. You have gained our\nconfidence and we have proved your sincerity and we love you, Brother\nHerr, because you daily prove your love for us. Prisoners are naturally\ninclined to suspect the sincerity of those who profess an interest in\ntheir welfare, but when once you gain their confidence they are\nteachable.\n\nA London lawyer who wrote the tragedy \"Ion\" makes one of his characters\nsay, \"It is but a little thing to speak a word of kindness which by\ndaily use has almost lost its sense, but on the ear of him who thought\nto die unmourned will fall like sweetest music.\" Many are the words of\nkindness which daily fall from your lips, by which we are soothed and\nblessed, and we firmly believe that they do not fall upon stony ground\nand that the good God will reward you in his own good time with a\nbountiful harvest of redeemed lives.\n\n                               Your grateful friends,\n                                         JAMES L. DORAN\n                                         HARRY GRAVEN\n                                         JOHN CARTER\n                                         JOS. M. O'HARA\n                                         JULIUS PHILLIPS\n                    Committee of Prisoners of Jefferson County Jail.\n\n[Illustration: LOUISVILLE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY--MAIN BUILDING\n\nBranch of this Library in the County Jail.]\n\n\n\n\nBranch Library in the Jail\n\n[Courier-Journal]\n\n\nPrison libraries are nearly always more or less poor, indefinite sort of\naffairs, with a questionable lot of reading matter, mostly paper-backs\nand second-hand magazines, forming its contents. But the Jefferson\ncounty jail has marked a departure from the routine of prison life in\nthe establishment of a library station for its inmates.\n\nThis little institution is a remarkable affair. Mrs. Chester Mayer is\nresponsible for its organization. Mrs. Mayer is a member of the visiting\nboard at the county jail, and noticing the absence of good reading\nmatter, the continual idling of prisoners, she took up the matter with\nJailer John R. Pflanz, who approved the idea of a library station. Then\nshe approached her husband, Dr. Mayer, a member of the Board of Trustees\nof the Louisville Free Public Library.\n\nWhen George T. Settle, the recently elected librarian, was approached,\nhe gave his hearty consent. One hundred volumes were sent immediately\nfor the men's department and fifty for the women prisoners. The books\nwere selected by Miss Annie V. Pollard, former acting librarian, who\ngave considerable time to a study of the most desirable literature. The\nbooks sent were non-denominational, nonpolitical, and mostly fiction,\nworks of the popular authors, but nothing too heavy for the mental\nappetite of the inmates. The books were taken from the open-shelf room.\n\nAs these books are used they are changed. Since the establishment of the\njail library station the circulation has reached 2,000 books. Of course,\nthe same book is read by nearly all the regular borrowers.\n\nAn interesting sight is presented when the prisoners are at liberty in\nthe open places at the jail. About 75 per cent. of the prisoners can\nread. The other 25 per cent. gather about an appointed reader, who reads\naloud.\n\nHow much better is this for those unfortunates than idling their time,\nbrooding, planning evil deeds, perhaps, or thinking criminal thoughts!\n\nThe Rev. George L. Herr, prison evangelist, is in charge of the work and\nhe and Jailer Pflanz have made it a success.\n\n[Illustration: CURTIS JETT\n\nHow he found God, he tells you in his own words. God bless Curt, and\ngive him the desires of his heart, is the prayer of the Author.]\n\n\n\n\nCHANGE COMES IN CURT JETT.\n\n[Courier-Journal]\n\n\nFrankfort, Ky., March 14.--(Special.)--Although he is serving two life\nsentences for murder, Curt Jett, \"the wild dog of the mountains,\" has\nnot yet abandoned hope of getting a pardon and being given another\nchance to show that his reformation has been sincere and final. He says\nthat God has pardoned him for his crimes and he thinks the Governor\nought to.\n\n\"The best thing ever happened to me was when I was sent to the\npenitentiary,\" said Jett last night in his cell in the prison here as he\nwas talking to some newspaper men, who were inside the cellhouse for\nanother purpose than talking to Jett. \"I realize that I never would have\nbeen reformed but for being put in here,\" continued Jett. \"I only wish\nthat they would give me another chance to show that I really have\nchanged my ways.\"\n\n\nLicense To Teach Sunday-School.