By the Hand of the Lord by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 18, 1911

By the Hand of the Lord

By W. A. S.

THE work of God in the earth is closing with the manifest working of his mighty providences. Land after land has been opened by the breaking down of barriers, and the last message is sounding with power.

The same God who wrought in Bible times, and in the powerful days of the Reformation, is leading the way in the Advent movement. The prayer that he puts into the mouths of the Advent people is a call for the mighty arm of the Lord to be made bare as in the days of old:—

“Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old.” Isa. 51:9.

The story of God’s dealings with his people in all the days that are past, is an inspiring exhortation to us in these last days to go forward in full assurance of his delivering mercies and sustaining grace.

Here is a narrative of the Reformation times, taken from the life of Johannes Brenz, of Württemberg (1499-1570), being translated from the German:—

Of the many persecutions which Brenz had to suffer from the emperor on account of his steadfastness in the Protestant faith, the most perilous one to befall him occurred while he was a guest of Duke Ulric at Stuttgart. The emperor had learned of the whereabouts of Brenz, and commissioned a colonel to produce him, dead or alive. The duke, being apprised of this, warned Brenz, and let him go with the consolation: “If God is pleased with you, he will deliver you.”

Brenz, as if anticipating the peril, had already sent his four children to his friends. In the seclusion of his room he fell on his knees, and prayed to God for counsel and help. And he seemed to hear a voice saying: “Take a loaf of bread, and go up through the Birkenwald (the upper part of the city was so called at that time), and where you find an open front door, go in and hide yourself under the roof.”

Brenz did so. All the doors in that part of the city were closed, until he came to the Landhouse (now the Reformed church). Here the door stood open. He entered without being seen by any one. Under the roof was a large pile of wood, behind which he hid himself.

The next day the imperial officer, with his Spanish soldiers, arrived in Stuttgart. Soldiers were at once stationed at all city gates, even at the exit of the duke’s palace. They searched every house in the city, and finally the soldiers came to the Landhouse. Brenz perceived the clang of arms, and heard their loud talking and cursing as they went from room to room. They also came to his hiding-place under the roof, and thrust their spears through the wood-pile behind which Brenz lay. But they did not find him, and two weeks later they left Stuttgart.

“Now they are gone, and, praise the Lord, they have not found him,”—thus Brenz heard the people talk on the street below.

But how was Brenz able to sustain his life during that long time?—On the first day of his concealment, toward noon, about eleven o’clock, came a hen, and laid an egg behind the wood-pile. This she did every day till the end of his stay there. This egg served to quench his thirst, while the loaf of bread satisfied his hunger. The hen ceased coming on the day on which the soldiers departed.

Here was manifested the same hand that fed Elijah by the ravens; and that is the same arm that is being made bare in the eyes of all the nations for the cutting short of the work of God in the earth. Well may we rejoice that the God of former days is our God, pledged to lead the remnant of his people in triumph over all the power of the enemy.

W. A. S.