me, Thy poor creature, to Thy praise and my necessities." But he wept yet more and more. Then he turned to the congregation and said: "Dear children, I am sorry from my heart that I have kept you here so long, for I cannot speak 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.

The people departed, and the tale spread all through Strasburg: "Now we all see that he has become a downright fool." The monks were so enraged that they strictly forbad him to preach any more, because, they said, he did the Convent great injury, and disgraced their Order. Then came Nicolas to his comfort: "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. It is a certain sign that God is your good friend, for without doubt He has seen some speck of pride concealed within you that you have not perceived. After five days ask the Prior to give you permission to deliver a lecture in Latin in the school to the brethren." Tauler did so, and the monks declared they never heard such an excellent lecture in their lives, and gave him permission to preach again. After a service in the church one of the monks gave the following notice to the people:-"I am ordered to announce that tomorrow Doctor Tauler 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 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 Tauler preached from the text :"Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet

Him," saying, "He only who is bidden to such a spiritual glorious feast, and has obeyed the call, does for the first time perceive and taste the real, true, blessed sweetness of the Holy Spirit. In this feast is joy upon joy, and therein is more peace and joy in one hour than all created things can yield thee in time or eternity." As the Doctor spoke 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." When the sermon was over, Nicolas of Basle found no less than forty persons remaining sitting or lying about in the churchyard, perfectly overcome with the power that had accompanied the discourse. Twelve of these seemed as though stricken, and, as Nicolas went and touched one after another of them, they lay as if they were dead, and scarcely moved. Tauler knew not what to make of it, and said to Nicolas, "Dear son, what dost thou think we had best do with these people? Are they alive or dead?" Nicolas had been among such scenes before, and recommended that they be kept warm, and have something warm given them to drink, and that the ladies of the Convent should take them into their cloisters lest some harm come to them by lying in the open air on the cold earth. The ladies of the Convent said, "Dear sir, we have a nun here to whom the same thing has happened, and she is lying on her bed as if she were dead." "Be patient," replied Tauler, "and take care of them all in Christ's name." Nicolas repaired with Tauler to his cell and said, “Now, dear master, you may see what wonders God works with fit tools."

The multitude came time after time to hear Tauler preach. The revival spread far and wide; many turned from their sins and came to live a holy life. These cases of utter prostration did not continue, but the

work of the Spirit deepened among the people of the city.

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These Friends of God" were not idlers, but men of great activity; some of them were almost constantly travelling about Europe, and keeping up intercourse with each other. "The Friends of God," says Tauler,

profess to be unlike the world's friends, but this does not make them into a sect." "Our Lord said to His disciples, Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends.' The henceforth' that He spoke was from the time that they had forsaken all things and followed Him. Then were they His friends and not servants; therefore, he who would be a true Friend of God must leave all things and follow after Christ." "But some are striving after a false freedom, and, on pretext of following the inward light, follow only the inclinations of their own nature."

Again, he says, "One can spin, another can make shoes, others have great aptness for the arts, and all these are gifts proceeding from the Spirit of God. If I were a layman I should take it as a great favour that I knew how to make shoes, and should try to make them better than anyone else, and would gladly earn my bread by the labour of my hands. It is not your work that gives you disquiet, it is your want of order and method in following your work." "Wherever you see the aged, the sick, the helpless, you should run to their assistance, and strive to fulfil the works of love, each helping the other to bear his burden. Works of love are more acceptable to God than lofty contemplation. Art thou engaged in devoutest prayer, and God wills that thou go out and preach, or carry broth to a sick brother, thou shouldst do it with joy.' "I know a man who has the closest walk with God of any I ever saw, and who has been all his life a husbandman, for more than forty years, and is so still. This man once asked the Lord in prayer if he should

give up his occupation and go into the Church, and it was answered him, 'No; he should labour, earning his bread by the sweat of his brow, to the glory of Christ's precious blood, shed for him.' But let each choose some suitable time in the course of every fourand-twenty hours, in which he can give his whole mind to earnest meditation."

"St. Gregory says, 'The Holy Ghost is an admirable Master-Workman. He fills a fisherman and makes him a preacher. He fills a persecutor and transforms him into a teacher of the Gentiles. He fills a publican and makes him an evangelist. Who is this MasterWorkman? He needs not time for His teachings, by whatever means He chooses, so soon as He has touched the soul, He has taught it.' But put on as many cowls and hoods as thou wilt, they will help thee nothing, if thou doest not right. Yea, a man may put on a cowl, but not give up his sin. Therefore, take heed to yourselves, knowing how full the world is of such bargainers with God."

While Tauler thus strenuously pleaded for personal holiness as necessary and attainable, he realised the dangers of the Beghards, who, while calling themselves "Beholders of God," were professing to leave all to the working of the Holy Spirit, and giving themselves up to vacant contemplation and idle self-indulgence.

He says of them, "They think they are free from sin, but they may be known by the carnal peace which they have through their emptiness. They think this emptiness so noble a thing that they give not praise or thanks to God, or pray for anything. They think that they are poor in spirit, and that if they were to work, God's operation within them would be hindered, so they sit inactive, and absolutely quiet, and exercise themselves in no good work or virtue. They hold that everything whereunto they are inwardly impelled proceeds from the Holy Spirit; but in this

they are false. For the Holy Spirit never works unprofitable things in a man, or such as are contrary to the life of Christ or Holy Scripture. They may be known by their stubborn self-will, they will not give up one tittle of their own way. Now no man can rest in God without the love of God. No man can serve God without praise and thankfulness. Man must work with God. Through the power of God man has his own work to perform, in nature, in grace, and in glory."

Tauler had a friend in Strasburg of the name of Rulman Merswin. He was a wealthy banker and money-changer, who "always conducted his business with great fear of God before his eyes, and with scrupulous honesty. He was of a merry and pleasant temper, and had at the first an exceedingly beautiful and sweet young wife. But in a short time she died and Rulman took to himself another wife, the daughter of a pious knight. When they had lived many years together, and he was forty years old and God saw not fit to give him a child by either wife, he turned with his whole heart to God, gave up his trade, and forsook the world, and led a single life henceforward, with the will and consent of his wife, who was an honourable simple-minded Christian woman.”

The diary of the inner life of such a man is instructive, and though we may not incline to tread in his footsteps, we cannot but reverence the earnestness with which he strove to follow every indication of what he thought were the leadings of the Spirit.

Here is a specimen of it as Rulman opens upon the reader:-"In the name of God, Amen! All ye dear Christian men, I give you truly to know that in the year of the Lord 1347, it came to pass that I, Rulman Merswin, renounced all my traffic and gains, and moreover all natural pleasant companionship.'

Having scourged himself severely for his sins, he