\n\nJett showed the newspaper men who had stopped to talk to him, when they\nsaw him lying on his cot reading, a certificate from the International\nSunday-school League entitling him to teach in a Sunday-school. He was\nprouder of that than he ever was of his ability to shoot and he showed\nit with great pride. Jett recently wrote out his religious experiences\nfor the Rev. Geo. L. Herr, the prison evangelist, and last night Jett\nsaid he would give the story to the newspapers if Col. E. E. Mudd, the\nprison warden, had no objections. Col. Mudd was with the newspaper men\nand readily consented to Jett giving out the story. He had written it\nwith a pencil and gave it to the newspaper men, desiring that it be\npublished.\n\nJett's cell is covered with pictures, most of them selected with care as\nto their beauty, and he has shown taste in arranging them. One of the\nnewspaper men remarked on the decorations in the cell last night and\nJett said:\n\n\"Yes, it cheers this cell up a little and makes it brighter.\"\n\n\nExpression On Face Changed.\n\nEven the expression of Jett's face has changed and he has none of that\nhard look that he used to wear. He is bright and cheerful and Col. Mudd\nsays there is not a better prisoner in the penitentiary than Jett. Col.\nMudd said that he could not say that Jett's conversion was genuine from\na religious standpoint, but he says Jett has certainly changed inside\nthe prison. The Rev. Joseph Severance, the prison chaplain, says that\nJett is one of the best Bible scholars he ever saw and knows more about\nthe Bible than many earnest church workers.\n\nIn his story which he gave out last night Jett freely admits his guilt\nof the crimes that are charged against him. He added, when he said that\nit was a good thing that he had been put in the penitentiary:\n\n\"I do not mean that it was good to kill men.\"\n\nHe said that whisky was largely responsible for his misdeeds and he\nwanted to do good now that he had done so much harm. The following is\nJett's story as he wrote it in his cell:\n\n\nJett's Story.\n\n\"State Prison, Frankfort, Ky., March 13, 1909.--To the Whole World: I\nwant to let the whole world know what God in his great mercy has done\nfor me, and prove to you by words which are true that Jesus is willing,\nable and does save to the uttermost. After a life of sin and shame, God\nsent his Holy Spirit into my soul and made a new man out of me. It was\nin this wise: A dear, good woman who is dead now, but who then lived in\nLexington; her name was Mrs. Fanny A. Penn--I shall never forget that\nname--she wrote me a good Christian letter, full of good advice, and\nbegged me to become a Christian. I had never seen her, or she me, as I\nknow of; she had only read in the press regarding what a desperado and\noutlaw I was. I read her letter and it sounded like a fairy tale to me,\nwith no sense in it; but after reflection, I answered it, and we began\nto be good friends, and she kept begging me to turn from my sinful ways\nand be a Christian man.\n\n\nRead New Testament.\n\n\"I want to state right here that because a man is in prison, he don't\nhave to be a Christian or behave himself; and Mrs. Penn sent me a small\nrevised Testament and begged me to read it. At first I laid it up and\nwould not read it. I don't remember of ever reading a whole chapter in a\nBible up until that time in my whole life; and at last, by her begging\nme in every letter to read my Testament, I began to read it, and started\nout with a resolution to read it through, and after I began to read, I\nbecame interested in it, and the more I read it the deeper I became\ninterested in it, and God's Holy Spirit began to work in me, and I began\nto pray. At first it seemed that I was afraid that God would not answer\nmy prayers, but still something made me pray anyway, and it wasn't long\nuntil I was praying to God every night from one to three times, from the\ndepths of my heart. I had taken his name in vain ever since I was a\nchild, and I asked him to make me quit taking his name in vain, and\nafter a day at my work, and when I would curse God, I would think of my\nprayers, and then at night when I would go to my cell, I would let my\nthoughts wander over a day that had just passed, and I could tell after\nreflecting that I hadn't cursed so much that day. And little by little\nGod removed that evil spirit, cursing, from me, until one night when I\nwent to my cell and my thoughts wandered over the day that had just\npassed, and not an oath had I uttered, and I was happier than ever\nbefore, I fell on my knees on the hard stone floor, and thanked God for\nHis goodness and for removing that swearing away from me.