Concordia College - White and Blue Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

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and that finger that finger ever pointing at me. Awake, I felt that my guilt was apparent in my face, so that the most casual passer-hy must read it in my eyes. I left England, and fled hack to the continent into France into Spain into Italy across Austria and Poland to this place. Again his hreath failed him. He gasped, and continued, I married, and settled here, eking out a miserable existence. But my labor was accursed. Nothing that I set my hand to prospered. One after another my children died. Then my wife fell ill. And now this. Now I must die. my God I cannot die. O Mary, full of grace, save me that 1 may not have to suffer forever in hell. He began to rave deliriously, praying all the saints not to let him suffer eternally in hell. He made promises of pilgrimages without number and vowed impossible num- bers of candles in their various shrines. His thoughts grew wilder and his words thicker. Suddenly he gave vent to an unearthly shriek and fell back and lay still. Anxiously the doctor felt the man ' s heart; no, the end had not yet come. The woman ' s rasping cough grated on his ears, and recalled her presence to the doctor. He turned to see what effect this tragic confession had made upon her, but she seemed unmoved. He glanced again at the man. He was opening his eyes and was casting them about in the puzzled, frightened manner of one who has just awakened from a nightmare. Seeing the doctor, he seemed to remember the situation. In a throaty, hoarse tone he begged, O doctor, must I die? Is there no hope? O, I cannot die, and suffer eternally in hell. O doctor, save me. Mary, Joseph, pray for me . The doctor bade him stop with an imperative gesture, and said, You must; there is nothing on earth that can save you now, but you need not go to that hell that ou fear so much. There is One who has already suffered those pangs which you ought to suffer. One who has paid the debt you could not have paid. One who has saved you, redeemed you from sin and all its consequences. Once I too thought even as you think now, and many were the sleepless nights I passed, sorrowing over my sinful condition, but, (rod be praised, I was led into the glorious light of His grace. From Doctor Speratus, the Duke ' s chaplain, I learned to know Jesus, not as the stern Judge of the wicked, but as the Savior of poor sinners, who suffered and died as your and my substitute, that we and all who believe in Him may partake of His merits and come to everlasting life. Listen, and learn what I have learned, and may the Holy Ghost open your heart as he opened mine. Then he recited that glorious old hymn of Speratus: Salvation unto us has come By God ' s free grace and favor; Good works can not avert our doom, They ' ve helped to save us never. Faith pins its hope on Christ alone, Who (lid for all our sins atone. He is the Mediator. On the basis of that e angclical hymn he unilertook to bring these two benighted souls to Christ. As he explained the hymn he told them of the salvation and grace of God in Christ Jesus, of justification by faith in the Lamb who had borne the sins of the (Continued on Page 63) [611

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thin shoulders were half covered by an old moth-eaten shawl, their only protection against the biting cold. The head had been turned toward the opposite side of the room, but at the doctor ' s entrance the eyes were directed toward him, and they burned with an unnatural lustre. Then the head listlessly turned again in the direction of the opposite wall. The doctor followed the motion of the woman ' s head with his own eyes. On the other side of the room on a bed of straw on the cold, hard earth, lay a man groaning in agony. His bones were covered with rags, his starved face showed the hunger that gnawed within him, while the torture he was undergoing was only too clearly shown by the writhing form. An.xiously the doctor crossed the Httle room and knelt down beside the rude pallet. He took one of the fever-heated lands in his own and felt the pulse. Regarding the flushed face of the sufferer, he slowly shook his head. Half-turning he spoke softly to the woman, He cannot possi- bly live much longer; he may not last out the night. No sound came from her to indicate that she had heard, only that persistent, hopeless cough. Far different was the effect on the invalid ; with a sudden frenzied burst of strength he raised himself on his elbow, and croaked hoarsely, Die, I must die? O, I cannot die; I dare not, I must not die! If I die, do you know what that means for me. It means that I ' ll go to hell, to hell, do you hear, to hell, and suffer forever. Mary, Saints in heaven, save me. I have sinned. God, I 1 His voice trailed off into a series of incoherent groans, he sank back. Rousing himself, he regained his semi-upright position, and continued, fairly shreiking the words, O, I must not die. To suffer forever in hell! O saints of heaven, pray for me, pray for me. O, I have sinned ! Listen to me. I must confess, I can keep my awful secret no longer. I was born in the Palatinate, the son of a wealthy merchant. He desired nothing more than to have his only son become a priest. ' et I disobeyed him, against his wishes I joined myself to a group of lawless rogues. With them I committed all manner of shameful deeds. Se shuddered, recovering himself he went on, Rapidly I went from one stage of vice to another, and always down, always falling lower. I gambled, played for huge stakes and lost! I needed the money, I went to my father and asked a large enough sum to cover my debts, though I dared not tell him why I wanted it. Naturally he refused, we quarreled, and and a devil took possession of me. As God is my witness, I did not know what I did. He had a knife on the table, I snatched it, and God forgive me I plunged it into his breast. The man once more fell back, overcome and helpless. He fell off his chair and his long bony finger pointed up at me. I stood as if rooted to the floor, stark with horror at my horrible deed. Then that ominous rattling in his throat as he died. His eyes glazed over, and still that finger pointed at m - guilty heart. With a scream of terror I tore myself away and dashed to the door. My hand was on the knob, I turned it, and as I did so, I turned ant! it seemed to me that the dead hand was still pointing at me. I rushed out crazed with fear. I dared not stay in the town, in an hour the story of the murder would be common property, and I should be suspected, arrested, tortured, and executed, and after that, suffering forever in hell. I left the country and fled to PIngland, but I could not flee from that guilty knowledge within me. Asleep, I would again see that terrible scene; the lifeless corpse of m ' father with the red life-blood oozing out of that ghastly wound.

