LINDGER AND WILLEHAD.

WE will mention here two men, who, in their labours amongst the Saxons, were able to keep themselves from the errors pointed out by Alcuin, and were models of true missionaries. Amongst these is Lindger. He sprang from the tribe of the Frieslanders, and the germ of Christianity was early implanted in his soul. His grandfather was an eminent man amongst his people; his name was Wursing, with the surname of Ado. Ado, even whilst yet a heathen, belonged to those of whom the Apostle Paul says, that “those who having not the law do by nature the things contained in the law, are a law unto themselves”— those who, although no further revelation be vouchsafed them, yet recognise in their conscience the voice of God. He took up the cause of the fatherless and widow, and was a just judge. But by his zeal against all injustice, he drew on himself the enmity of Radbod, the heathen king of the Frieslanders, and was compelled to take refuge in the neighbouring Frankish empire. He afterwards became a zealous Christian, and supported the above-mentioned Willibrord, who was called Archbishop of Utrecht, in his labours amongst his countrymen.

Lindger was a grandson of this pious man. Even. as a child, tokens of his future destiny were observed in him. As soon as he could speak and walk, he used to collect bits of leather and bark, 257and make them into little books. When he could find a black juice., he would try to write with it, imitating grown-up people. And when he was asked what he had been doing, he would reply, he had been writing or reading. And when he was asked, “Who then has taught thee that?” he would reply, “God has taught it me.” Thus he very early showed a great eagerness for knowledge, and himself begged his parents to intrust him to some man of God to be instructed. They placed him with that Abbot Gregory whom we have spoken of before. His love of learning subsequently led him to York, to visit the most famous teacher of his times, Abbot Alcuin. Enriched with knowledge and books, he returned to his native land, and was all the more esteemed in consequence by his old teacher, Abbot Gregory. After his death, Lindger laboured amidst many dangers and difficulties for the conversion of the Frieslanders and Saxons. He first founded a Christian Church on an island consecrated to the heathen god, Fosite, which then received the name of Helgoland, (Holy Land.) After the conquest of the Saxons, Munster became the permanent seat of his labours, and he was consecrated its bishop. His missionary zeal compelled him to seek a new sphere of activity, beset with greater dangers. He wished to go to the wild Normans, who were then the great terror of the Christian nations, and amongst whom he could rely on no support; but Charlemagne would not suffer him to leave his present sphere. Even 258during the sickness which came on him in the year 809, not long before his death, he vanquished his bodily weakness, in order not to interrupt his spiritual labours. On the Sunday before the night of his death, he preached twice in two different churches of his diocese; in the morning. in the church of Cösfeld, at three o ‘clock in the afternoon in the church at Billerbeck. He died in the midst of his scholars gathered around his bed, on the night of the 26th March, 809. .

The second of these genuine missionaries, was Willehad, of Northumberland. The rumours of what other missionaries were doing amongst the Frieslanders and Saxons, incited him to follow their example. He laboured first in the regions where Boniface had found the martyr’s death. Many were baptized by him, many of the people of rank intrusted their children to him to be educated. When, however, he entered on what is now the district of Groningen, where idolatry then prevailed, the fury of the heathen people was so excited by his activity, that they were about to murder him. But, according to the counsel of one of the more moderate, the gods were first to be consulted by lot. And since even superstition must subserve the will of God, the guidance of the Almighty so ordained it, that the lot fell for his preservation, and be was suffered to depart untouched. He then repaired to the district of Drenthe. His preaching had already found an opening there, when one of his followers, led by an indiscreet zeal, hastened to 259destroy the idol-temples, instead of first banishing the idols from men’s hearts by the power of Christ. This excited the rage of the heathen. They threw themselves on the missionaries, and Willehad was covered with blows. One of the furious crowd struck him with a sword to kill him; but the blows only fell on the clasp with which a box of relics, which according to the custom of the times he carried about with him, was fastened around his neck—so he remained unhurt. The superstition of the age, instead of seeing in this the ever-present power of Him who has numbered all the hairs of our head, without whom not a sparrow can fall to the ground, and who can employ any means to bring about His holy purposes, imagined it to be a proof of the guardian power of relics. Even the heathen were moved by it to desist from their assault on Willehad, whom they believed protected by a higher power. When Charlemagne heard of Willehad’s unflinching zeal in preaching the Gospel, he summoned him to himself, and appointed him his sphere of labour in the district where the diocese of Bremen was afterwards formed. He was first to labour as a priest among the Frieslanders and Saxons, and to perform all that belonged to the pastoral office, until a bishopric could be founded. His successful exertions were subsequently interrupted by another insurrection of the heathen tribes. He believed himself called on to fulfil the command of his Lord, (Matt x, 23,) and not to throw away his life in vain, In order to 260preserve his life longer to preach the Gospel, he availed himself of an opportunity which was offered him of flight. He afterwards found a quiet place of refuge in the abbey founded by Willebrord at Afternach, (Epternach,) and there a gathering-place was formed for his followers, scattered by persecution and by war. There he passed two years, occupied in instructing, reading the Bible, and multiplying copies of it.

At length, after the restoration of quiet amongst the vanquished Saxons, the conquerors were able to found the bishopric of Bremen, which Charlemagne had projected, and it was bestowed on Willehad. On one of his visitations, which the recent erection of his diocese obliged to be frequent, when in 789 he arrived at Bloxem on the Weser, not far from Vegesack, he was seized with a raging fever, which threatened a speedy death. His scholars stood mourning around his bed. One of them, who was in the especial confidence of the bishop, expressed with tears the grief they all should feel if their spiritual father should be taken from them, and their anxiety for the orphan churches, scarcely yet gained over to Christianity. “O, venerable father!” he said, “desert not so soon those whom you have so recently won to the Lord. Leave not the churches and the clergy, who have been gathered by your zeal, orphaned behind, lest the still feeble flock be exposed to the assaults of the wolves. Withdraw not your presence from us your poor scholars, lest we wander about as sheep having no 261shepherd.” Deeply touched, Willehad replied: “My son, O wish not that I should longer be withheld from looking on my Lord; constrain me not longer to abide in this wearisome earthly life. I desire not longer to live here, and I fear not to die. I will only pray my God, whom I have ever loved with my whole heart, whom I have served with my whole soul, that He, in his grace, will give me such a reward for my labours as shall please Him. But the sheep which He committed to me, I confide to Him to keep; for if I have been able to do anything good, I have done it by His power alone. His grace, of whose mercies the whole earth is full, will not fail you.”