She constituted herself their chaplain
and schoolmistress, for at that time they had neither; she read to
them from the Scriptures, and taught them to read and write. She
gave up an entire day in the week for this purpose, besides
Sundays, as well as other intervals of spare time, "feeling," she
says, "that the blessing of God was upon her." She taught the
women to knit, to sew, and to cut out; the sale of the articles
enabling her to buy other materials, and to continue the
industrial education thus begun. She also taught the men to
make straw hats, men's and boys' caps, gray cotton shirts,
and even patchwork--anything to keep them out of idleness,
and from preying on their own thoughts. Out of the earnings
of the prisoners in this way, she formed a fund, which she
applied to furnishing them with work on their discharge;
thus enabling them again to begin the world honestly,
and at the same time affording her, as she herself says,
"the advantage of observing their conduct."
By attending too exclusively to this prison-work, however, Sarah
Martin's dressmaking business fell off; and the question arose
with her, whether in order to recover her business she was to
suspend her prison-work. But her decision had already been made.
"I had counted the cost," she said, "and my mind, was made up.
If, whilst imparting truth to others, I became exposed to temporal
want, the privations so momentary to an individual would not admit
of comparison with following the Lord, in thus administering to
others.
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