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Spena was greatly instrumental in spreading the glorious truths of the gospel throughout the country, but at length, venturing into a part of Europe where the papists were supreme, he was seized and accused of being a recreant monk.
At length the inmates of the cottage and their guest lay down to rest on their rough couches, and angels looked down from heaven, rejoicing at what they there saw and heard. Gottlieb Spena was much the better for his day's rest, and the following morning set out with old Moretz and his grandson on their weekly journey, when they went into the neighbouring town to dispose of their fagots.
They then returned to the table and partook of their yet untasted supper. Before it was finished, a knock was heard at the door. "Shall I open it?" asked Karl. "Perhaps it is Herr Herder come back again." "Oh, no!" said Meta, "he would not knock. We should not be afraid to open the door." Karl withdrew the bolt, and who should he see but the book-hawker, Gottlieb Spena!
"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.
"That is just what I ought to do," he said to himself; but he did not pray so much for himself as for his dear little Meta and Karl, that God would take care of them, and deliver him in His own good time, if it was His will to do so. Then he began to sing, for Spena had left a book of hymns, the words of several of which he had already learned by heart.
"No, my friend, I am no priest," answered the traveller. "My name is Gottlieb Spena. I am a humble man with a small amount of learning; but I am able to read God's blessed word, and that is my delight every day I live. My wish is to serve Him, and I feel sure I can best do so by carrying this pack of books about the country, and disposing of them to those who desire to buy."
Moretz soon found that those who hold to the truth are often called upon to suffer for the truth. So it has been from the beginning. God requires faith, but He desires us to prove our faith. Other men, like Spena, were traversing the country, not only like him distributing books, but openly preaching the principles of the Reformation. They did so in many places, at great hazard to themselves.
"That is strange indeed," said the count. "From the same Gottlieb Spena I also, my friend, have learned the same glorious truths. You have, I doubt not, always heard me spoken of as a bad, cruel man. So I was, but I have been changed.
In those days thousands and tens of thousands of people in so-called Christian lands had never seen a Bible, though the translation made by Dr Martin Luther was being spread in every direction throughout the length and breadth of Germany by men like Gottlieb Spena, who carried packs filled with the sacred volume on their shoulders.
We must here observe that before leaving the woodcutter's hospitable hut, Gottlieb Spena delivered the precious book into the custody of Meta, bidding her an affectionate farewell, with the prayer that it might prove a blessing to her soul and to those dear to her. Meta never failed to pass every moment she could steal from her daily avocations in perusing the New Testament.
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