The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1911, Page 6

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6 The Lutheran Pioneer.

The Bellmaker of St. Gall.

In the olden time, when church bells were not
so common as they are now, a monk of St. Gall in
France succeeded in making one of so sweet and
solemn a tone that it charmed every listener, and
soon no service of the church was thought complete
without the ringing of the bell.

The Emperor Charlemagne heard it, and sent
the monk a quantity of silver to make a second bell,
thinking that if finer metal were used in the mak-
ing, it would have a still sweeter sound than the
other. When the monk saw the silver, he began to
wish that he could keep it for himself; and, fancy-
ing that no one would know the difference, he de-
termined to make the bell of inferior, mixed metal,
and let it pass for silver. When the bell was
finished and hung in position, the monk, wishing
to see if it worked properly, got too near, and at
the first stroke the heavy clapper swung against his
head and’ killed him.

The fraud was soon discovered, and the people
thought he had been justly punished. But suppose
it had never been detected, and he had lived to
enjoy his ill-gotten gains, would he have been any
less wicked? No, and at last he would have had
to answer for his sins just the same to God, who

* hates deceit of every kind. Sometimes people think

it does not matter if they do cheat a little, so long
as they are not found out; but they ought to re-
member that God knows all about it, even if no one
else does, and though He may wait a long time, He
will surely call them to account.

The Shoemaker’s Defense.

The wife of a shoemaker at Hagenau had, against
her husband’s will, bought from a seller of indul-
gences, or letters of pardon, a letter of the pope’s
indulgence in which it was said: “I remit the pains
thou wouldst have had to endure in purgatory. At
the moment of death the gates of the place of tor-
ment shall be shut against thee, and the gate of
the paradise of joy shall be opened unto thee.” She
had paid a gold florin for that letter of indulgence.
Shortly after, she died, and as the widower omitted
to have mass said for the repose of her soul, the

. priest charged him with contempt of religion, and

the judge of Hagenau summoned the shoemaker to
appear before him. ‘The shoemaker put in his
pocket his wife’s indulgence and went to the place
of summons.

“Is your wife dead?” asked the judge.

“Yes,” answered the shoemaker.

“What have you done with her?”

“1 buried her and commended her soul to God.”

“But have you had no mass said for the salva-
tion of her soul?”

“T have not; it was not necessary; she went to
heaven in the moment of her death.”

“How do you know that?”

“Here is the evidence of it,” said the widower,
drawing from his pocket the indulgence.

The judge, in the presence of the priest, read,
in so many words, that in the moment of death the
woman who had received the letter of indulgence
would go, not into purgatory, but straight into
heaven.

“Tf the priest pretends that a mass is necessary
after that,” said the shoemaker, “then my wife has
been cheated by the pope; but if she has not been
cheated, then the priest is trying to cheat me.”

There was no replying to the shoemaker’s de-
fense, and he was acquitted.

—- wee

A Blessed Year for the Believer.

- Blessed year in ‘which he dies who has a Savior!
It is the year of his true birth; it is the year of his
everlasting salvation; it is the year in which he
celebrates his wedding; it is the truly “acceptable
year of the Lord,” the everlasting year of jubilee,
in which all his lamentations will sink into ever-
lasting silence. Then, at last, will he take his harp
from the willows of grief, encircle his brow: with
never-fading flowers of spring, and sing and_ play
with angelic choirs, forever and ever, the new song
to God and the Lamb. — Walther.

—————————? of

The Difference.

They were speaking of the devil’s temptations,
when an old colored uncle said: “Brethren, there
is a difference. When I was a boy, I took a hatchet
and went into the woods. When I found a tree
that was straight, big, and solid, I didn’t get down
that tree; but when I found one leaning a little
and hollow inside, I soon had him down. So when
the devil goes after Christians, he doesn’t get those

down easily that stand straight and true, but those

that Jean a little and are hollow inside.”