Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/332

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INSTANCES OF PENITENCE. 307

Another who had occasionally been employed as a teacher among her fellow-prisoners, writes to Mrs. Fry, " I sincerely wish to forsake evil and to do good. God is merciful to those who seek him by penitence and prayer. It is my determination, with his assistance, to begin a new life." Afterwards, in her last sickness, she said she was cheered by the " hope of living hap pily in a better world," and tHat her sorrowful impris onment had proved a real blessing.

Another liberated prisoner encloses to Mrs. Fry two pounds, saved from her wages as a servant, which she begs her to accept, " and add to the subscription for defraying the expenses of her most benevolent exer tions for the reform and instruction of those unhappy persons, confined within that dreary receptacle of woe, . the walls of Newgate."

What was commenced so prosperously at Newgate, has been extended to other prisons in Great Britain, and with some degree of the same success. Many have been taught both to read and to work neatly, and thus, after their liberation, have found themselves better qualified to earn an honest livelihood. Some have been received as servants, and maintained an exem plary conduct for years, and even remained with their employers as long as they lived.

Of others it was said, that their dutiful and industri ous course had been a comfort to parents and friends ; and others had died in the faith of the Gospel, giving God thanks for the instruction of those who had sought

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them out in their wretchedness, not being ashamed of

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