\n\n\nQuits Smoking Cigarettes.\n\n\"I had smoked cigarettes for at least fifteen years and I quit them. I\nwas full of revenge and hatred, and I cried aloud to God in my lonely\ncell to redeem my soul, which He did, and it wasn't long before I was a\nfriend to everyone and praising God for full and free salvation. He has\nmade a new man out of me. The Holy Spirit is like a fever, and it is all\nand all before a man gets right with God. Condemning and deceitful\nspirits will rise up in a man, but all we have to do is to ask God and\nhe will remove them all; to live a true Christian life is the\nstraightest life that anyone ever tried to walk. It is a great warfare.\nI read and study my Bible and have learned a great deal about God's word\nsince I joined the church, a few short months ago, under a great, good\nand noble man of Frankfort by the name of C. R. Hudson, and I love him\nas a very dear brother. There is not a man in all this world that I hold\nthe least bit of malice against, and before I got right with God I had\nrevenge in me against many.\n\n\nWarns Young Men.\n\n\"Young men, as you read this, from one who has done many and great\nwrongs, take warning; shun evil companions and don't do as I have done\nin days gone by. Don't be led astray by older heads, for the man that\nwill advise you to do a wrong is not your friend; but I could not see it\nthat way. God has given me a new mind and I know as well as I know that\nI am living that religion is true, real and no fake, as I once thought.\n\n\nHas Been Born Again.\n\n\"I was raised on a Bluegrass farm in Madison County, Kentucky, and my\nparents were as good a father and mother as ever lived; but my father\ndied while I was young and I went from bad to worse, committing crime\nafter crime, and I am guilty of the charges against me, but God has\nforgiven me of every wrong I ever did. Why won't the Governor? All the\npunishment that I will ever have to go through with will be on this\nearth, for God has forgiven me of every wrong and I have a clear\nconscience now, for I have been born again. There are so many men in\nprison that trample the lowly God under foot to try and gain their\nfreedom in that way, and I hope that no one single person that reads\nthis will think that I am making mockery of God's love, for I am sincere\nwith God, as I used to be with Satan. I wish that every paper in the\nwhole world would publish this so that it could have a chance to touch\nthe hearts of many sinful men; I long to tell the story to young men,\nfrom East to West, from North to South, how God redeemed my soul.\n\n\nRefers to Scriptures.\n\n\"We have organized a Bible reading circle here in the prison which is a\ngrand and good work. Now I refer you to some Scripture which I hope\neveryone will read carefully, and it will show you how God will forgive\na man for the crime of murder and for all crimes except one.\n\n\"Read Exodus ii., 11, 12, 13, 14, 15; II. Samuel xi. and xii.; Ezekiel\nxviii., from 20th verse to end of chapter; Jeremiah xxxiii., 8, 9;\nMathew xii., 31; Luke xv.; Acts vii., 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60; Acts\nviii., 1 to 7; 16, 17, 22; Galatians iii., 24.\n\n\"I ask for the sincere prayers of every good Christian in this whole\nworld; pray for me, that I may be true to God the rest of my life. When\nI was repenting my whole face would draw and I could feel the hot,\nburning love of God in my whole being. I am in prison, maybe never to\nhear the birds sing or the rippling of the water again, a free man, but\nI say unto you that I am a free man in Jesus; I have found a friend that\nsticks closer than a brother. People, let your light shine, for I\nbelieve that there are many diamonds in the rough. I am yours in Jesus,\n\n                                                     \"CURTIS JETT .\"\n\n\n\n\nChristian Endeavor at Frankfort Prison\n\n\n                                         Frankfort, Ky., Penitentiary.\n Rev. Geo. L. Herr,\n     Prison Evangelist,\n            Louisville, Ky.\n\nDear Brother Herr:\n\nAs you have been so kind to me and have asked a somewhat detailed\naccount of Christian Endeavor work in this prison and my connection with\nsame, it is my pleasure to comply, especially as you do not visit us\nas often as we would like and cannot see for yourself all that goes on.\n\n[Illustration: HENRY E. YOUTSEY\n\nThe Author knows of no man behind prison bars in whom he is more\ninterested than Henry E. Youtsey.]