# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1855 06 05_S167
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

167

to chastise and sometimes also to open the ear of men. Although dreams are neither divine means of revelation in the New Covenant, as they were in the Old, by which God makes known His counsel for the salvation of men, nor signs and seals of divine grace, whereby souls are sealed and made divinely certain of their state of grace: yet they are divine means of guidance, of which God, according to His wonderful grace and condescension, sometimes avails Himself, in order to exert a salutary influence upon individual souls. A memorable example of such divine working by means of a dream is known to us from the life of Johannes Lassenius, which I should not like to withhold from the dear reader. Perhaps most do not yet know it.

Johannes Lassenius was born the 26th of April 1636 at Waldau in Pomerania; his father was pastor there. He too was destined by his father to become a preacher of the Gospel. Therefore he was sent to the schools at Danzig and Stettin, where he applied all diligence in order faithfully to prepare himself for his future calling. After his father's death he went to the university at Rostock, where Heinrich Müller was then teaching, from whose "Erquickstunden" and "Herzensspiegel" we still edify ourselves today. That was now our Lassenius's man! Him he took as his model; and there he was surely in a good school of the spirit. When the time of his university life drew to its end, he accompanied as tutor a gentleman of rank on his travels through Brabant, Flanders and France. England, Scotland and Ireland also he traversed, saw and spoke with the most famous people of that time, and this brought him manifold knowledge and experience of life. He then came back to Danzig, but he was not to remain there long. He became tutor anew to two princes and traveled with them through Italy, Spain and Portugal. When he returned with the two princes, he was weary of travelling and longed for the holy ministry. He would gladly have at once pastured a congregation with the Word of God, but it would not work out. So he worked for a time in the library at Berlin, and then visited the universities of Wittenberg, Leipzig, Prague, Strassburg and Tübingen. Until then he had always had his daily bread, and at times in plenty. But now it turned out otherwise. When he traveled to Nuremberg, the Jesuits lay in wait for him, perhaps because he had formerly written against the adherents of the pope, or for some other reason, and sent him to a cloister of Vienna and tried in every possible way to work upon him to become a Romanist. But they had come upon a man who resisted them most strongly. When nothing could be accomplished with him there, they removed him to another cloister. There he was tormented in the most terrible manner. Once they put him for nine days in a dark pit; yet he remained true to the Lutheran faith and held fast to the faithful LORD and Savior, who is strong in the weak. At last his persecutors thought: "Nothing is to be done with him!" and sent him across the border to Hungary. The Turks were then dwelling there. In their hands he would have been lost. But the faithful God was a wall of fire round about His servant, He led him out of Hungary happily and safe back to his own people at Waldau.

Now he would indeed have most gladly exchanged the pilgrim's staff for the shepherd's staff, but it still would not work out. So he went pilgrimaging from land to land, from city to city, and looked to see whether the LORD might perhaps want to lead him into His vineyard. So his way at last led him into Holstein, and he entered Itzehoe one evening, hungry and weary. He had no money for the journey, so that he could have sought lodging in an inn, and a visit to the pastor there had also failed, because he had not found him at home. So he stepped into the first bakery that offered, to buy himself a loaf of bread, for his hungry stomach would endure no longer. "Dear little mother," — so he addressed the aged baker's wife, — "I would like to buy a loaf." The friendly address and his mild countenance won him the heart of the little mother. She handed him the bread. Then the poor candidate took heart and added, kindly entreating: "dear little mother, would you perhaps have a little bowl of milk for me, to crumble my bread into?" "With all my heart," replied she. She bade him into the room and set milk before him. Now the little mother's heart also opened, she asked whence he came, whither he would go, and who he was? And so one word led to another. Then our Lassenius had plenty to tell, so that the conversation would not end at all. At length it had to be broken off, for it was already late. Lassenius would gladly have spent the night in the baker's wife's house, since he did not know where he should find a lodging, but his modesty did not permit him to bring this request across his lips. As he now reached for his walking-staff and asked what he owed, the little mother replied almost indignantly: "Should I take money from you? That would be sin and shame." And these words came to the poor wanderer just right. "Hearty thanks!" cried he, "dear little mother, God's blessing rest upon this house!" and went on his way.

But whither? that he did not know himself. He went in the evening twilight up one street and down another, thinking perhaps quietly whether some lodging might not yet be found for him. But none was found. So he wandered to the churchyard, leaned his head against a gravestone, and before he knew it he had sunk into sleep. At midnight, however, something seizes him by the arm and shakes him. He starts up in fright and sees a man standing before him. "What! (thinks he) shall you perhaps be taken up here and locked up?" But the man deals very gently with him and says: "The burgomaster bids you come to him at once." With good courage, without knowing whether this invitation would take a good or an evil turn for him, he follows the stranger. It was the burgomaster's manservant. When he arrives at the burgomaster's, the latter asks him why he had chosen the churchyard for his night quarters. He answers with all propriety and tells how it had come about. Not a little surprised, however, he now is, when food and drink are set before him for refreshment, and at last a comfortable bed is assigned him in the burgomaster's house. With thanks to his kind host, but also with thanks to his LORD and God, he betakes himself to his couch. And there he lay somewhat softer than in the churchyard!

On the following morning the burgomaster and his wife received him with visible sympathy. They questioned their guest kindly and rejoiced not a little at his story. Now our Lassenius learned also in what wonderful manner the LORD had led him into this house. The burgomaster's wife had been awakened out of sleep at midnight by an especially vivid dream, in which she had seen a poor wanderer sleeping on a gravestone in the churchyard. She had awakened her husband. He had wished to quiet her about it, but all in vain. She could find no rest. At last the husband yields to his wife's entreaties and sends his manservant to the churchyard, who finds our Lassenius there. In the dream they had seen God's finger-pointing, and had sheltered the guest.

It was not enough, however, that Lassenius found a comfortable and friendly night's lodging in this house. He was to find more. So wonderfully did the LORD lead His servant. It happened that just at that time in the city the office of preacher at St. Nicolai was vacant, with which the rectorship of the Latin school at Itzehoe was connected. The burgomaster now offered this to the candidate. So the poor stranger became, after a short time, Rector and preacher at Nicolai in Itzehoe and administered both offices faithfully with great blessing.

But he had well taken note how wonderfully the LORD had helped him. Wherever he could, he took up the cause of the poor. But what was still much more important, he preached God's Word mightily, in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, in the congregation into which God had led him. So wonderful are the ways of the LORD. Yes "in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed, then he openeth the ears of men" — so we surely say after Job and do it with thanks and praise. But blessed are all who hear the voice of the LORD and let their eyes be opened! to the knowledge of His Gospel and to rising from the sleep and death in sins and to walking in the everlasting way.

We know from the life of Lassenius that he later came, through the king