SOME time ago there was a forester, named Grimez who lived in a lonely place in the thick woods of the Silesian mountains in Prussia. His family consisted of his wife and his mother, and a little daughter, seven years old. His wife and mother were Christians, but he himself was not a Christian. He didn’t believe the Bible, and used to ridicule his wife for her prayers, and what he called “her foolish trust in God.”
The time to which our story refers was a dark and stormy evening in autumn. The wind whistled mournfully through the trees of the forest. The two women and the little child sat round the fire in their house. The forester had not yet come home from the neighboring town, to which he had gone in the morning.
The family were beginning to feel very anxious about him, and they had good cause to feel so. A band of robbers had been infesting that part of the forest of late, and had made it very unsafe. This forester was the officer of the King of Prussia. His duty was to take care of the forest. After long efforts he had just succeeded in capturing all this band of robbers except their leader. He was a very cunning, strong and wicked man, and he had vowed to have his revenge on the forester and his family, for breaking up his band. The women of that lonely family knew this. No wonder that they felt very anxious as they sat round the fire that stormy evening. They could think and talk of nothing else but the dangers that surrounded them, and the absent head of their family.
At last the grandmother said it was no good to go on talking so, and giving way to their fears; and that it would be much better to seek comfort from God’s Word, and ask the protection of Him, without whose will not even a sparrow can fall to the ground.
Then the wife brought out their Bible and read aloud the 71St Psalm.
These are some of the words she read, which were wonderfully appropriate to their circumstances, “In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be put to confusion. Be Thou my strong habitation whereunto I may continually resort; for Thou art my rock and my fortress. Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.”
When the Psalm was finished she read an evening hymn in keeping with the Psalm. After singing this, they knelt down and prayed. They told God about their fears, and asked Him to protect them, as well as their beloved husband and father. They prayed for the poor and the sick, for all evil doers, and especially for the wicked robber in their neighborhood, that the Lord would have mercy on him, and change his heart and turn him from his evil ways.
After this their fears were gone, and they felt calm and comfortable. Then they heard the well-known footsteps of him they were looking for. They were glad to see him. He too had been feeling uneasy about them, and was pleased they were all safe.
Before going to bed he loaded his fire arms and unchained his dogs, and thought they were all safe. An hour or so passed, and all is quiet in the house, when lo, there is a desperate looking man creeping from under an old wooden bench. It is the robber they were so much afraid of. He had managed to steal in and hide, and had heard all that had been said. He had come to have his revenge by murdering the whole family. He went quietly to the table and laid down a sharp knife. The moon was shining through an opening in the window shutter, and he saw the Bible open still at the 71St Psalm. The words of that Psalm and the prayer had a wonderful effect on him, and he tried to read in the moonlight. He unfastens a shutter, took the Bible and left his knife, and cautiously got out of the window without waking the dogs.
When the forester and his family came down the next morning they saw the sharp knife on the table, the window open, and missed the Bible. The Christian wife and mother thanked God for His protection, and even the unbelieving husband could not help seeing that neither his guns nor his dogs had saved them from a cruel death. Nothing more was ever seen or heard of the robber in that neighborhood.
Sometime after there was a war and the French and Prussians were fighting against each other. Grimez, the forester was a captain in the Prussian army. There was a severe battle, and the Prussians gained the victory.
Among those who fell, on that day was the brave captain the forester.
His men thought he was killed, and left him on the field for dead, but he was only badly wounded. After his friends were gone he lay groaning in pain among the dead. A fisherman was coming cautiously up in his boat to see if his little but had been destroyed, when he heard the groans of the wounded man. He went and saw him lying in his blood. He called his companions and they carried him to their boat, rowed about two miles to the opposite shore, where there were several cottages. He was carried into one, his wounds dressed and nursed with tender care. The fisherman sent for his wife and daughter who came to nurse him, and gave them the use of his cottage and stayed with a neighbor till he got well.
As the wounded man lay upon his bed he thought of God’s goodness, how He had kept them from being killed on that memorable night, and saved him when left for dead on the battle field. He saw God’s hand in it all, was led to see and confess his sins and trust in the Savior.
When well enough to go home, he wished to pay the fisherman for all his kindness, but to their surprise he would take nothing. He said he had a great treasure of theirs which he had once taken away, and now wished to restore. He then got a Bible which the captain’s wife recognized as her long lost Bible.
The fisherman then told them he was the robber, and how the reading of the lst Psalm had saved their lives, and after taking the Book and reading it, he was saved and his wife, adding, we are living very happily here, have all we want for this world, and a sure and certain hope for the next.
“Life is found alone in Jesus,
Only there ’tis offered thee,
Without price and without money,
’Tis the gift of God sent free.”
ML-03/07/1920