Pine Needles

by Hildegard G. Frey

  CHAPTER XIV.

  "'The first day's celebration of our Mission festival was at an end. Itwas then not early, but still on until late in the night the sounds ofthe songs of praise and thankfulness were to be heard in the houses,from the parsonage out to the furthest outlying houses of the peasants,and so it was also in the surrounding villages; for the parish villagecould by no means accommodate all the guests who had come to thefestival, albeit not only the chambers and dwelling-rooms, but also thehaylofts were made lodging-places for the sleepers. And that was ablessed evening, when so many brethren and sisters from far and nearcould refresh themselves with one another's company and pour out theirhearts together. I thank God that so many pastors and teachers werecome, too, and also our faithful superintendent was not wanting. It isright that the heads of the Church should not be missing at such afestival.

  "'The next day--and we had prayed the Lord to give us good weather forit--we were to go to a place in the midst of the lonely heath, calledTiefenthal."'

  "What does that mean?" Maggie interrupted.

  "_Tief_ means deep. _Thal_ means valley."

  "'Deep valley,'" said Maggie. "But I do not understand what a _heath_is."

  "Naturally. We do not have them in this country, that ever I heard of,"said Meredith.

  "Neither here nor in England," said Mr. Murray. "For miles and miles theLueneburger heath is an ocean of purple bloom; that is, in the time whenthe heather is in blossom. But there are woods also in places, and inother places lovely valleys break the spread of the purple heather,where grass and trees and running water make lovely pictures. Sometimesone comes to a hill covered with trees; and here and there you findsolitary houses and bits of farms, but scattered apart from each other,so that great tracts of the heath are perfectly lonely and still. Yousee nothing and hear nothing living, except perhaps some lapwings in theair, and a lizard now and then, and humming beetles, and maybe here andthere some frogs where there happens to be a wet place, and perhaps alandrail; elsewhere a general, soft, confused humming and buzzing ofcreatures that you cannot see, and the purple waves of heather, onlyinterrupted here and there by a group of firs or a growth of bushesalong the edge of a ditch."

  "O Uncle Eden!" cried Maggie, "have you been there? And do you know thevillage, too?"

  "_The_ village? Pastor Harms's village--do you mean, Hermannsburg? Yes.It is like many others. Two long lines of cottages, the little riverOerze cutting it in two, beautiful old trees shading it,--that is thevillage. The cottages are not near each other; gardens and fields liebetween; and at the gable of every house is a wooden horse or horse'shead; from the old Saxon times, you know. No dirt and no squalor and nobeggars nor misery to be seen in Hermannsburg. That, I suppose, is muchowing to Pastor Harms's influence."

  "Thank you, Uncle Eden," said Maggie with a sigh of intense interest."Now you can go on, Ditto. They were going out into the heath. All thepeople?"

  "I suppose so. 'To a place in the midst of the heath solitudes calledTiefenthal. Why? I had not told them that; I wanted to tell it to themfirst of all on the spot. I had another reason besides, though; I wantedto have the sun beat a little in African fashion on the heads of theguests at our festival, so that our brethren in Africa might not be theonly ones hot. So at nine o'clock the next morning the great crowd ofthose who were to make the pilgrimage with us from Hermannsburg, wereassembled at the Mission-house under the banner of the cross, whichfluttered joyously from the high flagstaff. It was hard for me not to beable to walk with the rest, but I was only just recovered from a severeillness. A pilgrimage is the pleasantest going on earth to me. One cansing by the way so joyfully with the hosts that are moving along; onecan talk so cordially and so familiarly about the kingdom of God in thecrowd of the brethren; and now and then one gets a chance by a shallowditch to tumble one of one's fellow pilgrims over, especially one of thechildren. I had to do without all that and get into a waggon. When Icame to the Mission-house, the procession set itself in motion towardsthe high grounds of the heath. With sounding of trumpets and amid songsof praise the crowds travelled on, for nearly two hours long, all thewhile mounting higher and higher, and truly, for God had heard ourprayer, under a burning sunshine. Many a one had to sweat for itsoundly; even I in the waggon. It was a picturesque procession; a wholelong row of carriages and these crowds of people; the solitary heath hadbecome all alive. At last a not inconsiderable height was reached, wherethe ground fell off suddenly into a steep, precipitous dell. This wasTiefenthal. It is a very narrow valley, or rather a cut between twohills, one of which is bare, the other covered with a luxuriant growthof evergreens. Below stands an empty bee enclosure, called the Pastor'sBeefield, because it as well as the wood-covered hill belongs to thepastor of Hermannsburg. From all the farms round about hosts of pilgrimswere coming at the same time with us, travelling along; and like thebrooks which after a thunder-shower plunge down from the hills to thelower ground, even so the waves of humanity rolled towards Tiefenthal.At last, then, I took my stand on the slope of the bare hill, surroundedby the brethren who bore the trumpets in their hands, the blast of whichsounded mightily through the dell and broke in a quivering echo upon theopposite hill. Countless hosts lay upon the two slopes and in the bottomof the dell, and out of many thousand throats the song of praise to theLord rose into the blue dome of the sky.

