The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1901, Page 39

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

39

Church at Ejisleben.

Eisleben was the birthplace of Dr. Luther.
He was born in that city, November 10, 1483,
and baptized on the following day. At that
time there were two churches in the town.
Our picture shows us the larger of the two.
Itis a large, stately building with four towers.
In this church Luther preached several times
during the last days of his life, and here also
preached his last sermon. In the city in which
he was born he also died, February 18, 1546.
In the last sermon which he preached in that
church he exhorted his hearers to dismiss all
the wisdom of this world and to keep stead-
fast only to the Word of our dear Lord and
Master, who invited all them that labor and
are heavy laden to come to
Him. In the afternoon of
February 19, Justus Jonas
preached his funeral sermon
in this church. His corpse was -
left in the church during the
night, guarded by ten citizens,
and was then taken to Witten-
berg.

—+ + oe >

God’s Protecting Care.

A STORY OF THE REFORMATION.

John Brentz, the Wuertem-
berg Reformer, was at one time
the guest of Duke Ulrich, in
Stuttgart. In some way the Ro-
man Catholic Cardinal Gran-
vella heard of it. To the
surprise of everybody, there
appeared one evening in Mu-
nich a troop of Spanish dra-
goons. The colonel announ-
ced his presence to the Elector
of Bavaria, and was by him
invited to dinner. Here he let
it slip that he was the bearer of a sealed im-
perial order to the Duke of Wuertemberg, to
the effect that he was to deliver Brentz, dead
or alive, into his (the colonel’s) hands. An
aunt of the Duchess of Wuertemberg, who was
seated at the table, on hearing this, withdrew
without being noticed, and at once wrote to
Duke Ulrich, sending the letter that very night
by a special messenger, with strict orders to
carry it at once to the Duke in Stuttgart, and
to return by a roundabout way, so as not to
fall into the hands of the dragoons.

As soon as the Duke had read the letter, he
called Brentz and informed him of the affair,
but enjoined upon him not to answer him with
aword. He read the Munich letter to him,
and commanded him to at once retire and hide
himself in the most secluded spot he could
find, but not to tell him where, so that, when
asked, he could truthfully swear that he did
not know his whereabouts. For the moment
Brentz was too terrified to speak, but collect-
ing himself, he bowed, and silently withdrew.

Touched by his action, the Duke called him
back, saying, ‘‘If you are dear to God, He
will watch over you.”” Brentz took a loaf of
bread, went quietly out of the house, and soon
found himself in the upper part of the city.
He entered the first house whose door stood
open, ascended the steps unnoticed, and was
soon in the garret, where, in a dark corner,
beneath a pile of wood, he found a hole about
his size, into which he crept, and found a
vacant space under the eaves, where he re-
mained.

The very next day the colonel and his dra-
goons reached Stuttgart, garrisoned the city
gate and the ducal palace, and assumed full
control of affairs. Ulrich, of course, was in-
terviewed, but took oath that he did not know

was not in Stuttgart, called his troops together,
and was soon miles away.

Now, how did Brentz live for fourteen days
without water? At noon of the very first day a
hen stole quietly up to the garret, and between
the woodpile and the angle of the roof laid an
egg. She left as quietly as she came, instead
of cackling as the manner of hensis. Brentz
took the egg as from the hand of God, cut a
slice of bread from his loaf, and ate his lunch
with s thankful heart. Every day at the same
time the hen came and laid an egg, and so
Brentz received his daily bread. The very
day the troops left the hen did not come, and
he heard the people say: ‘‘They are gone.’’
That very evening he went to the ducal palace
and showed himself to Ulrich, who, after he
had heard the story, took
Brentz to the window, and
kneeling there poured out his
thankful heart to God. —Se-
lected.

Church at Eisleben.

where Brentz was in hiding, but gave the colo-
nel full permission to search for him, and to
take him dead or alive. At once the soldiers
began the disagreeable work of searching
house after house in the city, opening every
chest and running their Spanish swords and
spears through every featherbed and chaff-
bag they came across. For fourteen days
they kept at it, untilon that very day they
reached the street in which stood the house in
which the fugitive was concealed. From day
to day he had heard the people in the street
telling of the doings of the soldiery, and now
they were here! With their swords clanking
they strode from room toroom. The Reformer
on his knees heard them coming nearer and
nearer to his hiding-place. Now! here they
are in the very garret! One soldier stuck his
blade so close to Brentz that he had to move
his head to avoid being pricked. At last they
were through, and he heard the command,
‘Go, heis not here!’? The commandant him-
self, now thoroughly convinced that the man

~<a  -—

The Fool hath Said in his
Heart, There is no God.
Ps. 14, 1.

The astronomer Athanasius
Kirchner had a friend who pro-
fessed himself unable to be-
lieve in a personal God, the
Creator of the universe. Call-
ing one day on the astrono-
mer he found that he was for
the moment so occupied that
he could not be interrupted.
While waiting in his study and
looking about him, the skep-
tie’s attention was drawn to
a beautiful artificial celestial
globe, which he had never be-
fore seen; and when the as-
tronomer came in he expressed
his admiration, and asked:

“Where did you obtain this fine globe?
Whose work is it?’’

Kirchner turned to him wondering, and an-
swered:

‘“tWhere did it come from?’
‘Who made it?’ Nobody.’’

“How absurd !’’ promptly replied his friend.

On this the astronomer came and confronted
his visitor, and said:

‘You will not believe that this poor little
globe here made itself, and yet you proclaim
that the grand and glorious original which you
gaze upon with amazement, and of which this
is but a pitiful picture, was made by nobody,
and that the eternal laws which control it came
by accident !"”

—> oo

Nowhere.

Remove Christ from the Scriptures and they
will become an empty shell. Every word in
the Scriptures points at Him, since the Scrip-
tures were revealed to the holy men who wrote
them for His sake. — Luther. ;