Deliverance from Evil

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Luke 11:4

And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation…

The wildest legends of the mediaeval times usually contain within them an incrustation of fable, a precious germ of truth. Here is one which strikes us. A certain noble lady of Assisi had quitted her father's house by stealth, and had become a Franciscan. Her little sister Agnes, ten or eleven years of age, filled with love to her sister, and burning with religious fervour, followed her into her seclusion. Naturally enough, the parents could not endure that a second child should be lost to their home. They gathered together a company of armed men, attacked the sister's retreat with rude violence, and tore the child away despite her tears and entreaties. As she would not accompany them of her own will, they began to drag her away by main force. Friends were helpless even to attempt a rescue; but the story tells us that she suddenly became heavy as lead in the arms of her captors, so that they could not carry her further, and were obliged to let her lie upon the ground. Despite their united efforts, she seemed to have become immovable, and they were compelled to leave her in the wood. When they were all gone, the child joyfully arose, and returned to her sister, never to be separated again. Strip the whole story of its unnaturalness, and its superstitious wonders, and you see what God does for His children when sin would make them its prey. At first the world would fain drag the young convert back to his former ways and pleasures. It comes with the rude force of persecution or temptation, and attempts to make a captive of one who has fled from it. When the young convert is utterly unwilling to be seduced from his consecration to his Lord, it is not long before he becomes "as a burdensome stone" to those who would bear him away. There is a weight of character, a solidity of grace, a sobriety of thought, and possibly a strangeness of manner about him, which is too much for them. He is not good company; even as a target for their jests he is a failure. They do not understand the reason, but they quit their hopeless work. Henceforth they admit the reality of the religion which at first they ridiculed as a temporary fancy, Right gladly delivered from the further solicitations of the worldly, the convert returns to his brethren, and rejoices in the liberty wherewith Christ has made him free.

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