Hungarian Church Press, 1950 (2. évfolyam, 4-13. szám)

1950-04-01 / 6. szám

Hungarian Church Press-5-fallow. Thi3 deprived me of all human hope. One day X saw, in front of our church, a naked corpse which was flung on the pavement, and all I had to say to my family was that when our corpses will lie, in that manner, there will he nothing else to say hut this: "Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments". It was only a incident in the history of these terrible months, that my illegal activities, in the course of Andrew Bajcsy-Zsilinszky’s trial, were discovered and I had to leave my home. I could return only for Christmas Day, when the Soviet army, moving forward from the Hűvösvölgy and also from the southern direction, had reached the »utskirts of Budapest. I shall never forget that Christmas Service, when the explosions of the falling mines were shaking •ur building, yet the congregation stayed inside for the Holy Communion. My farewell to the congregation was this word: "There shall not he left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down".

We were awaiting the Soviet Army in the Jewish Mission building of the Church of Scotland, A crowd of politically persecuted people, Jews and unsuspecting tenants. The building changed hands twice; with a second attempt, the Russians took it by storm. The adults were huddled in one compartment of the cellar, the other, opening from a corridor, was the place of the small children, including my grandchildren. I was just going over to the children’s room when the door burst open and three Soviet tommy-gunners, leaping like panthers, storied into the corridor. I held up my hands and faced them. Were they Germans, I thought, they would send a burst into me, just for safety’s sake. They searched me, I pointed to the children’s room. We went in, and the soldiers’ faces relaxed into smiles. One of them began to fondle one of the grandchildren, affecionately calling him: little Ivan, little'Ivan! In that very moment, a new reality began to dawn upon me. It was not perhaps the end, after all! I am sure I had felt this before, for one keeps on hoping, even in a hopeless situation, but it was the kindness of this Soviet soldier to my grandson that brought this hope into my consciousness. Perhaps, after all this destruction, there will still be a church, a nation, a future.

What was I liberated from? I was liberated from my shame which has changed into repentance. During all the five years since that time, I have been a preacher of repentance. There, will be no future unoil we willingly condemn that past which was judged by God and accept His righteous judgment with grateful heart.

I was liberated from the fear of my people’s complete annihilation. I do not envy the man who never felt this fear,'for this man cannot know what God’s such actual and real deliverance means. I

I was liberated from the fear of my church’s breakdown, I knew and % know that the church ha® work and service