The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1884, Page 15

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

15

(AUP ROT ET OLOCE VY:

“Be not affrighted, Ye seck Jesus of Nazareth,
which was crucified: He is risen; He is not here.’
Mark 16, 6.

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Easter.

There hangs in the minister’s study such a
pretty picture: just a sketch in black and white
of two little children, snuggled up together
under an old umbrella at the foot of a great
stone cross. Overhead is sweeping a terrible
storm: the clouds are dark almost as night;
the branches bow and sway in the driving wind
and rain, while the young green leaves go
whirling off with the frightened birds before the
blast. But the little, round, German faces
under the umbrella are serene and almost
smiling as they crouch in the shadow and shel-
ter of the cross.

The minister’s children are very fond of this
picture: for them it tells a sweet story of loving
faith and trust in this very blessed Easter-time.
And when the holy day is over, they are very
apt, yes, very certain, to look up at the picture
and say, ‘Papa, now please tell us about Hans
and Gretchen.”

So the children’s father tclls the story always
every year; and the children settle back in
their chairs, listening with wide-open eyes, that
wander from their father’s face to the picture
and back again while he tells the story:

“I was a young man ever so many years ago,”
he begins. ‘‘Just out of college, I strapped my
knapsack on my back and went tramping about
Germany to learn the German language, and
to see what I could see.

‘Waster was late that year, and spring had
come early. ‘The sun shone all the week, and
every day was fairer and more spring-like than
the last, and every one was hoping for a
beautiful Easter, until it came to be Saturday
afternoon, and I was tramping toward a pretty
little town that Jay snugly under the shadow

of some beautiful snow-capped mountains.

“T had been wandering through the fields
near the roadside all day, picking flowers and
singing all the Easter carols I could remember,

toward the village.

and thinking of the great resurrection from the
sleep of death that every opening flower and
springing leaf ought to remind us of, when
suddenly it seemed to be growing very dark
around me, and looking up I saw that the great

| storm clouds were gathering over the mountains.

“It was time for me to be in a hurry, I
thought, and I jumped over the hedge into the
road, and set off at a brisk walk down the road
But before I got very far
the rain began to come down, while at the same
time the wind tossed the branches about, blow-
ing off their new green leaves, and crashing
them together until it seemed as if it meant to
tear them all to pieces. :

“Tt thundered and lightened, too, blinding
my eyes with the quick flashes, and roaring so
loud that I heard it above the noise of the storm.
It was -a terrible time to be alone and out of
doors. I stumbled along, until suddenly I
heard such a strange sound that I forgot all
about the storm, and stopped to listen.

“Tt was the sound of children’s voices, and
they were singing, clear and loud, a verse of a
quaint old German carol. These are the words

| I heard:

“(Tn the bonds of death He lay,
Who for our offence was slain;
But the Lord is risen to-day,
Christ has brought us life again;
Wherefore let us all rejoice,
Singing loud with cheerful voice,
Hallelujah!’

“The voices grew louder and the words
clearer as I stumbled on, until, suddenly, at
the corner of the road, I saw in front of me an
old grey, weatherbeaten cross, and resting on
the broad stone at its foot an old red umbrella,
and from under it came the sweet singing.

“Two little children were seated snugly close
together under the cold umbrella—a bright
boy and a house-wifely-looking little German
girl, with braids of brown hair tucked around
her head, and big blue eyes.

““‘Oh, good sir, how wet you are,’ she said,
in a sweet voice, asI came up to them. ‘Come
under the umbrella with us; there is room.’

“So the basket was set out in the rain, and
Isat down under the red umbrella, for the sake
of their company in the terrible storm. I was
so wet already that ten umbrellas couldn’t have
helped me.

“J heard your singing first of all,’ I said,
after the children had told me that their names
were Hans and Gretchen, and that Hans was
nine and Gretchen ten years old. ‘What were
you singing?’ \

‘¢<The carol,’ the little boy answered. ‘The
sir knows to-morrow is Easter-day. We were
singing the Easter carol.’ .

‘And then he repeated the verse beginning,

¢¢Tn the bonds of death he lay.”

««*And you are not afraid,’ I said, ‘sitting
out here in this terrible storm?’

“The dear God is taking care of us,’ said
Gretchen, softly. ‘And besides, does the sir
not see we are sitting in the shadow of the cross?’

“‘Gretchen doesn’t mean just this stone
cross,’ the boy explained; ‘that couldn’t save
us, you know, if God should let the lightning
strike here. She means what the minister told
us last Sunday; don’t you Gretchen?’

“The little girl nodded.

«And what was that?’ I inquired.

“«*By His death on the cross the dear Lord
saved all the people in the world from ever-
lasting death.

“*From His cross the Lord went to the
sepulchre, rose on the third day, and conquered
death forever.

“In the shadow of the cross, that is, re-
membering always what He has done for us, is
the safest place for little children and grown
up people, because the Lord can always save
us, and always will; we trust in Him,’ said
Hans.

*«*So we're not afraid,’ said little Gretchen,

cheerfully. ‘To-morrow is Easter, the dear
Lord’s day. He'll take care of us! He died
to save just such little children. I’m never

afraid to think of lying asleep in the grave a
little while.

“« ‘When little children lie asleep in the grave
nobody sees them; but there will come a day
when the dear Lord will call them; then they
will come out and be alive again.’

“Yes, the dear Lord’, said Hans, ‘conquered
death, and lives again. He'll take care of us.’

‘© Do you know what this storm is like, chil-
dren?’ I said, after a while. ‘It is like the
world that is full of sin and suffering and
trouble, and you have found the only safe and
quiet place in it. Under the shadow of the
cross, thinking about the dear Lord and what
He has done for us; and if the sun shines out
to-morrow, and you have your happy, beautiful
Easter-day, it will only be a promise of what
will come when the heavenly Easter dawns.’”’

There was silence in the study when the
minister finished, and then one of the children
said.

“Tell us the rest, papa—how it was a beauti-
ful Easter-day after the rain, and how you
heard Hans and Gretchen sing their Easter
carols in the church with the other children at
sunrise, and how much you loved Gretchen and
Hans in a little while, and how you made the
picture to help you to remember the shadow
of the cross, and how you hung it up here when
I was a baby, to help me and all the rest of us
children to remember too when we grew up a
little. Tell us about it, please, papa.”’

“But, Jennie, my dear,’’ said her father,
smiling, ‘‘you have told us all about it now.
There is nothing left for me to say, only this:
God grant, dear children, that you may always
be safe in the shadow of the cross in this world,
and in the world to come have life eternal, an
everlasting Easter-day.”

> oe ee

Farra is to believe what we do not see, and
the end of this faith is to see what we believed.