  "'First was sung, with and without accompaniment of the trumpets, thelovely hymn--

  "Rejoice, ye Christians all, His Son by God is given," &c.

  to the glorious melody, "Aus meines Herzens Grund!" Then, when themighty sounds died away, followed the preaching, upon Hebrews xi.32-40.'"

  "Read that passage, Maggie," said her uncle.

  Maggie read:

  "'And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell ofGideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah; of David also, andSamuel, and of the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, wroughtrighteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenchedthe violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weaknesswere made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies ofthe aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and otherswere tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain abetter resurrection: and others had trial of cruel mockings andscourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonments: they were stoned,they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: theywandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted,tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy;) they wandered in deserts,and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.'--Uncle Eden, thatwas a great while ago, wasn't it?"

  "_That_ was."

  "But I mean, people don't do so now, do they?"

  "Not here, just now, in America. But nothing is changed in human natureor the relations of the two parties, since the Lord said to the serpent,'I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed andher seed.'"

  "But does that mean _that_, Uncle Eden? I thought the seed of the womanwas Christ?"

  "It is. But the devil fights against Christ in the persons of hispeople; and the 'seed of the serpent,' the children of the devil, hatethe children of God, from Cain's time down. 'If they have persecuted methey will also persecute you,' the Lord said."

  "There is no persecution here, though, in this country, Mr. Murray?"said Flora.

  "Not persecution with fire and sword. But nothing is changed, MissFlora. It will be fire and sword again, just so soon as the devil seeshis opportunity. So all history assures us. Go on, Meredith; let us seewhat Pastor Harms made of his text--or doesn't he tell?"

  "I'll go on, sir, and you'll see. 'As you have just heard out of theHoly Scriptures, so it has been, my dear friends, with the faithfulwitnesses and martyrs of the truth; hacked to pieces, run through thebody, slain with the sword, or left to wander in the deserts, on themountains, in dens and caves of the earth, of whom the world was notworthy. Even in the New Testament we read how Peter and Paul had tosuff
er imprisonment, how Stephen was stoned, James beheaded with thesword; how the Jews persecuted all the confessors of the most blessedSaviour, dragged them out of their houses, threw them into prisons, andtook joy in stoning them. And even as the Jews began it, the heathenhave carried it on; and not hundreds or thousands, but many hundredthousands of Christians in the ten great Christian persecutions sealedtheir belief in the Lord Jesus and their faithful confession of His holyname with their blood. In our last year's Mission festival in Mueden, Itold you how the holy apostles Peter and Paul met their death likeheroes and martyrs; our beloved Hermannsburg church is named after them;and I told you about Saint Lawrence, after whom the church in Mueden iscalled. "And to-day," you are questioning, "to-day are you going to tellus about martyrs again? We conclude so, from the text you have chosen!But wherefore always about martyrs?" My beloved, I have a special loveto the martyrs; and I do not know how it happens, at every Missionfestival they come with special vividness before my mind. I believe itarises from this: that I am persuaded the ever-growing zeal for missionsamong all earnest Christians is a token that before long the Church ofChrist will have to take her flight out of Europe; and so theunconscious efforts of Christians is towards preparing a place for theChurch among the wilds of heathenism. And therefore I believe that thetimes of martyrdom will cease to be far-off times for us any longer;that the kingdom of Antichrist is drawing near with speedier andspeedier steps, is becoming daily more powerful; the apostasy fromChrist is becoming constantly greater and more decided; Christianity isgrowing more and more like a putrid carcass, and where the carcass is,there the eagles are gathered together. And therefore missions arebecoming more evidently the banner around which all living Christiansrally; for what is written in the Revelation xii. 14-17, will soonreceive its fulfilment. And when I see such great crowds of Christianssinging praise and keeping holy day, then the thought always comes tome, How would it be if persecution were to break loose now? would allthese be true witnesses and martyrs, and rather bear suffering, andyield up the last drop of their blood and endure any torments, than fallaway and deny Christ? Oh, and when I reflect how mightily in those timesof bloody persecution the Christian Church gave her testimony and foughtand suffered; what a power of Faith, Hope, and Love made itself known,that could shout for joy at the stake; and when I think how cold, howlukewarm, how loveless Christianity is now--I could almost wish for amighty persecution to come, to break up the rotten peace of Christians,who have grown easy and luxurious and to arouse again the right heroismof the soldiers of God.

