_________________________________________________________________

   Title: Three Friends of God: Records from the Lives of John Tauler, Nicholas
   of Basle, Henry Suso
   Creator(s): Bevan, Frances
   Print Basis: James Nisbet & Co., Limited, 1887
   Rights: Public Domain
   CCEL Subjects: All
   LC Call no: All; Christian Life
     _________________________________________________________________

   THREE FRIENDS OF GOD

   RECORDS FROM THE LIVES

   OF

   JOHN TAULER, NICHOLAS OF BASLE, HENRY SUSO

   BY

   FRANCES BEVAN,

   AUTHOR OF

   “TREES PLANTED BY THE RIVER,” “HYMNS OF TER STEEGEN,”

   ETC.

   SIXTH EDITION

   London

   JAMES NISBET & CO., LIMITED,

   21 BERNERS STREET
     _________________________________________________________________

PREFACE

   THE short account given in the following pages of three of the “Friends of
   God” of the fourteenth century is but a small fragment of a history which
   would form in itself a voluminous library, the History of the “Brethren” of
   the Middle Ages, known to us under many names, but in England chiefly as the
   Lollards or Boni Homines. Any account of these widely scattered and
   persecuted Christians must necessarily be a very imperfect one, as their
   history is told us chiefly by enemies, who were both ignorant of their true
   principles, and eager to malign them. And when, as in the histories that
   follow, they were themselves the narrators, we find that their writings were
   altered and enlarged by copyists who had an interest in doing so, or who
   imagined they rendered them more edifying by additions of their own. It is
   therefore necessary to remark that, though historical accuracy has been
   faithfully aimed at in the following stories, and though no addition
   whatever has been made by the writer to the original accounts, and though,
   further, the actual words of the “Friends of God” have been employed in
   making extracts from their writings, the history may yet be open to
   correction from further researches which are now being made by painstaking
   historians. The authors who have been followed in the account now given are,
   besides the three “Friends of God” themselves, Dr. Carl Schmidt, whose
   histories of Tauler, and of Nicholas of Basle, are the result of great
   labour and research; and Dr. Ludwig Keller, whose book, most interesting for
   German readers, “The Reformation, and the Older Reforming Bodies, described
   in their connection with one another,” will well repay a careful study.” A
   few words from his preface may not be out of place on the present occasion.

   “The bodies thus connected were, as the following pages will show, those
   communities of ‘Brethren’ which under various names are well known as
   existing during many centuries, but whose true history lies hidden under the
   veil which the orthodox Churches, for good reason, spread over the fate of
   these persecuted Christians, who were called by them ‘heretics, or
   ‘sectaries,’ and against whom they waged war by fire and sword.

   “The history of these ‘communities of Brethren,’ who called themselves
   simply ‘Christians,’ reminds us, in a remarkable manner, in the mode by
   which they are described, and in the course of their destiny, of the
   incidents of the earliest Christian centuries. For it was just those
   ‘Christians,’ who were represented by the chief authors of antiquity as the
   ‘offscouring of all things,’ who were hated and persecuted as sectaries by
   the Jewish and heathen priesthood — we may recall that Paul himself was
   brought to trial as ‘a leader of the sect of the Nazarenes’ — it was just
   those despised men who were the beginning of a new era for the heathen and
   the Jewish world.

   “In accordance with the prediction of Christ, ‘If they have persecuted Me,
   they will also persecute you,’ the ‘true Christians’ have in all ages been
   persecuted as being a sect, or sectaries; have been calumniated and hated.
   But according to the further prediction of the Redeemer, they have arisen as
   it were from the ashes, and the hatred of the world has been of no avail.”

   Thus, though an exterminating war was carried on against these earlier
   Reformers, we find that two centuries after the events related in the
   stories that follow, the hidden stream of life burst forth afresh into the
   daylight, and Martin Luther rejoiced to reprint and circulate the writings
   of the “Friends of God.”

   It is right to observe that there are some historians who are not fully
   satisfied that the great preacher converted by means of the “Friend of God
   from the Oberland” was really Dr. Tauler.

   Others, again, deny the identity of the “Friend of God from the Oberland”
   with Nicholas of Basle.

   But having examined these various theories, that of Dr. Carl Schmidt, who
   has devoted many years to careful investigation of these questions, appears
   to be conclusive. He admits, however, an uncertainty as to the date of the
   conversion of Dr. Tauler, as it is given variously in manuscripts and in the
   first printed accounts.

   The history of Henry Suso is not that of a man recognised as belonging to
   the communities of “Brethren.” But it was to them that he belonged in heart,
   far more than in external observances, and was recognised as a “Friend of
   God,” by those who used the term (as it was mostly used) to express a true
   relation with God as to spiritual life, whether within or without the
   outward pale of the Roman Church.

   Thus do “Friends of God,” who stood in immediate connection with Waldensian
   “Brethren,” speak of him, and he was probably far more free from Roman
   superstitions than the writer of his life, who seems to have coloured him
   according to her own thoughts of Catholic orthodoxy. His own words are the
   best and surest indication of his right to be classed with the sect of all
   sects, “that which is everywhere spoken against.” If any, who read the
   history of the labours and persecutions of the three “Friends,” still
   groping more or less in the ignorance and darkness of Popish superstition,
   should thereby be stirred up to truer devotedness to Him who has in His
   grace granted us fuller light and knowledge, the prayers of the writer will
   be answered.

   And may we learn, in reading of the patience, the tenderness, and the love,
   with which the Lord welcomed and taught His ignorant children, with which He
   bore their ways of willfulness and superstition, and led them on to fuller
   knowledge of Himself, to bear with the ignorance and the folly of His people
   now. Indifference to error, and patience with ignorance, are two different
   things. We cannot force light into the soul, but we are not therefore to be
   satisfied to see the people of God wandering from His way by evil teaching.
   And let us look to ourselves lest we too should be yet in ignorance less
   excusable than that of the “Friends of God.”

   In conclusion, it will be well if these histories lead us to realise, as
   never before, the Presence on the earth, of Him who was sent down to “teach
   all things” to believing souls. The living personal intercourse of the Holy
   Ghost with these sheep of God, who were otherwise without a Shepherd, is
   almost startling to us in these days when we are apt to look to human
   teachers, and human books. It should not surprise us that the Lord
   condescended to teach them from time to time by dreams, or by vivid pictures
   presented to the mind, which they regarded as visions. Such modes of
   teaching are not uncommon in our days amongst the ignorant and illiterate,
   and the Lord has used them apparently more or less in all ages. But it would
   be well if all of us knew more of that simple and direct communication with
   God, which Nicholas of Basle and Henry Suso attempted to explain in words,
   but which none who have known it can really or adequately express.

   Whilst men are ready to believe in spiritualism or in any delusions of the
   evil one, or of the mind of man, they are utterly blind to the fact that the
   real, true, and supernatural intercourse with God is the privilege and
   experience of all those who have believed in Jesus. We who believe may well
   humble ourselves that we know so little of it, but that it is the standing
   fulfillment of the great promises of John xiv, xv, and xvi we know well,
   unless indeed we are so wanting in the faith which appropriates those
   glorious promises, that we have yet to learn what it is to hear the voice of
   God. In order to give a true and vivid account of the simple, childlike
   communication with God, granted to these saints of old, care has been taken
   to keep as closely as possible to their actual words and expressions, even
   when such expressions betray the ignorance which marks mediaeval
   Christianity. We may some day know better than we now know, how much
   ignorance marks the Christianity of the nineteenth century. Yet we cannot
   deny that God in His grace has given us light through the free circulation
   of His Word, which the believers of the Middle ages never had. The
   difficulty of rendering mediaeval German in modern English makes it
   impossible to give the full force of many passages, and in such cases the
   sense, rather than the actual words, has been aimed at in the translation.
   The extracts, therefore, either from Dr. Tauler’s sermons, or from his
   history of his conversion, or from the autobiographies of Nicholas of Basle,
   and of Suso, are given as literally as possible, with the desire to convey
   the actual words, or if that should be impossible on account of the want of
   English equivalents, the actual sense of every passage. A short, but
   interesting, life of Suso may be found in Ullman’s “Reformers before the
   Reformation,” taken from Diepenbrock’s “Life of Suso,” which is a
   reproduction of the old German biography by Elizabeth Staglin.

   It should further be borne in mind that the following pages aim rather at
   recording the light and teaching vouchsafed by the Lord to His servants,
   than furnishing a complete biography of either of them, which would
   necessarily comprise much which to modern readers would be of little profit,
   though doubtless of historical interest to some. Much more might be
   recorded, as matter of history, but the present account is rather that of
   their intercourse with God, than of their place in mediaeval history, which
   would include a great variety of details, entirely apart from the purpose of
   the present record.
     _________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER I

THE SERMON OF DR. TAULER

   IT came to pass in the year 1340, or thereabouts, that the streets of the
   city of Strasburg were crowded with men, women, and children, who were all
   going in the direction of the great church.

   There were knights and nobles and ladies from the castles around, and
   citizens and their wives, and monks and priests. And there were the Beguine
   “sisters” and the Beghard “brothers,” who nursed the sick, and took care of
   homeless and infirm people, and orphans, and neglected children.

   And there were, most of all, working men and peasants, and poor people from
   the dark narrow streets of the city.

   And there were foreigners from other countries, for many people came from
   distant lands, to hear the great preacher of Strasburg.

   He was a learned and eloquent man, and he had a loving and tender heart, and
   he spoke from his heart, not from his head only. He had been preaching at
   Strasburg for ten or twelve years back, or longer still, for he was now, in
   1340, fifty years old, and his name was well known far and near.

   The people of Strasburg valued their great preacher all the more, because
   sixteen years before nearly all their priests and preachers had left the
   city, and the great cathedral and the churches were shut up, except when a
   few priests who remained in tile city, or who came there from other places,
   had an occasional service. And even this was forbidden.

   By whom? It was by the man who called himself the Vicar of Christ on earth,
   and whose commands were therefore to be obeyed as if the voice of God
   Himself had spoken.

   It came to pass thus. In the year 1314, two German princes, Frederick of
   Austria and Lewis of Bavaria, were elected at the same time as Emperors of
   Rome. Each one had a strong party on his side, and the Pope had taken part
   with Frederick. The Pope had good reasons for so doing. Twelve years earlier
   it had been declared in the famous Bull of Boniface VIII, called Unam
   Sanctam, that it was a necessary condition of the salvation of every human
   being, that he should own himself a subject of the Pope of Rome. Boniface
   had already, two years before, appeared at the great Jubilee, dressed on
   alternate days as Pope and Emperor. From this time it became a distinctly
   avowed article of faith, “that there is no power ordained of God but that of
   the Pope, all other power only exists as subservient to his power, and in so
   far as he deputes his authority to such power.” The Emperor Lewis had no
   thought of acknowledging such an article of faith. There were not wanting
   thousands in Germany who rose in opposition to this marvelous addition to
   the Word of God. At the head of this opposition stood the brave and
   God-fearing Emperor, of whom we have the testimony of eleven German cities,
   that “he was a man doing justice, and striving after righteousness: of all
   the princes of the world, it is he who lives most conformably to the
   teachings of Christ; and in faith, as well as in modesty and in moderation,
   he shines as an example to others.” In the year 1324 a Bull of Pope John
   XXII declared Lewis a protector and furtherer of heretics, especially of
   “heretics of Lombardy.” In 1327 a Bull of the same Pope declared him to be
   himself a heretic, and summoned him to appear at Avignon to receive his
   sentence. The Emperor took no notice of this summons. The following year the
   Rector of the University of Paris, Marsilius of Padua, was excommunicated as
   the author of manifold heresies. He betook himself to the court of the
   Emperor Lewis, and presented to him the book he had written, which had
   brought down upon him the ban of the Pope. “What in the world,” said the
   Emperor, “has induced you to leave the peaceable land of France, and come
   here, where we are all at war with one another?” Marsilius replied, that
   love to the Church of Christ had brought him to Germany. “For the Church of
   the Pope,” he said, “is full of vain pretensions. I am prepared to defend
   the truth, as I have learnt it, against all who oppose it, and if needful,
   to lay down my life for it.” What were the heresies of Marsilius? We find
   that those contained in his book are precisely the same as those of which
   the Waldenses in his day, and Wyclif in later days, were accused by Rome.
   “The Church,” he said, “is a word commonly used to mean bishops, priests,
   and deacons.” (Just as even now, in Protestant England, we may be told that
   a young man has gone into the Church, by which is meant that he has become a
   clergyman.) “This use of the word,” said Marsilius, “is entirely in
   opposition to the meaning attached to it by the apostles. For they have
   taught us that the Church is the Assembly, that is to say, the entire body
   of those who believe in Christ. In this sense does Paul use the word, when
   he writes ‘to the Church’ — that is, the Assembly — ‘at Corinth.’” He
   explained also, that it is God alone, not the priest, who can forgive sins.
   “He alone can forgive sins who died for our sins. The only sense in which
   the priest can give absolution, is the sense in which the gaoler unlocks the
   prison door; he has no authority to let out the prisoner; but when the judge
   declares him free, the gaoler may let him out. And God alone looks at the
   heart, not the priest. An impenitent man may receive absolution, but that
   does not give him remission of sins, and the penitent man who confesses his
   sin to God is absolved, whether the priest consents to it or not. For it is
   written that there is One only who is able to save and to destroy.” More
   might be related, did space permit, of the teaching of Marsilius. For the
   present history it is only needful to say further, that the Emperor Lewis
   gave him a warm welcome, appointed him his physician, and esteemed him
   greatly. Six years later he was required by the Cardinals of John XXII to
   dismiss Marsilius, as a condition of peace with Rome. But Lewis refused.
   Later on Benedict XII required it also. But Lewis never yielded. Marsilius
   died in his service in the year 1342. It is therefore not to be wondered at,
   that of the two rival princes, the Pope should have preferred Frederick, and
   should have been the bitter enemy of Lewis.