\n\nWhen I commenced my life sentence here, February 6th, 1901, I fell in\nlove with our Christian Endeavor Society at first sight, and in all\nthose 104 months I have only missed about 15 meetings, due to\nunavoidable causes. I was ill for three months with malaria and could\nnot go at all.\n\nDuring the early days of my imprisonment our membership at its best\naveraged about 100, but during the summer months when the boys were\ngiven their choice between the open air of the yard and attendance at\nthe meetings the average was less than 20.\n\nIn the summer of 1905, and at the instance of Mrs. M. B. R. Day, of\nFrankfort, I organized and managed a memorizing contest in which a\nnumber of prisoners learned and recited verses of scripture, and I\nobtained a number of handsome Teachers' Bibles and other presents which\nwere given to them as prizes on Thanksgiving day. I continued this work\nfor the three following summers, and in all forty-five prisoners learned\nand recited a grand total of 33,332 verses, (over four times as many as\nare contained in the New Testament), which is an average of 741 verses\nper man. The men studied so hard that some of them injured their eyes,\nand it was thought best to discontinue the work for a while.\n\nI was Corresponding Secretary of our Society for about two and one-half\nyears, and last December I was elected its President by the largest\nmajority ever given any candidate for the office.\n\nI started in to raise our membership to two hundred, and succeeded in\ngetting it as high as one hundred and sixty-six. It was also my desire\nto have better attendance during the hot months, and I used every means\nI could think of to make our meetings attractive, and I was frequently\nboth pleased and surprised to count from sixty-five to seventy, more\nthan three times what it used to be. Some of our members being delicate\nare in great need of all the fresh air they can get and remain in the\nyard all day Sundays in pretty weather although their hearts are with\nus.\n\nA part of our pledge binds the members to carefully read the Bible every\nday, and I wondered how they were going to keep that pledge without the\nBibles, so I set to work again writing letters in every direction, and\nalmost before I knew it our Ky. C. E. Societies sent us 50 Bibles, and\nMiss Mary B. Rohrer, of Franklin, Pa., sent me 150 of the prettiest\nBibles you ever saw; they have flexible, over-lapping backs,\nred-under-gold edges, maps, and other helps. This is the most\nmagnificent present we have ever received from outside parties, and\nbesides all these, the Prison Commissioners offered us 100 more, which\nwe could not use. One thing that has impressed me very forcibly is the\nfact that the Christian people outside are ready at all times to shower\nblessings upon us, and all we have to do is to ask for them.\n\nAt the suggestion of Bro. Jos. Severance, our splendid Chaplain, I\nnumbered the Bibles and gave them out to the members, keeping a careful\nrecord of them, and the men were instructed to return the Bibles to the\nSociety on leaving the prison, and although about a score of our members\nhave gone out since then we have only lost one Bible, which speaks\nvolumes for their honesty.\n\nA few Sundays ago I proposed that the Society set apart a small sum of\nmoney for prizes, and that all the members who wished to do so would be\ninvited to write compositions on the subject, \"What Christian Endeavor\nhas done for me.\" Nine brothers entered this symposium, and their\ncompositions signed, \"Amo Rolo, Sunflower, Rhododendron, Laurel, Merry\nHeart, Happy Bird, Mizpah, and Christian, aggregate about 7,500 words,\nand make fine reading; Bro. Severance was appointed Judge.\n\nThis summer I organized a little band of workers who go with me to the\nhospital every Sunday, where we hold little services of song, prayer and\nBible reading at the bedsides of those who are ill, and I have found\ngreat joy in this work.\n\nWe have had some splendid C. E. meetings, the best ones being those when\nthe Senior and Junior societies of the Frankfort Christian Church and\nthe Epworth League of the Methodist Church united with us. Of course, we\ncould not go to them, but they came to us, and gave us rare spiritual\nand intellectual treats. The music was specially beautiful.\n\nQuite recently I assisted Bro. Severance in re-organizing a Bible class,\nof which I am Secretary. We are studying Moninger's \"Training for\nService,\" and have 52 members. Splendid progress is being made. So you\nsee my hands are pretty full, and when Sunday night comes I am about\nready to drop in my tracks. Of course, it is all voluntary, and I do not\nhave to turn my hand over if I do not want to.