better than a dog.

14. _Doctrinal discourses._ In pursuing my labors among the prisoners, I
often met those skeptical views, before alluded to, which were sometimes
quite boldly avowed. Some of them would constantly attend the Sabbath
school, doubtless simply from the pleasure derived in puzzling their
teachers with questions. They were acute, shrewd fellows, keen in
argument, quick to see a point and turn it, hard to meet. To help these,
if possible, I decided to give a few discourses on the evidences of the
existence of a God as seen from the light of nature. Those of the
skeptical class as well as others manifested no little interest in the
subject. Soon evidences began to appear of a material softening among
them in their opposition to Bible truths. One young man said to the
warden, "When the chaplain commenced those discourses, I felt sure of
being impregnably fixed in my ideas. After hearing one, I would retire
to my cell and sit down with the purpose of figuring out the want of
conclusiveness in his arguments. But the more I figured, the more I saw
that I was in the wrong and not he; that, from what we see all about us,
there must be a God, whom I am convinced I ought to love and obey." This
man became altogether changed in his habits and entered upon a really
hopeful course. Nor was he alone among those thus yielding, who had long
been accustomed to shut their eyes against the true light.

15. _Effect of the prayer meeting on prison order._ These meetings had
now continued a number of weeks with no abatement of interest, having
gained the reputation of being the best in the city. But it became
needful for us, at this time, to suspend all our chapel exercises for a
while, to give place to the proposed enlargement of the room. Hence, at
the close of the last meeting previous to this vacation, the warden
said, in substance, "We have been holding these meetings several weeks.
At first I thought them wholly impracticable in the place, but am truly
glad to find I was so greatly mistaken. As an act of simple justice, I
feel that I ought to bear testimony, before you all, to the influence
they have exerted on the morals of the inmates. Since they commenced, we
have not had a single case for discipline in this institution, a fact
without precedent in the past, so far as my knowledge extends, for so
long a time. And I most devoutly hope that this state of things will
continue and the meetings grow more and mo