   For long years the war lasted which was to decide the fate of the Empire.
   When at last it became evident that Lewis was gaining the day, and that

   most of the German towns owned him as Emperor, the Pope, John XXII, laid the
   Empire under an interdict. He also excommunicated the Emperor Lewis. “May
   the Almighty God cast Lewis down, and give him into the hands of his enemies
   and pursuers! May he fall into an unforeseen snare! Cursed be his going out
   and his coming in! May the Lord smite him with folly and blindness! May the
   lightning of Heaven blast him! May the wrath of God, and of the blessed
   apostles Peter and Paul, burn against him like fire, in this world, and in
   the world to come! May the whole earth arm itself against him! May the deep
   open and swallow him up alive! May his name be clean forgotten, and his
   memory perish from among men! May all the elements oppose him! May his house
   be left desolate, may his children be driven from their dwellings, and slain
   by his enemies before the eyes of their father!”

   Thus sounded from Rome the voice of the shepherd of the flock! The Emperor
   Lewis allowed the Pope to curse, and took no notice of it, except by
   commanding the clergy in the German Empire to continue their services, and
   to turn a deaf ear to the Pope. The interdict forbade all services and all
   preaching.

   It can easily be imagined what awe and terror took possession of the many
   thousands who looked upon the sacraments as the doors of Heaven, and who
   depended upon the priests for the forgiveness of their sins. When the people
   of Strasburg saw their priests leave the town, and saw the church doors
   shut, there were many amongst them who felt as though they were forsaken of
   God, and delivered over to the devil and his angels.

   But the great preacher, Dr. John Tauler, did not share their fears. He
   stayed behind, and he taught and preached, and cheered and comforted the
   poor people, who would otherwise have felt themselves like sheep without a
   shepherd. So the people not only admired his sermons, but they loved him
   greatly, and whenever he preached, they went in crowds to listen, and they
   felt proud of their city, because their preacher was talked of in France,
   and Switzerland and Italy, as well as in the German towns far and near.

   The preacher was a meek and modest man, but it was hard for him not to feel
   that he was wiser and, it may be, holier, than other men. For he who
   flatters his neighbour spreads a net for his feet, and Dr. John Tauler had
   heard many flattering speeches, and had perhaps come to believe that some of
   them were true.

   On this day which I have mentioned, in the year 1340, Dr. Tauler watched the
   crowds who came into the great church, and his heart yearned over them, and
   he preached, as was his wont, earnestly and solemnly. And the people
   listened to him as though he were an angel from Heaven.

   Amongst them there sat a stranger who came from a city thirty leagues
   distant, but whose home was still farther away, amongst the great Alps with
   snowy peaks, and wild glaciers, in the Bernese Oberland.

   The stranger was a grave and yet a simple-looking man, and he kept his eyes
   fixed upon Dr. Tauler as though he loved to look at him. And he thought as
   he looked at him, “The Master is a very loving, gentle, good-hearted man by
   nature. He has also a good understanding of the Holy Scripture. But he is
   dark as to the light of grace, for he has never known it.”

   Then the man’s heart yearned over Dr. Tauler, for he had been warned of God
   three times in a dream, when he was in Switzerland, that he should go and
   hear him. And he knew that it was God who had shown him how dark was the
   Master’s heart.

   So when he had heard him preach five times, he went to him and said, “Dear
   and honoured sir, I have travelled a good thirty leagues on your account, to
   hear your teaching. Now I have heard you preach five times, and I pray you
   to let me make my confession to you.”

   The Master answered, “With all my heart.” Then the man confessed to the
   Master, and continued to come to him and confess to him for twelve weeks.
   And all this time he went to hear the Master’s sermons. But he did not say
   the thing that was upon his heart, for the time was not yet come.

   At last he went to him and said, “Dear sir, I beg you for God’s sake to
   preach us a sermon, showing us how a man may attain to the highest point it
   is given us to reach whilst we live in this world.”

   But the Master answered, “Ah, dear son, what dost thou ask for? How shall I
   tell thee of such high things? for well I know thou wouldst understand but
   little thereof.”

   Then the men said, “Ah, dear Master, even though I should understand little
   or nothing thereof, yet I cannot but thirst after it. And see what
   multitudes flock to hear you. If there were only one among them all who
   could understand you, your labour were well bestowed.”

   Then said the Master, “Dear son, if I am to do as thou sayest, I must needs
   give some study and labour to the matter, before I can put such a sermon
   together.”

   But the man would not cease from his prayers and entreaties till the Master
   promised him that he should have his desire.
     _________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER II

ANOTHER SERMON OF DR. TAULER

   AT last the Master had prepared his sermon, which cost him much time and
   much toil. Then he announced to the people that in three days they should
   come to the church to hear him preach. For, he said, he had been requested
   to teach how a man could attain to the highest point, to the greatest
   nearness to God, and to the best condition, during this life on earth.

   When the day was come, much people came to the church, and the man from
   Switzerland, whose name was Nicholas, sat down in a place where he could
   hear well. And the Master went up into his pulpit, and began his discourse.

   The Master spoke first about people who attain to a clear knowledge and
   reasonable judgment about things, but who do so by the help of images and
   forms, or by studying the opinions of other men. But by these means, he
   said, they will never attain to the highest good. Some men also, he said,
   trust to their own reason or imagination. They, too, not only do not attain
   to the knowledge of God, but they hinder God from working in their souls.
   But if a man would only die to himself, and humbly toil and press forward,
   God would find a resting-place in his soul, and would work in him, and draw
   him to Himself.

   “But such people,” said the Master, “are rare, for they must have a
   boundless humility, an unclouded understanding, and a clear reason. And such
   people may be known by twenty-four marks.

     1. They have love.

     2. They are emptied of themselves.

     3. They are utterly resigned to God.

     4. They do not seek themselves.

     5. By not seeking their own ends, they attain to true contentment.

     6. They wait on God to know what He would have them do, and they try their
     uttermost to fulfil His will.

     7. They daily give up their will to the will of God.

     8. All their powers are brought into subjection to God.

     9. They always have the sense of the presence of God, in all things, both
     sweet or bitter.

     10. They receive all pleasure and all pain, not from the creatures of God,
     but from God Himself.

     11. They are not led captive by lusting after created things.

     12. They are never moved from the truth by contradiction or mishap.

     13. They are not deceived by false appearances, but own things to be what
     they really are, and this in a spirit of kindness and love.

     14. They are armed with all virtue, ready to fight against all sin and
     vice, and obtain the victory and prize in all conflicts.

     15. They mark what God requires of them, order their life accordingly, and
     act up to their profession.

     16. They are people of few words, but much inward life.

     17. They are blameless and righteous, but not puffed up by the same.

     18. They are upright and sincere, and preach more with their actions than
     with their lips.

     19. They have no other aim than the glory of God.

     20. They are willing to take reproof, and to give up their rights.

     21. They do not desire their own advantage, and think the least thing too
     good for them.

     22. They consider themselves less wise and less worthy than other men, and
     are thoroughly humble.

     23. They copy the example of the Lord Jesus in all things, and put away
     from them everything unbecoming those who follow Him.

     24. And lastly, if they are despised by many, this will be more welcome to
     them than all the favour of the world.

   The Master’s sermon was ended. Some of his hearers perhaps remarked, on
   their way home, that they had heard a good, practical sermon. For we like by
   nature to be told to do this, or not to do that, in order to make ourselves
   pleasing to God. It does not follow that we betake ourselves diligently to
   doing the thing we have been directed to do, nor do we refrain from all that
   is evil, because we are warned against it. It is a singular thing that the
   people who most commonly need to be told that they cannot be saved by their
   good works, are the people who trouble themselves the least about doing
   them. A man who is in earnest, and who really, and honestly sets to work to
   gain for himself eternal life is far more likely to be awakened from his
   delusion. Just as if a man were bent upon flying with a pair of wings of his
   own construction, he would speedily be convinced of his delusion by making a
   trial of his wings. But the people who go on in a contented way in the
   course of this world, and seldom have a thought beyond that of pleasing
   themselves, will generally be found at last resting upon the reflection that
   they have done or felt something which will recommend them to God. They have
   at some time or other given money for which they were entreated for a
   charitable purpose, or they have gone to church, or they are communicants,
   or, what is there not upon which their hopes may be founded! “My family was
   always a respectable one, and I have a nephew who is a clergyman,” said one
   poor sinner at the point of death, when the solemn question was put to him,
   “Are you saved?” “You take such pains to prove,” said some one, “that people
   can never be saved by their works. But I don’t find the people that are
   trying to do these good works. There is much more danger of their doing
   nothing but please themselves.” This is so far true. But the person who said
   it had never remarked that it is just those people who never trouble
   themselves about working, who are most confident that they have something of
   their own which God will own at last. And even if they can recall nothing
   but sin and folly, they will fall back at the last moment upon their
   repentance and their prayers.

   The Master had described the imaginary figs, which he still believed might
   be made to grow upon thistles. And this was all he could do. He had once
   mentioned the Lord Jesus. But it was not to tell of His precious blood, and
   His love to the ungodly and to sinners, the only way by which a man could be
   brought near to God, and walk with Him here, and dwell with Him hereafter.
   He had but held up the Lord Jesus as an example to men and women, dead in
   trespasses and sins. He might as well have shown a beautiful picture to a
   dead man in his coffin. He did not understand that life must come first, and
   that work will follow. But the Master had done his best. And it may be he
   was as well satisfied with his sermon as the most devoted of his admirers.

   Nicholas said nothing, but he went to his lodging and wrote the sermon all
   down, word for word, exactly as the Master had spoken it. And when he had
   finished, he went to the Master, and said, “I have written out your sermon,
   and if it be not troublesome, I should like to read it to you.”

   The Master replied, “I shall be glad to hear it.” Thereupon the man read the
   sermon all through and then said to the Master, “Dear sir, pray tell me if
   there be a word wanting, that if so I may set it down.”

   Hereupon the Master was greatly astonished and flattered, and said “Dear
   son, thou hast written down every word and phrase just as it came out of my
   mouth. I tell thee if any one would give me much money for it, I could not
   write it down as exactly as thou hast done.”

   And the Master said also he was much astonished to think that he had never
   found out before how full of wit was so simple a man.

   “Thou hast hidden thy talent,” he said, “so that I never perceived it.” To
   this the man only replied, “Dear Master, if God will, I am purposed to go
   home again.”

   But the Master said, “Dear son, what shouldst thou do at home? Thou must eat
   there as well as here, therefore stay in this place, for if God will, I am
   minded to preach again of a perfect life.”

   Then said the man, “Dear Master, you must know that I have not come hither
   for the sake of your preaching, but because I thought, with God’s help, to
   give you some good counsel.”

   Quoth the Master, “How shouldst thou give counsel? Thou art but a layman,
   and understandest not the Scriptures, and it is moreover not thy place to
   preach if thou wouldst. Stay here a little longer,” continued the Master
   meekly, “perchance God will give me to preach such a sermon as thou wouldst
   care to hear.”

   Then the man said, “Dear Master, I would fain say somewhat to you, but I
   fear that you would be displeased to hear it.”

   But the Master answered, “Dear son, say what thou wilt, I can answer for it
   that I shall take it in good part.”

   Hereupon the man said, “You are a great scholar, and have taught us a good
   lesson in this sermon. But you yourself do not live according to it. Yet you
   try to persuade me to stay here that you may preach me yet another sermon.
   Sir, I give you to understand that man’s words have in many ways hindered
   me, much more than they have helped me. And this is the reason; it often
   happened that when I came away from the sermon, I brought certain false
   notions away with me, which I hardly got rid of in a long while with great
   toil. But if the highest Teacher of all truth come to a man, he must be
   empty and quit of all else, and hear His voice only. Know ye, that when this
   same Master cometh to me, He teaches me more in one hour, than you or all
   the doctors from Adam to the judgment day will ever do.”
     _________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER III

NICHOLAS TELLS THE MASTER WHOLESOME TRUTHS

   THE Master made no reply for a while, but he was a meek and gentle man, and,
   as he said, he took in good part the words of Nicholas. And moreover he
   entreated him, in the name of God, not to return to Switzerland, but to stay
   with him yet longer.