\n\nI am going to add a \"Soul-winners Department\" to our C. E. Society for\nthe purpose of assisting Bro. Severance in the conversion of the men,\nbut I am in some doubt as to how to proceed as there is no chance to get\nat the men in the winter time. However, I am determined to find\nopportunity somehow.\n\nWe have a new Superintendent of Prison C. E. work, in the person of\nMiss Georgia Dunn, of Marksbury, Ky. She is the most energetic little\nChristian lady I have seen in a long time, and our society will surely\nhum this winter under her guidance, as we are all very proud of our good\nlittle sister.\n\nJanuary 1st, I commenced to read my Bible through, at the rate of three\nchapters each week night, and five each Sunday night, in order to get\nthrough by December 31st, but I read more than that and finished up\nthree months ahead of time. Although I have read the good book\nconstantly during the last eight years, this is the first continuous\nreading to completion that I ever did.\n\nI have enjoyed Bro. Severance's sermons very much and I believe there is\nnothing that thrills and inspires me with enthusiasm like fine\npreaching, and right here I am going to tell you something which you\nmust keep under your hat; one Sunday Bro. Severance was unexpectedly\ncalled away, and asked for a volunteer to fill his place, and I was\ndelighted at the opportunity, and although I could not fill it I\n\"rattled about in it,\" for about 30 minutes, and one dear fellow\naccepted the gospel invitation and joined the church. As soon as my\nsermonette was over quite a number of friends crowded around me and\nshowered congratulations on me. This was a temptation to try again, and\nthe next time three brothers joined the church, and that pleased me\nimmensely, you know.\n\nI have many good friends in Louisville, including Dr. Powell, of the\nChristian Church; Dr. T. M. Hawes, of the Highland Presbyterian Church,\nwhose C. E. Society sent us $7.50, and, say, there is a pastor after\nGod's own heart. Give them all my love when you see them, and say to\nthem that while I am ashamed of the sins that brought me here I am\ntrying to leave foot-prints that I will be proud of in the great day of\njudgment.\n\nThe Christian Endeavor Societies of Newport, Paris, Winchester and\nLexington have helped us wonderfully. Lexington is the principal center\nof Christian Endeavor activity, from my point of view, and I have an\nespecially warm place in my heart for those societies.\n\nHow is Mr. John R. Pflanz getting along? He is another whom I love, and\nI hope that he will get every office that he goes after.\n\nBe sure and give my kindest regards to your most excellent wife; she is\ncertainly a queen among women.\n\nTrusting that I have not tired you, and that you will excuse my\nremissness in failing to write sooner, I am,\n\n                                         Most respectfully yours,\n                                                        H. E. YOUTSEY.\n\n\n\n\nCapital Punishment\n\n\nThe following forceful expressions regarding capital punishment by Gov.\nGeo. W. Hunt, of Arizona, are in exact keeping with the thoughts of the\nauthor. \"Thou shalt not kill\" applies to governments, corporations,\nsocieties and individuals alike.\n\nCapital punishment is simply the commission by the State of an act which\nis regarded as a horrible crime if committed by an individual. One man\nmust not kill another man, but several men vested with official titles\ncan hold a conference and send a soul to eternity. The State says: \"You\nmust not kill; but if you do, I will kill you.\" This theory of a State's\npower or duty owes its origin to the lowest class of barbarians in the\nearly history of the world. Their logic, if it may be called that,\nsprang solely from a spirit of revenge. The idea that a legal execution\nwould deter others from committing murder probably never occurred to\nthem. Their crude minds did not rise above the thought that the victim\nshould be avenged, and that adequate vengeance could be found only in\nthe hangman's noose or the guillotine.