p. 3 | A Monarch’s Restless Night by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 28, 1909

A Monarch’s Restless Night

By W. A. S.

A GERMAN count, who had plotted against Frederic William III of Prussia—even attempting personal violence—was imprisoned in the fortress of Glatz, Upper Silesia. His story, translated from the practical commentaries of Dr. Besser, pastor of Waldenburg, was printed forty years ago in the Boston Christian. The count had no other reading-matter than a Bible, which he was in no mood to open, as he was opposed to religion. But after a long time of solitary confinement he began to read the Book. Gradually it touched his life. The account says:—

On a rough, stormy November night, when the mountain gales howled round the fortress, the rain fell in torrents, and the swollen and foaming Neisse rushed roaring down the valley, Count M— lay sleepless on his cot. The tempest in his breast was as fearful as that without. His whole past life rose before him; he was convicted of his manifold shortcomings and sin; he felt that the source of all his misery lay in his forsaking God. For the first time in his life his heart was soft, and his eyes wet with tears of genuine repentance. He rises from his cot, opens his Bible, and his eye falls on Ps. 50:15: “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” This word of God reaches to the depth of his soul; he falls on his knees for the first time since he was a child, and cries to God for mercy; and that compassionate God who turns not away from the first movement of faith toward him, heard the cry of this sufferer in the storm-beaten dungeon of Glatz, and gave him not only spiritual but temporal deliverance.

And this is how the deliverance came, by the providence of God:—

The same night [of the count’s surrender], in his castle at Berlin, King Frederic William III lay sleepless in bed. Severe bodily pains tormented him, and in his utter exhaustion he begged of God to grant him a single hour of refreshing sleep. The favor was granted; and when he woke again, he said to his wife, the gracious Louise, “God has looked upon me very graciously, and I am thankful to him. Who in my kingdom has wronged me most? I will forgive him.”

“The Count of M—,” replied Louise, “who is imprisoned in Glatz.”

“You are right,” said the sick king; “let him be pardoned.”

Day had not dawned over Berlin ere a courier was despatched to Silesia, bearing to the prisoner in Glatz pardon and release.

The incident reminds one of the words in Esther: “On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records;” and out of the troublous night came deliverance to the Jews.

W. A. S.