Delivered From the Pangs of Hunger by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 18, 1915

Delivered From the Pangs of Hunger

By W. A. S.

ROBERT SAMUEL was a godly minister in Suffolk, England, in the days of King Edward VI. The Word of God had been set free in England, and Samuel ministered it to his flock. Then came the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary, and the proscribing of all who did not accept the Romish doctrines. In 1555 Samuel was arrested for heresy, and sent to prison.

He endured great sufferings, being chained to a post in such a manner as to keep his body in torture. And further, Foxe says:—

To make amends for the cruelty or pain that he suffered, they added a far more grievous torment, keeping him without meat and drink, whereby he was unmercifully vexed through hunger and thirst; saving that he had every day allowed two or three mouthfuls of bread and three spoonfuls of water, to the end rather that he might be reserved to further torment than that they would preserve his life.

In this time of Samuel's sore distress, as he leaned upon the Lord, there was given to him a token that the angels of the Lord were about him, and that God would deliver him from the pangs of hunger and thirst. Foxe says:—

Certain there were that heard him declare what strange things had happened unto him during the time of his imprisonment; to wit, that after he had been famished or pined with hunger two or three days together, he then fell into a sleep, as it were one half in a slumber, at which time one clad all in white seemed to stand before him, who ministered comfort unto him by these words: "Samuel, Samuel, be of good cheer, and take a good heart unto thee; for after this day shalt thou never be either hungry or thirsty." Which thing came even to pass accordingly; for speedily after he was burned, and from that time [of the visit of the messenger] till he should suffer, he felt neither hunger nor thirst. And this declared he to the end, as he said, that all men might behold the wonderful works of God. Many more like matters concerning the great comfort he had of Christ in his afflictions, he could utter, he said, besides this, but that shame-facedness and modesty would not suffer him to utter it.—Vol. III, page 371.

"And yet," adds Foxe, "if it had pleased God, I would he had been less modest in that behalf, that the love and care that Christ hath of his, might have the more appeared thereby unto us by such present arguments, for the more plentiful comfort of the godly, though there be sufficient testimonies of the same in the Holy Scriptures already." The promises of Christ of grace sufficient were fulfilled to his own in those dark days of the papal supremacy. He walked the fiery pathway with the witnesses to his truth, showing himself their ever-living Saviour.

It was the hope and comfort of his promises that made the hearts of men and women, and even youth, strong to meet a hostile world with testimony to the truth of God. As in Bible times, so was it in Reformation times. And still his angels are with us, and his promises are living words for daily strength and comfort, in great trials or in common ones. "And, lo, I am with you alway," the assurance comes, "even unto the end of the world."