Challenging a God

patient; that he should be attended to by doctors of wisdom, who shall teach him some of the truths of life. As matters stand to-day, a criminal is a despised being, a dangerous animal locked up in an iron cage, with his own miserable soul as his only companion. He is doomed to insanity or soul-starvation. Intellectual and moral development are denied him. Not a word of conversation or kindness remind him of the fact that he is human. Not a single object of glorious universe impresses his soul with the beauty of being. His home is the bare cell; his companion, the grim warden; his soul-food, the rough orders and the attitude of repulsiveness from outsiders. A prominent preacher in San Francisco not long ago severely criticized a daily paper on account of its anxiety to assist discharged prisoners in obtaining work. The reverend gentleman, no doubt, thought it wicked to give one's sympathy to prisoners. The incident shows what egotistical, narrow-minded ideas even a teacher of the word of God may cherish. I am vaguely reminded of one or two sayings, " Judge not " and " Do unto others " and " Love your brother," and hope that this preacher did not break any of these commandments. For my part, I believe that the man who is thoroughly good, and who knows how to help himself, does not require my sympathy and advice. I prefer to give it to the ignorant individual, the one who brings himself into trouble. And it would seem to me that imprisonment, the loss of liberty ... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.