The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1898, Page 39

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The Lutheran Pioneer. 39

“A Mighty Fortress is our God.”

In 1727, Leopold Firmian, an avaricious,
‘proud, hard-hearted and tyrannical man, was
-created archbishop of Salzburg. Immediately
after he had ascended the Arch-Episcopal
throne, he and his minister resolved either to
force the Lutherans to deny their faith or drive
them into exile. In doing this the minister
hoped to gain a large sum of money from the
possession of the ‘‘heretics,’’ and the arch-
bishop to establish himself firmly in the good
graces of his lord and master—the Pope.
To accomplish all this, the cunning arts of
the Jesuits were at once employed. A large
number of them was sent, by order of the
government, ‘‘as preachers of repentance’
through the land where, with the vigorous co-
operation of the parish priests, they entered
every house and ransacked every nook and
corner for Lutheran books; and woe to him
who was found a Lutheran. Such a one was
sure to have the severest sentence pronounced
against him. He was publicly given over to
the devil, deprived of all his Christian privi-
leges, and, in the event of death, denied
burial in consecrated ground.

After many fruitless attempts to induce
these Lutherans to renounce their faith, force
was resorted to. Austrian troops were brought
into the country, and these being quartered
upon “heretics,’’ heaped upon them such in-
sults, outrages and violence that the distress
of their situation forced many hundreds of
them to abandon their houses and homes and
seek safety and security elsewhere. This
happened during the latter part of 1731.
Most of these emigrated to Prussia, whose
pious king, Frederick William I, on their ap-
proach, sent commissioners to meet them, and
make all needful provisions for their wants.
In their wanderings through Protestant Ger-
many, they everywhere met with the most
friendly and encouraging reception. At Gera,
in Thuringia, the whole city was moved when
the news arrived that the Salzburgers were
nearing the place, and thousands hastened to
meet them; and when, at length, after much
impatient waiting, at eventide, they heard
wafted across the silent fields the sound of:
“A Mighty Fortress is our God,’’ which the
new comers were singing, all rushed forward,
and, with acclamations of joy, welcomed the
weary pilgrims, vying with each other in their
endeavor to take and entertain as many of
them as they could at their hospitable homes.
Far into the night the excited people continued
walking about the streets, joining heartily in
singing the old familiar hymns wherever the
sound of them was heard issuing from the
houses which they passed.

On the following morning a solemn service
was held in the city church. After divine
Service, the market-place presented a very ani-
Mated scene. The young maidens, gathered
round the public fountain, were busily en-
gaged washing, drying and ironing clothes,

whilst the elder women, who had opened their
chests and wardrobes, containing their linen
treasures, bringing forth things both new and
old, were wrapping both babes and children
of riper years in clean and comfortable ap-
parel.

When the time of their departure had
arrived, the entire population accompanied the
wanderers beyond the gate of the city, where,
after having united in singing: ‘‘A Mighty
Fortress is our God,’’ they parted.

About fifty years later, after Joseph II as-
cended the throne of Austria, the Jesuits,
those arch enemies of the Evangelical faith,
had full sway in the land. During the reign of
his mother, Maria Theresa, it often happened
in Linz that Lutheran men and women were
forcibly dragged from their homes, packed
into vehicles, like so many cattle, and shipped
down to the lower part of Hungary, being re-
quired to leave behind them all their children
under 14 years of age, that by being brought
up in the Roman Catholic religion, ‘‘their souls
might be saved, and they not with their parents
be damned as heretics.”? Mothers were in-
deed given their choice, to remain with their
children on condition of renouncing their Lu-
theran faith and returning to the bosom of
the Roman Catholic communion, but refusing
to do this, they were to go into exile with the
rest, and thus be separated from their off-
spring forever. This was hard. It was more
than cruel—it was fiendish. Yet these Lu-
theran mothers stoutly refused to accept this
alternative. ‘They could not deny their faith
at any price; no, not even at the priceless
boon of retaining their children; and hence
after folding them once more in their arms
and pressing them to their aching hearts,
they, weeping bitter tears, hastened away to
join the company of those who, on account of
their steadfastness in the faith, were doomed
to exile, singing:

“Take they then our lives,
Goods, fame, child and wife,

They have nothing won,
The kingdom ours remaineth.’?

As in Salzburg and Hungary, so likewise
in Bohemia and Moravia did the Austrian
government, in the most incomprehensible
blindness, persecute its best citizens — the
Evangelicals. In 1728, a great awakening
had taken place in the Moravian village Kune-
walde, in consequence of a number of its
citizens having been engaged in reading the
Word of God. Those awakened, in order to
increase their knowledge of the truth, which
had so wonderfully aroused them to a sense
of their real condition, and took great delight
in frequently assembling at the house of one
David Nitschman, a wagoner by trade, for fur-
ther instruction and mental edification. On
a certain Sunday, while his son Melchior was
discoursing on the glory of the Gospel, the
pailiff entered suddenly and seized all their
Bibles and hymn-books. But the brethren, so

far from being discomfited by this unexpected

interruption, at once united in singing, ‘‘A
mighty fortress is our God,’’ at which the in-
truder, bearing the books, beat a hasty re-
treat. However, on the next day twenty heads
of families were cast into prison, from which
some made their escape later, while the re-
mainder, after having been subjected to many
sufferings, were ultimately released, only to
be driven into exile.

——2~< ommeo

The Value of Good Tracts.

A servant girl brought a booklet written by
Pastor Brunn home to her parents. These not
only read it themselves, but passed it around
among their neighbors also. In this manner
a goodly number learned to know and were
brought to accept the Lutheran doctrine, so
that within a short time Pastor Brunn could
gather a congregation of 150 families in that
locality.

A missionary, while traveling through the
country of the Carenes, heard of the death of
a man, who had died confessing the ‘‘new
faith.’’ The missionary hastened to the house,
and there found the corpse with one hand rest-
ing on the lifeless breast, with the other hold-
ing a Christian tract. This had come into his
hands by the gracious guidance of God, and
out of it he had learned to believe in his
Saviour and had now died in this faith.

Missionary Scudder of India, was originally
a physician in the city of New York with a
well-paying practice. In the year 1818 a lady,
whom he was treating, loaned him a tract, en-
titled: ‘‘Six Hundred Millions, or The Claims
of the Heathen.”? This he read and re-read,
until he felt that he could not remain at home
any longer. Accordingly he went to India,
where he died after having worked as mis-
sionary for thirty-six years. His seven sons
likewise became missionaries, and already
three of his grandsons have entered upon
the same work. Thus eleven missionaries were
gained by this one tract. Who will say, how
great is the blessing that these have wrought?

In Spain a tract was being distributed bear-
ing the title: ‘‘The Blood of Jesus Christ.”
A copy of this tract also came into the hands
of a priest. But before he had read it, one
of his superiors came to him and threatened
him with excommunication if he would read it.
So the priest quickly tore up the leaflet and
threw it away. But the words of the title:
“The Blood of Jesus Christ,’’ had impressed
themselves indelibly upon his mind and heart,
and he could find no rest, until he went toa
Protestant preacher to ask for more informa-
tion regarding his faith. By his instruction
he learned the Gospel-truth of ‘‘the blood of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that cleanseth
us from all sin,’”’ and soon left the Roman
Catholic Church. —Zittle Missionary. —

—_—— too oe

TAKE you heed. To be near the life-boat

is different from being in it: