Ansel Doane Eddy

“ The heart that never has loved God supremely, and that has virtually rejected the Saviour, is, in every instance, a heart at enmity with God, and hopeless in guilt, without the cleansing blood of Christ. Jacob had himself felt the anguish of sin, and he knew the relief that a sense of pardon will afford to the wounded spirit, as it abandons its fruitless efforts to find peace anywhere but in the cross of Christ. When in deep agony of soul he had been pointed to the Saviour, his own happy experience was to him abundant proof of Christ's willingness and power to save even the chief of sinners. ”

“ O, yes, when I look back and see my sins; when the Lord takes away his Spirit from me, and leaves me to myself, then I feel very heavy and distressed by my sin and guilt, till the Saviour appears to me again by his Spirit, and I feel like a new man, and I feel that my Saviour has come to me and raises me up, and puts joy and gladness into my heart, and causes me to feel light and joyful. I have often felt that if I was left to myself, if it was not for the grace of God and his Spirit, that I should go into despair, and sink in despair. ”

“ From the most ignorant and wretched of mankind we are furnished with some of the finest illustrations of the power of truth and grace. Those monuments of saving mercy, while they in no degree detract from the value of religious instruction or the means of grace at all times and in all classes of society, may show the virtue of Christianity and the amazing love of God in overcoming the most formidable difficulties in the way of salvation. ”

“ He never associated with the people of his own colour, not because he was too proud, but because their ordinary habits of feeling and life did not at all correspond with his devotional desires, and the current of his every-day thoughts and pursuits. He seemed to live at all times like one in constant communion with God, and though entirely alone, he never appeared to be lonely, nor otherwise than contented and cheerful. Indeed, there was such an interest felt for Jacob by those who knew him, that the thought of his solitude was seldom indulged. ”

“ For the first time in his life, Jacob was treated like a man. For the first time in his life he felt that he had a friend. His heart was immediately won, his rough spirit was subdued, his generous and confiding nature was called forth, prepared to receive instruction and good from those who showed an interest in his sad condition.
No sooner had Jacob entered this prison and seated himself in his narrow cell, than he found a Bible by his side and himself alone. This was something new.He had never been in solitude before, where all was silence and solemnity. ”

“ He visited almost every port in Europe, as well as other countries, mingling in scenes of degradation and vice abroad, till he acquired the hardness, enterprise and viciousness of the most dissolute seaman. And who is more reckless and abandoned than a homeless, friendless African sailor! Addicted in early life to every species of profaneness, the sin of intemperance soon followed. ”

“ It was at length proposed that Jacob should be requested to converse and pray with her. He came into the room with emotions of deep interest for his young friend. There was no one for whose salvation he more earnestly prayed.
Jacob stood before the weeping girl. He knew from his own bitter experience, what she was now suffering; for, though in circumstances vastly different, the human heart is still the same, and the necessity for atoning blood is as absolute for the religiously educated and moral daughter of Christian parents, as for the vilest of convicts. ”

“ Notwithstanding all this ignorance, vice and degradation, there was in Jacob Hodges a native dignity and a noble carriage, which clearly illustrated traits of mind which cultivation and better circumstances of life would have developed to the honour of our common humanity. Though strikingly African, every feature and movement of Jacob showed that he was originally fitted for a higher and better character, and but for the disadvantages of his birth, and the utter neglect of his early education, he might have been a man indeed. ”

“ While one abandoned sinner lives to repent, thousands die incorrigible. While the grace of God reaches and secures one from the sentence of death, thousands are abandoned to the wages of unrighteousness, to reap forever the fruit of their crimes. ”

“ Jacob was not only a constant attendant upon the appointments of the church of which he was a member, but he often lead in devotional exercises when requested to do so. In those services he engaged without the slightest appearance of pride. On the contrary, his public exercises as well as his whole deportment were characterized uniformly with the most humble spirit. At the same time, there was a propriety, a richness and a glow of devotion in his services, that showed alike the superior order of his mind and the deep piety of his heart. I shall never forget one prayer-meeting in particular. ”

“ Taking his Bible, the only article that belonged to him, he walked out to have his last, parting interview with his keeper and the chaplain. And it was one truly affecting to them all. He was one whom they regarded as the first, fruits of their experiment upon the new plan of prison discipline. Jacob stood before them, the murderer, the ignorant, wretched African; but how changed! Intelligent in the knowledge of God, a man of prayer, blessed in the hope of eternal life. ”

“ Jacob was fully sensible of the ignorance in which he had grown up, and the manner in which he had been led astray and tempted to the commission of sin, yet none of the circumstances attending his crimes ever induced him to plead the least justification. His clear perceptions of sin and deep agony of heart, arose from the conviction that he had offended not against man alone, but against God. ”

“ He was an attentive and an intelligent hearer of the gospel, and found his home and highest delight in the place of prayer.
Every thing now favoured his intelligent growth in grace and in all the virtues of the divine life, and probably at no time did he know mo of the consolations of religion, and walk more consistently as a Christian. To many it has been a matter of surprise, that one so old, so ignorant and with so few associations, should become so uniformly devout, consistent and happy in his religious character. ”

“ All was constant reflection, intense study, deep feeling, bordering on despair. The fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, and what the chaplain had told him of the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, served to keep his mind still inquiring for relief. At length, as he himself described it, "One day, when I was praying in my cell, my burden of guilt was removed. I felt that I might be pardoned through Jesus Christ."
The relief which this gave him seems to have been almost indescribable. Every thing wore a new aspect. Even the gloomy prison seemed a cheerful and happy place. ”