  "'It is not only in the times of the Jews and the Romans, at the firstfounding of the Christian Church, that such mighty battles of heroeshave been fought; the dear and blessed time of the Reformation has hadits martyrs, who for the pure Word and true sacrament of our belovedLutheran Church staked their persons and lives. Who does not know thosetwo faithful disciples, who amid songs of praise were burned at thestake at Cologne on the Rhine? that Heinrich von Zutphen who had to giveup his life in Ditmarsh? those thousands who were murdered or burned bythe Catholic Inquisition? those thousands who had to pine away in theprisons and cloisters of the Catholics? without reckoning the hundredsof thousands in the religious wars stirred up by the Catholics, who madethe battle-fields fat with their blood, and have died for the faith oftheir Church? And now I will tell you why I have brought you here to-dayto this Tiefenthal. We stand upon holy ground here, upon ground of themartyrs. Hear what your fathers suffered for the sake of the pure, trueWord and sacrament.

  "'The story that I am going to tell you must have been acted outsomewhere between 1521 and 1530. For in the chronicle where I have readthe story mention is made of the Diet at Speier, but nothing is said ofthe Diet at Augsburg.'"

  "Stop, Ditto, please," said Maggie. "What's a _diet_?"

  "The supreme council of the German Empire, composed of princes andrepresentatives of independent cities of the empire. The famous Diet ofAugsburg was held in 1530."

  "What was it famous for?"

  "Famous for an open, bold confession and declaration of the Protestantfaith by a few Protestant princes in the midst of the crowd of Catholicsassembled at the Diet."

  "Well, Meredith!"

  "'Nothing is said of the Diet at Augsburg. And certainly some mentionwould have been made of it if it had already taken place, since ourbeloved princes the Dukes Ernst and Francis of Lueneburg had their sharein the precious confession of faith. At that time there was inHermannsburg a young Catholic pastor, descended from a noble patricianfamily; he was called Christopher Gruenhagen, and was a kind-hearted man.One day'"----

  "Stop a minute, Ditto. Some people were Catholics then, and some wereProtestants?"

  "Why, that is how they are now, Maggie," said her sister.

  "But I mean, there--in Germany."

  "It is so still in Germany," said Meredith. "But then was just thebeginning of the Reformation, Maggie. Luther was preaching, and theworld was in a stir generally."

  "'One day there comes to Pastor Gruenhagen a sort of artisan fellow, whoasked for a bit of bread. It was in winter time, and the poor man wasquite benumbed with cold. Pastor Gruenhagen took pity on him, had himserved with food and drink, and made him sit down in the _Flett_ (thatis, the open hall of the house with its low fireplace) that he mightalso warm his cold limbs. After the man had eaten, not forgetting topray either, he stretched his legs comfortably down by the warm hearth,and then drew a small MS. book out of his pocket, in which he began toread with eager and devout attention. Gruenhagen wondered that the mancould read, and more especially that he could read writing. Now, indeed,an artisan would take it ill if anybody were surprised to find him ableto read. But the fact that all of us, even the poorest and the smallest,can read now, is just one of the blessings of the Reformation, underwhich the first schools for the people were established. In those daysonly scholars and priests could read, and the laity, even the nobles,knew nothing about it. So Gruenhagen steps up curiously to the remarkableartisan who knows so much as to read, and asks him, "Pray what have youthere?" For all answer, the man hands him the book. Gruenhagen takes itand reads and reads, and the more he reads the more eagerly andattentively he devours what he finds there. It was a copy of Luther'ssmaller catechism. Like a lightning flash darts through his soul thethought, "What stands in this book is THE TRUTH." He asks his guest nowwhere he has come from? The answer is, "From Wittenberg; I have heardLuther preach there, and I brought away this catechism with me."

