Saved By A Kind Providence

1900

A good story which has been translated from the German language, tells how Frank, a boy from the city, had been picking raspberries in the woods. As he was on his way home a violent storm arose. It began raining and lightning, and to thunder fearfully. Frank was very much frightened, and crept into a hole in an old oak tree not far from the roadside. He did not know that lightning is very apt to strike a hollow tree. But all at once he heard a voice that called, "Frank! Frank! come quickly."

Frank jumped instantly from the tree, but he had gone scarcely a hundred feet when the lightning struck the tree. The ground quaked beneath the terrified boy, and it seemed as if he was standing in the midst of fire. But he was not hurt at all, and exclaimed, with raised hand: "That voice came from heaven! Thou, O dear Lord, hast saved me!"

But once more the voice was heard, "Frank! Frank! do you not hear?"

He looked around, and saw a peasant woman who was calling. Frank ran to her and said: "Here I am. What do you want of me?"

"I did not mean you, but my own little Frank," the woman replied. "He was watching the geese by the brook. See! there he comes at last out from the bushes."

Frank, the boy from the city, related how he had taken her voice as a voice from heaven. Then the peasant folded her arms devoutly, and said: "Oh, my child, do not thank God any the less that the voice came from the mouth of a poor peasant woman. It was He who willed that I should call your name, although I knew nothing about you."

"Yes, yes," said Frank; "God served Himself by your voice, but my escape came from heaven."

Always remember that safety depends not on accident or chance, but on your heavenly Father.

—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 16.