OCTOBER 1. 1915 



819 



A. I. Root 



OUM HOME 



Editor 



Tlie harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few. 

 -Matt. 9:37. 



Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin 

 of the world. — John 1:29. 



He which converteth the sinner from the error of 

 his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide 

 a multitude of sins. — .Iames 5:20. 



" THE REMAKING AND MENDING OF MEN." 



At our Medina Chautauqua this surruiier, 

 Cliaphiin Kipliuger, of the Indiana State 

 Prison, irave about the best talk in favor of 

 prohibition that I ever heard. He had a 

 large and appreciatiAe audience, for which 

 I thanked God; but it seems to me that the 

 fads and figures he gave should be held up 

 before tlie people, not only for the state 

 of Ohio but throughout the United States 

 and tlie whole wide world. 



Perhaps I was specially prepared or fitted 

 to take in the significance of that talk. I 

 ha\e told you in past years several times 

 about my work for several years here in 

 oui' Medina jail, especially when we had 

 open saloons running in full blast in our 

 town. Let ino go over it briefly just to 

 bring to mind one particular instance. 



Shortly after my conversion I found my 

 way into our county jail. There were, 

 perhaps, half a dozen bad and even wicked 

 men and boys there, shut up with nothing 

 to do but to chew tobacco, play cards, and 

 indulge in the worst profanity and obscen- 

 ity I ever heard. When I tried in my feeble 

 way to hold up before them the gospel of 

 Christ Jesus they turned on me until I was 

 apparently " snowed under." But 1 kept 

 coming and pleading with them, not only 

 on Sunday afternoon but between times. 

 When they became tired of their confine- 

 ment they gradually began to be glad to see 

 me, because it was a sort of diversion to 

 them. I got them to read good books, and 

 taught them to sing some gospel hymns; 

 and as they dropped out one after another 

 they certainly had made some progress out 

 of their evil ways. I met them occasionally 

 years afterward, and almost always with a 

 good report from the seed that was sown in 

 their hearts yeare before. 



After they had all left, the ring leader 

 (who had already served a term in the 

 pejiitentiarj-. and was on his way the 

 second time for robbery), I had a chance to 

 get well acquainted with him. In fact, he 

 became so lonesome after many weeks of 

 confinement that he was glad to listen to 

 and talk with anybody.* You will recall, 



* After I-'red and I became " good friends " I 

 found he was left at an early ago without either 

 father or mother, and was " fanned out" from one 



perhaps, liis coming out of our Medina jail, 

 as the scripture puts it, " clothed and in his 

 right mind." In less than one year he was 

 teaching a class in Sunday-school; and 

 when he got a position as conductor on a 

 freight train he had his caboose papered 

 inside with scripture texts instead of vile 

 pictures and writing, that used to be the 

 custom in years gone by. 



The reason 1 mention this just now is to 

 hold up before you the fact that almost any 

 criminal may be made a good man, or 

 certainly a better man, if some good Chris- 

 tian could sit down by his side, get well 

 acquainted with him, win his confidence, 

 and lend a helping hand in every way in 

 his power. When a man first gets into 

 prison he is often defiant and ugly ; but after 

 days and weeks of confinement he sobers 

 down and is ready to talk. What is want- 

 ed is good Christian men and women who 

 are willing to give their ability and time to 

 such work. Surely, as we have it in our 

 text, " The harvest is plenteous, but the 

 laborers are few." 



Some years ago it was my privilege to 

 listen to that gi-and good woman, one of 

 God's choice jewels, Mrs. Maude Ballington 

 Booth. The whole wide world knows what 

 she has done for men and boys in the 

 prisons of our land. Well, Chaplain Kip- 

 linger spoke for over an hour. He gave 

 incident after incident showing how he 

 finally reclaimed men who seemed for quite 

 a time hopeless; but, may God be praised, 

 he almost invariably won out in the end. 

 There were such crowds gathered about 



farmer to another, and I fear these farmers were 

 more alert in making the boy pay expenses than 

 they vera in making a good boy and a good man. 

 .\s a consequence he became soured toward every- 

 body, (ie told me that " The world has been ' agin 

 .-^ne.' and I am ' agin ' the world." That was when 



I first saw him; and when he declared "They may 

 <arry my dead body back to that ' old pen,' but they 

 will never carry me alive," he was in a desperate 

 frame of mind. When I succeeded in making him 

 comprehend the meaning of the text, " Love ye your 

 ciicmie';, do good to them that hate you," he said, 

 " Mr. Koot, that may be aJl right. I do not dispute 

 it, mind you; but it goes awfully ' agin the grain.' " 

 After days and weeks of pleading he finiilly one day 

 sent word that he w.Tnted to see me. He outlined 

 what a change it would be for him to undertake to 

 be a disciple of the lowly Nazarene, and finally said, 

 " Well, Mr. Root, I do not make any promise, mind 

 you. I do not iinow how I shall make out trying 

 to be a Christian; but I will make a trial of it. I 

 will do the best I can." Then at my suggestion he 

 knelt down on the stone floor of that old .iail and 

 in his own way with broken language he said, "God, 

 l;e merciful to nie. a .sinner." ^^■hat a rlianse came 

 over his face from that time onward I The hard, 

 defiant look was gone. A happy smile lit up his 

 manly face in a manner I had never seen before : 



II nd every time we met after that he told me of 

 new victories he had met with the help of the little 

 prayer I taught him — " Lord, help." 



