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Updated: June 7, 2025
He also was convinced that the saints cannot hear prayer, that purgatory is a fiction, and that confession should be made to God and not to man. But he had no grace in his heart. He prided himself greatly on having visited old Moretz and expressed himself ready to become his friend. Moretz, on the other hand, had accepted not only the letter but the spirit of the gospel.
He had several times made the attempt, when he once more fell back with a groan. Moretz hurried towards him. In the features, pallid from loss of blood and racked with pain, he recognised those of Herr Herder. "Ah, old man! have you come to mock at me?" exclaimed the latter, as he saw Moretz approaching.
"I will try," answered Moretz. "Karl will help me." With a strength of which the old man seemed incapable, he lifted the bulky form of the farmer on his shoulders, and telling Karl to support his wounded leg, he hurried towards the hill from which he had lately descended. "But you can never carry me up that hill," said Herder, as he gazed at the height above their heads.
Old Moretz had now got what he never before possessed. He understood the way of salvation through Jesus Christ, whom he loved and desired to serve. The more he saw of the love of God the more he felt his own sinfulness and unworthiness, and felt the need of a better righteousness than any good works of his own. The Holy Spirit was teaching him this and other truths from the Scriptures.
The gaoler nodded and took his departure. In a short time he returned, ushering in a sturdy, strong-looking man in a monk's dress. The gaoler retired, closing the door. "You do not know me, friend Moretz," said his visitor, in a low voice. "I have been admitted, that I might give you spiritual comfort and advice," he said, in a louder tone, "and I gladly accepted the office."
"But if they refuse to agree to your demands, how then will you proceed?" asked Moretz. "We will burn their castles and their towns, and put them to death," was the answer. "That surely is not the way to induce people to act rightly," answered Moretz.
While he was speaking a large body of people, led on by a man on horseback, and accompanied by several priests, were seen advancing at the farther end of the square. Many of the people fled, but the preacher boldly kept his ground, as did Moretz and Karl, who, indeed, scarcely heeded the movement of the people surrounding him.
"I know you better than you suppose," he said, as Moretz entered the room; and he told him of the interview he had had with his grandchildren. "I rejoice to see the way in which you are bringing them up. How is it you have taught them so to love the Bible? Do you know about it yourself?" Moretz seeing no cause for concealment, told the count of the visit of Gottlieb Spena, the book-hawker.
On reaching the neighbourhood of their own homes they, gathering courage, showed a bolder front than before. It would have been happier for the misguided men had they continued their flight. Old Moretz would not consent to eat the bread of idleness, and had declined the bounty freely offered him by the count.
"Nor would they," answered Moretz, "unless the Holy Spirit had changed their hearts. The natural man may read the commands over and over again, but he takes no heed of them." Thus Moretz frequently spoke to his guest. Karl also often read the Bible to him. One day they received a visit from Gottlieb Spena. He was on his way to the castle of Furstenburg.
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