A Raven the Messenger of Deliverance by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jul 23, 1914

A Raven the Messenger of Deliverance

By W. A. S.

THE attitude of thoughtless unbelief toward the records of providential care in Holy Scripture is well illustrated by an advertising card displayed in a car on a Western interurban line. Presenting some business offer, the card declared:—

If Elijah were alive today, there would be no ravens to feed him. That brand of ravens has gone forever. The only bird that will feed you today is the eagle on the American dollar.

Sad to say, it is more than an irreverent treatment of a sacred story. It is the expression of a sentiment that obtains too generally in these days, of which Christ asked, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” We need a revival of faith in the God who actually doeth things for his children. Inspiration puts on the lips of those living in these latter days the prayer:—

“Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days. . . . Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?” Isa. 51: 9, 10.

He is ever the same, a God able to do things on earth, whose arm is stretched forth in might today the same as in olden days. He does not work always in the same way. His wonders are not repetitions for display. But he who made the depths of the sea a way in ancient times is still making ways for his children; and he who fed the prophet by the ravens so long ago is still able to provide in trouble.

Many a man in unbelief draws back from the path of righteousness because he can see no way of livelihood in the narrow way that leads to life; while the foot of faith presses into that path and finds that God is truly the living God. Whether his care is manifested in the ordinary or the extraordinary way, it is his loving providence.

Here, however, is a story of a providence, a raven being an actual agent in the deliverance. It was in the seventeenth century that Paul Gerhardt, of Germany, a Lutheran pastor, wrote the blessed hymn, “Give to the Winds Thy Fears.” The familiar English translation (“Hymns and Tunes,” No. 733) renders two stanzas:—

“Give to the winds thy fears, Hope and be undismayed; God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears, He shall lift up thy head.

“Through waves and clouds and storms, He gently clears thy way; Wait thou his time, so shall this night Soon end in joyous day.”

It was amid trial and persecution that Gerhardt’s trust had grown strong; and the hymns of faith and hope that poured from his soul have blessed and helped many another heart waiting through dark hours for God to “clear the way.” One such was a Polish peasant named Dobry, who lived near Warsaw, in the days of King Stanislaus (1764-95). Dobry experienced a remarkable deliverance by a raven’s visit, in which he recognized the direct intervention of the Lord. The story is told by S. W. Duffield, in his standard history of “English Hymns” (page 166):—

He had fallen into arrears with his rent, and his landlord was about to eject him from his home. It was the dead of winter, and the poor man had thrice appealed for mercy, but in vain. The next day was to see himself and his family homeless and hopeless in the midst of the snow. But Dobry kneeled down and prayed, and then they all sang this hymn. At length they came to the words, “Dein werk kann niemand hindern:”—

“Nothing thy work suspending, No foe can make thee pause When thou, thine own defending, Dost undertake their cause.”

There was a rap at the window. Dobry went to it, opened it, and a raven which his grandfather had trained and set at liberty popped in with a valuable jeweled ring in its beak. The peasant took it at once to his minister, who identified it as the property of King Stanislaus, to whom he restored it. The king sent for Dobry, rewarded him handsomely, and the next year built him a new house, and gave him cattle from his own herds. Over this house door, on an iron tablet, appears still, it is said, the effigy of a raven with a ring in its beak. Underneath are the first four lines of the stanza which was being sung: “Weg’ hast du allerwegen,” etc., which are thus rendered in the admirable version of Mrs. E. Charles:—

“All means always possessing, Invincible in might; Thy doings are all blessing, Thy goings are all light.”

It is good to know that our Father in heaven is never at loss for means by which to send the deliverance from trouble or perplexity, when he sees best. And when the trouble must be borne, his sustaining, comforting grace amid trial never fails his dear ones who put their trust in him. Let us give two stanzas of Gerhardt’s hymn (in this translation of Mrs. Charles’s), so full they are of the spirit of trust in the living God who can make ways where there are no ways:—

“Commit thy way to God, The load which makes thee faint; Worlds are to him no load; To him breathe thy complaint. He who for winds and clouds Maketh a pathway free, Through wastes or hostile crowds, Can make a way for thee.

“Hope then, though woes be doubled, Hope and be undismayed; Let not thine heart be troubled, Nor let it be afraid, This prison where thou art, Thy God will break it soon, And flood with light thy heart In his own blessed noon.”

W. A. S.