Recollections of Windsor Prison Part 16

MRS. FRY obtained permission to a.s.semble the children in a school established in the prison, for the purpose of promoting their religious instruction. The female prisoners, in spite of their profligate and vicious habits, joyfully embraced the opportunity of ameliorating the condition of their children. Much was already effected by restoring these women to the first sentiments of nature; namely, maternal affection.

A woman denominated the _matron_, was entrusted with the control of the prisoners, under the superintendence of the ladies of the Society of Friends, composing the Newgate Committee.

MRS. FRY having drawn up a set of rules of conduct for the prisoners, a day was fixed on, and the lord Mayor and one of the aldermen being present, she read aloud the articles, and asked the prisoners whether they were willing to adopt them; they were directed to raise their hands as a sign of approval. This const.i.tution was unanimously adopted; so sincere were the sentiments of respect and confidence she had inspired.

Thanks to her perseverance and the years she has devoted to her pious undertaking, a total change has been effected in Newgate prison; the influence of virtue has softened the horrors of vice, and Newgate has become the asylum of repentance.

Strangers are permitted to visit the jail on Thursday, when MRS. FRY reads and explains pa.s.sages of the Bible to the prisoners. Her voice is extremely fascinating; its pure, clear tones are admirably calculated to plead the cause of virtue and humanity.

The late queen expressed a wish to see MRS. FRY, and in the most flattering terms testified the admiration she felt for her conduct.

The thanks of the city of London were voted to her; and, in short, there is not an Englishman who does not bless her name."

How worthy of all admiration is such conduct in a female! But if the principle which DR. CHALMERS has stated with so much beauty and force, and which has been so fully and delightfully exemplified by the seraphic spirits of a HOWARD and a FRY, is correct, how humbling to the christian community are the inferences which follow.

Why are our prisons such scenes of cruelty and such schools of crime?

Because christian churches and christian individuals are dest.i.tute of the practical good will, and the expansive benevolence of the gospel of Christ. When christians begin to _act_ on the principles of their profession, prisons will begin to grow pure; and when all christians fully perform their solemn duties to the erring and the wretched, prison walls and prison vices will be no more. In a purified society they cannot exist; and the degraded condition of the prisoners in our country, and the rapid increase of their numbers, are sure indications of the want of piety and G.o.dliness in the land.

I might spin out remarks to an indefinite length, but it would be to no useful purpose. I can weep over the evils which I am unable to cure. I do not expect any great improvement _in_ our prisons, till I see great reformations _out_ of them. From the society of the free all our prisoners are taken, and till that society is purified it will continue to furnish its annual victims to the penitentiary; but when that is done, the fetters and dungeons of the captive will crumble to dust, and the improvement of prisoners will be simultaneous with the reformation of the free. These two cla.s.ses act and react upon each other, and they must ultimately wear the same moral complexion. If vice is to triumph over virtue, then all will be just fit for a dungeon; but if virtue is to become universal, then will the bond and the free be equal sharers in the bliss. But as the prey _is_ to be taken from the mighty, and as all flesh _is_ to see the salvation of the Lord, I am sure that "in the dispensation of the fulness of times," the vices and crimes of prisoners will cease, and the voice of the oppressors be heard no more.

REV. JOHN ROBBINS' VISIT TO WINDSOR PRISON.

It was in the spring of 1829 that the Rev. John Robbins visited the State Prison in Windsor, Vermont, in which a number of years before he had been a prisoner. He was recognized by a few of the oldest inhabitants of that gloomy mansion, who had been his fellow-prisoners, and particularly by the writer of this article who had been his cell-mate. He obtained permission of the Superintendent, and preached in the prison chapel the first Sabbath after his arrival in town. As he entered the pulpit a thrill of indescribable but pleasing emotion darted through the bosoms of his old acquaintances, at witnessing the great and happy change of which he had obviously been the subject. A few short years before, he had occupied a seat among the hearers in that doleful place, and no one questioned his right to that distinction; but now he appeared as an accredited minister of the gospel, "to preach deliverance to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." Every eye was fastened upon him, and a solemn death-like stillness pervaded the room. After a few minutes he gave out the following appropriate and affecting psalm, which was sung with sympathetic expression by the choir:

"Father, I bless thy gentle hand; How kind was thy chastising rod, Which forced my conscience to a stand And brought my wandering soul to G.o.d.