\n\nThere are a thousand other practices originating with barbarians which\nthe footsteps of civilization and progress have crushed. But capital\npunishment, the worst heritage of the dark ages, lingers with us,\nbetraying one of the spots in humanity where the veneer of civilization\nis thin. I am inclined to think that the spirit of revenge still is the\nruling motive back of the legal execution, even though pleas are made in\nits behalf which barbarians never thought of. They could not very well\nthink of such punishment as a curb to more murders, for even they could\nnot help seeing that the beheading and quartering of offenders had no\nsuch effect. The legal execution has no such effect today, a fact which\nany fair-minded man will recognize after proper investigation. And if\nthat plea falls down, as it does and must continue to do, what defense\nof the legal killing of our fellowman is left us? The moment we are\nconvinced that the number of murders is on the increase, or does not\ndecrease, in spite of the rope and electric chair, we will have to\njustify capital punishment on some other ground. What is that other\nground, if it is not the old savage impulse of meting revenge--a species\nof revenge, at the last analysis, confers no good whatever upon society\nas a whole, and is of no consolation or comfort to the family circle\nmost affected by the original murder?\n\nArizona has taken most advanced ground upon social and economic\nquestions, and while the old territorial law, permitting capital\npunishment, is still on the statute books, it must be remembered that\nstatehood has been in operation less than a year, and that the first\nState Legislature was overwhelmed with work during the comparatively\nshort session prescribed by the Constitution. I am confident that public\nsentiment in Arizona is opposed to capital punishment. During the\nspecial session of the Legislature, which will be held early in 1913, an\neffort will be made to repeal the old law. If the Legislature is too\nbusy to give the matter attention, or is disinclined to assume the\nresponsibility, the initiative provision of the State Constitution will\nbe invoked, thus putting the question square up to the people. I have no\nfears for the outcome. Arizona citizenship has proved itself too\nintelligent to lag behind the advanced thought and progress of\ncivilization.\n\n                                              GEO. W. H. HUNT,\n                                                  Governor of Arizona.\n\n\n\n\nIndiana Reformatory\n\nInmates Subscribe for Pipe Organ\n\n\nEach one a Carnegie in proportion to his ability to give, a majority of\nthe 1,204 inmates of the Indiana Reformatory yesterday voluntarily\ncontributed toward the purchase of a pipe organ for the handsome chapel\nof the institution, the total offerings approximated $900. When the\ncontribution cards were checked up by the Rev. W. E. Edgin, chaplain of\nthe reformatory, he was surprised at the generosity shown by the\ninmates. The individual sums given ranged from 25 cents to $35.\n\nWhen Gov. J. Frank Hanly was a guest at the Reformatory recently he was\nasked by Mr. Edgin as to the best plan to pursue to get from Andrew\nCarnegie a contribution sufficient to buy a pipe organ. Gov. Hanly\nreplied that this sum could be raised in Indiana, and he started the\nlist with $100. It then occurred to Mr. Edgin to ask voluntary\ncontributions from the inmates, and permission was given by Supt.\nWhittaker. Cards were left in each cell, with blanks for subscriptions,\nbut it was distinctly stated that all offerings should be entirely\nvoluntary. A great many of the inmates bring money with them to the\nReformatory, and this, with that which they earn by overtime work, which\nis considerable, is credited to them.\n\nWhen the success of the offering was learned the inmates were as much\npleased as Chaplain Edgin. The new organ soon will be forthcoming.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\n                           PROGRAM.\n\n\n             Indiana Reformatory Chapel Services.\n\n                   Sunday, April 14, 1907.\n\n\n  March--\"Camp Organ\"                              Narovec\n  March--\"Steel King\"                            St. Clair\n\n                      Musical Selection.\n\n  Paraphrase--\"Melody in F\"                     Rubenstein\n\n                          Doxology.\n\n                     The Lord's Prayer.\n\n\n                    I SHALL BE LIKE HIM.\n\n    When I shall reach the more excellent glory,\n      And all my trials are passed,\n    I shall behold Him, O wonderful story!\n      I shall be like Him at last.\n\n    Cho: I shall be like Him, I shall be like Him,\n      And in His beauty shall shine;\n    I shall be like Him, wondrously like Him,\n      Jesus my Savior divine.\n\n    We shall not wait till the glorious dawning\n      Breaks on the vision so fair,\n    Now we may welcome the heavenly morning,\n      Now we His image may bear.