In our last issue we printed a letter written by a prisoner

In our last issue we printed a
letter written by a prisoner. A reader submitted additional information which
is an encouragement foe believers to carry the gospel inside prison walls.

 

Goshen, N.Y. March 19, 1966.

 

Dear brother in Christ,

 

This is the record of the
salvation of the prisoner, Theodore McNeil. One Saturday evening about five
years ago, as I went to preach in the county jail, I was accosted by Theodore
with a request to speak to me alone at the end of his cell block. These were
his words. "You know, Brother Cole, I am here for murder. When I was first
picked up by the police, I was placed in the Newburgh jail. I was so scared I
didn’t know what to do. I figured I had gone too far, and now death was staring
me in the face. I had heard about God, but I never knew He had a Son. All the
time I was there, I was calling on God, begging Him on my face and knees.
Saturday morning one of the jailors came in and told me to get my things
together as I was being transferred to the County jail in Goshen. Oh! Brother
Cole, this was no accident. It was God answering my pleading, although I didn’t
know it then.

 

"That night you came into
the jail with your Bible, and three or four of the inmates gathered at the end
of the cell block where you were speaking to them. I thought to myself, ‘I wish
he would speak louder so I could hear.’ Then something inside me said, ‘Go down
where you can hear,’ and I proceeded to do so. You were preaching Jesus Christ
the Son of God, being punished for sins and giving up His life for us, so that
any sinner, no matter how great his sin he could be saved. That night was the
happiest night of as I knelt in my cell and received Jesus Christ as my
Saviour.

 

"The next Saturday night
you came in again, and I was in the background of the group that gathered
there, to hear more. One of the men said to you that nobody could quit smoking
in jail because that is about all they have to do. You told him that you never
told him or anyone else to quit smoking—that you were a preacher of Jesus
Christ and not law. Nevertheless if you came to know Christ as your Saviour and
asked Him to take it away from you and meant it when you asked, you could stop
here as well as anywhere else. That was two months ago, and I haven’t smoked
since that day. The Lord made me know my salvation so that now I can tell you
this with assurance:the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is my
Saviour."

 

Theodore was subsequently tried
and sentenced to die in the electric chair. He was placed in the death house in
Sing Sing, and I was committed to be with him when he was to be electrocuted. A
death sentence draws an automatic appeal so in a measure of time Theodore was
returned to the Goshen jail. In the meantime the Lord was bringing to pass
certain things that in retrospect dovetailed so beautifully with one end in
view, the saving of Theodore’s life as well as his soul.

 

First, the local sheriff and a
couple of other men were suffocated in a hunting cabin. His replacement was a
man who hated the Gospel. The Episcopal chaplain suddenly became a power, and I
was refused entrance to the jail. I had had opportunity to preach Christ to
both the chaplain and his wife who both refused Him, declaring it presumptious
to make any claim of the assurance of salvation before reaching eternity.

 

When Theodore got back to Goshen, I had been shut out. He wrote me and asked why I didn’t come to visit him. I
contacted his lawyer and traded information on the case. That helped to save
Theodore’s life and to get me back into the jail to see him. I saw him from
then on every week until he went to Attica to serve his reduced sentence of
thirty-five years. He grew and is growing by leaps and bounds. I also had the
privilege of baptizing him in a bathtub in the jail.

 

I desire the prayers of all the
saints as the Lord has opened quite a gospel field here, and we can fellowship
with one another by prayer.

 

Your brother in the Lord,

 

Emmett Cole