GOD'S CARE FOR HIS PEOPLE.
In the days of the Reformation there lived a learned divine in Germany, Brentius of Wurtemburg. His godly zeal had at last aroused his enemies, who one day sent a band of soldiers to seize him when he might be off his guard. The soldiers entered the town, but Brentius got time to flee, not however, without their perceiving him; and so they chased him down several streets. He was enabled to outstrip them a little; and then turning quickly into a lane he found his way up a stairs, at the top of which was a sort of rickety ladder leading up to a hay loft. He was soon up among the hay, concealed and still. The soldiers, on the other hand, scoured the street; and, on coming to this stair, sought for him, even poking up the points of their bayonets through the seamy boards of the hay-loft to see if any one moved. Brentius kept still, only shrinking back to escape the touch of the bayonets; till the soldiers turned away, concluding that no one was there. Well, so far this was a good hiding-place; but how was he to live, if he continued here? The same Lord who had guided his servant to this retreat, sent him food: for every morning, during fourteen days, a hen came to the hay-loft, and laid an egg in the hay, which furnished Brentius with sustenance sufficient to keep him in life. After the fourteenth day, the supply failed, by which circumstance he thought the Lord was sending him an invitation to leave this shelter, and accordingly he cautiously descended into the street. He found that the soldiers had just left the town, so that his friends had now full time and opportunity to get him conveyed away safely to another spot. See how the Lord can protect his own, till the calamity be overpast.