   The man replied, that, in obedience to God, he was willing to remain; but he
   desired the Master to promise that he would permit him freely to speak to
   him, as under the seal of confession.

   And the Master said, “Dear son, that I willingly promise, if only thou wilt
   stay here.”

   So the man proceeded to say, “Sir, you must know, that though you have
   taught us many good things in this sermon, the image came into my mind while
   you were preaching, that it was as if one should take good wine, and mix it
   with lees, so that it grew muddy.”

   The Master said, “Dear son, what dost thou mean by this?”

   Then Nicholas explained, and said, “I mean that your vessel is unclean, and
   much lees are cleaving to it.” And he further explained that the good
   precepts which the Master had preached did but condemn him, and were
   therefore to him the letter that killeth. “But the Spirit,” said Nicholas,
   “giveth life. And know, therefore, that if so be you are willing, that same
   letter which now killeth, will by the power of the Spirit make you alive
   again. But in the life which you now have, know that you have no light, but
   are in the night. You can indeed understand the letter, but have not yet
   tasted of the sweetness of the Holy Ghost. Withal you are yet a Pharisee.”

   Then said the Master, “Dear son, I would have thee to know, that old as I
   am, I have never been spoken to in such fashion all my life.” And the Master
   was offended.

   Then said Nicholas, “Where is your preaching now? Do you see now what you
   are when you are brought to the proof? And although you think that I have
   spoken too hardly to you, it is but too true that you are guilty of all that
   I have said, and I will prove this to you from your own self.”

   But the Master answered shortly, “I ask for no more, for I have ever been an
   enemy to all Pharisees.”

   But the man continued and explained to the Master, that in learning the
   letter of the Word of God, he had always from his youth up sought himself,
   and not the glory of God. He told him, moreover, that the reason that the
   letter condemned and killed him was this — he had a leaning, not towards
   God, but towards the creatures of God, and specially towards one creature,
   whom he loved with his whole heart above measure, and had therefore not a
   single eye to God. “And therefore,” said Nicholas, “I liken your heart to an
   unclean vessel. And when the pure unmixed wine of godly doctrine passes
   through that vessel which is spoiled and covered with lees, it comes to pass
   that your teaching has no good savour, and brings no grace to the hearts of
   those who hear you. And whereas I further said that you were still in
   darkness, and had not the true light, this is also true, and it may be seen
   hereby, that so few receive the grace of the Holy Spirit through your
   teaching. And whereas I said that you were a Pharisee, that is also true;
   but you are not one of the hypocritical Pharisees. You have,
   notwithstanding, this mark of the Pharisees, that you love and seek yourself
   in all things, and not the glory of God. Now examine, dear sir, and see if
   you are not a Pharisee in the eyes of God. For know, dear Master, a man is a
   Pharisee in God’s sight, according to what his heart is bent upon. And truly
   in the sight of God, there are many Pharisees.”

   As the man spoke these words the Master fell on his neck and kissed him, and
   said, “A likeness has come into my mind. It has happened to me, as it did to
   the heathen woman at the well. For know, dear son, that thou hast laid bare
   all my faults before my eyes. Thou hast told me what I had hidden up within
   me, and specially that there is one creature upon whom my affections are
   set. But I tell thee of a truth I knew it not myself, nor do I believe that
   any human being in the world can know of it. Doubt not, dear son, that thou
   hast if from God.”

   And the Master further said to Nicholas, “Be thou, dear son, my spiritual
   father, and let me be thy poor sinful son.”

   But the man would not consent to this, and said be would ride home again,
   for it was not seemly he should take such a place. And the Master then
   entreated him to stay and counsel him, and to do all that he deemed right,
   so that he might amend his life. And the man consented to stay, but he said
   also, “I tell you, dear sir, of a truth, it is no light matter that God
   should give a man such great understanding and skill, and mastery in the
   Scripture, and he should not put it in practice in his life.”
     _________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER IV

WHO WAS NICHOLAS?

   WHO was this man Nicholas?

   And how was it that he, a layman from the Swiss mountains, should thus speak
   to a learned doctor and to a priest?

   For it was the strangest presumption in the eyes of most men in those days,
   that a layman should teach or preach — and more than all, that he should
   teach an ordained priest, who had power to bind and loose, and to work the
   great miracle which changed the wafer and the wine into the Body and Blood
   of Christ. How can it be explained that Nicholas came to Dr. Tauler with so
   strange and solemn a message?

   This question has been much examined, and the answer is after all an
   uncertain one. A strange mystery attaches to this extraordinary man. Even
   his name is a matter of dispute. His history is one which appears to us so
   full of contradictions and impossibilities, that it is difficult to separate
   that which is true from much that is either invented, or told in allegorical
   fashion. It seems most probable that he was the Nicholas of Basle of whom an
   account will be given farther on. This Nicholas was a strange mixture of
   marvelous faith in God, devotedness to His service, love for souls, clear
   light upon many points which to Romanist Christians were utterly dark,
   abject superstition, credulity, and ignorance. To account for the
   possibility of such men, for Nicholas was but one of a numerous party, it is
   needful to go back to the early ages of the Church, and trace the history of
   a despised and persecuted people, who had been known far and wide under
   names of contempt, the origin of which we cannot now find out with any
   certainty. Had you asked them their name, they would have replied that they
   were Christians. They owned no name besides. But amongst themselves they
   were used to speak to one another as “Brethren.” They were therefore called
   in various countries “The Apostolic Brethren,” “The Swiss Brethren,” or “The
   Italian Brethren,” or “The Brethren of Lombardy.”

   Sometimes they were known as “The poor men of Lyons,” or “The Leonists,” and
   very commonly they were called the Waldenses. They had their own history of
   themselves, which was handed down from father to son. It was this:

   They said that about the year 320 after Christ, the Church had fallen into
   worldliness, and was corrupted through evil teaching. For the Roman emperor
   Constantine, instead of persecuting the Christians, had begun to honour
   them, and to give them worldly power and riches, and the bishops became
   lords and princes, and the things of God were judged by worldly judges, and
   not by the Word of the Lord. And because their fathers had held fast to the
   ancient teaching of the apostles of the Lord they had been persecuted and
   killed. And many of them had fled to the mountains of Italy, and
   Switzerland, and France, and some to other countries, and God had kept them
   as the apple of His eye, and they could never be destroyed, though they had
   to suffer hardship, and persecution, and death, from generation to
   generation.

   And so as time went on they were to be found in many races, and in many
   lands, and wherever they went, they brought the Word of God, as they
   believed the apostles taught it.

   And thus we find that in the year 1250 they were described in the following
   words by one of their persecutors, who was employed in the “punishment of
   heretics” :

   “Of all sects, there is none so fatal to the Church as that of the Leonists.
   And this for three reasons.

   1. Because they date back to a period so remote, for some say they date from
   the days of Pope Sylvester, 315 years after the birth of Christ.

   2. Because they are the most widely spread, for there is scarce a known land
   in which this sect is not found.

   3. Because, whilst other sects inspire horror by their blasphemies against
   God, this sect of the Leonists has a great appearance of piety, and
   especially for this reason, that they lead an honest life before men, and
   believe all that is right about God, and all that we find in the creed of
   the apostles. But at the same time they abhor the church of Rome and the
   Roman priests, to which sin the laity are but too much inclined.”

   The inquisitor goes on to describe the marks by which these heretics may be
   known, so that the faithful Catholics may lay hands upon them when
   opportunity should offer.

   “They are to be known by their behaviour, and their manner of speech. That
   is to say, they are in their behaviour staid, and modest; in their
   countenances there is to be seen neither pride nor fear. Their clothes are
   neither costly nor shabby. In business they are truthful. They avoid
   swearing and cheating. They do not seek after riches, but are contented with
   necessary things. They are chaste, and temperate in food and drink. They are
   not to be found in taverns, nor at dances, not at other idle amusements.
   Also they abstain from anger, they are always employed in their calling, or
   in teaching and learning, and are therefore absent from the instructions and
   prayers of the Church. They can further be known by their simple and modest
   speech, they abstain from idle words and light conversation, and also from
   lies and from oaths.”

   It is true that we might have heard very different accounts of them had we
   listened to the gossip of the old women who sat spinning round the door on a
   summer’s day — or had we gone to hear the talk in the taverns and in the
   market.

   “They call it going to worship, but I can tell you,” and the old woman would
   speak on in a solemn whisper, “I can tell you, for my grand-daughter’s
   husband’s uncle knows all about them — they meet together in dark cellars,
   and pray to the devil, and he comes in an awful shape, the very devil
   himself, and many of them have seen him.”

   “Yes,” says an awestruck neighbour, “just what I heard myself. And there are
   devils that come in the shape of cats and frogs, and they kiss them and talk
   to them just as if they were Christians.”

   “And I know for a fact,” says another, “that the devils come to them in the
   form of bumble-bees, and fly right into their mouths, and they fall down and
   worship Satan just as if they saw him in the midst of them.”

   But an old chronicler, and enemy of the “Brethren,” David of Augsburg, who
   tells us that these reports were commonly spread, adds that “for his own
   part he thinks these stories were fables, and that on the contrary the
   Leonists are all the more dangerous, because they have such a gloss of
   piety.”

   However, the old wives’ tales found many believers, and many a name was
   given accordingly to the despised “Brethren” — the “corner-sneakers,” or
   “hole-squatters,” or the “enthusiasts” — which led to the belief that many
   sects were in question, when in fact the same people were called by
   different names in different places, and by different persons.

   It has often been said that a man called Peter Waldo, who lived in France
   about the year 1170, was really the founder of this “sect that was
   everywhere spoken against.”

   But history proves that such could not be the case, as the tradition of
   their existence from the days of the apostles can be traced back to the year
   1311, and in the thirteenth century they are not only spoken of as having
   been known for a long while back, but as being numerous all over Western
   Europe.

   For instance, in 1150 they are heard of at Cologne, in 1177 at Frankfurt,
   Nuremberg, and other German towns; in 1170 they were forbidden to preach at
   Lyons — large meetings were held by them at Metz in 1180; in Spain they were
   persecuted, in 1192, by Alfonso of Aragon, who mentions in his edict against
   them that he follows the example of his forefathers in forbidding their
   preaching. Pope Lucius III published an edict against them in 1184.

   Early in the next century we hear of them at Turin, in Savoy, and in
   Austria, where they were severely persecuted — later on, 1260, we hear of
   forty-two communities of them near Passau; in 1257 they were persecuted in
   Bohemia; and in 1260, it is recorded, “In Lombardy, in Provence, and
   elsewhere, they have more schools and more scholars than the orthodox.”

   They abounded at this time in Piedmont, and in Dauphiné; all over the South
   of France, at Naples, in Sicily and Southern Italy — in the Netherlands,
   Flanders, and Brabant — in Northern France, and in England.

   They had been especially condemned at the Lateran Council of 1215.

   In 1212, five hundred of the Brethren were seized at Strasburg. Amongst
   these five hundred were nobles, priests, rich and poor, women as well as
   men. They declared that there were many of their brethren in the countries
   above mentioned; eighty of the five hundred, including twelve priests and
   twenty-three women, were burnt alive. One of them, a man named John, spoke
   to the crowds around. His last words have been preserved.

   “We are all sinners. But it is not for our false belief, nor for our evil
   lives, that we are brought here to die, and we have forgiveness of our sins,
   but without the help of the priests, and not because of the merit of our
   works.”

   It is about this time that we find them spoken of in connection with the
   Beghards and Beguines, and it would appear from the light lately thrown upon
   the history of these latter, that they were up to about the year 1375
   neither more nor less than “Brethren.”

   But it was not the name given to the “Brethren” in general; only to a class
   amongst them who devoted themselves specially to the care of the poor and
   infirm, the homeless and the sick. They lived together in large houses,
   calling themselves “the poor of Christ.” The crippled and feeble ones were
   employed in any little work for which they had the strength, the men copied
   books and taught children, the women wove or spun. All begging was strictly
   forbidden amongst “Brethren,” and therefore the care of the helpless and
   infirm amongst the poor was one of their first duties.

   The Beguines were just what would now be called “nursing-sisters,” or
   “deaconesses.” They were not nuns. Their large roomy houses were hospitals,
   called generally “the houses of God.” Such houses can be traced back amongst
   the Waldenses, or “Brethren,” to the year 1218.

   Some of these houses were places where able-bodied people out of work found
   regular employment. We do not find that they ever built churches, or places
   of worship, without attaching to it some such house. And more frequently the
   “house of God’s poor” was their only meeting-place, for they said the temple
   of God is His people.

   They believed in fact that the knowledge of Christ, followed out
   practically, is a real remedy for the sin, and misery, and poverty around,
   for they took in and nursed, and cared for, not “Brethren” only, but any who
   came in their way.

   It is therefore easily accounted for, that the nicknames Beghard, and “good
   men” (Boni homines), are found really to apply to the same persons. But
   after the middle of the fourteenth century the names of Beghard and Beguine
   were given to a very different class of persons, namely, to a Roman Catholic
   order, who still retain it.

