G. was a forester, and lived with his wife and a little daughter of seven years old in a house in the forest. His mother was also living under his roof.
One stormy evening G. who had been out all day, did not return home at the usual hour, and his wife and mother bame very anxious about him. This was chiefly because G. had an enemy, a bad, cunning man, who was the leader of a gang of robbers. This man was very angry because the forester had captured the rest of the gang, and he was on the watch to take revenge on G. and his family.
With sad hearts the two women talked together of their dear one, and of the danger he was in; but at length they did the wisest thing that any burdened heart can do. They knelt down and besought the Lord to help them. They knew Him as their Saviour, and trusted in His love, though as yet their beloved G. was a stranger to His precious grace (see 2 Cor. 8:99For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)).
Taking out the family Bible, Mrs. G. read aloud the seventy-first Psalm. Will you, dear young readers, find this Psalm and read for yourselves the words of strength and comfort of which it is full? You will see how suited it was to ease the anxiety of our two friends.
They then sang a hymn, and afterward prayed together, simply telling the Lord their fears, and asking Him to be their shield from the danger threatening them all.
Nor did they forget the robber in their prayer. They asked that this wicked man’s heart might be changed, even as their own hearts had been, by the grace of God.
How pleasing this most have been to the Lord, who has said,
They rose from their knees feeling calm and comforted, and the next moment they heard the well-known footstep of the one for whom they were watching!
What a happy meeting, this was for them all, for G. too had been anxious for the safety of those at home; he feared the robber might attack them in his absence.
His wife told him of the answer to their prayers; but he only laughed, and said that was no good. He then loaded his firearms, fastened the doors and windows, and unchained the dogs before retiring to rest.
Poor G; he had yet to learn that “safety is of the Lord” (Prov. 21:3131The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord. (Proverbs 21:31)). Little did he know that his deadly foe was already in the house, only waiting till the family were asleep to carry out his wicked plans. Creeping out of his hiding-place, he laid down on the table a large knife, and picked up the Bible from which the forester’s wife had been reading, The seventy-first Psalm lay open, and he tried to read it by the light of the moon. The words he had heard overcame his courage; he left the knife on the table, and taking up the Bible, quitted the house so quietly that no one heard him. Even the dogs were not aroused by his flight. From that time no more was heard of the robber.
Some years afterward the Prussians were at war with the French, and in one of the battles our friend, the forester, fell so badly wounded that he was left for dead. A fisherman heard the groans of the poor man, and calling his comrades to his aid, they lifted him into a boat, and rowed him over to a place of safety. He was tenderly nursed in the cottage of a fisherman there, and his wife was sent for.
On this bed of sickness he was brought to know the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour and to own His hand in thus delivering him front death a second time.
And great was his joy when he found out who his host was. The kind fisherman was none other than the robber, who had come into his home to take the lives of himself and all his loved ones. He did not take even one life, but he took away the Bible, which was read to the salvation of his own soul, and also blessed to his wife.
Did he return the book? Ah, yes, he did so gratefully, to the great joy of its owners. But I am sure, that although they had sorely missed it, they were able to thank God for the use he had made of it, not only in delivering them from death, but in teaching the robber and his wife to know Him, whom to know is life eternal (John 17:33And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3)).
And surely they had also to thank Him for another answer to prayer; for you may remember that on the night of their anxiety about G. his wife and mother did not forget to ask for blessing to their enemy, as he was then, the fierce robber of the wood.
ML 03/29/1942