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iFnrlij f Fara of ICngal prmrp Loyalty ! Service ! We hear much of them these days, but, sad to say, when we stop to analyze them we find only too often that the loyalty is nothing but the my- country-right-or-wrong type, purel ' blind stubbornness, excusable only on the plea of ignorance, and that the service is of that mercenary kind that demands an immediate dollars-and-cents recompense for ever ' little office performed. But it must be quite apparent to all that this is only a counterfeit of the real thing, and a very unsatisfac- tory counterfeit at that. For real loyal service there is necessary a high ideal, fully understood, and an unsparing, wholehearted, unselfish, and untiring devotion to that ideal. Of course, thus to practise this virtue is by no means an easy task, and real loyal service is consequently in our day and age a rare p henomenon. Nevertheless, our Concordia at Milwaukee has been signally blessed in having men on its faculty who have devoted themselves and their lives to the training of future ministers of the Word, and who have served in this capacity for twenty, thirty, yea, forty and more years. Again one of these men has with the past school year completed his fortieth year of service as professor at this College. That man is Professor Otto Hattstaedt. Professor Hattstaedt was born in the little Franconian settlement at Monroe, Michigan, on December 31st, 1862, the son of the Reverend Mr. William Hattstaedt, one of the pioneer Lutheran clergymen of the Wolverine state. The foundation of the future professor ' s education was laid in the schoolroom of the Christian day-school of his birth-place. Having finished this institution he matriculated at the Concordia College at Fort Wayne, Indiana, thereafter continuing his studies at the Concordia Theological Seminary at Saint Louis, Missouri, as a member of the class of ' 84. It so chanced that in 1884 the General Delegate Synod convened at Saint Louis, and one of the important matters under consideration was the filling of a fourth professorship at the Milwaukee Concordia, the creation of which had been made necessary by the rapid growth of the three-year old Badger college. Upon the advice of the faculty of the seminary the call was extended to Candidate Hattstaedt, who recognized therein the voice of the Savior and accepted. In September of the same year (1884) Professor Hattstaedt was solemnly in- ducted into his important office. The department assigned to the newly-installed professor was that of German Language and Literature. The thoroughness with which he has taught these subjects is attested by the fluent and correct use of the language by the thousand pastors who in their college days have sat at his feet. In addition he has taught History, especially Modern History, since 1884, and for the first nine years, till 1893, he gave instruction in Latin and Geography. From 1905 till 1924 he was instructor in singing, and under his careful tutelage the mixed and male choirs of the college achieved quite a name for themselves in local Lutheran musical circles. He was also elected Secretary of the Faculty in 1885, which office he filled for thirty- eight years till 1923, when he was relieved by Professor Paul Koehneke. This office required of Professor Hattstaedt not only that he draw up the minutes of all the meetings of the faculty, but also that he sign all the report, issued semi-annually to the students. Thus it has been calculated that in the years he has served in the capa- city of secretary he signed more than eleven thousand reports issued to more than sixteen hundred persons. Another office that Professor Hattsteadt fills is that of Librarian of the Faculty Library. When Professor Hattstaedt first came to Milwaukee, Immanuel congregation, one of the city ' s largest churches, requested him to serve them as assistant pastor. He [62]