   There might be much related of the labours and the persecutions of the
   “Brethren” in the various countries of Europe, before the time when Nicholas
   came from Switzerland to listen to Dr. Tauler’s sermons. But in this short
   account it will be needful only to say a few words more regarding the belief
   and the practice of the “Brethren,” before we return to Strasburg, and to
   Dr. Tauler and his friend.
     _________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER V

THE BELIEF OF THE BRETHREN

   IN order, they said, to learn the mind of Christ, and to understand His
   desires for His Church, it is needful to go back to the teaching of Christ
   and His apostles.

   They said also that it is an error to suppose that the directions given in
   the New Testament for Christian worship and practice, were only fitted for
   those times. On the contrary, they were to hold good even to the end, for
   God changes not, and He gave rules and precepts which needed no change to
   make them suitable for following ages.

   Human learning, they said, could add nothing to God’s teaching. For did He
   not choose and send forth fishermen and working men, armed only with His
   power and wisdom? And was not that the time when He was most glorified
   before men? And was it not, because men fell away from the teaching of these
   apostles, that ruin, and misery, and darkness came upon the Churches of
   Asia, Europe, and Africa?

   “Therefore,” said they, “let our object be to go back to the days of the
   apostles, and draw from the fountain head, rather than from the polluted
   streams.”

   “These heretics teach,” wrote one of the inquisitors, “that the teaching of
   Christ and the apostles is all that we need for salvation, even without the
   statutes of the Church.”

   It was also a charge brought against them, that they had no science, and
   learnt and taught “nothing but the Bible.” “All of them,” said one of their
   judges, “men and women , great and small, by day and by night, never cease
   learning or teaching the Bible. The working man who has no time by day,
   learns it in the night. Consequently they neglect their prayers” (that is,
   are not to be seen at mass).

   As early as 1203, they had translated parts of the Bible into German, and so
   in other countries, otherwise this universal study of the Bible would of
   course have been impossible.

   Meanwhile at the Council of Toulouse (1229) the decree was passed, “We also
   forbid that the books of the Old and New Testament should be on possession
   of laymen, and we desire to prevent by the severest measures that
   translations of these books in the vulgar tongue should be in the hands of
   laymen.” It was perhaps to avoid some of these severe measures, that the
   “Brethren” translated parts of the Bible in the form of poems. And far from
   troubling themselves about any edicts to the contrary, they required of
   every grown up person that they should make a regular practice of reading
   the Bible.

   Thus stood the forces of darkness and light arrayed against one another. Is
   it otherwise now?

   It is but three years ago that a young student in the Church of Rome awoke
   to the fact that in spite of Pope and priests, of services and sacraments,
   infidelity is spreading far and wide, in so-called “Catholic” countries, and
   that the one remedy, as yet untried, would be the reading of the Word of
   God.

   But, alas, even here in Eastern Europe, there were millions living around
   him, into whose dialect the Bible had never been translated. He determined
   therefore to begin this work by translating the New Testament from the
   Greek.

   But time went on, and the first portion (one of the Gospels), which was to
   be printed and published first, whilst he worked at the remainder, remained
   always unfinished. Sometimes his papers were lost. Sometimes when posted to
   the publisher they never arrived. Sometimes they were locked up, and the key
   was not to be had. At last, some months ago, came the explanation.

   “If I have not sent you the Gospel which I promised you, it is because I
   have been told that the Catholic religion forbids the circulation in the
   vulgar tongue of the Bible, without notes. However, I have not myself
   arrived at an absolute certainty that this prohibition is right. I should
   like to talk it over with you.”

   But soon after came the further news, “I have been threatened with the
   greater excommunication of the Church if I proceed with such a work. You can
   well believe that for a Catholic this is a terrible sentence. And as an
   obedient son of the Church, I can but desist from my labours. This is the
   true explanation of all the delays and difficulties of the past two
   years.”

   This, too, is the true explanation of the darkness of those ages in which
   the despised “Brethren” shone as lights in the world. Without creeds or
   catechisms — scattered abroad from Spain to Hungary, from Calabria to
   England, from Provence to Eastern Prussia, their faith was one and the same,
   their teaching all alike — for their one authority was the Word of God.

   But, alas, there is a sad side to this bright picture, and to trace back the
   cause of it we also must go to the Word of God. We there read that even in
   the days of Paul, many had turned aside from the truth that he taught, and
   he foretold that in this respect, matters would wax worse and worse, that
   men should turn away their ears from the teaching of the apostles of the
   Lord, and give heed to those who would add the law to the Gospel.

   And so it came to pass, that long before the first flight of the ancestors
   of the Waldenses to the mountain valleys, the blessed Gospel of the Lord was
   but half believed amongst the most enlightened. They had forgotten the great
   and wonderful teaching of Paul, and understood but little that which they
   remembered. They went back to the days before the death and resurrection and
   ascension of the Lord Jesus, not seeing that as the seal set upon His
   blessed work, God was calling out from all nations those who should be
   joined to Christ in heaven by the Holy Ghost, to be one body — the body of
   Christ.

   Already in the days of Paul we see how many there were who would fain make
   up “another gospel” by adding on the law; as if the Church of God were but a
   continuation of His Old Testament people. Many who would prefer the old
   garment patched with the new cloth, and who would put the new wine into the
   old bottles.

   And for this reason the solemn messages of God in Galatians, in Colossians,
   and in Hebrews, stand as warnings — how often disregarded now!

   We need not therefore be surprised to find that whilst the “Brethren”
   regarded every word of Christ as infallible, they considered the word of the
   apostles as of less authority. They went consequently to the Sermon on the
   Mount, rather than to the Epistles, for rules of practice; and supposed that
   the apostles were more or less enlightened according to the state of their
   souls.

   They did not therefore regard the Epistles simply as the word of God
   Himself, in whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning. They held them in
   reverence, and do not seem to have denied or disputed any part of them, but
   they considered that the words spoken by Christ when on earth were more to
   be regarded.

   They did not in consequence understand or teach clearly those “many
   things” which the Lord declared He could not make known to His disciples
   till He was ascended into the glory, and the Comforter was come; and thus
   many of them no doubt taught the Gospel as if it were only a more perfect
   law. And as it always happens with people who do not fully understand the
   difference between the law and the Gospel, they failed to learn from the Old
   Testament that which God would teach us thereby.

   For in the Old Testament we find types and shadows of “good things to
   come,” which we never understand or value till we know what those good
   things are.

   The Old Testament, as has often been said, is like a transparency, which is
   dim and confused till the light is placed behind it, which brings out every
   part into view.

   But while most of the “Brethren” were thus cloudy and misty as to the full
   clear Gospel, as taught by Paul, we must not confound them all together, as
   though God did not teach each one by His Spirit as he was able to receive
   it. We sometimes talk of people, as though all who are called by the same
   name, and profess to hold the same doctrines, must necessarily be as much
   alike as fragments of the same bit of limestone.

   But the truth is, that the doctrines we profess, even if perfectly in
   accordance with the Bible, may or may not have been taught us by God
   Himself. Each one really learns only as much as he has himself received from
   God. And the Lord teaches most to those who look most simply to Him, and who
   walk according to that which they have already received.
     _________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER VI

THE LOVE OF THE BRETHREN

   IT therefore came to pass, that amongst the “Brethren,” as amongst believers
   now, there was, as it were, an inner circle of those who lived in constant
   communion with God, and who were consequently known amongst men by the name
   which speaks so much — “The Friends of God.”

   Such men owned one another, and found one another out, and took sweet
   counsel together, even though some were “Brethren,” and some still went by
   the name of “Catholics.”

   It was quite true then, and is true now, that an ignorant Roman Catholic,
   who is, nevertheless, taught by the Spirit, and therefore trusting to the
   Blood of Jesus only, may have a constant and blessed communion with God,
   which the most orthodox Protestant may never have or know of.

   But we are not to imagine, on the other hand, that provided a man thus
   trusts in Jesus, and loves Him truly, it is a matter of indifference whether
   he is otherwise misled, and ill taught. Even with the love of God shed
   abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, we suffer loss in our souls from
   ignorance of any truth that God has revealed. We cannot add to, or take away
   from, the Word of God, without being beclouded and lamed in our walk with
   God.

   Nevertheless, the Lord, who looks at the heart, will own and bless much love
   and little light, more than much light and little love. And this little
   history of the “Friends of God” will not have been written in vain; if it
   serves as a proof that God answers, in His grace and love, the most ignorant
   prayer and desire of the heart that believes in His love and longs for
   communion with Him. And it may perhaps lead us to ask ourselves the solemn
   question: Have we, in the midst of our light and knowledge, the same thirst
   for the living God — the same sweet and constant intercourse with the Lord
   Jesus — as some of those who, in past ages of darkness, spake often one to
   another of Him? And have we in our hearts the same tender love and care for
   all, however ignorant, however benighted in many ways, to whom the Lord
   Jesus is precious and lovely?

   It is not that mere feeling is the mark of communion with God. We may have
   our natural hearts touched and melted with the wonderful story of the
   Saviour. For the hard rock of the natural heart is often covered with a thin
   layer of the soil of natural feeling, in which the seed which fell from the
   Hand of Christ will spring up for a while, till the same natural feeling
   which welcomed it with joy, will shrink from the cross; and the sun of this
   evil day will scorch the seed, so that it withers away.

   And it is a fact very remarkable in the “Friends of God,” that it was not
   merely feeling and devotion which drew them together, but rather the object
   of the heart, Jesus, God and Man, the Saviour, the Beloved of their souls.

   And thus many a Catholic “Brother,” who had no thought of leaving his
   Church, or condemning the services and ceremonies to which he had been
   accustomed, would find himself in full sympathy with the Waldensian
   “Brother.”

   And at last he would find himself, he scarcely knew how, in opposition to
   his priest or bishop, and whilst still regarding himself as a member of the
   Roman Church, he might have to give his last testimony in the dungeon, or at
   the stake.

   The “Brethren” were in the habit of marking those who walked after the
   ensample of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they believed that a man walking with
   God will learn of God. We find that they were in fact practically and
   constantly acting upon this truth.

   It was not a question with them of this sect or that, but simply whether
   this or that man had been taught by the Spirit of God. “We must receive the
   Spirit,” they said, “to dwell in us, before the image of God can be restored
   in our souls. We learn the way to God by the written Word, and the inner
   Word, namely, the Spirit, but not by gifts supposed to be handed down in the
   Church, nor by ordinances and ceremonies. The Church, or the Assembly, is
   only so far a means of intercourse with God, as it is the possessor and
   keeper of the written Word, and the habitation of the Holy Ghost.”

   Thus they did not believe that a priest was more capable of teaching than
   another man, nor that he had power imparted to him for the forgiveness of
   sins, but the power of declaring God’s forgiveness was, they said, left to
   the Church. That is to say, that a man in communion with God, and holding
   the faith once delivered to the saints, is the true successor of the
   apostles, and that such persons, meeting together, have authority to
   exercise discipline in the Church.

   Those “Brethren,” who were, properly speaking Waldenses, had no images, and
   though they had a reverence for the saints of old, they did not worship
   them. But as they were in the habit of owning as “Brethren” and “Friends of
   God” any in whom they saw the marks of faith in Christ, and of communion
   with Him, many were thus included who had not cast off all the false
   teaching and the delusions and superstitions which they had learnt from
   Rome. Nicholas of Basle was evidently one of these. How far he was in
   communication with the Waldensian “Brethren” who stood altogether apart from
   Rome, we cannot tell. But that he was known and persecuted as a Beghard, and
   that he was called constantly by the name of “The Friend of God,” which was
   the usual way of speaking of a Waldensian “Apostle,” confirms the belief
   that he was commonly regarded as belonging to these heretics.

   That he was in full sympathy on most points with the “Brethren,” is quite as
   evident as the fact that he was in some respects blinded by the
   superstitions of Rome. Little by little the scales appear to have fallen
   from his eyes. But he is more remarkable as a converted man, truly devoted
   to his Saviour, than as an enlightened teacher. His aim was rather to save
   souls, than to examine how far the teaching of Rome was accordant with
   Scripture. He did not remark the want of light, nearly as much as the
   coldness of the love, of those who professed a belief in Jesus. Amongst the
   German “Brethren,” there were many such, still called Catholics — still
   saying masses, and imagining that they could gain help from the prayers of
   departed saints, but yet having the life of God in their souls, and knowing
   Christ in their inmost hearts, as “the chiefest amongst ten thousand and
   altogether lovely.”

   The enlightened Waldenses taught that no man has any merit before God, and
   they denied that any who died, having a simple faith in the Blood of Christ,
   had any purgatory after death. And amongst the less enlightened Catholic
   “Brethren,” we find that in spite of the articles of their faith, thus they
   felt and spoke.

   The Waldensian “Brethren” made a great distinction between the world and the
   Church. By the Church they meant those who had known the love of God, who
   therefore loved Him in return, and who were known by the mark that they
   loved the children of God.