\n\n    More and more like Him, repeat the blest story,\n      Over and over again,\n    Changed by His Spirit from glory to glory,\n      I shall be satisfied then.\n\n                                Prayer.\n\n  Piano Solo                                J. S. Hathaway\n  Selection--From \"Romeo and Juliet\"                Gounod\n\n\nTHE VIRTUE OF SHAME.\n\nConfession is a duty too little regarded even by many Christians. Some\nmen are ashamed to confess that they have done wrong. Sir John Lubbock\nsays: \"It is well to be ashamed of yourself if you are in the wrong; but\nnever be ashamed to own it.\" The Bible says: \"Confess your faults one to\nanother.\"\n\n\nCONQUEST.\n\n    Creation's heir, the world, the world is mine.--Goldsmith.\n    All things are yours.--Paul.\n\n    The world is mine. I hold no title-deed\n    To one small acre, yet have all I need,\n    And should Dame Fortune proffer me her store\n    I could not linger wistful, at her door.\n\n    Unfortunate is he beyond compute,\n    Whose love of fortune makes his conscience mute.\n    I will not look to fortune. I will do\n    My best, though small that best to her or you.\n\n    All things are mine. I walk with firmer tread\n    Than Caesar at his best; for I am led\n    By mightier One than Fortune or than Fate,\n    And I shall conquer all things, soon or late.\n\n    All things? Yes, all. Then well may Fortune frown,\n    And clutch with trembling hand her imperial crown.\n    I will stoop to conquer. I will rise\n    And climb the rugged path where duty lies.\n\n  Sermon                                      Geo. L. Herr\n\n                        Benediction.\n\n  March--\"Boston Press Club\"                     Rollinson\n  March--\"Yankee Grit\"                             Holzman\n\n\n\n\n\"CLING TO THE BIBLE.\"\n\n    Tis the anchor of hope and the lamp that gives light,\n      Tis the star that will shine thro' your life's darkest night,\n    If you follow its guidance, you'll always be right,\n      So cling to the Bible and walk in its light.\n\n\nTo neglect, reject or doubt the Bible in any particular is but an\nentering wedge to spiritual apathy. The \"Bible tinkers\" of this or any\nother age have been men whose hearts are cold and whose soul saving\npowers were limited.\n\nTo obey the Bible, will lead to a perfect salvation, make possible a\nvictorious faith, surmount the difficulties of life and gain an\n\"inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled and that fadeth not away,\nreserved in heaven for you.\"\n\nWatson says, \"The Bible is a rock of diamonds; a chain of pearls; the\nsword of the Spirit, a chart by which the Christian sails to eternity,\nthe map by which he daily walks; the sun dial by which he sets his life;\nthe balance by which he weighs his actions.\"\n\n\n\n\n                             The\n                            Bible\n                           contains\n                          3,566,480\n                         letters, 810-\n                        697 words, 31-\n                       175 verses, 1,189\n                       chapters, and  66\n                      books. The  longest\n                     chapter is the 119th\n                     Psalm.  The  shortest\n                    and middle  chapter the\n                   117   Psalm.  The  middle\n                 verse is the 8th of the 118th\n                 Psalm.  The  longest  name  is\n                in  the  8th  chapter of Isaiah.\n                The  word  \"and\"  occurs  46,627\n               times;  the \"Lord\"  858 times. The\n              37th chapter  of  Isaiah and the 9th\n             chapter  of the  2d book of  Kings  are\n            alike.  The longest  verse is  the  9th of\n          the 8th  chapter of  Esther and  the shortest\n           verse is  the 35th of  the 11th  chapter of\n            John.  In  the  21st  verse  of  the 7th\n             chapter of Ezra is  the alphabet.  The\n               name of  God  is not  mentioned in\n                the  book of Esther.  The model\n                 prayer is the 17th chapter of\n                   John. The 13th chapter of\n                    1st Corinthians is the\n                       most   practical.\n                        It   Contains\n                          Knowledge\n                          Holiness\n                           Wisdom\n                          and Love\n              The Tree of Life and Knowledge\n\n\n\n\n\"DO YOU KNOW THE WORLD IS DYING FOR A LITTLE BIT OF LOVE?\"\n\n\nPractical results are happy homes, husbands and fathers restored to\ntheir families, wives and children made happy, multitudes rescued, and\nthe world made better.