In the text of this letter (apparently first printed in Magdeburg
in 1783) the author claims to be Jesus himself, “Gottes und Maria Sohn,”
and he claims to have written the missive with golden letters and sent it by
an angel to Magdeburg. Directed against sabbath-breaking, i.e., laboring on
Sunday, it includes a plea to children to honor their father and mother, and
warns that whoever does not keep these things is “verdammt und verloren.”
The author further promises to every one who carries the letter with him or
keeps it in his house that “no thunderstorm shall bring him harm, he will
be safe through fire and water, and whoever shows it to the children of men,
he will have his reward, and receive a happy departure out of this world.”
This broadside is printed in fraktur with an ornate border, and bears
a picture of Jesus plus small woodcuts showing the scales of justice and God’s
all-seeing eye.
Waterstaining; chipping and fold tears in the margins, just
touching border in a few places.