  "'Why he had a written copy of the catechism, and not a printed one, Icannot tell you; perhaps he had not been able to buy a printed copy, andhad been at the pains of writing it out; but that is not said in thechronicle. And now, while I am speaking of the catechism, I will showyou also that I am a scholar. Therefore know that Luther printed hissmaller catechism in the year of grace 1529; because in the two yearsprevious he had been travelling about all through Saxony, examining thechurches; and had found that the pastors were so stupid that they didnot know even the principal things. Therefore, and surely with theassistance of the Holy Spirit, he wrote the small catechism, which Ihold to be the best of all human books. Before that, however, he hadalready written some similar works; for example, a short exposition onthe ten commandments, the Creed, and the Paternoster; from which, onaccount of its remarkable quality, I will quote a little. So in itLuther says--"The first commandment is trangressed by every one who inhis difficulties turns to sorcery, the black art of the devil's allies;every one who makes that use of letters, signs, words, herbs, charms andthe like; whoever uses divining-rods, treasure-conjurings, clairvoyance,and the like; whoever orders his work and his life according to luckydays, sky tokens, and the sayings of soothsayers. The third commandmentis trangressed by those who eat, drink, play, dance, and carry on unholydoings; by those who in indolence sleep away the time of divine service,or miss it, or spend it in pleasure drives or walks, or in uselesschatter; by whoever works or does business without special need; bywhoever does not pray, does not think on Christ
's sufferings, does notrepent of his sins and long for mercy; and who, therefore, only inoutward things, as dressing, eating, and posture-taking, keeps the dayholy."

  "'I have brought forward this proof of learning only to show you thatgood people are not quite so simple as perhaps they look; and now I willgo on with my story.

  "'Gruenhagen was so delighted with the dear catechism that he says to theworkman, "Friend, you must stay with me long enough to let me make acopy of your MS., for you won't get the book again before I have donethat." The friend was very willing to have it so; and now they made anhonest exchange one with the other. For the pastor ministered to thepoor, starved and frozen body of the artisan, and the artisan ministeredto the poor, starved and frozen soul of the pastor. Day by day hisaccounts grew more and more fiery and spirited about Luther's powerfulpreaching, about the many thousands who were streaming to Wittenberg tohear the man of God, about the German Bible which Luther had translated,about the glorious songs of praise which the Lutherans sung, about thepure Sacrament in both kinds; that is, that in Wittenberg both the breadand the wine were given to the communicants, and not the bread merely,as is done by the Papists against the Lord's commandment. He told how,amidst all the rage of his foes, Luther was so joyful and brave, that onone occasion he said to the electoral prince of Saxony, who he saw hadbecome anxious, "I do not ask your princely grace to protect me, for Iam under much higher protection, which will take good care of whatconcerns me." Gruenhagen's whole soul was moved by these narrations.

  "'After a good many days he let the workman go, laden with gifts, andwith tears in his eyes dismissed him; for through him he had learned toknow the truth. And now he goes to study. Soon the little catechism isfixed in his heart and his head; and now he procures Luther's otherworks, and first of all the New Testament. And then he can conceal itfrom himself no longer, that the Word of God and the sacrament arebasely falsified in the Romish Church, and that he himself, withoutknowing it, has been all this while misleading the people; he who in hisoffice as pastor should have been a servant of God. This thought burnsinto his inmost soul, so that he almost falls into despondency. But soonhe finds grace through faith in the dear blood of Jesus Christ. And nowin him also that word goes into fulfilment--"I believe, therefore have Ispoken." He begins to preach the pure Word of God, in demonstration ofthe Spirit and of power; he begins to give to communicants the whole,entire supper, the emblems of Christ's body and blood; and he teachesthe children the catechism. And how could he fail of fruit. The parishof Hermannsburg stirs with life, the whole region is waked up, andthousands come to hear God's Word. Oh, that must have been a blessedtime, when the Holy Ghost breathed thus upon the dry bones, and theLight shined in the darkness. But then, too, the Cross could not fail;for on the baptism of the Spirit follows always the baptism of fire; andDavid in the very psalm quoted above says, "I believed, therefore have Ispoken. _I was greatly afflicted._"

