Visit to the Prison

Sunday, June 23, by invitation, I visited the prison, in Salem, Oregon, in company with Brother and Sister Carter, and Sister Jordan, who took me there in her carriage. The superintendent and warden of the prison were introduced to me. When the time arrived for service we were conducted to the chapel, a room made cheerful by an abundance of light, and pure fresh air. At a signal from a bell, two men opened the great iron gates by means of a lever, and the prisoners came flocking from their cells into the chapel. The doors were securely closed behind them, and for the first time in my life, I was immured in prison walls.

I had anticipated seeing a set of repulsive looking men. In this I was disappointed; many of them seemed to be intelligent, and some appeared to be men of ability. They were dressed in the coarse, but neat striped prison uniform, their hair smooth, and boots brushed. As I looked upon the varied physiognomies before me, I thought: To each of these men has been committed peculiar gifts or talents for use, and not for abuse. All before me, from those who had occupied conspicuous and important positions in the world, and in the church, even those who had been most lowly and obscure, have been entrusted with some talents, whether of wealth, station, influence, kindly sympathies or affections, they were given from the heavenly treasury, and were to have been used for the glory of God, and the benefit of the world.

The men before me had despised the gifts of heaven, and had abused, and misapplied them. Some of the convicts manifested a forced unnatural cheerfulness. But many, especially the older men, looked exceedingly sad and melancholy. Before me were youths of tender years, and the hardened, gray-haired sinner, all under the bondage of the law, because they had transgressed its statutes. As I looked upon young men of eighteen to twenty and thirty years of age, I thought of their unhappy mothers, and of the grief and remorse which was their bitter portion. Had they done their duty by their children? Had they not indulged them in their own will and way, and neglected to teach them the statutes of God, and his claims upon them? Many of those mothers’ hearts had been broken by the ungodly course pursued by their children.

When all the company were assembled, Brother Carter read the hymn. All had books, and joined heartily in singing. One, who seemed to be an accomplished musician, played the organ. I then opened the meeting by prayer, and again all joined in singing. I spoke from the words of John: «Behold, what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God; therefore, the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.»

I exalted before them the infinite sacrifice that the father made, in giving his beloved Son for fallen men, that they might through obedience be transformed, and become the acknowledged sons of God. The church and the world are called upon to behold and admire a love which thus expressed is beyond human comprehension, and even amazed the angels of heaven. This love was so deep, so broad, and so high, that it filled the holy angels with amazement, and language in which to describe it, failing the inspired apostle, he calls upon the church and the world to behold it—to make it the theme of contemplation, and of admiration.

I presented before my hearers the sin of Adam in the transgression of the Father’s express commands. God made man upright, perfectly holy and happy; but he lost the favor of God, and destroyed his own happiness by disobedience of the Father’s law. The sin of Adam plunged the race in hopeless misery and despair. Every successive generation upon the earth have degenerated physically, mentally, and morally. Sin with its terrible curse corrupted the world, and almost obliterated the image of God in man. But the wonderful, pitying love of God did not leave men in their hopeless, fallen condition to utterly perish. He gave his well beloved Son for their salvation. He who was the brightness of God’s glory, and the express image of him took man’s, nature, to suffer affliction, scorn and hatred of the very ones he came to save. Christ entered the world, his divinity clothed in humanity; he passed over the ground where Adam fell; he bore the test which Adam failed to endure; he overcame every temptation of Satan, and thus redeemed Adam’s disgraceful failure and fall.

The sons of men gave way to the indulgence of appetite, which set on fire their passions. They became violent, basely corrupt, and hardened. Their thoughts and acts were evil, and God finally visited his wrath upon the children of disobedience, and washed the earth of its moral pollution by a flood. But God acknowledged the few on earth who were righteous. Noah and his family were saved. In the midst of his wrath and retributive justice God remembered mercy, and left not the righteous and faithful to perish with the wicked.

