# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 11 28_S55
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

55

could. They did as they were commanded, and after they had learned that Nonnus had his lodging in the church of the holy martyr Julianus*), they returned to the actress. She wrote at once the following letter to him:

"To the pious disciple of Christ, Nonnus, a sinner and pupil of Satan. I have heard of Thy God that He left heaven, and came down upon the earth, to save sinners,**) yea that He, to whom not even the cherubim dare to look up, humbled Himself so greatly that He drew near to the publicans, and kept company with sinners. Therefore Thou, my lord! who art already so far advanced in sanctification and, although Thou hast not yet beheld with bodily eyes JEsus Christ, who so graciously took pity on the Samaritan woman at the well †), art yet His true worshiper and disciple, as I heard many Christians affirm, — Thou wilt surely not despise me, who wish to come to know the Savior through Thee, and would be made fit through Thee one day to behold His holy countenance."

Thereupon Bishop Nonnus wrote back: "Whoever thou mayest be, God knows thee; thy whole conduct and thy disposition are manifest before Him. Yet I say to thee, lead me, the weak, into no temptation; for I am a sinful man. If thy desire is for the true faith and for godly uprightness of a genuine kind, and thou desirest to speak with me on that account, so let it be done at a time and in a place where the other bishops are present, but alone I cannot speak with thee." ††)

Hardly had she read this letter when she set out on the way full of joy, hastened to the church of the martyr Julianus, and had her arrival announced to Nonnus. After he had asked all the bishops to come to him, he let the harlot enter. She appeared with her eyes cast down to the ground, threw herself upon the floor, embraced the feet of the bishop, and said: "I beseech Thee, my lord! do as Thy Master JEsus Christ, show me mercy, and let me become a Christian. Behold, I am a sea*) of sins and an abyss of unrighteousness, and would gladly be baptized." After Nonnus with much trouble had brought it about that she stood up, he said: "The laws of the church ordain that no harlot may be baptized unless she provide sureties who vouch that she will not again plunge into her former life of sin." When she heard this pronouncement of the bishop, she threw herself again upon the ground, embraced his feet, wet them with her tears, wiped them with her hair, and said: "Thou shalt render account to God for my soul; and the guilt of my deeds shall be reckoned to Thee, if Thou deniest baptism to me, a sinner. Thou shalt have no part with God among the saints, if Thou dost not withdraw me from the service of sin. Thou shalt become a denier of God and an idolater, if Thou dost not let me become this very day a bride of Christ, and deliver me to Him as His own."

When the assembled bishops saw that this sinner was wholly filled with the longing for a godly life, they marveled and confessed that they had never seen such faith and such desire for salvation. On the spot the deacon Jacobus was sent to the archbishop with the commission to tell him the whole story, and to ask him to send a deaconess**) with him. With great joy he received this news and exclaimed: "I thought as much, venerable Nonnus! when I let thee speak for me, that a glorious result must crown thy labor." Thereupon he gave the deacon the deaconess Donna from Rome. She found the sinner still at the feet of Nonnus, who at last, but with much trouble, brought her to rise again and take courage. Then he said to her: "Confess thy sins." She answered: "When I search my whole heart, I find nothing good in me. I know that my sins are heavy and countless, as the sand of the sea: but I trust in God that He will forgive me the immeasurable guilt of my transgressions and look upon me again graciously." Thereupon the bishop asked: "What is thy name?" She replied: "My proper name, which my parents gave me, is Pelagia; but the inhabitants of Antiochia called me Margaretha (that is, Pearl); but I was nothing else than a well-adorned and daintily decked dwelling of Satan."

Thereupon she received baptism, the sign of the cross and the body of the LORD. The deaconess Donna, however, became from that time her spiritual mother, took her to herself into her cell, and cared with faithful love for her further instruction and teaching. And in the evening Bishop Nonnus said to his deacon Jacobus: "I say to thee, my dear deacon, today there is joy in heaven.*) Therefore let us also rejoice, and add to our usual supper this time a little oil and wine**)."

The Riches of Christians.

The Christians would all be very rich, if they only knew or believed it; for they are children of God, consequently also heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. Heaven and earth, all belongs to Christ, and because the Christians are joint-heirs with Christ and partakers of His glory and blessedness, they are unspeakably rich. All is yours, says Paul on that account. But because people do not see and believe this, one hears them always sighing: Oh, if I were only rich! if I only had money! Paul said: I count the money and everything as street-dirt, since I have taken a glimpse into the gracious knowledge of JEsus Christ.
Boos.

"A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Gal. 5:9.

There are at every time its points in which the world wishes that one should yield to it, for which it will then afterward leave the rest unmolested. But whoever does not engage in this impure mixture must not only suffer persecution, but also bear the reproach that he himself is guilty; it is said, they do not persecute the truth, he suffers for the sake of his own willfulness.
Rieger.

(Submitted.)

Red Bird.

The Indians on the St. Peter's River in Wisconsin had suffered many kinds of wrong from the whites Their chiefs assembled and resolved to take blood revenge. Red Bird was commissioned to fetch meat, as the Indians express it. Being a friend of the whites, he made a wide detour and said he could find no meat. For this he was mocked and called a coward. He resolved to save his fame as a brave, and went with two other Indians into the prairie. They scalped two men and a child.

As soon as this murder became known, General Atkinson from St. Louis and Major Whistler from Fort Howard set out to punish the guilty tribe. They encamped on the bank

*) Julianus, a Christian bishop, was executed in the third century for the Gospel's sake. The Christians of that time liked to build their churches at a place where the remains of the witnesses of blood (martyrs) lay buried.

**) By this she referred, probably, to Scripture passages which Nonnus himself had brought forward in his sermon, e.g. Matth. 18:11. — 1 Tim. 1:15. — Matth. 1:21. 9:13. — John 12:47. — Isa. 6:3. — Matth. 11:5. — Luke 7:22. — Luke 15.

†) The example of this sinner, treated by JEsus with such friendly earnestness (John 4:18), was especially comforting for Pelagia, since she had defiled herself with sins similar to hers. In Holy Scripture excellent provision is made for the anxiety of weak consciences by the multiplicity of examples of such as in their distress turned to JEsus, and found forgiveness and help with Him.

††) Nonnus did not trust the actress, who perhaps wished to mock his faith and zeal. He wished to give no offense, and therefore also to avoid the appearance of evil. Let us learn from him to be cautious in dealing with persons of the other sex, even if they not merely pretend to be pious, but are truly pious. Not everything that is lawful is expedient.

*) An allusion to her name! Pelagia, that is, sea.

**) The deaconesses had indeed chiefly the duty of caring for poor and sick women; yet it was very natural that the most approved Christian women should sometimes be entrusted also with the cure of souls for individual persons of their sex.

*) According to the saying of JEsus, Luke 15:7. — Dear reader, dost thou think that a day of such joy has been kept in heaven also on thy account? If thou hast reason to doubt it, let this very day become such a festival. Who knows whether tomorrow it may not be too late!

**) Oil, pressed from olives, is used in the Orient as butter and lard are with us. — God lets the wine grow, that it may gladden the heart of man. Psalm 104:15. This those Christians of the first time also acknowledged, with all the otherwise strictness of their manner of life; and the important difference which took place between them and the world consisted chiefly in this, that they rejoiced in that over which God also and His holy angels rejoice, the salvation of their fellow men, and that they rejoiced to such a measure that afterward they had no cause to weep over their joys with tears of repentance.