   On the other hand, there were many “Catholic Brethren,” who, in spite of
   their ignorance and superstition, felt in their inmost hearts that they had
   a common faith with the Waldensian “Brethren,” and loved them with the love
   which God sheds abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost that is given us.

   When they saw the wars and strifes carried on, not only by emperors and
   kings, but by popes and priests; when they were sickened by the vice and
   selfishness, and worldliness of the clergy of Rome, and when by the Pope
   himself their services were stopped, and their churches shut up, then “those
   that feared the Lord spake often one to another,” and the Catholic “Friend
   of God” would welcome the Waldensian “Brother,” and they would “comfort
   themselves together, and edify one another,” and forget all but Christ.

   It may be that the Waldensian “Friends of God” did not see distinctly how
   offensive to God were the superstitions and ceremonies of their Catholic
   brethren. They were so much in the habit of making nothing of external
   things, and regarding them simply as symbols of the unseen, that the mass
   did not appear to them, as it really is, an act of idolatry, but merely an
   unfit way of expressing the thought so dear to themselves also, that Christ
   loved us, and gave Himself for us. They had not “known the depths of
   Satan,” and they were so deeply concerned about the work of God in the soul,
   that they perhaps thought too little of the doctrine expressed as a matter
   of form by the lips, not seeing that the belief of the truth lies at the
   root of right feeling and practice.

   The ceremonies which in England strike us the more from their novelty to us,
   were such an everyday sight to them, that they regarded them not. They were
   not reformers of doctrine, or of manners of worship, but they were seekers
   after the sheep of God, who had been scattered upon the mountains in the
   cloudy and dark day.

   There are two pitfalls, one on each side of the narrow way. We may earnestly
   contend for the faith, and try those who say they are apostles and are not,
   and find them liars, and at the same time the first deep love to Christ, and
   tender affection to every member of His Body, may grow cold in our hearts.
   And instead of having compassion on the ignorant, and on them who are out of
   the way, we may despise and spurn them.

   On the other hand, we may put the members in the first place, and Christ in
   the second, and think lightly, rather than sorrowfully, of false beliefs and
   strange worship, if only the love of God is in the heart of the one who is
   thus wandering from His path.

   Into the first of these pitfalls did the Church fall at the beginning, and
   thus the apostasy began. For where love has waxed cold, the power is lost
   which might have won back the wandering feet. “I have somewhat against
   thee” — are the solemn words of the Lord spoken to the Church which was the
   first to fall, and spoken for this reason only.

   It would be well for us to take earnest heed to this warning, needful for
   us, as well as for the Church of Ephesus.

   In our days we find the people of God falling into both these pitfalls —
   perhaps more commonly into the last. But the Lord, whose eyes are as a flame
   of fire, who is jealous for every word of His truth, has never spurned the
   ignorant and the foolish who have turned to Him; if He did, where would the
   wisest of us be? He loves, He nourishes and cherishes all who in simple
   faith cast themselves upon Him and Him alone. It was this simple faith which
   Rome would have trodden down. It was for this reason that the “Friends of
   God,” even if Catholics, were persecuted and slain. To Rome it was a
   question of obedience to the Pope — to the “Friends of God” it was a
   question of the rights of Christ to the obedience and love of His redeemed.
   It probably never occurred to the Catholic “Brethren” that it was possible
   for them to belong to any other communion than that of Rome. When they
   sighed and cried over the abominations that were done in the midst of the
   Church they owned, they do not seem to have discovered that the root of the
   evil was in the false beliefs which had crept in amongst them. Or rather
   they did not dare to think so. They compared the practice of their Catholic
   neighbours with the life and words of the Lord Jesus — and they owned the
   sin, lying low in the dust before God. But the bright light which God has
   shed forth in these latter days, was darkened then by the clouds which to us
   are cleared away. They would accuse their own hearts, their own minds, but
   they would not allow themselves to think that the Church they revered and
   loved had lost the truth the Lord had committed to her trust, and had turned
   away from Him.
     _________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER VII

THE PREACHING OF THE BRETHREN

   IT should not therefore surprise us to find that amongst bishops, priests,
   monks, nuns, and Roman Catholics of all sorts, there were many, very many,
   who believed and taught the blessed Gospel, but who at the same time had not
   light to see how ill it accorded with their services and ceremonies. Many of
   the Carthusian monks were at this time numbered amongst the “Brethren,” and
   so in face were most of the preaching friars in England and elsewhere.

   The “Brethren” themselves were great preachers, for there had always been
   amongst them missionary preachers, called “apostles,” simply meaning
   thereby, persons sent. These apostles went out two and two, generally an
   older and a younger man. They were accustomed to go in the guise of
   travelling merchants or peddlers. They took with them packs of small
   articles for sale, knives, pins, beads, &c. They took in exchange eggs or
   cheese, or small articles of clothing, for they were forbidden to take
   money. And when they reached the house of a “Brother,” they were lodged and
   fed gladly, for all the “Brethren” were taught that God was pleased if His
   messengers were lovingly welcomed in His name. Many of these preachers were
   students of medicine, and therefore their journeys from land to land were
   what we should call a “medical mission.” But the object was the soul. And
   faithfully, bravely, and diligently did they give themselves up to this
   great and blessed work.

   It was a day to be remembered by many, now “present with the Lord,” when the
   “Friends of God,” as they were commonly called, were lodged for awhile —
   perhaps in some stately castle — or perhaps in some cowherd’s cottage —
   wherever there was an open door, they were to be found preaching and
   teachings Jesus Christ.

   Let us admit that of much they were ignorant, and there were ancient errors
   still clinging to them, but let us thank the Lord for this exceeding great
   army, sent forth by Him, with their lives in their hands, to spend and be
   spent in His blessed service.

   It was the custom amongst those who could not travel about, but who had been
   taught of the Lord, and who cared for souls, to send letters addressed to
   the different meetings of brethren in distant places. Thus was the teaching
   spread abroad, by means of the travelling apostles, who were told privately
   to which meetings the letters were to be taken. It would have been dangerous
   to write any address, so they were merely directed to “Christian Brethren”
   in general.

   The apostles preached wherever they could, generally in the open air. They
   had also prayer meetings and Bible readings in private houses. We find that
   amongst all the “Brethren,” in whatever country they might be, they were
   regular in the habit of daily family prayers, and of giving thanks before
   their meals.

   They went from time to time with their neighbours to the services in the
   churches, but though this was not against their conscience, it was against
   their inclination. In those days, when the magnificent cathedrals of Europe
   were rising in all their glory from amongst the dark and narrow streets, the
   “Brethren “ turned sadly away, and said, “The Lord dwelleth not in temples
   made with hands, for we are the living temple in whom God the Spirit
   dwells.” They built for themselves simple and modest houses of prayer, and
   refuges for the poor adjoining. There they sang no masses, and made no
   attempts to please the eye or charm the ear. “For Christ,” they said, “has
   promised, that where two or three are gathered together in His name, there
   is He;” and where He is, there is the solemn sense of His presence, and
   there is comfort, and strength, and joy.

   They ate together the Lord’s Supper, taking each one both the bread and the
   wine. They said that the Supper was a remembrance of Him who became the
   Bread of Life for His own, whose body was broken on the cross. And it should
   remind us also, said they, that we are all one body in Him, and that we
   should be ready to lay down our lives for the brethren, loving one another
   as He has loved us.

   As to confession, they said God alone can forgive sins, and needs no man by
   whom to transmit His forgiveness to another. He gives it Himself to the soul
   who comes to Him.

   And as to penance, Christ gave none, they said, to the sinful woman who was
   brought to Him. He said only to her, “Go, and sin no more.” And therefore
   they told not the sinners to whom they preached to do penance and to torment
   their bodies, for God needed none of these things, and if He saw that
   suffering would be for their good, He would send it them Himself. We may now
   go back to Dr. John Tauler and to the “Friend of God” who came to him.
     _________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER VIII

NICHOLAS TELLS HIS STORY TO DR. TAULER

   DR. TAULER was now convinced that Nicholas, though only a layman, knew some
   secret of the Lord which he himself had never known. So he said to Nicholas,
   “I pray thee, for God’s sake, to tell me how it is that thou hast attained
   to such a life. Tell me how thou didst begin thy spiritual life, and what
   has been thy history.”

   The man said, “That is indeed a request which I cannot fulfil. For I tell
   you truly, if I should recount, or write all the wondrous dealings of God
   with me, a poor sinner, for the last twelve years, I verily believe you have
   not a book large enough to contain it. However, I will tell you somewhat
   thereof for this time.”

   So the man went on to say how he had striven hard at first to bring his
   flesh into subjection, and that he had so great a desire to be saved, that
   he was ready to do anything at any cost, if only he knew what to do. And
   this desire he says, God found in his heart. But for a while he had no
   knowledge of the right way, and he thought that he should attain his end by
   ill treating his body.

   “The devil,” he said, “often stirs up a man to practise great austerities,
   with the intent that the man may grow sick and infirm thereby, or weak in
   his brain, or do himself some other injury. I will tell you,” he went on to
   say, “how it befell me in the beginning. I was reading the German books
   about the lives of the saints, when I thought to myself, ‘These were men who
   lived on this earth as well as I, and perhaps it is that they had not sinned
   as I have.’

   “Therefore because of my sins I began to practise some severities, but grew
   so sick thereby that I was brought to death’s door. And it came to pass one
   morning at break of day, I had been so chastising myself all night, that my
   eyelids closed from very weakness, and I fell asleep. And in my sleep it was
   as though a voice spoke to me and said, ‘Thou foolish man, if thou are bent
   upon killing thyself before thy time, thou wilt have to bear a heavy
   punishment. But if thou didst suffer God to exercise thee, He could exercise
   thee better than thou by thyself, or with the devil’s counsel.’

   “When I heard speak of the devil I awoke in a great fright, rose up, and
   walked out into a wood nigh to the town.

   “Then I thought within myself, ‘I will go to the old hermit who lives in the
   wood, and tell him all that has happened to me. And I did so, and told him
   the words I heard in my sleep, and besought him in God’s name to give me the
   best counsel he could.

   “So the hermit said, ‘Thou must know that if I am to advise, thou must first
   tell me all that thou hast done to thyself.’

   “So I did, and he said, ‘By whose counsel hast thou done these things?’

   “And I answered, ‘Of my own will.’

   “Then the hermit said, ‘Then know that it has been the devil’s counsel, and
   thou must not obey him any more as long as thou livest, but thou must give
   thyself up wholly to God. He can exercise thee much better than thou
   thyself, or the devil.’

   “Behold, dear Master, thereupon I ceased from these exercises, and yielded
   up myself and my doings altogether to God.

   “For the rest, dear sir, you must know that I was by nature a very clever,
   ingenious, kind-hearted man; but I had not the Scriptures in my hand, like
   you, but could only learn to know myself by my natural intelligence. And
   once upon a time, I thought within myself, ‘Thou hast such good
   understanding, it may be, if thou shouldst, give thy mind to it with all
   earnestness, thou couldst attain to comprehend somewhat of the things of
   God.’

   “But as this thought came into my head, I marked straightway that it was the
   devil’s counsel, and saw that it was all false.

   “So I said, ‘O thou evil spirit, what impure counsel hast thou put in my
   heart, thou bad, false counsellor! If we had such a god’ (he meant a god who
   could be understood by natural reason) ‘I would not give a berry for him!’

   “After that, another night, when I was saying my matins at three o’clock in
   the morning, an ardent longing came over me, so that I said, ‘O eternal and
   merciful God, would that it were Thy will to make known to me something that
   should be above all our sense and reason!’

   “As soon as I had said it, I was sorely affrighted at this great longing,
   and I said fervently, ‘Ah, my God and my Lord, forgive me of Thy boundless
   mercy for having done this, and that it should have entered into the heart
   of a poor worm like me, to desire such a great gift of such rich grace. I
   confess I have not lived as I ought to do. I confess, moreover, dear Lord,
   that I have been unthankful to Thee in all things, so that methinks I am not
   worthy that the earth should bear me, therefore my body must be punished for
   my sin.’”

   Then the man went on to relate, how in spite of the advice of the hermit, he
   “threw off his garments and scourged himself till the blood ran down his
   shoulders.”

   Poor heart of man! the Lord had indeed answered his prayer. He had showed
   him great and mighty things which till then he knew not — even the greatness
   of his sin — his unworthiness, and his guilt. He felt as Peter felt when he
   entreated the Lord to depart from him, for he was a sinful man.

   And yet the next thought in that heart into which the light had begun to
   break, was not the thought of Christ the Saviour, but the strange dark
   delusion that he must punish himself for his sin.

   In these days perhaps, the second thought would have taken a different
   shape. He would have said, “I must turn over a new leaf,” or “ I must attend
   to religion,” or “I must begin to live a useful life.”

