"Those are the people your stories are generally about," said Flora. "I hope the variety will lie in the treatment. Go on. I don't care what you read."
"'In a certain country, that I am not going to name, there is a parish village. In the parsonage lives a pastor; it is not I, however. This pastor faithfully serves our beloved church with the Word of God, which he preaches in truth, and with the holy sacraments, which he administers as he ought. And wherever this is done, the fruit will not be wanting; for God has promised it, and He keeps His word still, although among men there is little truth or faith any longer to be found.
"'With temporal goods, however, this pastor is not specially well provided; and were it not that he has a living God in the heavens, he must many a time grow anxious and dispirited; which in truth he does not always escape, as he himself humbly confesses. For if you have a small benefice, a large family, and a couple of children at school to boot, sometimes that gives even a believer the headache; though indeed there is no need for that, were faith but strong and prayer simple enough. Now there are cultivated fields belonging to the living; but as the pastor cannot drive the plough spiritual and the plough agricultural both at once, he hires out his ground; that he may give himself the more diligently to the cultivation of hearts. From these hired-out acres comes not a small part of his scanty means, and therefore it becomes a very desirable thing that he should dispose of his ground suitably. With most of his fields, indeed, this is not difficult, for they are fruitful and favourably situated and easy to get a good tenant for them. But one of his pieces of ground, and a pretty large one, lies on the slope of a hill which is wooded at the top; this field nobody will take, because in great rains loose earth and stones come rolling down over the slope from the hill above, and in this way the whole crop may easily be destroyed. It comes to my mind that the fault probably lies at the door of the beloved Enclosings. In the course of them it might well happen that too much wood has been cleared from the hill and sold. By that means the soil has been laid bare and the rain floods can wash it off anywhere they come. At any rate, nobody wants the field; and it always gives the pastor a stab in the heart when he comes past it; and he does not content himself with thinking, but he prays too, and promises that he will give to the Lord Jesus, for the mission, a portion of the hire of the field, if only a tenant may be found for it.
"'And He in the heavens has heard the pastor's prayer. Not long after, there comes a man of the parish, who is not in possession of ground enough to make his farming suffice for the wants of his family, and who therefore would willingly hire some more acres. He offers to take the neglected field off the pastor's hands. The upright pastor does not hide from him the reason why the field has hitherto found no tenant. But this man, who loves the Lord Jesus, and who therefore is a hearty friend of his pastor, declares that he has already quietly considered all that; and he has thought among other things that it must be very important to the pastor to let out this field, for to be sure the boys cost money; and it is very desirable for himself to hire a field, since he also has a great many mouths to feed. So both of them would be the better off. The Lord must have the care of the thing, and that He is well able for; he himself also would pray the Lord faithfully to this end, and he would make it the one stipulation with his beloved pastor, that he would stand by him and help him in faithful prayer. The two men gave each other the hand upon that. The man hiring the ground had also told the Lord that he would give Him a portion of the produce of the field for the conversion of the heathen, and that all the same whether the produce were much or little. But the man had said nothing about this to his pastor, and he again on the other side had said nothing to the man about his own contract with the Lord; so that each of them had thus kept in his heart a secret for himself, which was known to the Lord alone. But surely I know that the Lord thereupon looked kindly on both the men.
"'Now in the autumn the farmer sets himself vigorously to work to get the field in order; and the Lord gives His blessing upon it; up comes the seed merrily, and the winter does it no hurt; the Lord has graciously sheltered it. With a wet summer the corn really shoots up, and stands so fine that it is magnificent to see. Both pastor and farmer are heartily glad at the sight, and both at the same time have a secret recollection of their vow, and are still more glad. But many of the peasants, who are not lovers of the Lord, and therefore also not lovers of their good pastor, and of the good farmer as little, feel no pleasure, but a regular hateful grudge in their hearts; for indeed there is everywhere a plenty of envy and spite to be found among unbelievers, because they make their god out of what is earthly, and that is all they care about. However they comfort themselves with the thought that when the thunder-showers once come with their violent rain-pours, then surely there will be stones and soil enough rolling down upon the field from off the hill in the end to destroy all that is standing upon it. Verily that is not a godly sort of satisfaction, but a true Satanic delight, for Satan rejoices when any evil happens to people.
"'And at last, the wish of the peasants seems to be fulfilled. There comes up an uncommonly violent thunder-storm; the rain pours down from heaven in streams, as if the clouds had burst; so that regular brooks are flowing down the village streets. Then the envious people triumph; there is no mistake about it, the field lying so exposed on the slope of the hill must be thoroughly laid waste. Those two men, it may well be, tremble too, for the storm is too frightful; but lose heart they do not; on the contrary, the need drives them to more ardent prayer: "Lord, help, and do not let the field be spoiled. Thou art the strong, almighty God of Sabaoth, and Thy hand is not shortened, but Thine arm is stretched out still." So they prayed; and when the storm was past they went confidently up to the field, a good many accompanying them; and as they were going, and while the many who went along could hardly hide their delight, they were singing in their hearts the hymn—
"Was mein Gott will gescheh allzeit,
Sein Wille ist der beste;
Zu helfen ist Er dem bereit,
Der an Ihn glaübet feste."'"
"Ditto, we don't understand that."
"It means about this. 'The will of my God be done always. His will is the best. He is always ready to help them who rest on Him in firm faith.'"
"'With that they are able to look up cheerfully and they are of good courage. And when they arrive at the field, what do they see? The entire field is unharmed. The stalks of grain lift their heads up bravely, as if they too would give thanks for the beautiful rain which has so refreshed them. But on both sides of the field a whole stream has poured down from the hill, and nothing is to be seen but a wild mass of rocks and stones. Whose is the strong hand which seized the rain flood, and parted it just before it came to the field, and so gently led it down on both sides of the field? Moved to the depth of their hearts, our two friends were constrained to cry out—"The Lord, He is the God! The Lord, He is the God! Give our God the glory." And it is to be hoped that many of the unbelievers, if not aloud, yet quietly joined in the prayer with them.