Years ago there was in Germany a great preacher named Paul Gerhardt. He loved to preach about Jesus, to show people what a great Saviour He is, and that unless they believed in Him and repented of their sins, they could not be saved. However, the ruler of that part of the country, the Elector of Brandenburg, did not like that kind of preaching. Accordingly he sent word to Paul Gerhardt saying he must quit preaching that way or leave the country.
Paul Gerhardt sent back this message— “that it would be very hard for him to leave his country and his friends, and go with his family among strangers, where they would have nothing to live on; but as for preaching anything else than what the Bible taught him, he would rather die than do that.” So he had to go into exile with his wife and little children.
At the end of their first day’s journey, they came into a wood and rested the first night at a little inn they found there. The little children were crying from hunger, and clinging to their mother; but she had no food to give them and no money with which to buy any. She had tried to keep up all day, but now she began to cry too. This gave Paul Gerhardt a very heavy heart.
ML 02/21/1965