   Let us not think that the heart of Nicholas was more benighted than ours
   have been — or are. You may say we have now higher thoughts of God — we
   should not suppose He would be pleased at the sight of a man scourging
   himself till the blood ran down. But to suppose that He can be pleased with
   any of our vain attempts to put away our sin, is an ignorance equally great.
   Our own religion, our feelings, our tears and prayers, and our works, are of
   as much value before God as the stripes which Nicholas laid upon his
   shoulders, and of no more. He had been taught in his day of one false way to
   heaven, and men have been taught since of many other ways equally false. But
   one true Way has through all the ages remained the same, unchanged and
   eternal. And in all ages those taught of God have found it, and passed in by
   that way into Paradise — Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Jesus
   only.

   Yet the Lord did not consider the unworthy thoughts that Nicholas had of
   Him. He knew the thoughts He had towards that poor benighted man, “thoughts
   of peace, and not of evil, to give him,” not “an expected end,” but an end
   far beyond all that he could expect or hope for.

   “In that same hour,” continued Nicholas, “as the day broke, and the blood
   was flowing down, in that same hour God showed His mercy upon me, so that my
   mind was filled with light and clearness. And in that same hour it seemed to
   me that my natural reason was gone from me, and I had an understanding far
   above it. The time seemed all too short to me. I saw that it was a
   supernatural and mighty wonder wrought by God, and I could have cried with
   S. Peter, ‘Lord, it is good for me to be here!’

   “Now know, dear sir, that in that self-same short hour I received more
   truth, and more illumination in my understanding, than all the teachers
   could ever teach me from now till the Judgment Day by word of mouth, and
   with all their natural learning and science. Now, dear Master, I have said
   enough at this time, as to how it stands with you.”

   Then said the Master, “If God should give thee grace to say still more, I
   should heartily rejoice in it, for I tell thee in all sincerity that I have
   listened to thee gladly, dear son. Now I beg thee, for God’s sake, do not
   leave me, but stay here, and if thou lack money I will not let thee want for
   anything, if I have to pledge a book for it.”

   Then said the man, “God reward you, dear sir — know that I need not your
   kindness, for God hath made me a steward of His goods, so that I have of
   earthly wealth 5000 florins, which are God’s. And if I knew where there was
   need of them, or where God would have them bestowed, I would give them
   away.”

   Then said the Master, “Dear son, thou art indeed the steward of a rich man
   and a great Lord!”
     _________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER IX

THE MASTER OWNS HIMSELF A SINNER

   AFTER this the Master said to Nicholas, “I am in great wonderment about that
   thou saidst, that I and all teachers could not teach thee as much by the Day
   of Judgment as thou hast been taught in an hour. Now tell me, for I wish to
   hear, has the Scripture proceeded from the Holy Ghost?”

   Nicholas was astonished at this question — he now saw that the Master was
   beginning to understand, for the first time, that there is a great power far
   above all the thoughts and reason of men, and that power is the Holy Ghost.

   “Sir,” he said, “it seems impossible to me, that after I had said so much to
   you, you should talk in such a childish fashion!” And he told the Master
   that were he to relate to him the wonders that he had seen, that were worked
   by the Holy Ghost, it would make such a long story that one might write a
   large book about it. “There was,” he said, “a heathen, who was a very
   kind-hearted man, and often cried to Him who had made, as he believed, both
   himself and all the world; and said, ‘O Creator of all creatures, I have
   been born in this land. Now the Jews have another faith, and the Christians
   another. O Lord, who are over all, and hast made all creatures, if there be
   now any faith better than that in which I have been born, or if there be any
   other better still, show it to me in what wise Thou wilt, so that I may
   believe it, and I will gladly obey Thee and believe.’ Now behold, dear sir,
   a letter was sent to that heathen, written by me, a poor sinner, in such
   sort that he came to the Christian faith, and he wrote me a letter back
   again, telling what had befallen him. Dear sir, can you instruct me how I
   should write to a heathen far away in a heathen land, in such fashion that
   the heathen should be able to read and understand it, and make the letter
   such that the heathen should come to the Christian faith?”

   Then said the Master, “Dear son, these are the works of the Holy Ghost. God
   is wonderful in all His works and gifts. Dear son, thou hast told me very
   strange things.”

   Then said the man, “Albeit I am unworthy of it, yet so did the Holy Ghost
   work through me, a poor sinner.”

   The man desired by this story to make the Master understand that wherever
   the truth of God is taught to the soul, it can only be by the power of the
   Holy Ghost. And that therefore the supernatural power of the Word of God is
   the proof that it is not the word of man, but that the Holy Ghost is the
   author of it. And the man also desired that the Master should see that this
   Word must be taught to the soul by the Spirit, for that the natural mind
   could neither produce the word, nor teach it, nor understand it.

   And Nicholas said further, “Dear sir, I fear that I have said some things to
   you which have vexed you greatly in your mind. It is because I am a layman,
   and you are a great doctor of Holy Scripture, and yet I have said so much to
   you after the manner of a teacher. But that I have meant it well and kindly,
   and sought your soul’s salvation in it, and simply the glory of God, and
   nothing else, of that God is my witness.”

   Then said the Master, “Dear son, if it will not make thee angry, I will tell
   thee what vexes me.”

   Then said the man, “Yea, dear sir, speak without fear. I promise not to take
   it amiss.”

   The Master said, “It amazes me greatly, and is very hard to receive, that
   thou being a layman, and I a priest, I am to take instruction from thee. And
   it also troubles me much that thou callest me a Pharisee.”

   Then said the man, “Is there nothing else that you cannot take in?”

   The Master answered, “No, I know of nothing else.”

   Then said the man, “Shall I also explain to you these two things?”

   He answered, “Yes, dear son, I pray thee in all kindness to do so, for
   God’s sake.”

   Then the man reminded the Master of a story which he had often heard, and
   which he fully believed. It was this — long ago, in ancient times, there was
   a young maiden, called Katherine, who was barely fourteen years old. But so
   marvellously did she speak of the things of God, that fifty great masters
   who heard her learnt by this means the blessed Gospel, and went willingly to
   martyrdom. “Who wrought this, dear sir?” said the man.

   Then said the Master, “The Holy Ghost did this.”

   Quoth the man, “Do you not believe that the Holy Ghost has still the same
   power?”

   “Yes,” said the Master, “I believe it fully.”

   Then said the man, “Wherefore then do you not believe that the Holy Ghost is
   speaking to you at this moment through me, a poor sinner and unworthy man,
   and is minded to speak to you? He spoke the truth through Caiaphas, who was
   also a sinner; and know, that since you take what I have said to you so much
   amiss, I will refrain from saying anything to you for the future.”

   Then said the Master, “Dear son, do not do that — I hope, if God will, to be
   the better for thy words.”

   The man said, “Ah, dear sir, it vexes you also that I should have called you
   a Pharisee, and yet I gave you such full proof of it that you could not deny
   it. But since this is not enough to content you, I must say still more, and
   prove to you once again that I am right, and that you are what I said. Dear
   Master, you know very well that our Lord Jesus Christ said Himself, ‘Beware
   of the Pharisees, for they bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and
   lay them on men’s shoulders. But they themselves will not move them with one
   of their fingers.’ Now, dear sir, look at yourself. In this sermon of yours
   you have bound and laid upon us twenty-four articles, and you keep few of
   them enough yourself.

   “Again: our Lord said, ‘Beware of the Pharisees: whatsoever they bid you
   observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works, for they say
   and do not.’”

   Quoth the Master, “Our Blessed Lord spoke these words to the men of His own
   day.”

   The man said, “Nay, but He speaks them still, now and evermore, to all. Dear
   Master, look at yourself. Whether you touch these burdens, and bear them in
   your life, is known to God, and also to yourself. But I confess, that as far
   as I can judge of your present condition, I would rather follow your words
   than your life. Only look at yourself, and see if you are not a Pharisee in
   the eyes of God; though not one of those false hypocritical Pharisees whose
   portion is in hellfire.”

   The Master said, “ I know not what to say. This I see plainly, that I am a
   sinner, and am resolved to better my life, if I die for it. Dear son, I
   cannot wait longer. I pray thee, simply for God’s sake, to counsel me how I
   shall set about this work, and show me and teach me how I may attain to the
   highest perfection that a man may reach on earth.”
     _________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER X

THE MASTER LEARNS HIS A. B. C.

   IT was plain, from these words, that the Master did not yet know that he was
   but a lost, dead sinner. He did not know that he needed, not to better his
   life, but to receive from God a new life which he could not give himself. He
   was still hoping so to cultivate the dead tree, that it should at last bear
   fruit.

   How far Nicholas could have put this truth into words, I know not. But the
   Lord directs the heart, and He puts His words into the mouth of those,
   however imperfectly taught, who look to Him for guidance.

   And thus, just as when the Lord replied to the rich young man, “If thou wilt
   enter into life, keep the commandments,” so did Nicholas reply to the
   Master.

   He said, “Dear sir, do not be wroth with me, but I tell you of a truth such
   counsel is scarcely to be given you; for if you are to be converted, all
   your wonted habits must be broken through with great pain, because you must
   altogether change your old way of life. And besides I take you to be near
   fifty years old.”

   Then said the Master, “It may be so; but, O dear son, to him, who came into
   the vineyard at the eleventh hour, was given his penny, the same as to him
   who came in at the first. I tell thee, dear son, I have well considered the
   matter and my heart is so firmly set, that if I knew this moment that I must
   die for it, I would yet, with the help of God, cease from my carnal life,
   and my earthly reasonings, and live according to thy counsel. I beseech
   thee, for God’s sake, not to keep me longer waiting but to tell me this
   moment how I must begin.”

   Yes, to begin a work! To begin to build the tower whose top was to reach to
   heaven! To wash and mend the foul and ragged garment, and make of it a dress
   fit for the courts of the King, whilst he who was to wear it had no place
   within those courts, even could he have cleansed it and made it new!

   Then answered the man, “Dear sir, because through the grace of God you are
   willing to humble yourself and submit yourself to a poor, mean, unworthy
   creature; for all this let us give the glory to God, to whom it is due, for
   this grace proceeds from Him, and flows back to Him. Since then, dear sir, I
   am to instruct you, and counsel you in God’s name, I will look to Him for
   help and do so for love of Him. And I will set you a task such as they give
   children to begin with at school, namely the four-and-twenty letters of the
   alphabet, beginning with A.”

   And Nicholas wrote down for the Master one of the alphabets of practice
   which were used by the Waldenses from ancient times.

   This Alphabet had no pretence to be the Gospel. It was simply a set of rules
   which were taught to young Christians relating to their daily conduct. Good
   and wise rules, and taken from the Bible.

   It is perplexing to find, that in many of the oldest printed accounts of Dr.
   Tauler’s conversion, one rule in this Alphabet stands as follows: “Ye shall
   evermore, without ceasing, beseech our lady that she help you to learn this
   our lesson well.” But a far older MS. account reads thus, “Ye shall beseech
   our lady that He help you, &c.” And the word “lady” is evidently written
   over the true word, “Lord.” “Fronen” (in old German, Lord) could easily be
   turned into “Frowen” (lady), but the unfaithful scribe overlooked the
   pronoun following, which tells the tale of the original text.

   The master looked ruefully at the little Alphabet.

   “Now, dear sir,” said Nicholas, “take kindly this child’s task of the A. B.
   C.”

   Then said the Master, “However thou mayest call this a child’s task,
   methinks it needs a man’s strength to attack it.

   “Letter A. ‘After a manly, and not a childish sort, ye shall with thorough
   earnestness begin a good life.’

   “Letter B. ‘Bad ways ye shall hate, and practise all goodness with
   diligence, and with full purpose of heart.’

   “Tell me now, dear son,” continued the Master sadly, “how long a time wilt
   thou give me to learn this lesson?” The man answered, “We will take five
   weeks, in honour of the five wounds of Christ, that you may learn it
   well.”

   To what purpose were the five wounds of Christ, if men could inherit eternal
   life, by making rules and keeping them? We should perhaps have put the
   Gospel, clearly, as now we know it before the Master at once. But Nicholas
   perceived that the Master had first to learn his need of it. It was well
   that he should find even the children’s Alphabet too much for him.

   It was well that the Master should be thus reminded, that it was not by his
   own work but by the work of another, that life was to be won. But the Master
   did not understand, for his eyes were holden, and he thought only like one
   of old, “What good thing shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life?”

   So the man proceeded, and said “You shall be your own schoolmaster, and when
   you are not perfect in any one of these letters, and think yourself hardly
   able to learn it, then cast aside your garment, and chastise your body, that
   it may be brought to submit to your soul and reason.” And the Master
   replied, “I will gladly be obedient.”

   So the man went his way, and at the end of three weeks he went again to the
   Master, and he said, “Dear sir, how goes it with you?” The Master said,
   “Dear son, thou must know that I have received more stripes in these three
   weeks about your lesson, than I ever did in all my days before.”

   Then said the man, “Sir, you well know that no man giveth his pupil a new
   task before he have learnt the first lines.”

   Then said the Master, “If I said that I knew them, I should say what is not
   true.”

   Then said the man, “Dear sir, go on as you are doing till you know your
   lesson right well.”

