Page:Black Jacob, a monument of grace.djvu/50

42 his confinement, was truly to him, "more like a palace than a prison." At length his pardon was granted, and his prison door was opened. Few scenes in his whole life were so affecting as this. That cell which had been his place of anguish and of tears, his dark abode of penitence and searchings after God, where light had broken upon his mind, he had met Jesus and found peace to his soul:—that cell, his closet, his Bethel, he was now to leave forever.

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. His prison garments were taken off and he