THE well-known writer, Armin Stein, once told a story out of the years of his childhood, as follows: As a boy I went to a boarding-school, that of the famous orphanage at H—. In this institution, there were young people from all parts of the country. Russians, French, English, and Americans.
The pupils were put in rooms, eight in a room, and, as is often the case, one of the eight took upon himself the right to govern the others. In our room I was especially under the orders of such a one. It was perhaps my own fault, for I was very timid and shy. He made me take all sorts of messages for him, and teased me incessantly.
When I was four weeks in my new surroundings, something happened in our room that made a deep impression on us all.
One of my fellow-scholars, a poor boy, informed us, that twelve dimes had been stolen out of his purse.
It was bad news, as one of us eight must be the thief, for no other boys were allowed in our room. The director made inquiries but did not succeed in discovering the thief.
To my horror, suspicion fell upon me, on account of my great timidity. No one could say a word to me, but what I became as red as fire. The day after the robbery my tormentor said plainly for the others to hear, at the same time pointing at me: “Still waters run deep.” I could not answer this, and from that moment I was considered guilty of the theft. Many a hard thing I had to put up with. I felt so thoroughly unhappy, that I scarcely cared to study, and often passed sleepless nights. At one time when, on account of this suspicion, I lay awake, I became all at once so distressed that I cried out: “O, Lord Jesus! Come to my help, and release me from this unjust suspicion.”
At the same moment it seemed to me, that something creaked in the bed where Paul, one of the best boys in the school, slept. I listened, but heard nothing more, so thought that my ears had deceived me. The following day I found that my prayer had been heard. The doctor was friendly, and the boys too, showed no signs of suspecting me. It seemed as if all hearts were changed towards me, and that all were sorry for their treatment of me.
A few days later it came out who had committed the robbery. One of the boys, and just the one who had teased me so, was proved to be the thief and sent away from our school.
But I could not understand how that suspicion was so suddenly drawn away from me. That problem too was solved. In a conversation that I had with Paul, he said, “That night I could not sleep from toothache, and I heard you continually sighing. A little while later I heard you praying. I told this to the director, who said to me and the other boys, that we must not suspect you any longer, or treat you unkindly. He then made a rigid inquiry into the matter with the result that you know.”
Paul looked on it as accidental that he had overheard my prayer, but I saw in it the hand of the Lord, who had come to my help.
The Lord God hears and answers prayer. He is “near to all who call upon Him in sincerity.”
ML-09/19/1920