   At the end of another three weeks the Master sent for Nicholas, and said to
   him, “Dear son, rejoice with me, for I think, with God’s help, I could say
   the first line. And if thou art willing, I will repeat over the whole lesson
   to thee.”

   “No, dear sir,” said the man, “I will gladly rejoice with you, and take your
   word for it that you know it.”

   Then the Master assured Nicholas that it had been a hard task, and he prayed
   him now to teach him further.

   Then answered the man, “I can for myself teach you nothing further, but if
   so be that God willeth to teach you through me, I will gladly do my part,
   and be an instrument in the Lord’s hand by which He may work out His
   purposes.

   “Hearken, dear Master, I will counsel you in godly love, and brotherly
   faithfulness.

   “If it should happen to you as to the young man in the Gospel, to whom our
   Lord said, ‘Go and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come
   and follow Me,’ I will not be answerable.”

   Then said the Master, “Dear son, have no fears on that score, for I have
   already left all that I have, and with God’s help, am resolved to go
   forward, and be obedient unto God, and unto thee.”

   Then Nicholas perceived that the Master had only grown more proud, and
   satisfied with himself. And he saw that to humble himself, would be like the
   task which the Lord put before the young man who was bent upon gaining for
   himself eternal life.

   Therefore he told the Master that he must needs first of all be willing not
   to do, but to suffer; not to fill his treasury with his own works, but to
   empty it of all things.

   That he must be content to be despised and hated, even by his brethren, and
   that he must let go his proud and ingenious reason, and that he must cease
   his studies and his preaching.

   And should any come to him to confess their sins, he should only say to
   them, “I will learn how to counsel myself, and when I can do that I will
   also counsel you.”

   “And if,” he continued, “you are asked when you will preach, say, as you can
   with truth, that you have not time at present, and so you will get rid of
   the people.”

   The Master said, “Dear son, I will willingly do so, but how then shall I
   occupy myself?”

   Nicholas replied that he should sit in his cell, and read his book of
   prayers, and also go to services if he felt inclined.

   “And,” he said further, “what time is left, you shall set before you the
   sufferings of our Lord, and look at yourself in the mirror of His holy life
   and meditate on your wasted time, in which you have been living for
   yourself, and how small has been your love, compared to His love.”

   And Nicholas also said that when the Lord saw that the time was come, He
   would make of the Master a new man, that he should be born again of God.

   For Nicholas saw that the Master could as yet only come to God as rich and
   increased with goods, and thus be sent empty away. He would have to be
   hungry, and thirsty, and poor, before he could be filled with good things.

   All worldly honour, Nicholas told him, he would have to renounce, all that
   in his carnal pride he called his own, all the pleasure and delight he had
   taken in himself, and he would have to fall down, like the sinful woman, at
   the feet of Christ.

   “And then,” he said, “the Lord will put you to the test, that you may be
   tried and purified as gold and He shall give you to drink of the bitter cup
   of suffering and persecution that He gave to His beloved Son. And one bitter
   drop of this cup,” he went on to say, “will be, in my belief, that all your
   good works and refraining from evil will be despised and turned to nought in
   the eyes of the people. Those who learnt from you heretofore will forsake
   you, and think you are gone out of your mind, and your good friends and
   brethren will be offended, and say that you have taken to strange ways. When
   this happens, dear sir, be not dismayed, but rejoice, for woe be unto us
   when all men speak well of us. I see well, for the Lord shows it me, how you
   are thinking in your heart that I have said very hard things to you, and
   this is why I begged you beforehand to let me go, and I told you that if you
   went back like that young man, I would not have it laid to my charge.”

   The Master said, “Thou sayest truly. I confess it does seem to me a hard
   thing to follow your counsel.”

   For the Master had just been rejoicing that by means of the Alphabet, he had
   added somewhat to “those things that were gain to him,” and now must he
   count them all as loss? as dress and dung, and be nothing before God and
   man?

   Yet he determined that he would try even this, and that he would set to work
   again with greater earnestness, and with fuller purpose of heart than
   before.

   On the eleventh day after this, he sent again for Nicholas. He told him he
   had had great agony and struggle, and fighting by day and by night, against
   the flesh and the Devil. “But, by God’s grace,” he said, “I am purposed to
   remain steadfast in this work, come weal, come woe.”

   He also told Nicholas that the moment he had left him eleven days before, he
   had written down carefully all that Nicholas had told him, word for word.

   Nicholas said he was rejoiced that the Master was so bold and steadfast.

   “And now” he said, “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, set forward.”

   And so saying the man took his leave, and the Master began his work afresh
   in good earnest.
     _________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER XI

HOW IT FARED FURTHER WITH THE MASTER

   NOW it came to pass that before a year was out, it happened to him as
   Nicholas had foretold.

   He grew to be despised of his familiar friends, and his spiritual children
   all forsook him, as entirely as if they had never seen him. And this he
   found very hard to bear, and it caused him such grief that his head was like
   to turn.

   Then he sent for Nicholas, and told him how it fared with him, how he was
   ill in his whole body, and especially in his head.

   Then said the man, “Sir, you must not be dismayed, but you must put your
   firm trust in God, and commit yourself wholly to Him. Know that this account
   of yours pleases me well. The same thing happened to me also. Meanwhile, you
   must take some remedies while you are in this state, and treat your body
   well with good food which may strengthen it. A box of spices was made for
   me, and I will have such an one prepared for you, to strengthen your
   head.”

   Then said the Master, “But thou didst tell me before, that I must shun good
   eating and drinking.” The man answered, “Yes, sir, but when the body is
   sick, we may come to its help with remedies, else we should tempt God. Dear
   sir, commit yourself to God, and wait for His grace to show you what He will
   have you to do, whether it be bitter or sweet. Further, I beseech you, for
   God’s sake, not to take it amiss of me, but I must go home on account of a
   very important matter. But if so be that you could not or would not do
   without me, send into the town for me, and I will gladly come; but if you
   can bear up without the aid of any creature, that would be best of all for
   you.”

   Then said the Master, “Dear son, say not so, for I cannot and would not do
   without thee for any length of time — it would be hard indeed if thou didst
   forsake me, for then I should have no consolation left in the world.”

   The man said, “Dear sir, I will show you a better Comforter, that is the
   Holy Ghost. I have but served Him in the work that I have done for you. It
   is His work, and not mine.” So the Master answered, “Dear son, may God be
   your eternal reward! I will commit myself to God, and bear this suffering as
   best I may.

   Then the man advised the Master to take care of his body, and not let it
   suffer from want of needful things.

   “But,” he said, “if you lack money, do not sell your books, for you may need
   them in time to come.”

   Then the man took his leave, and departed from that place, but the Master’s
   eyes filled with tears, and he began to weep.
     _________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER XII

JESUS OF NAZARETH PASSETH BY

   TWO years passed by. Two years of sadness and sorrow for Dr. Tauler. He had
   sore temptations and assaults of the Devil, and his friends forsook and
   despised him, and he ceased to preach and to labour; and he fell into great
   poverty, so that he was obliged to pledge a part of his books.

   Moreover he fell into great weakness of body, and continual sorrow of heart.
   He had lost all in which he once trusted, and all that had made him to be
   somewhat, and he had at last come to this, that he owned with bitter tears,
   “I am wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”

   One night, it was at the time known to Dr. Tauler as the “Feast of S.
   Paul’s Conversion,” he was as it were struck down by the assaults of Satan
   and the despair of his own heart, and he was thereby so overcome with
   weakness of body, that when the time came for morning service, he could not
   go to the chapel, but remained in his cell, and cast himself simply and
   humbly upon the Lord, without help or consolation in himself, or in any
   other creature.

   And as he lay weak and exhausted after his sleepless night, he thought of
   Jesus.

   He remembered the bitter sufferings of the Lord because of His great love
   that He had for us.

   And he considered his own life, how poor his life had been — for he compared
   it with the love of God. Whereupon he was overcome with bitter sorrow for
   all his sins and his wasted time, and he exclaimed with his tongue and
   heart, “O merciful God, have mercy upon me, a poor sinner, for Thy boundless
   mercy’s sake, for I am not worthy that the earth should bear me!”

   And as he lay there, thus weak and stricken down with sorrow, but fully
   awake, he heard as it were a voice speaking to him and saying, “Trust in
   God, and be at peace, and know that when He was on earth as a man, He made
   the sick, whom He healed in body, sound also in soul.”

   Straightway when these words were spoken to him, he lost his senses and
   reason, and knew not how or where he was. But when he came to himself again,
   he was filled as it were with a new strength and might in all his being, and
   those things which aforetime were dark to him were now clear to him.

   Then thought he to himself, “How is it that this has come to me? I cannot
   come to the bottom of this matter. I will send for my friend, and tell him
   all that has happened.”

   So he sent for the man, and when he was come, the Master told him all that
   had befallen him. Then the man said, “It rejoices me from the bottom of my
   heart to hear all that you have told me.

   “Dear sir, you must know that you have now, for the first time, received the
   true and mighty gift of God’s grace.

   “And I tell you of a truth, that now, for the first time, your soul has been
   touched by the Most High.

   “And know that the letter which has slain you, also maketh you alive again,
   for it has now reached your heart in the power of the Holy Ghost. Your
   teaching will now come from the Holy Ghost, which before came from the
   flesh.

   “For you have now received the light of the Holy Spirit by the grace of God,
   and the Scriptures which you already know will now be made clear to you, for
   you will have an insight that you never had before.”

   To many who read this, it may seem that Nicholas spoke with undue
   confidence. For we are so accustomed in these days to speak of salvation,
   and of conversion, in the clear and definite language of the Bible, that we
   should have no doubt enquired more fully what truth it was, that the doctor
   had believed. Had he a clear knowledge of the atoning work of Christ?

   But conversion, the blessed work of God, is none the less conversion, in the
   case of those who are too ignorant to describe it. And yet those who have
   themselves known it in their own experience, will be able to see where this
   great miracle has been truly wrought, however imperfectly described. The
   Master had believed in Jesus, and in Jesus only, as the Healer of his sick
   soul, and like the blind man in the Gospel of John, who knew even less of
   the Person of the Lord than did the Master, he could say, “One thing I know,
   whereas I was blind, now I see.” Nicholas knew that further light would
   follow, and it is often wiser to leave it to God to work, than to say much
   ourselves.

   And it is a glorious proof of the reality of the great work of conversion,
   when we see that it is not merely an assent to a statement of truth, but a
   Divine act, beyond the understanding of him upon whom it is wrought, and in
   all cases a revelation to the soul, of Jesus, as the only Saviour.

   “For, as you know,” continued Nicholas, “the Scripture sounds in many places
   as if it contradicted itself, but now that you have, by the grace of God,
   the illumination of the Holy Spirit you will perceive that all Scripture has
   the same intent. You will now understand that it does not contradict itself.

   “And you will also be able rightly to follow the ensample of the Lord Jesus.
   You ought now to begin to preach again, and to show to others the right path
   to eternal life. And know that now, one of your sermons will be more
   profitable than a hundred aforetime, and the people will receive more fruit
   therefrom.

   “But it will be most especially needful that you keep yourself humble, for
   you know well that he who carries a great treasure exposed to view, must
   ever be on his guard against thieves.

   “I tell you truly, the Devil is in great terror when he perceives that God
   has bestowed on any man the noble and precious treasure of His grace, and
   the devils will set all their arts and wisdom to work, to rob you of this
   costly gift. Wherefore look wisely to your goings.

   “Now, dear sir, it is no longer needful for me to speak to you as a teacher,
   as I have done hitherto, for you have now the right and true Teacher, whose
   instrument I have been. To Him give ear, and obey Him in all things.

   “And now, in all godly love, I desire to receive instruction from you, and I
   would fain, if God will, sojourn here a good while and hear you preach. If
   God give you to do so, methinks it were well that you should now begin to
   preach again.”

   Then the Master said, “Dear son, I would fain therefore get back some of my
   books, for I have pledged as many good books as come to thirty florins.”

   The man answered, “Look! I will give you that sum, for God’s sake, and if
   you have any of it left over, give it back to God, for all that we have is
   His, whether temporal or spiritual.”

   So the Master redeemed his books, and gave notice that he would preach again
   three days after.

   The people wondered much thereat, because it was so long since he had
   preached, and a great crowd gathered together to hear him.

   And when the Master came and saw that there was such a multitude, he went up
   into a high pulpit, that they might hear him all the better. Then he held
   his hood before his eyes, and said —

   “O merciful, eternal God, if it be Thy will, give me so to speak that it may
   be to the praise and glory of Thy Name, and the good of this people.”

   As he said these words, his eyes overflowed with tears of tenderness, so
   that he could not speak a word for weeping, and this lasted so long that the
   people grew angry. At last a man spoke out of the crowd, and said, “Sir, how
   long are we to stand here? It is getting late; if you do not mean to preach,
   let us go home.”