\n\nThe magnitude of this work will never be known until Eternity's records\nare disclosed. Little did we think twenty years ago that so humble a\nbeginning would be attended with such remarkable results.\n\nRev. Herr holds a unique position in the evangelistic field. He is\nconsidered the greatest evangelist among prisoners in the United\nStates.--Louisville Herald, May 17, 1909.\n\nWhen you help the missionaries, you help the poor fellow in trouble.\nWhen you help those in trouble, you help yourself, and when you thus\nhelp the missionary, the outcast, and yourself, God will help you.\n\n\nOUR MOTTO:\n\n      \"Seeking the lost.\"\n      \"Helping the helpless to help themselves.\"\n    All along life's pathway there are men and women in need:\n        Go and help somebody just now.\n    With a word of kindness or a loving deed,\n        Go and help somebody just now.\n\n\nDear Friend--Our country is taxed with a burden of thousands of\nprisoners. These people are crippled, not in body, not in mind, but\nalmost always in morals, which is the most serious. It is to help or\nrecover them that we are giving our lives. Our labors have not been in\nvain, as the testimonials will show you. We want you to \"hold the rope\nwhile we go down into the pit,\" by subscribing for our support and\ntransportation in this work of prison evangelism; and in so doing you\nbecome the benefactor of a submerged class.\n\nMay we not hope to have your check to help in this concerted effort? I\nam,\n\n                                          Yours sincerely,\n                                              GEO. L. HERR,\n                                                   Louisville, Ky.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  --------\n    \"He that hath the Son, hath life, and he that hath not the Son\n    of God hath not life.\"--1 John 5:12.\n\n    \"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?\"--Heb.\n    2:3.\n\n    \"For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world\n    and lose his own soul?\"--Mark 8:36.\n\n    \"But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and\n    all these things shall be added unto you.\"--Matt. 6:33.\n  --------\n\n\n\n\nGET REV. HERR'S NEW BOOK.\n\n\nEntitled \"The Nation Behind Prison Bars,\" for your good; but chiefly for\nthe good of others.\n\nThe nation behind the bars is an interesting nation, a pitiful nation, a\nneedy nation. Help them and interest yourself in them by buying and\nreading this book.\n\n\"You have a superb record.\"--Rev. Horace G. Ogden, D.D.\n\n\"He has wide experience on both sides of the line.\"--Rev. H. C.\nMorrison, Editor Pentecostal Herald.\n\n\"His labors are abundantly blessed.\"--Rev. Joseph Severance.\n\n\"The large number who have been helped by hearing your message will be\nstill further benefited by reading your book.\"--Rev. Albert J. Steelman,\nPh.D., Chaplain, Illinois State Penitentiary.\n\n\"You and your good wife were father and mother to the prisoners.\"--John\nR. Pflanz, Jailer.\n\n\"George L. Herr is not the man to do anything in an ordinary way.\"--Rev.\nD. J. Starr, D.D., Chaplain of Columbus, O., Penitentiary.\n\n\"His work among prisoners has been very successful, and through his\nefforts many erring creatures have been induced to reform.\"--Charles F.\nGrainger.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes\n\n Table of Contents\n  (Practical Religious Work in County Jail)\n  Pratical changed to Practical.\n\n Page 7\n  (glorified by the presence)\n  glorifield changed to glorified.\n\n Page 144\n  (Hundreds of Letters we have\n  have have changed to have.\n\n The following are used interchangably:\n  \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 today and to-day,\n  \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 exconvict and ex-convict\n  \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 cellhouse and cell-house\n  \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 brokenhearted and broken-hearted\n\n Several unbalanced quotes were left as in the original.\n\n Page 128\n  (Jerry was put to work in the engine room)\n  This paragraph appears to need an open quote. Unchanged.\n\n Page 141\n  (\"The wages of sin is death,)\n  Phrase seems to need a closed quote. Unchanged.\n\n Page 161\n  (\"Amo Rolo, Sunflower, Rhododendron, Laurel, Merry\n  Heart, Happy Bird, Mizpah, and Christian,)\n  List of names seems to need a closes quote. Unchanged.","title":"The Nation Behind Prison Bars","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":40188}