When the earth became peopled again, sin once more spread abroad over the land. Wickedness covered all nations like the pall of death. Satan compassed the ruin of thousands through temptation to indulge appetite. He has ever thus sought to pervert the senses of man, weaken his moral power, and make him the slave of appetite; he then gains control of him, and uses him as his agent in practising crime, and all manner of wickedness. We see, at the present day, great lack of discernment in regard to right and wrong, and an absence of principle. We may trace this lamentable state of things to the general indulgence of perverted appetite, which excites the baser passions, and urges its victim on to excesses of every kind, and finally to crimes of every degree.

Intemperance of any kind will enervate a character originally firm, noble, and independent. His fine sensibilities will be blunted, his conscience will become seared. He will form bad associations, evil communications will corrupt his good manners. One false step leads him to another, which may be fatal, and he becomes the tool of Satan. Men plunge into wild license and reckless dissipation, and call it freedom of action, when they are in veriest bondage to the most cruel tyrant who knows no compassion for the wretched victims he allures to ruin. When the world was filled with iniquity God lifted up his standard against Satan by sending his Son to the world in the likeness of sinful flesh. Christ bridged the gulf that sin had made, which separated earth from heaven, and man from God.

I then referred to the long fast of Christ in the wilderness. The sin of the indulgence of appetite, and its power over human nature can never be fully realized except as that long fast of Christ when contending single-handed with the prince of the power of darkness is studied and understood. Man’s salvation was at stake. Would Satan or would the Redeemer of the world come off conqueror! It is impossible for us to conceive with what intense interest angels of God watched the trial of their loved Commander.

Jesus came from heaven to earth, assumed man’s nature, and was tempted in all points like as we are that he might know how to succor those who should be tempted. Christ’s life is for our example. He shows in his willing obedience, how man may keep the law of God, and that transgression of the law, and not obedience of it, brings him into bondage. The Saviour was full of compassion and love; he never spurned the truly penitent, however great their guilt; but he severely denounced hypocrisy of every sort, he is acquainted with the sins of men, he knows all their acts, and reads their secret motives; yet he does not turn away from them in their iniquity. He pleads and reasons with the sinner, and, in one sense,—that of having himself borne the weakness of humanity,—he puts himself on a level with him. «Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Man, who has defaced the image of God in his soul by a corrupt life cannot, by mere human effort, effect a radical change in himself. He must accept the provisions of the gospel; he must be reconciled to God through obedience of his law and faith in Jesus Christ. His life from thenceforth must be governed by a new principle. Through repentance, faith and good works he may develop and perfect a righteous character, and claim through the merits of Christ the privileges of the sons of God. The principles of divine truth received and cherished in the heart will carry us to a height of moral excellence we had not deemed possible for us to reach. «And it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure.»

Here is a work for man to do. He must face the mirror of God’s law, discern the defects in his moral character and put away his sins, washing his robes of character in the blood of the Lamb. Envy, pride, malice, deceit, strife, crime will be cleansed from the heart that is recipient of the love of Christ, and cherishes the hope of being made like him when we shall see him as he is. The religion of Christ refines and dignifies its possessor, whatever his associations or station in life may be. Men who become enlightened Christians rise above the level of their former character into greater mental and moral strength. Those fallen and degraded by sin and crime may become but a little lower than the angels through the merits of the Saviour.

But the influence of a gospel hope will not lead the sinner to look upon the salvation of Christ as a matter of free grace, while he continues to live in transgression of the law of God. When the light of truth dawns upon his mind, and he fully understands the requirements of God, and realizes the extent of his transgressions, he will reform his ways, become loyal to God through the strength obtained from his Saviour, and lead a new and purer life. Those who overcome in the name of Jesus will stand about the great white throne, with crowns of immortal glory, waving the palm branches of victory. They will be sons of God, children of the heavenly King, their lives running parallel with the life of God. The joy of the Lord will be their joy, and no shadow will ever darken their heavenly home. Said Christ, «Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.» While mercy lingers, I beseech you to make the most of the probationary time left you, in preparing for eternity, that life may not be an utter failure, and that in the time of solemn scrutiny you may be found with those who are accepted of God, and are called the sons of God. E. G. White. —