MAN OVERBOARD by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 18, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 11.

“MAN OVERBOARD.”

By Editor

We certainly would not hesitate to rescue a man who had fallen overboard in the middle of the ocean, but there are a hundred thousand prisoners in this country who have either fallen overboard or else like Jonah they have been thrown overboard, and the same God that was interested in Jonah when he was cast into the sea is interested in these men. Are you seeking to help them or to save them? God looks down from heaven to “hear the groaning of the prisoner.” Ps. 102:20. We can be used as instruments in God’s hands to save these despairing, helpless men and women who have been cast overboard and for whom society has no pitying glance.

If we had been born of the same parents and brought up in the same environment as some of these prisoners, perhaps some of us would be behind prison bars to-day. If they had been given the same opportunities that we have had, perhaps they would have improved much better than we have.

In April we shall send a cheering Gospel message of hope in the form of a copy of the Life Boat, to be placed in the hands of practically every prisoner in the United States. Prison officials without exception are interested in this effort, and will assist us all they can. Will you interest your friends in this plan? The prisoner must have the Gospel as well as other sinners. He has more time to think than many who are on the outside of the prisons, as is shown by the following extracts from a few of hundreds of letters we have received since we issued our last Prison number of the Life Boat.

“If a man will study the paper called the SIGNS OF THE TIMES he will soon find that the eye of his spiritual understanding is opened to the very things which a short time before seemed impossible. I want to ask you about Dan. 8:14, ‘unto twenty-three hundred days and then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.’ What does that mean? I also want to know if the use of tea and coffee and meat is unhealthy—if so, why? I ask this because the less meat I eat the better I feel.”

“I am always ready to receive your welcome letters. They bring good cheer to me for they are the only thing I long for. Sometimes I dream that I am at home and happy with my father and mother and little children and my nephews and nieces. I love the little ones so much that I would give all the world for one day of freedom. If a man does not get his heart touched here in prison he will never get it touched any place.”

The following letter has just been received from the chaplain of the New Jersey State prison, and is a good sample of many others:—

“Five hundred copies of your very profitable Life Boat can be used here. Out on the sea of life, wrecked by bad habits, drifting toward the lee shore of everlasting destruction, a paper like yours will help to save many a one who would otherwise perish. Any number you can send will be very acceptable and will help me in my work as chaplain.”

This number of the Life Boat will be furnished at two cents each. Address, The Life Boat, 28 Thirty-third Place, Chicago.