The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1885, Page 19

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The Lutheran Pioneer. 19

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Saved by a Bible.

Some years ago there was a forester, named
Grimez, who lived in a lonely place in the thick
woods of the Silesian mountains, in Prussia.
His family consisted of his wife and his mother,
with a little daughter, about seven years of
age. His wife and mother were Christian
women; but he himself was not a Christian.
He did not believe the Bible, and often used
to ridicule his wife for her prayers, and what
he called ‘‘her foolish trust in God.’’

The time to which our story refers was a
dark and stormy evening in autumn. The two
women and the little child sat round the fire in
their house. The forester had not yet come
home from the neighboring town. The family
were beginning to feel very anxious about him.
And they had good cause to feel so. A band
of robbers had been infesting that part of the
forest of late, and had made-it very unsafe.
This forester was the officer of the King of
Prussia. His duty was to take care of the
forest. After long efforts he had just succeeded
in capturing all this band of robbers, except
their leader. He was a very strong, and cun-
ning, but wicked man.. And he had vowed to
have his revenge on the forester and his family,
for breaking up his band. The women of that
lonely family knew this. No wonder that they
felt very anxious as they sat round the fire on
that stormy evening.

At last the grandmother said it would do no
good to go on talking so, and giving way to
their fears; and that it would be much better
to seek comfort from God’s Word, and ask His
protection.

Then the wife brought out their family Bible,
and read aloud from it the seventy-first psalm.
These are some of the words that she read :—
“In thee, O Lord, I put my trust; let me
never be put up to confusion. Deliver me, O
my God, out of the hands of the wicked, out of the
hands of the unrighteous and cruel man.”

When the psalm was finished she read an
evening hymn in keeping with the psalm. After
singing this they knelt down together in prayer.
They told God about their fears, and asked
him to protect them, as well as their beloved
husband and father. They prayed for the poor
and the sick of their parish; for all evil doers,
and especially for the wicked robber in their
neighborhood, that the Lord would have mercy
on him, and change his heart, and turn him
from his evil ways.

They had hardly finished their prayers, when
they heard the well-known footsteps of him,
whom they were looking for, approaching the
house. He was brought home in safety.

Before they went upstairs to bed the forester
examined the doors and windows to see that
they were fastened; ,he loaded his fire-arms,
and thought that he could lie down and sleep
Without any cause for fear.

Well; an hour or two passes away. All is
quiet in the forester’s house. No sound is heard

but the rustling of the trees as the wind sweeps

through them. But hark! whatis that? There
is a movement—a quick movement in the room
where the forester’s family had been spending
the evening. And now look! there is a man
—a desperate looking man—creeping out from
under the settle, or old wooden bench, which
stood there. It is the robber of whom they
were. so much afraid. He had managed to
steal in about sundown, when nobody saw him,
and to hide himself under the settle. There he
had heard all that had been said. He goes softly
and silently to the table. He lays down on it
a large, sharp knife. He picks up the Bible.
The words of that psalm have had a wonderful
effect upon him. ‘Then he stands by the table
for a few moments, hesitating what he had bet-
ter do. Two or three times he picks up the
knife, and resolves to have revenge by plung-
ing it into the bosom of the sleepers upstairs.
But each time he lays the knife down again.

He thinks of the words of that wonderful psalm,
and he is afraid to do it. Then he.goes to the
window and opens it very gently. He leaves
the knife on the table, but takes the Bible in
his hand; he gets up on the window-ledge, and
creeps out cautiously, and in a few moments
disappears in the dark shadows of the wood.

When the forester and his family came down
the next morning and found the window open,
and a great sharp knife lying on the table, and
the Bible gone; they were, of course, very much
surprised. The open window showed that some-
body. had been in the house... The great knife
showed that his object had been murder; while
the missing Bible seemed to show that some-
how or other that had been the -means of saving
them. The pious wife thanked God for their
protection.

Some time after this, in the year 1813, there
was war between the French and the Prussians.
The king of Prussia had raised a large army.
Grimez, our forester, had a position as captain
in this army. The French army had taken a
strong position in a part of the country. where
there were several lakes, all the shores of which
were covered with dense woods. On the bord-
ers of the largest of these lakes were several
huts inhabited by fishermen. The Prussian
army was ordered to drive the French away
from that position. This led to a very severe
battle. The Prussians gained the victory, and
drove the French away. But they gained it
with the loss of a great many men. Among
those who fell, on that day, was our brave cap-
tain, the forester. His men thought he was

‘killed, and left him on the field for dead. But

he was only badly wounded. After his friends
had gone he lay groaning in pain among the
dead. A fisherman was coming cautiously up
in his boat, to see if a little hut of his on the
shore had been destroyed by the army. He
heard the groans of the wounded man. He
rowed his boat to land, and went up to the

spot from which the cry of pain was heard. }

When he found the Prussian officer, he gave a
low whistle, and some of his companions came
up.. They carried the wounded man to their

‘

boat, and rowed him to the opposite shore of
the lake. They landed in the neighborhood
of several cottages. Into one of these the
wounded man was carried. The fisherman
and his wife received him with great kindness.
They dressed his wound and nursed him with
tender care. He began to get better. ‘The -
fisherman wrote to the captain’s family to tell
them how and where he was. His wife and
daughter came to nurse him, and be with him.

As he Jay upon his sick bed he could not help
thinking of all that had happened to him. He
thought of the wonderful way in which God
had protected himself and his family from the
robber on that memorable night. He thought
of the way in which he had been taken care of,
when left for dead on the battle field. He saw
God’s Hand in it all. He was led to pray to
him earnestly, and became a Christian.

And now he was well enough to go home.
He thanked the kind fisherman for all that he
had done for him, and wished to pay him for
the great trouble he had caused him. But to
their surprise he would take nothing. When
they pressed it on him, he said he was much
more indebted to them than they were to him.
He said further that he had a great treasure of
theirs which he had once taken away, and now
wished to restore. Then he went to a closet
and brought out a Bible. As soon as the for-
ester’s wife saw it she recognized it as their dear
old Bible which had disappeared so strangely
on that night that never could be forgotten.
She caught it eagerly in her hands and pressed
itto her bosom. Then the fisherman told them
the story, and how he was the very robber who
had intended to kill them, and how through
the reading of that Bible he had been led to
change his purpose, and afterwards by reading
it, how he became a Christian.—C. Jf

The Way of Faith.

If we are living and walking by faith, we
shall be abiding in the grace of God, for faith
always looks to Christ; we shall be feeling our
weakness, learning more and more our deep
necessity of Christ, and realizing increasingly
that all His fulness is ours. Such do not lean
on their store of knowledge, their past experi-
ence, their gifts, their graces, their brethren,
nor even on their prayers, but on Christ.
They know Christ to be a sure Rock to build
upon, a safe Hidingplace, a never failing Ref-
uge, an exhaustless Spring of joy, a River
of peace, a Fulness of strength, their Life,
Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and
Redemption; their Bridegroom, Husband,
Friend; their Altar, their all-sufficient Sacri-
fice, their all-prevailing High Priest; the Re-
newer of their strength, the Restorer of their
souls, the Keeper of their feet, their Head
their Lord, their Aru.—Selected. ;

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—A CurisTrAn is never satisfied with him-
self; but this is no wonder, as he is not fully cc
satisfied with any one but Christ.