"Foolish and vain, I went astray; Ere I had felt thy scourges, Lord, I left my guide, and lost my way; But now I love and keep thy word.

"'Tis good for me to wear the yoke, For pride is apt to rise and swell; 'Tis good to bear my Father's stroke, That I might learn his statutes well."

After this psalm was sung he prayed--but such a prayer had not often been heard in that place. Solemn and awful language, on flame with heaven's own spirit, and big with holy desires, marked this effort of his impa.s.sioned soul. That prayer was heard in heaven; for such a prayer can never be made in vain. It produced an unutterable effect on every heart; and the impression it made on mine is, at this moment, among my liveliest and dearest recollections.

His text was,--"G.o.dliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." I will not attempt to give even a skeleton of the overpowering sermon which followed. I was too much affected for memory to perform its office.

Unlike many of the pulpit efforts which I had been accustomed to hear, it was not characterized by polished periods and cla.s.sical elegance, but by the thunder and lightning of Mount Sinai. It was a storm which shook the soul, and roused up all its powers. The preacher was evidently in awful earnest;--his lifted arm, his swelling voice, his beaming eyes, denoted the man who felt the importance, and believed the truth of what he said. Until now, he sustained himself in firm and perfect self-possession; but when he came to advert to his former situation, and point out the very seat he had occupied among his hearers, his firmness deserted him. His eyes swam in tears--his voice fell down into interrupted and trembling accents--and his mind became perfectly unnerved. Sympathy, inspired his feelings in his congregation--every eye was moistened--sighs echoed to sighs--some wept aloud--and the whole scene was one of mingled, ungovernable emotions.

With this sermon commenced a glorious revival of religion in the Prison. That long and much neglected moral waste began to exhibit the buds of promise; that spiritual desert began to smile with freshness and bloom; and after twenty years of famine, more dreadful than that which devoured the plenty of Egypt, the Lord began to pour down the streams of his grace, and spread a feast of fat things before the dying souls of His creatures. Angels, whose far-reaching vision embraces a thousand worlds, never saw a spot more spiritually and morally barren, than had been the State Prison at Windsor from the very commencement of its history up to the happy time under consideration. But now the scene began to change; the wilderness and the solitary place began to rejoice, and the desert to blossom as the rose. Mr. Robbins, at the request of the Superintendent, continued there about five mouths, during which time, I have as much evidence as any such case admits of, that one half of the prisoners became the subjects of serious convictions, and one fourth part were thoroughly converted to G.o.d. It is due to the Hon. J. H. Cotton, Superintendent of the Prison, to say, that he cordially co-operated with Mr. R. and granted the prisoners every indulgence which reason could ask. Sabbath Schools were established; Bible Cla.s.ses were formed; and the Prison became a temple with a worshipper in every cell. The other means used by Mr. R. were private conversation, tracts, and plain, pungent preaching.

While this delightful work was in progress, the following hymn was composed by one of the prisoners and sung by them in their meetings; and as it gives a very impressive and accurate view of the power and character of this display of saving mercy to the doubly lost, I will insert it here for the gratification of the reader:

"Rejoice, O my soul, see the trophies of grace Submitting to Jesus and shouting his praise; Like doves to their windows, or clouds through the sky, From sin's darkest borders for safety they fly.

"This strong bolted dungeon is vocal with prayer, And joy rolls her orb through the sky of despair; This strong hold of Satan is trembling to fall, The power of Jehovah is seen by us all.

"The angel of mercy can visit a cell, And on the dark bosom of misery dwell.

The sunbeams of heaven can shine from above, And glow on our midnight a rainbow of love.

"All glorious Eternal! we tremble and fear; How awful this place is, we know Thou art here!

In thy dreadful presence adoring we fall.

Well pleas'd to be nothing, and Thou all in all!"

I must ask the indulgence of the reader for introducing another hymn, by the same author, which also exhibits the true extent and glory of the work, in contrast with the darkness and misery which preceded it.

It is inscribed to Mr. Robbins:

"_I was in prison and ye came unto me._"

JESUS CHRIST.

"Around our horizon no twilight was streaming, Nor faint twinkling star shot a ray thro' the gloom; No taper of life in our dungeons was gleaming, But darkness and death roll'd dismay thro' our tomb.

