Someone Else Is Watching
“Ye shall be witnesses unto me” (Acts 1:8).
A friend of mine, who had been a hold-up man and a kidnapper for twelve years, met Jesus Christ in prison. Christ said, “I will come and live in you and we will serve this sentence together,” and they did. Several years later he was discharged, and just before he went out he was handed a two-page letter written by another prisoner. After the salutation, it said in effect, “You know perfectly well that when I came into this jail I despised preachers, the Bible, and everything. I went to the Bible class and the preaching service because there wasn’t anything else interesting to do. Then they told me you were saved, and I said, ‘There’s another fellow taking the gospel road to get a parole’; but, Roy, I’ve been watching you for two and a half years. You did not know it, but I watched you when you were in the yard exercising, when you were working in the shop, when you played, while we were all together at meals, on the way to our cells, and all over, and now I’m a Christian, too, because I watched you. The Savior who saved you has saved me. You never made a slip.” Roy said to me, “When I got that letter and read it through I came out in a cold sweat. Think what it would have meant if I had slipped even once.”
A friend of mine, who had been a hold-up man and a kidnapper for twelve years, met Jesus Christ in prison. Christ said, “I will come and live in you and we will serve this sentence together,” and they did. Several years later he was discharged, and just before he went out he was handed a two-page letter written by another prisoner. After the salutation, it said in effect, “You know perfectly well that when I came into this jail I despised preachers, the Bible, and everything. I went to the Bible class and the preaching service because there wasn’t anything else interesting to do. Then they told me you were saved, and I said, ‘There’s another fellow taking the gospel road to get a parole’; but, Roy, I’ve been watching you for two and a half years. You did not know it, but I watched you when you were in the yard exercising, when you were working in the shop, when you played, while we were all together at meals, on the way to our cells, and all over, and now I’m a Christian, too, because I watched you. The Savior who saved you has saved me. You never made a slip.” Roy said to me, “When I got that letter and read it through I came out in a cold sweat. Think what it would have meant if I had slipped even once.”