If prisoners are among the lost sheep who have gone astray, is it not our duty to go after them, and seek to bring them back to the fold? God is no respecter of persons; He loves the sinner in a prison cell just as much as the saint in a church pew. Both are objects of His tender care. If we can not personally visit the convicts in prisons, we can at least help to send them such literature as the SIGNS and the Life Boat.
Very often prison experiences lead men who have previously not given the subject the least thought, to think seriously about their souls' salvation. It is erroneous to imagine that all prisoners are hardened criminals. Many of them were simply weak men who under great provocation or severe temptation performed some wrong act, and consequently had the strong arm of the law laid upon them. The fact is that many prisoners are not as wicked or vicious as thousands of others who are shrewd enough to succeed in covering up their track sufficiently to avoid detection and arrest.
Once a year a sufficiently large edition of "The Life Boat" is issued to enable a copy to be placed in the hands of the majority of the convicts in all our State prisons. The flood of appreciative letters we have received from hundreds of prisoners and more than a score of prison officials, is the best evidence we could have that God has set His stamp of approval on this effort. We know of many men whose careers have been entirely changed for the better by reading a single number of the Life Boat while they sat in a prison cell.
There is no missionary field that has been so strangely neglected by Christian workers as the prison work. A fifty-thousand copy edition of the April Life Boat will be issued as a special Prisoners' Number. Already a friend has subscribed $50 toward defraying this expense; and help from others who feel stirred up on this subject will be thankfully received by the publishers. Such donations may be sent to the Life Boat, 28 Thirty-third Place, Chicago, Ill.