"When, clear as the sun, rob'd in beams of the morning, You rose on our darkness with soul-cheering ray; To temples of worship our dungeons transforming, And pouring around us the noon-blaze of day.

"In every hall now an altar is burning, And incense of praise rolls from many a heart; The ransom'd of Christ are to Zion returning, With firm resolution no more to depart.

"How sweet is the sound! holy anthems are ringing, And cell back to cell echoes triumph and praise!

And while to the theme of salvation I'm singing, The glory of G.o.d bursts around in a blaze!

"My soul, bless the Lord! be his mercy forever The theme of my song and the flame of my heart!

And from his commands may I wander no never!

Nor from his dear service one moment depart!

"Go on, sent of G.o.d! See! all ripe for the sickle The harvest is waving, and bright in your view, Confide not in man, all inconstant and fickle, But trust in the Lord ever faithful and true."

In the course of about five months, this shower of divine mercy pa.s.sed completely by and went off, after watering richly that sterile region, and causing it to brighten with the fairest promises of a glorious harvest. Never was there a work of grace more pleasing in its developement, more thorough in its searchings into the heart, or that will in my firm opinion, be more lasting in its joyful effects. There were no enthusiastic ravings--none of the mysticism of fanatics; but every part of the work was characteristic of the deep and reforming energies of the Spirit of G.o.d on the soul. That there were some who banished their serious convictions from their minds, there can be no doubt; and that some who entered the race, run well only for a season, and then turned back, is equally probable. These are dark spots from which no bright display of saving mercy is ever perfectly free. But I am, on the other hand, just as firmly persuaded, that as many as thirty of those who were then outcasts from society, became free citizens of the Redeemer's kingdom, and will "walk with him in white"

in the world of glory.

From the preceding rapid sketch of a work of grace in a State Prison, the following affecting truths force themselves inferentially upon the mind.

1. The most abandoned among the sons of men, are fully within the saving influences of Gospel truth, when it is judiciously applied to the conscience and heart.

2. State Prisons are too much neglected in the benevolent and pious enterprises of this missionary and philanthropic age. Ministers of Jesus have gone out, and others are going out, to the extremities of the globe, to evangelize the heathen, while they too obviously disregard the injunction of the blessed Jesus so plainly and energetically implied in these words,--"I was in prison and ye visited me not."

3. Any humble self-denying servant of Him who came to say to prisoners, Go forth--to pardon a dying thief--and point out to repentant crime the path of righteousness, who will, in the spirit of his Master, devote himself to the great work of preaching the everlasting Gospel in State Prisons, will joyfully witness the gloom departing from those fields of spiritual desolation, and find his sacred, untiring labors amply repaid, by the success with which, sooner or later, they will be graciously crowned.

In conclusion, permit me to call the attention of all benevolent and pious minds, to the deplorable condition of those whose crimes have justly cut them off from the sweets of liberty and the endearments of social life, and consigned them to a living death within the gloomy walls of a State Prison. With an emphasis that might pierce the soul, they say to you,--"Have pity upon us! have pity upon us, O ye our friends! for the hand of G.o.d hath touched us!" But this plaintive cry is heard only to be forgotten. If any cla.s.s of darkened, perverted, and ruined humanity, has any claim on the sympathies of Christians, this is that cla.s.s. This Howard felt, and, by his efforts to meliorate their condition, he became the acknowledged prince of philanthropists, and earned an immortal and sacred fame. Our State Prisons, it is true, are not the dark subterranean h.e.l.ls of Europe; but they are, in the fullest American sense of that term,--State Prisons. And why will not some American Howard, some baptized and heavenly spirit, take a thorough and christian survey of these places, and become a christian Howard by causing all the means of grace, like so many rivers from the throne of G.o.d, to roll their pure, and comforting, and saving waters, through all their gloomy abodes.

THE AUTHOR'S FAREWELL TO LIBERTY AND HIS FRIENDS.

Published after he had been confined _nine years_, and a few months before he received his pardon.

"_We hung our harps upon the willows._"--CAPTIVE ISRAEL.

Farewell, enchanting G.o.ddess, Whose smile all nature cheers, And pours the light of heaven Around sublunar years.