“ Never did the word of God appear more precious to any one than it did to Jacob. In reply to my questions respecting his interest in the Scriptures, he said, "Master, if you will believe me, I have come into my cell at night, and setting my supper by my cot, I have taken my Bible and become so much engaged in reading and meditating upon its truths, that I wholly forgot my meal, till I saw it untouched in the morning."
To almost every Christian visitor at the prison, Jacob soon became an object of peculiar interest, as well as a favourite of the keepers. ”

“ The most casual observer was struck with the superior manliness and dignity of his deportment: and Judge Van Ness, when pronouncing his sentence of death, said to him, "You possess a more than ordinary strength of mind. Providence has blessed you with a memory without a parallel in all my experience." ”

“ Remembering his own ignorance and degradation, and knowing the power of the gospel of the grace of God, he despaired of the salvation of no one, however ignorant and degraded. He was accustomed to visit certain families that most other Christians had overlooked, as if they had long and by common consent been abandoned to the ways of unrighteousness. One family in particular excited his interest. They were notoriously hardened and degraded in sin. ”

“ Dwight has often remarked that no human tongue ever read the word of God in his hearing in tones so impressive, and with emphasis so solemn and appropriate. Whenever he visited Jacob, he was accustomed to request him to lead in prayer, and he remarked that he never felt drawn nearer to God, or more impressed with the coldness and feebleness of his own devotional exercises, than when attempting to follow this eminent servant of God. No one ever united with him without feeling similar emotions. ”

“ It is not known that Jacob had, at this time, a friend on earth to counsel or to care for him. There were then no Sabbath-schools, nor such public provision for the instruction of the poor, as is now found in almost every community. The child of ignorance and poverty, wearing his sable complexion, in a crowded population, was ordinarily passed by with utter neglect, as the beast that peeisheth. It is not known that a solitary lesion of useful instruction was ever given to this African child. ”

“ I recollected at that time, that a minister had told me whenever I had a chapter read, to have the fifty-first psalm. I could not see any body to get to read it, and how to find it I did not know. The Sunday following, before the keeper unlocked the door, I rose up, and I went to prayer, and I prayed: 'O Lord, thou knowest I am ignorant; brought up in ignorance. Thou knowest my bringing up. Nothing is too hard for thee to do. May it please thee, O Lord, to show me that chapter, that I may read it with understanding. I rose up from prayer, and went to my Bible and took it up. ”

“ In the relief ultimately found from ignorance and sin, by the renewing influence of truth and grace, no excuse can be borrowed for moral delinquency, no palliation pleaded for crime, and no encouragement given to such as may be repeating the hazardous experiment of indulged depravity. ”

“ Divine truth, when addressed to the most guilty, with kindness and sympathy for their miserable and lost condition, is seldom refused or despised. When accompanied with fervent prayer, and attended with the blessing of God, nothing is too great to anticipate. ”

“ I have found along back that I have let the world and business stop me when I have been pressed by the Spirit to go and pray, and I have found lately that the only way that I can obtain the Spirit of God, at all times, is to pray often. ”

“ Upon representations being made in favour of Jacob, his sentence of death was commuted to that of hard labour in the State's prison, for the term of twenty one years. Another of the convicts had his sentence changed to imprisonment for life. The remaining two were executed according to the sentence of the court, on the 16th day of April, 1819.
Leaving the scaffold of these miserable felons, and this ruined and imprisoned woman, who had been instrumental in bringing misery and guilt upon a poor, ignorant African, we must follow him to his dreary cell in the penitentiary on Manhattan Island. ”

“ They saw that he had been led into crime by the deep-laid plan of wicked men, who had been goaded to desperation by repealed disappointments, and whom no thing could satisfy but the violent death of their victim. The court saw that appeals had been made to Jacob's sense of obligation to his employers; and also that in addition to the promise of co-operation in the crime and a large pecuniary reward, his moral sense had been stupefied by freely administered stimulants. From these considerations, exertions were early made to save him from the fatal sentence that had been passed upon him. ”

“ A new system of prison discipline was adopted at the opening of this spacious penitentiary, and the keepers appeared admirably fitted to carry out its details according to the peculiar character and disposition of its inmates. The superintendent of the prison, the late Mr. Powers, was a man of uncommon excellence of character, of remarkably kind feelings, and condescending to the prisoners He regarded them, though felons, still as men and moral beings, susceptible of better feelings, and capable of being educated and reformed. ”

“ I cannot love myself: it seems to me that nobody ever sinned against him as I have done."
"Jacob was an earnest Christian. He was constantly examining himself. Every sermon he heard, he sought to apply someway as a test of his own character; and he was never satisfied unless he saw evidence that he was growing in grace. To this end, he was diligent in his use of all the means of grace. ”

“ Jacob could only encourage him to resolute efforts and point him to Christ. He went with him to the meeting for inquiry and to his minister, till ultimately he was numbered among the nope fully converted. The mother soon became interested for her own salvation, and was at length brought to embrace the offers of life in the Redeemer. The father was next apparently reached by the Spirit of God, through the labours of their faithful friend Jacob. The mother and son are now members of the church, and the father is greatly changed in his habits of life, if not actually renewed by the Spirit of God. ”

“ While a portion remain in servitude, others, though free, must meet almost insurmountable obstacles to that improvement and elevation which, under other circumstances, and in their own native land, they might probably secure.
Though this numerous class of men, as a body, have improved but little for many generations, there have been occasional exceptions to their general ignorance and degradation. which show what they might become, under influences more favourable to their physical and moral discipline than they are likely to meet at present, if ever, in this country. ”

“ Canandaigua, Oct. 2, 1839 I visited the jail in this place, in company with my aged and venerable friend from the Auburn prison; who is a wonderful monument of redeeming love. His Christian character and example are much admired by all who know him. The testimony of the pious lady with whom he lives, and has lived for seven years, is most decidedly in favour of his faithfulness and piety. My interview, a record of which will be found below, will speak for itself. ”