# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 09 30_S22
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

22

Of the Angels.

Rosine. (calls) Oh, come in here a moment, Regine, that I may weep and rejoice with you.

Regine. (comes) What is it now, Rosine? You look just like death from Forchheim.

Rosine. Only look here! A little while ago I laid my boy in our bed and went out into the kitchen. All at once I heard a crash and a thump. My heart trembled in my body. And when I came running in, the canopy of the bedstead had fallen in, and everything lay on top in the bed.

Regine. Well, I never!—It was just an old rotten affair.

Rosine. Only think, the heavy soul-treasure alone might have beaten my child's brains in!

Regine. Good heavens, the lad must have strong bones indeed, that it did him no harm. He is relishing his pap splendidly, as I notice.

Rosine. Praised be the Lord, and blessed be his holy name forever and ever! My little boy was not in the bed at all, but down underneath the bedstead. There the rogue was playing peekaboo!

Regine. (laughs) Why, I beg of you, how did he get down under the bedstead?

Rosine. (Weeps gentle mother's tears) A holy angel must have noticed the danger and lifted my child out. For he was asleep, and has never yet climbed out all by himself.

Regine. (shakes her head) An angel—? That would seem strange to me.

Rosine. I will not be talked out of it. I was praying so earnestly, when I went away from him:
God let thee sleep in peace,
Set the golden weapons for thee
Round about thy bed, and his host of heroes.

Regine. Now, are you in earnest? Should there really be angels?

Rosine. (looks at her in dismay) Regine, to whom did you go to school?

Regine. Well, we have never yet seen one.

Rosine. What? Is that your conclusion? O little woman, what are you coming to? You have never seen your soul either; yet it holds good that you have one. It is not all nothing that one does not see. As the blessed Scriver says in his "Haushaltung": when one opens a little box of balsam, one sees nothing come out, though one use all the spectacles; but that a spirit and power rises, the nose perceives with delight. (Rosine seems to have noticed still more from this Haushaltung.)

Regine. Now I am truly struck dumb. Nevertheless—with the angels it would still be altogether too strange.

Rosine. Only consider experience. How many thousand dangers has such a frail young blood, and how unwisely they grope about, into all the corners! And when they grow a little bigger, what daredevils they are! Up on everything and over everything, until one's hearing and sight fail. One worries and watches, one cries out and strikes; but with a hundred eyes and a hundred sticks nothing would be accomplished either. If the dear angels did not help, I do not believe that one could bring up a single one.—So let yourself be counselled, and be not faithless, but believing.

Regine. Do not look at me so crossly; I am no heathen, after all. To be sure they need better keeping than ours; but there the angels are not needed, the dear God himself can do that.

Rosine. Oh, how grand, little woman! And it is not well considered either. One might as well say: There is no need for one man to help another: the dear God can do all that himself. Yes, who would doubt it? He could make the loaves of bread grow out of the table-drawer for poor people. But he wills that one should take care of another. The dear God, to be sure, does everything, but much through his servants. And the angels are his holy servants.

Regine. With you I can never manage anything at all. Have it your way. But this much I say, and I stand by it, that after all one has no sure ground.

Rosine, You wicked tongue! No sure ground!—Does it not stand in the Holy Scripture? And is not Scripture God's Word? Listen, people and children,—no sure ground!

Regine. (is frightened) Do not be so vehement! Is it really expressly in the Holy Scripture?

Rosine. Yes, good heart, it is expressly in it. Have you then forgotten the beautiful sayings, as the dear Saviour admonishes: "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven?" (Matth. 18, 10.) and as the Apostle remarks of them: "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister, and for their sake who shall be heirs of salvation." (Heb. 1, 14.)

Regine. Now I can hold out against you no longer. No, I will be no despiser of Scripture; from that may the faithful God keep me. See, I am truly glad myself, if it is true.

Rosine. Rely upon it, all is right with them. Oh, I could give you many an example that would make your eyes overflow. How it went with my Christopher, when you were not yet in the village. Once I left him lying on the table with his bedding, and went to work at the well outside. I had thought indeed that the fellow could not stir a thumb's breadth from the spot, like an upturned tortoise. Suddenly he screamed aloud, and when I rushed in, the poor little worm lay on the floor and stretched out all fours. But, God be praised and thanked!—not a little limb had he dislocated. Another time he was playing in the street; then a wild cow ran at him, and tossed him on her horns a whole man's length into the air. The cry of terror stuck in my throat: but my little boy fell happily back upon the cow, and slid down along her side as over a sofa, so that not a little finger of his hurt him. O dear soul, who helped there? The Lord through his holy angels. They must a thousand times put their soft hands underneath, or give the right pressure and turn, that it may run off without misery.

Regine. I like to listen to you when you speak of your Christian experiences: it is a comfort to every mother's heart. Do the holy angels, then, concern themselves chiefly with the children?

Rosine. With the grown also, if they are godly. They go, I believe, even with the ungodly, but with secret sighing and only for a season. If a man will not be converted, their staying is not long. But there they remain and rejoice, where a man is converted; for "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." Ah, yes, Regine, when we walk in the fear of the Lord, then they are with us; for it is said: "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." If we lie in bed, they set themselves round about the couch; if we rise, they post themselves around the house; if we walk abroad, they march before and behind and beside us, and hold everywhere their golden weapons, their shields and spears.

Regine. But do not take it amiss—one would think that little misfortune could befall pious people.

Rosine. Do not talk so foolishly. The Lord knows what is good for us, and must lead us into the kingdom of God through manifold chastening, through manifold tribulation. All mishap they may not hold back, but much they do avert.

Regine. 'Tis something lovely about the holy angels,—so quiet and kindly and intent only on what is good!

Rosine. And they grow not weary of watching and guarding even to our end. And at death they station themselves firmly around the bed, like the strong men of Solomon, and drive the hellish dragons away. Afterward they escort the pious souls into Paradise.

Regine. May the Lord ever give us his heavenly watchers!

Rosine. Amen, in Jesus' name. Come here, little lad, let me press you to my heart.