By Thomas Hitman,
Late Communist Political Prisoner”
“THOMAS HITMAN, you are a danger to society, and the sentence of the Court is that you go to prison for fifteen months with hard labor.”
With these words ringing in my ears I left the dock of the Glasgow Sheriff Court, after being found guilty by a jury on seven charges of sedition. My thoughts at that moment would not have been hard to describe. I had an exultant feeling of martyrdom, and was proud to occupy a cell for my political opinions. I felt that my actions and sentence would stimulate the revolutionary movement, and that the revolution which I so much desired would be given an impetus which I could not otherwise give it.
Although amazed and a little staggered by the length of the sentence, I was enjoying the exuberant ecstasy which comes to every one of us with the fulfillment of a great desire. At last I was a martyr, and that counts for much in the revolutionary movement today. Prior to my trial, I had been kept in Duke Street Prison for nine weeks while the Criminal Investigation Department endeavored to unravel my career and my connection with the Republican Movement in Ireland and throughout Great Britain; with what success I do not know. There were several important things I did not wish known, and which, if discovered, would have made it extremely uncomfortable for me, and this continued to cause me no little concern while serving my sentence in Barlinnie Prison. I had always before me the picture of an escort of detectives waiting for me on the day of my release.
Upon the day of my arrival in prison I was asked the usual questions regarding age, birthplace, nationality, and religious denomination. My replies to these queries were: (1) age, thirty-one; (2) birthplace, London; (3) nationality, British. In religion I had been brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. Probably the receiving officer had something akin to a shock when I informed him I was an Atheist, and he again asked me my denomination. Yes, friends, I was an Atheist—blind to everything that was pure, good, and divine; alive only to the desires of my animal nature, thinking in terms of revolution with its attendant horrors of bloodshed and chaos—in short, an Atheist, at war with society and with God. From that day to the day of my liberation a card hung over my cell door with the word “Atheist” distinctly marked upon it. I will not dwell upon my prison sufferings, the awful loneliness and the mental torture, but will only here express my heartfelt thanks to the Governor, Deputy Governor, Doctor and officials of Barlinnie Prison for their great kindness and Christian courtesy. At last the day dawned when once more I breathed the glorious air of freedom, the day I had longed for but had also feared, for reasons already stated. With a hand-shake and a God-speed from the Governor, I stepped out of the gate to breathe the free air of liberty-loving Scotland, but God was not in all my thoughts at that moment, only thoughts of revenge and revolution. On 1St March, 1924, I was liberated, and on the following day I again stood upon the revolutionary platform, giving expression to the soul-destroying doctrines of Communism and Atheism, for the two go together. On I went for several weeks, influencing, instigating and also enrolling recruits for “The Day!” During the six weeks immediately following my release I addressed over thirty meetings, and my health suffered in consequence. I accepted the offer of a fortnight’s holiday at Dunoon to recuperate.
I was now on the threshold of the greatest event of my life, but I was unaware of the fact, except for a growing restlessness of spirit. I walked the old walks, and thought the old thoughts, and did not realize that my cold iceberg of a heart was gradually melting in the warm gulf stream of Divine love, and that the pierced hands of the Lord Jesus were plucking me ever so gently, though ever so surely, from the very brink of Hell, upon which I was standing. Little did I realize that the moment when I should have a vision of the Cross of Calvary was drawing near. I attended the funeral of a young woman, and at the graveside, the hymn that God was using to bring me into His Kingdom was sung. “Safe in the arms of Jesus” rang out as the coffin was lowered, and instantly an overmastering appeal for that security rang out from my soul and reached the ear of Him who sitteth at the right hand of God the Father. The stupendous sense of unseen realities at that supreme moment, and my burning desire to know more about the Lord Jesus, cannot here be described. I was conscious of my awful sinful state, and knew that the righteous indignation of a holy God constantly rested upon me; but that day, standing by that open grave, the whole story of God’s love for the sinner in the gift of His Son to the Cross of Calvary passed in review before my bewildered mind. I rested my soul for time and eternity on Jesus Christ and His atoning work, and I entered into peace (Rom. 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1)). I had surrendered to the claims of my Saviour, who thereupon became my new King and Leader.
The age of miracles is not past, as some would have us believe, for here is a twentieth century miracle. I had been immersed in dreary skepticism, an avowed Atheist, pouring down ridicule upon God and His blessed Son; yet here I was down on my knees giving myself body and soul to Him whom I had scorned and denied. Blessed be God, and blessed be Dunoon, for I arrived at that place an unbeliever, and I left “safe in the arms of Jesus.”
This is the plain, unvarnished story of my conversion, and I am perfectly satisfied, for I have discovered One who is not only able to save, but is also able to keep; and, friend, if you are lost in the gaieties and frivolities of this world, or in those doctrines that nearly destroyed my soul, you can hear, if you choose, the sweet strains of the Gospel announcing the Saviour’s victory over sin and Hell, and the everlasting joys of salvation may be yours. He can do for you what He has done for me, bidding you leave your sin and accept His pardoning grace.
In conclusion, my heartfelt wish is that the story of my wonderful conversion will lead many poor wandering sheep into the pasturage of the Good Shepherd, to accept His care, and to be found among His flock when He returns—His loved and His own.
“Oh, the peace my Saviour gives,
Peace I never knew before;
For my way has brighter grown
Since I learned to trust Him more.”
[Mr. Hitman is now working as a colporteur in Glasgow, amongst the many Communists of that city. He is carrying on that work which the Irish Mission was privileged to begin, when in 1936, at the request of the Reformation Society, two colporteurs were sent to Glasgow to circulate the Scriptures amongst the Roman Catholics, many of whom were communists. In that year, during the months of April and May, they sold to Roman Catholics nearly 4,000 copies of the New Testament in whole or part.]
(From “The Christian Irishman.”)