Christianity among convicts : Dr. Browning's labours / issued by the Howard Association, London.

Date:
[1872]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Christianity among convicts : Dr. Browning's labours / issued by the Howard Association, London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHRISTIANITY AMONGST CONVICTS. . DR. BROWNING’S LABOURS. [.Issued by the Howard Association, London.'] 1872. “We hear much of various systems of prison discipline, as the Separate, the Silent, and the Congregate systems, but unless the CHRISTIAN system be brought to bear, with Divine power, on the understanding and consciences of criminals, every other system, professedly contemplating their reformation, must prove an utter failure. We willingly concede to various modes of prison discipline their just measure of impor¬ tance, but to expect that human machinery, however perfect, can take the place of GOD'S OWN PRESCRIBED METHOD of reformation, involves not only ignorant presump¬ tion, but practical infidelity.”—Dr. BROWNING. In one of tlie official reports to tlie Directors of English Convict Prisons in 1871, the Chaplain at the Portsmouth establishment wrote : “I often feel that tlie simplest expressions of the actual truth of religious life in a convict prison may excite a smile even among Christians, but I must say this, that the men here are impressed with the solemnities of godliness.” He might have added that the very mention of such officers as prison chaplains also often excites a smile. It is, however, an indication of scepticism as to Christianity itself, that its influence and its ministers should be thus quietly discredited by many otherwise intelligent persons. Doubt¬ less there are to be found prison ministers who are frigid, careless, or crotchetty ; but on the other hand, there are many devoted and excellent Chaplains, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, (as also Governors and Warders) of prisons, who feel their responsibilities to God, and delight in showing their love to Christ by seeking to win to Him the souls for whom He has died, however sin-stained those souls may (perchance . through pitiable disadvantages) have become. It is an indisputable fact, that mere religious talk will not reform men. Preaching must be accompanied by fervent prayer and healthy practical discipline in every-day duties, decencies, and industries, or it will be fruit- | less ; just as the best wheat sown on an undrained bog will only rot. A I large reformatory was rendered an utter failure by a superintendent who S deluged the youths with verbal theology, but neglected industrial and 1 practical duties. His successor, a man of quiet but operative religion, has ■rendered the same institution an exemplary one. Nor will even wisely ■directed Christian effort effect its purposes other than very imperfectly, if Obstructed by a neglect of certain requisite accompaniments. Eor example, everal of the most devoted Chaplains in the English Convict Prisons ssert that their earnest labours are largely nullified by the continuance of Ung labour, a system long ago condemned by all experienced observers.