   But the Master remained in earnest prayer, and said again to God, “O my
   Lord, and my God, if it be Thy Divine will, take this weeping from my eyes,
   and give me to deliver this sermon to Thy praise and glory. But if Thou dost
   not do it, I take it as a sign that Thou judgest I have not yet been enough
   put to shame. Now fulfil, dear Lord, Thy Divine will as to me Thy poor
   creature, to Thy praise, and my necessities.” This all availed nothing; he
   wept yet more and more.

   Then he saw that God would have it so, and said with weeping eyes, “Dear
   children, I am sorry from my heart that I have kept you here so long, for I
   cannot speak a word to-day for weeping; pray God for me, that He may help
   me, and then I will make amends to you, if God give me grace, another time,
   as soon as ever I am able.”

   So the people departed, and this tale was spread abroad, and resounded
   through the whole city, so that he became everywhere a laughing-stock,
   despised by all.

   And the people said, “Now we see that he has become a downright fool!”

   And his own brethren strictly forbade him to preach any more, because he did
   the convent great injury thereby, and disgraced the order with the senseless
   practices that he had taken up, and which had disordered his brain.

   Then the Master sent for the man, and told him all that had happened. The
   man said, “Dear Master, be of good cheer, and be not dismayed at these
   things. The Bridegroom is wont to behave so, to all His best and dearest
   friends, and it is a certain sign that God is your good Friend, for without
   a doubt, He has seen some speck of pride concealed within you, that you have
   not perceived, nor found out in the secret places of your heart. And
   therefore it is that you have been put to shame. It may be that some great
   gifts of God are to be given you, by means of this disgrace, for patience is
   needful to us that we may be perfect and entire. Therefore we must learn to
   suffer. Be of good cheer then, and be joyful and humble. Neither should you
   think this a strange thing, for I have seen many such instances in other
   people. Do not, I beseech you, despise this cross which God has sent you,
   but count it a great blessing and favour from God.”

   We can ourselves see in this true story, the blessed Hand of God, holding
   back the Master awhile from preaching, in order that he might the better
   learn his message. For the Master as yet knew more of the great change that
   was wrought in him, than of Him who wrought it, nor could he have preached
   the Gospel clearly, whilst his own feelings, rather than Christ Himself,
   were uppermost in his mind. It is often thus with the soul at first, and the
   Lord has patience, and leads us on from the knowledge of the sin-offering,
   to the knowledge of the burnt-offering — from our first sight of Christ as
   the Saviour, to the blessed knowledge of Himself.

   And the man further counselled the Master, that he should wait in silence
   for five days, and that he should then ask the Prior of the convent to
   permit him to read a lecture to the brethren.

   And he did so, and he then read to the monks such a lecture as they had
   never heard in their lives before, so grand and deep and godly was his
   doctrine. Then they gave him permission to preach a sermon.

   And after one of the monks had preached in the church where the Master was
   wont to preach, he gave notice to the people, and said, “I am ordered to
   announce that to-morrow the Master intends to preach in this place; but if
   it should befall him as it did lately, I will not be answerable for it. So
   much I can say with truth, that in our school he has read us a lecture
   containing such great and profound instruction, with high and divine wisdom,
   as we have not heard for a long time. But what he will do this time I know
   not; God only knoweth.”

   The next day after, the Master came to this church (which was the church of
   a convent of ladies), and began to preach, and of his sermon you shall hear
   anon.
     _________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER XIII

THE SERMON TO THE NUNS

   BEFORE relating the history of the Master’s sermon, it is needful to say a
   few words without which many might be perplexed and misled. In our days,
   God, in His wonderful grace and love, has poured out a flood of Gospel light
   upon His Church, whose history has been so sad and humbling. To us is
   preached clearly, as perhaps never before since the days of the apostles,
   the blessed tidings of the work done for lost sinners by the Son of God.

   We are told, as the Israelites were told by a sign in the wilderness, that
   looking up to Jesus, to Him who was made sin for us, to Him who took our
   place on the cross of judgment, we receive eternal life. We are told that by
   the work done for us long ago, we are saved from eternal death, from
   judgment and from sin. We are told that when the sword of the Lord smote the
   Shepherd, it was the judgment of God upon our sins, and that from the moment
   we believe in Him, we are stainless, spotless, and holy in the eyes of God.

   But our forefathers in the days of Dr. Tauler were like men in a dense fog
   of error and of ignorance. It was not by Gospel teaching, but in spite of
   evil teaching, that some, we may hope many, saw dimly through the mists and
   shadows the Saviour who loved them, and who gave Himself for them. They
   could scarcely have given a truly scriptural answer to any who asked a
   reason of the hope that was in them, but they knew the Lord as an infant
   knows its mother, and alas for us! we find that in many a case their love
   was deeper, and their confidence stronger, than in us their children.

   When the Lord spoke to Dr. Tauler on the night which he described to
   Nicholas, he knew it was the Lord. He knew that a Hand had touched him and
   had healed him, and now to him all things were made new. For whom had he now
   in Heaven but Christ, and whom could he desire on earth in comparison with
   Him? And now that he had seen Him, and heard His voice, he abhorred himself,
   and repented in dust and ashes. It was not with him as with many now, that
   his first thought was the joy that he was saved from hell. Rather was it a
   thought of sorrow, that in the face of such love, such grace, such
   tenderness, the people of God could be as he saw them all around, and most
   of all as he saw himself to be.

   We know that in Peter’s life was a moment such as this. And to the Master it
   was at first much more clear that the Lord’s love was unrequited and lightly
   esteemed, than that by the power and value of the atoning Blood all guilt
   was once and for ever washed away from the souls of His own beloved people.

   We must remember also, that the nuns in the convent, to whom the Master was
   to preach, were not in his eyes, as in ours, poor misguided women, who were
   building up a tower of their own righteousness, and neglecting their natural
   duties. On the contrary, the Master really in his heart regarded them as
   persons who had professedly chosen the better part, and who belonged to God
   accordingly, in a special manner.

   And yet at the same time the contrast between their profession and their
   practice had grieved him to the heart. They called themselves the Brides of
   Christ — but now that the Master’s eyes were opened to see in any measure
   what was due to his beloved Saviour, he felt that the need for these poor
   women was a call to repentance — a solemn questioning of themselves, whether
   in heart and life they were fit for Him whom they called their Bridegroom.

   In his last years the Master had a dear friend, who wrote a book, of which
   more will be said hereafter. He writes his own experience of the popes and
   cardinals, the priests and bishops, the monks and nuns. “So also the
   nuns,” he says, “they are helpful to none, on account of their ungodly and
   careless walk. They have forgotten all godly seriousness. They sing and they
   pray with their mouths, but their hearts are far from God. And if they see
   any who desire earnestly to turn to God, they mock at such persons, and
   despise them. And though, because they live in convents, they are called
   spiritual persons by the world, by God they are called the enemies of the
   Lord, for they drive Him from their midst by their ungodly ways. And some
   are ensnared by covetousness, and some by pride, and some by evil temper,
   and some by self-will, and some by impurity. And they love the creature more
   than the Creator, with an inordinate affection, and are impure in their
   language, and wear costly garments, and live in worldly pride, and love
   worldly persons. And they live in secret sins, whereof it is better not to
   write; but should they read these words, they will know full well of what I
   speak.”

   And thus were the hearts of God’s dear people grieved and perplexed, at the
   sight of the high profession and the godless life.

   And when the Master was called to preach in the Church of the Convent, his
   heart was full of that which the Lord delighted to see in those espoused to
   Him, and it was this contrast to themselves, which he desired the nuns to
   see, if by these means they might be brought to repentance.

   Could he but show them Christ, and His path of rejection, and shame, and
   suffering; could he but show them the joy of the blessed meeting, when the
   Bride shall be presented without stain or spot to the Lord who loved her,
   when the marriage of the Lamb shall come, and the Bridegroom shall rejoice
   over the Bride; would they not turn to Him from the vain world they loved,
   and humble themselves before Him?

   So the Master gave out his text in the vulgar tongue, and it was this:
   “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him.” “The Bridegroom,” he
   said, “is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Bride is the Holy Church of all
   Christian people.” And he proceeded to say how unfit, alas! are most of
   those who profess the name of Christ, to meet the Bridegroom of the Church.
   “The true paths, and the straight highways,” he said, “are now-a-days quite
   deserted, and fallen into decay, till we have come hardly to perceive where
   they are. Nay, this highway is to many quite strange and unknown, so that
   they do not go out to meet the Bridegroom, for they know not how to find
   Him.”

   And the Master said also that there are many who call the Lord their
   Bridegroom, and yet they are delighting in things which are displeasing to
   Him, and unfit for Him. The world, with the vain glory and pride and envy
   thereof, and the delights of the flesh, ease and self-indulgence, and riches
   and pleasures, have taken the place of Christ in the hearts of those who are
   called by His name. The Bride, he said, when she is well-pleasing in the
   eyes of the Bridegroom will have learnt to despise all these things, and she
   will earnestly beseech Him to show her that which is pleasing in His eyes.
   And He will teach her how to walk so as to please Him in all her ways, and
   they will not be ways of ease and pleasure, but in the footsteps of the
   Bridegroom — in ways of sorrow, and suffering, and humiliation, and He will
   give her the great and costly cup to drink, of shame, and persecution, and
   contempt and dishonour.

   “And He will give her a humble spirit, so that she will not be pleased with
   herself for her self-denial, nor her endurance, nor anything that is her
   own, nor satisfy herself with her own works and sufferings; but find her
   satisfaction and delight in her Bridegroom only. And He will bring her to
   see, in herself, nothing but unworthiness, so that she will say in her
   heart, ‘I am not worthy that the earth should bear me.’

   “And when she is thus emptied of herself, and filled with His love, so that
   she is willing and glad to suffer all things for His sake, He will yet leave
   her for a while in temptations, and tribulations, and He will cleanse her by
   the washing of water by His precious word, and at last the time cometh that
   He beholds her fair and pure, even without spot or wrinkle, having been
   cleansed by Him till all stain is washed away, and she is fair and unspotted
   in His eyes.

   “Then doth He say, ‘Now rise up, my beloved, my pleasant, my beautiful
   Bride, for thou art pure, and without spot, and altogether lovely.’ And He
   looketh upon her with infinite, mighty, divine love.

   “To this joyful high-tide cometh the Father of the Eternal Bridegroom, and
   saith to the Bride, ‘Rise up! my lovely one, chosen and beloved, for the
   time of the marriage is come.’

   “And He taketh the Bridegroom and the Bride, and marries them to each other,
   and binds them together with divine love. Yea God doth bind them together in
   bonds so fast that they can never be parted, in time or eternity.

   “And on this great day of His espousals, the Bridegroom sheds forth by the
   Holy Ghost the torrent of divine love upon the Bride, and this love flows
   out unto the Bridegroom, insomuch that the Bride loseth herself, and is
   intoxicated with love, so that she forgets herself and all creatures also,
   and beholdeth the Bridegroom only.” We must not suppose that the Master was
   here speaking of the marriage of the Church with Christ in the future glory.
   It was rather the soul of each believer which he had in his mind, as being
   each one espoused to Christ the Bridegroom. And the wedding-feast of which
   here he speaks, is the joy which he had now tasted for the first time, and
   which he desired for others. “In whom, though now we see Him not, yet
   believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.” It was to
   this present blessed feast that the Master had entered in, and of the
   fulness of his heart his mouth spake. Would that all amongst us knew it as
   richly and as fully!

   “Now,” continued the Master, “he only who is bidden to such a spiritual,
   glorious marriage-feast, and has obeyed the call, does for the first time
   perceive and taste the real, true, blessed, gracious sweetness of the Holy
   Spirit.

   “And this Bride is a true worshipper, for she worshippeth the Father in the
   Holy Spirit. In this marriage-feast is joy upon joy, and there is therein
   more peace and joy in one hour, than all the creatures can yield in time or
   in eternity. The joy that the Bride hath with the Bridegroom is so
   measureless, that no senses or reason can apprehend it or find it.”

   As the Master spake these words, a man cried out with a loud voice, “It is
   true!” and fell down as if he were dead.

   Then a woman called out from the crowd, and said, “Master, leave off, or
   this man will die on our hands.”

   Then the Master said, “Ah, dear children, and if the Bridegroom take the
   Bride and lead her home with Him, we will gladly yield her to Him,
   nevertheless I will make an end, and leave off. Dear children, let us all
   cry unto the Lord our God in Heaven. And indeed verily we have all need so
   to do, seeing that, alas! our hearts are dull and foolish, and there are few
   who are willing to fight their way against the flesh, and follow the
   Bridegroom, in order to reach a nobler joy, and a glorious wedding-feast. It
   behoveth therefore each one to look at himself, and consider his ways with
   great earnestness. For the time is at hand — nay, it is already come — when
   it may be said of most who are now living here, that ‘they have eyes and see
   not, and ears and hear not.’

   “Dear children, let us all strive to enter into this wedding-feast, most
   rich in joy, and honour, and blessedness.”

   And then as the Master ended, and was to come down again to the path through
   the wilderness below, he said —

   “See, when the Bride has to come back for a while from the festival