The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1907, Page 78

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78

The Kingdom Ours Remaineth.

Tn a certain town in Saxony most of the citizens
had adopted the Augsburg Confession, and sup-
ported their own minister, who preached to them
the pure Word. When in the year 1547, at the
battle. of Mucehlberg, the Elector John Frederick of
Saxony was overcome and taken a prisoner by the
Emperor Charles V, great sadness and consterna-
tion spread among these Evangelical Jutheran
citizens.

The papistic burgess of the town, however, re-
joiced and was jubilant. In derision he asked the
Lutherans: “Where is your Gospel now? Where
are your Sacraments? From this glorious victory
can be seen where the right and true Church is!”

He then instituted a great banquet and was
jovial with his companions. But after, midnight,
when about to retire to rest, great pain seized him,
pain which could not be relieved, but constantly
increased. In his anxiety and despair the sick man
sent for the Evangelical Lutheran minister, whom
he had at all times scorned and despised, in order
that from him he might hear words of comfort in
his great anguish. But before the minister could
arrive the burgomaster had given up the ghost.

>

The Tangled Yarn.

A woman had put a skein of yarn on a reel, in
order to wind it off into a ball; but as it was much
tangled, and the thread would not run as she wished
it to do, her patience soon tired out—she tore at
the yarn, and pulled it this way and that, and so
made bad worse, for she broke so many ends that
she could no longer find out which was the right one.

Gotthold sat by silently watching her, and think-
ing within himself: By this example I see clearly
how it is that quarrels so often arise between neigh-
bors, and become more and more tangled and diffi-
cult to unravel — because every one brings to the
matter more intemperate zeal and selfish conceit
than patient wisdom and sensible, self-distrusting
moderation. ‘Thus many trifling matters become

complicated and entangled which might be easily
unraveled, if one only managed the business pa-
tiently, and took the self-willed and somewhat self-
conceited heads that have to do with it by the right
end, like the threads. ‘They get worse, more obsti-
nate, and more confused, if pulled too harshly the
wrong way —just like this yarn. Weak they are,

The Lutheran Pioneer.

like the thread, and must therefore be patiently and
gently handled.

Many of the world’s quarrels are like this tan-
gled yarn. He who does not bring a wise, judicious,
gentle, and prudent mind to the settlement of them
will only make them worse.

It is the height of folly in any man to fancy that
he can mold all things according to his own ideas
of right; and he is much wiser who makes the best
of what he cannot help, and yields so far as he can
do so with a clear conscience.

Many blame the tangled yarn, the whimsical
and capricious people with whom they’ have to do,
and do not see that as many whims and caprices
are, perchance, hidden under their own hats, and
that others have quite as much reason to complain
of our whims and fancies as we of theirs.

O my God, I must daily encounter many tangled
yarns, grant me a wise and gentle heart and a true
judgment, so that I may deal with them quietly,
prudently, and gently, as I ought to do.

tee

“Sing, My Daughter, Sing!’’

After Dr. Martin Luther’s death, when Witten-
berg, in 1547, fell into the enemy’s hands, Melanch-
thon, Luther’s most intimate friend, and two other
pastors, three distinguished divines, had to flee sor-
rowfully to Weimar. On the way they were greatly
comforted by hearing a little girl singing, “A mighty
fortress is our God.”

Melanchthon called the child and said to her:
“Sing, my daughter, sing! You know not what
great people you are now comforting.”

«

In Want of Light.

The Rev. A. Monod, the well-known French
Protestant pastor, one day dined with King Louis
and sat at the same table with the Romish Arch-
bishop. The Archbishop thought he would have a
joke at the expense of Monod and said: “Yesterday
I passed a Protestant chapel and noticed the people
gathered around the stove to keep themselves warm.
Protestant churches seem to be cold places.”

“Do you think so?” said Monod; “yesterday
I passed your church and noticed that candles were
burning at high noon; Roman churches must be in
want of light.”

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