next thing to be expected was, that in the
next town the police would stop us in our service. However, we continued
the work, and at last arrived at Heidelberg, without having been
stopped, and having given away more books and tracts than even on the
previous day. The steady even course of service, under all difficulties,
without any one's encouragement, and with the discouragement of many,
requires not a little faith! We felt how weak our faith was! The third
day's journey was from Heidelberg. We continued again our blessed
service. I had opportunity this day to put my Narrative and tracts into
the hands of ladies and gentlemen as well as poor persons. Our
opportunities for service were very many this day, and things went on
quietly in the morning. In the afternoon, however, we were even more
tried than the day before. We had travelled through Wirtemberg and also
the Grand Duchy of Baden, and were now in the country of
Hesse-Darmstadt, when I gave some tracts to some lads of a Grammar
School, whom we met before a town. But these lads followed us,
accompanied the carriage through the whole town, and some distance out
of the town, ridiculing us. We sat quiet, saying nothing at all. Then I
was addressed by a mail-guard who had seen me give away tracts and
books, and who, having stopped the mail, asked for tracts for himself
and the passengers, but evidently in a sneering way. This carried the
news of our service before us, as the mail went much faster than we, and
therefore our work was known in the next place, and a man ran out on our
arrival to ask for books, and in consequence of this the attention of
persons was arrested. Nevertheless the Lord helped us to continue the
work, though somewhat tried in mind, being aware how much such work is
opposed on the Continent. A little while after, a light wagon drove
quickly after us, and as I was walking by the side of the carriage, up a
hill, a man got out, joined me, and asked for a tract. He then said:
"Who has allowed you to distribute these books?" I replied. "Nobody, but
I am a servant of Jesus, and I desire to serve my Lord. If, however, you
can show me that what I am now doing is against the laws of the country
I will give it up. As far as I am aware, it is not." He then asked me,
what religion was contained in the tracts. I said not any one in
particular, but that there were in them the truths of Christianity,
about which alone I cared, as I did not design by these books