# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1892_S43 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The Lutheran Pioneer. 43 The Story of Faith. - Some time ago I stood by the bedside of a sick laborer who had a wife and four children. He had Jain sick for three weeks, and the sick- ness had exhausted all his means. Noticing that he was weeping while we sang a precious song of Zion, I asked him why he wept? was he troubled with the thought of parting with his wife and children? He looked at me stead- fastly, almost reproachfully, and answered : “Does not Jesus stay with them? Has not the Lord said He is a Father to the fatherless, and a Judge of the widow? No; they are all cared for. I have prayed the Lord that He would be their guardian. Is it not so, wife? You are not troubled; you are not afraid; you believe in Jesus.”’ “‘Surely,’’ she replied, ‘‘I believe in Jesus, and rejoice that you go to Jesus. 1 shall fol- low you, with the children in His own time. Jesus will help me to train up the children through His Holy Spirit.”’ “Why did you weep, then?’’ I asked. “Yor joy; for I thought if the singing is so beautiful here, O, how beautiful will it be when the angels help in it! I wept for joy that this blessedness is so near.’’ Then he motioned to his wife. She under- stood, and went to the shelf, and brought down a little saucer in which her husband kept his money. ‘There were six groschen (about seven pence) in it, all that remained of his store. He took them out with trem- bling fingers, and laid them in my hand, and said: “The heathen must have these, that they may know how to dice in peace.’’ I turned to his wife who nodded assent, and said: ‘“We have talked it over already. When everything has been reckoned for the funeral these six groschen remain.”’ ‘And what remains for you?”’ ‘The Lord Jesus,’’ she replied. ‘“‘And what do you leave for your wife and children ?’’ ‘eThe Lord Jesus,’’ he said; and whispered in my ear: ‘‘He is very good, and very rich.”’ So I took the six groschen, and laid them in the mission box as a great treasure, and it has been a struggle for me to pay them away. Butif they had not been paid away, the dying man’s wish would not have been fulfilled. That night he fell asleep. And neither his wife nor his three eldest children wept— neither in the church nor at the grave. But the youngest child, a boy of about five years, -who followed the body, wept bitterly. I asked him afterward why he wept so bitterly at his father’s grave, and the child made answer: « “tT was so sorry that father did not take me with him to the Lord Jesus, for I begged of him with my whole heart that he would take me.”’ ; take you along with him; only the Saviour could do that: you should pray to Him.”’ he asked. you, He Himself will call for you: but if He will have you to grow up you must help your mother, and have her live with you; will you?”’ I would like to grow up that mother might live with me.’’ Jesus that He must choose.’’ greatly delighted, and in peace. “My child,’’ I said, ‘‘your father could not} were not spared. The Romish soldiers fast- ened them on their spears and held them in the flames. ‘The city was plundered and set on fire, and of one of the finest cities in Ger- many nothing remained but the cathedral and a few fishermen’s huts. Tilly gloried over his cruelty, but it was the last victory he won. Gustavus Adolphus met him near Leipzig and completely defeated the ‘‘victor of thirty-six battles.’’ He followed him into Southern Ger- many and there again defeated him. In this battle Tilly was mortally wounded. Thus the Swedish king advanced victoriously and every- where freed the Protestants from the oppres- sion under which they had so long groaned. ‘«That is what I will do,’’ he said, and was| But the war was not yet ended. The Romish emperor again called Wallenstein to the chief command, who, having gathered a new army, met the Swedes at Lutzen. On the 6th of No- vember, 1632, the battle began. In the morn- ing Gustavus conducted the service in his camp. The Swedish army sang Luther’s battle hymn, ‘SA mighty Fortress is our God,’”’ and also Gustavus’s own battle hymn, the first stanza of which is as follows: “Ought I, then, to pray to Him for it?”’ “No, my child, if the Saviour will take He said: ‘‘I would like to go to Jesus, and ‘*Now then,’’ I replied, ‘‘say to the Lord (Pastor Harms, in ‘Good Words.’’) ‘‘Fear not, O little flock, the foe Who madly seeks our overthrow; Dread not his rage and power, What though your courage sometimes faints! This seeming triumph o’er God’s saints Q Lasts but a little hour.” / The king and his army then kneeled down and offered prayer. After the service the king mounted his horse and placed his army in battle array. He gave the watchword, ‘‘Gop Wirtn Us,’’ then, swing- ing his sword above his head, he uttered the word of command, and with the cry, ‘‘On- ward!’’ he rushed forward, followed by the eager troops. The Romish army was com- pletely defeated and the Swedes were victo- rious. The -victory, however, was dearly bought. Gustavus Adolphus fell in this battle. The Swedish soldiers carried the disfigured body of their beloved king from the battle field. It was laid to rest in the Lutheran church at Stockholm, in which city a magnifi- cent bronze statue of the Lutheran Hero King has been erected to his honor. On Novem- ber 6th of each year the citizens of that city gather around the statue and sing hymns, in- cluding Gustavus’s own battle hymn. The spot where Gustavus fell was marked by the Swede’s stone, erected by his servant on the night of the battle. But in the year 1832, the second centennial of the battle of Lutzen,- the German people replaced the Swede’s stone with a fine monument, thereby paying tribute to the memory of that ‘‘noble champion of the Lutheran faith.””