Incorrigible No Longer

McAuley Water Street Mission, (mentioned in the earlier blog) was named for Jerry McAuley, born in Ireland in 1839. His father, a counterfeiter, fled home to escape the law. Jerry never knew him. His mother languished in prison and the boy was raised by his grandmother.

When she couldn’t control him he was sent to New York where he lived he lived under the docks, drinking, fighting and stealing by boats. In 1857 he was caught and sent to Sing Sing Prison.

Sing Sing inmates were forced to live in unbroken silence in cells five feet high, three feet wide and seven feet long. It was wet in the summer and icy in the winter. Always grim.

There was no plumbing; just buckets. Cells, never disinfected, filled with vermin, lice and fleas. Infractions were punished with flogging, an iron collar or that era’s equivalent to water boarding; where prisoners were repeatedly drowned and revived.

One Sunday, Jerry, and the other inmates were herded into the chapel. He was moody and miserable until he glanced towards the platform and recognized a well-known prizefighter, Orville Gardner. The boxer told how he had found Jesus, and Jerry listened attentively.

He soon began reading the Bible, page after page, day after day. He read it through twice. Then in great agony, he fell to his knees, but jumped up immediately in embarrassment. He did this several times. Finally, one night, resolving to kneel until he found forgiveness, he prayed for the longest time.

“All at once it seemed something supernatural was in my room. I was afraid to open my eyes. The tears rolled off my face in great drops. Then these words came to me.

‘My son, they sins, which are many are forgiven.’”

Jerry was released in 1864 having been incarcerated seven of his twenty six years. Thereafter, he devoted himself to reaching other incorrigibles.

Twenty years later in 1884 the huge Broadway Tabernacle was packed for his funeral. Multitudes filled up surrounding streets. His “Water Street Mission,” a pioneer among America’s “rescue missions” has been a haven for more than a hundred years.

 

Excerpted from a church bulletin