  "'There was at that time in Hermannsburg a warden--that is, a stewardand judge in one person--who was called Andreas Ludwig von Feuershuetz(from whom the neighbouring property still keeps the name ofFeuershuetzenbostel), a rash, determined man, and very zealous for theold Popish Church. Writing in those days did not amount to much; thewarden's scribes were his soldiers. So he went to the pastor, andwithout any circumlocution forbade him to preach the Lutheran heresy,adding, "If you don't stop it, I'll shut the door before your nose."When Gruenhagen rejected this demand as an improper one, and told him toattend to his office, but leave the church to the pastor, the wardengrew wrathful, and called Gruenhagen a renegade heretic; and the nextSunday he actually did set his soldiers to keep the church doors andclosed the entrance to pastor and congregation both. The thousands whofollowed their pastor were not unwilling to use violence against thedoer of violence; but Gruenhagen prevented that, and tried to hold divineservice in his house, and, when that also was interfered with, in thehouses of the peasants. But wherever they might be, the warden wouldcome with his soldiers and break up the service.

  "'And this went on for many a week, and yet so great was the power ofGruenhagen's good influence over the believers, that no act of violencewas attempted against their tyrants. At last one day the followingpeasants, Hans von Hiester, Michel Behrens, and Albrecht Lutterloh ofLutterloh, Karsten Lange of Ollendorf, and the great Meyer from Weesen,came to Gruenhagen and told him they knew a spot in the heath, still andsolitary and remote, which neither highroad nor footpath came near; thewarden could not easily find it out: "Let us go there on Sundays andhear God's Word from your mouth!" And so it was arranged. Quietly onetells it to another, and no one betrays it. The next Sunday, while it isstill night, the house doors everywhere open, the indwellers come outone by one, and travel in mist and darkness, by distant paths, throughmoor, heather, and thicket, hither to Tiefenthal. Gruenhagen is there,and with him is his clerk, Gottlob, a believer, converted by hispastor's means; and he carries the sweet burden of the church service. Omy beloved! here stood Gruenhagen; here were your fathers who renouncedfalse idols and worshipped their Saviour according to the pure Word andordinance He has given; their songs of praise echoed here, here theybent the knee; for a long while your fathers' house of God was hereunder the blue heaven; here were the new-born children baptized in thename of the triune God, and the grown men and women were fed with thebread and wine which mean the body and blood of the Lord, and soreceived new strength to mount up with wings of eagles. In this placeyour fathers grew to a strength of faith which would waver no more. Butmore trials were coming upon them. The warden was struck by the suddenquietness; he had expected that new attempts would be made to get intothe church. He guessed that something was going on, and could not findout what it was. So he set his soldiers on to serve as sleuth-hounds,and they scented the game so well that they discovered the whole. Thenone Sunday morning he got up early and watched with bitter rage to seehow the people came out of all the houses, men, women, young men andgirls, old men and children, all quiet and yet so joyous, dressed intheir Sunday clothes, and hastening to Tiefenthal. Stealthily hefollowed after them, and at their place of refuge heard them preach andsing and pray. Suddenly he heard his own name spoken; it gave him agreat shock; he heard the pastor praying for his conversion and thecongregation saying Amen. Then a great surging and conflict of feelingsarose in his brazen heart. But the time was not yet come. He dashed downthe tears that would come into his eyes, and let his supposed duty getthe victory. Resolved to suppress the hated heresy that had almost madehim soft, but too weak to do it with the force at his command, he madeknown the affair to the justiciary of Zelle and asked for help. TheZelle justiciary, nothing loath, next Sunday dispatched two hundred ofhis soldiers, who lay hid in the wood till the congregation hadassembled. Then they broke forth, surrounded our fathers, just as theywere gathered around their beloved pastor for the holding of divineservice, fell first of all upon Gruenhagen himself and the crowd whichpressed round him, laid hold of him and dragged him off, and a hundredothers with him, to Zelle, with brutal ill-treatment. There the captiveswere obliged to pass three days and three nights in the courtyard of theofficial's house, in snow and ice (it was in November), and it was onlywith difficulty that they could get a bit of bread to eat. Then theywere thrown into prison; and there for a long time our fathers had toshare the bonds and imprisonment of God's faithful servant; but nothreats, no contumely, no distress could move them to apostasy, from thefaith they had confessed.

