In Martin Luther's house was a servant who in a fit of anger left without giving the family any notice. Afterward she fell into bad company, and into immorality and became dangerously ill. In this condition she requested that Luther might visit her. Taking a seat at her bedside Martin Luther asked:
"Well, Elizabeth, what is the matter?"
"I want to ask your pardon for leaving your family so abruptly," she replied; "but I have something weighing more heavily on my conscience. I have given my soul to Satan!"
"Why," said Luther, "that's of no great consequence; what else?"
"I have done many wicked things," she continued, "but what oppresses me most is that I have deliberately sold my poor soul to the devil. Oh, tell me, sir, how can such a crime ever find mercy?"
"Elizabeth, listen to me," replied Luther, "suppose while you lived in my house you sold and transferred my children to a stranger, would the sale or transfer have been lawful or binding?"
"Oh, no," said the deeply humbled girl, "for I would have no right to do that."
"Well, you had still less right to give your soul to the arch-enemy—it no more belongs to you, than my children do. It is the Lord's property. He made it; when lost He redeemed it; it is His with all its powers and faculties. You cannot sell what is not yours. If you have attempted it, the whole transaction was unlawful and void.
"Now do this: Go to the Lord, confess your guilt with a broken heart and contrite spirit and entreat Him to take back again what is rightfully His own. And as to the sin of attempting to alienate the Lord's rightful property, throw that back on the devil, for that is his part."
The poor girl obeyed, was converted and died full of joy, faith and hope.
A look to Jesus saves the soul,
So boundless is His grace;
One look sufficeth every sin
Forever to efface.
Thousands today have looked to Him
Who mighty is to save;
And proved the truth of God's own Word
The soul that looks shall live.