  "'How long they lay there I do not know. At last, when the Dukes cameback from Augsburg, the hour of their freedom struck; they were let go,and returned to their homes shedding thankful tears; the church wasagain opened to them too, and the heroic Gruenhagen preached the gospelto his people anew with fresh power. Then also struck the warden's hourof grace; he grew tender, and was overcome by the might of the blessedgospel; and whereas he had formerly been a zealot for the mistakenservice of God, now he became one of the strongest friends of the pureLutheran doctrine in all the community. Out of gratitude the pa
rish gaveto its beloved watcher for souls this Tiefenthal with the wooded hillhere, to be for all time the property of the parsonage, which it stillis to the present day. My beloved, we have come here to-day forpleasure; are we to come here again perhaps some day in distress? Youanswer possibly, "No, that is not to be apprehended; our times are toohumane." Yes! they are humane towards all that is _human_; _i.e._,towards banqueting and drinking, dissolute living and deceit. But thatour times are not too humane towards what is _godly_, is testified bythe persecutions directed against the Lutherans in Baden and Nassau,where various Lutheran preachers have had to pay fine after fine, andlie in the common prison, because they preach and baptize and observethe communion in the Lutheran manner, and whereto the preaching mustoften be held in mountains and clefts of the rocks to be had in peace.And besides, the kingdom of Antichrist is advancing with constantlyquicker and more decided steps. Even now it everywhere rains words ofabuse upon the saints, the praying people, the hypocrites, theenthusiasts, the mad folk, and by whatever other names beside they maycall them. And who knows how soon the time may come when the word willagain be true,--"They will put you out of their synagogues," and"whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service." I could ifI would read you letters that have come from many cities and villages,filled with such threatenings and cursings and coarse words against methat they would fill you with astonishment. Therefore ask yourselvesagain seriously the question, would you also be ready to give money andblood, body and life, for the Lord Jesus and for your faith? would youalso be ready to suffer bonds and imprisonment for the Lord's sake? Ifit be so that you could not or would not do that, then you are notworthy to bear the name of Jesus Christ; for whoever hateth not fatherand mother, wife and child, farm and farm stock, and his own life also,for Jesus's sake, he is not worthy of me, the Lord says. To confessChrist in peace and in pleasant times, that is easy enough; but to do itthrough distress and death, to stand fast in the baptism of fire, thatis another thing. Christians of nowadays are accustomed to easy living;how would the cup of suffering taste to them? They are drowned indelicate and luxurious habits; how would they bear privation? They havecorrupted themselves in cowardice and indolence; how should they bestrong and brave under persecution? And listen to me now, you who aregathered here together in such numbers; what do you think? If thesoldiers all of a sudden came upon you, to run you through, or to carryyou off somewhere where there are no feather beds, would you stand it?would you cheerfully give yourselves up to be dragged off? Or would youmake long legs, keep a whole skin, and deny your Saviour? O God! grantthat all of us may be able to cry with the Apostle Paul, "I count allthings but loss that I may win Christ." "I am persuaded that neitherdeath, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor thingspresent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, shall be able toseparate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!"Let us now sing with the sound of the trumpets our Luther's hero song--

  "Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott."'"

  "What does that mean?" said Maggie.

  "It means, 'The Lord is my strength and my fortress;' or, moreliterally, Maggie, 'Our God is a sure stronghold.'"

  "'When this hymn had been sung, it was time for our noonday meal. Soafter we had prayed the prayer before eating, the people arrangedthemselves everywhere, in larger and smaller groups, on the green grassor the brown heather, and with giving of thanks enjoyed the food theyhad brought along with them. Those who had nothing took gladly the sparebits of those who had too much. And all were filled; and beer, andwater, and even sugar-water, were on hand too to quench the burningthirst. I had myself a further particular pleasure. A few of ourfestival companions had brought with them some mighty pieces ofhoneycake as a gift for me. That suited me exactly, and I had it packedin with other things in my basket of provisions. Now you should haveseen the glee when I called the children to me and snapped off the sweetbits for them. There came even a pretty good number of larger people,who wanted to be children too, and have their bite after the childrenhad had enough. When we had eaten we had the prayer of thanks, and thenthe beautiful song,

  "Now let us thank God and praise Him," &c."

  "'A blast of the trumpets proclaimed the renewal of divine service; andagain the people arranged themselves in their former places and orderfor a new and last refreshing of their spirits.'"