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forever before God, and in Him ye shall find the fruit thereof; that is, to all eternity it shall be better for you than if you had never felt them. What we can do is a small thing; but we can will and aspire to great things. Thus, if a man cannot be great, he can be good in will; and what he with his whole heart and mind, love and desire, wills to be, that without doubt he most truly is. It is little that we can bring to pass; but our will and desire may be large. Nay, they may grow till they lose themselves in the infinite abyss of God. Not that we ought to think within ourselves that we wish to be this or that, like such a saint or angel, for we ought to be much more than we can conceive or fathom; wherefore our part is to give ourselves over wholly to God, and to leave ourselves utterly in His hands, being wholly his. And if ye cannot be as entirely his as ye fain would be, be his as much as ye may attain unto; but whatever ye are, be that truly and entirely; and what ye cannot be, that be contented not to be, in a sincere spirit of resignation, for God's sake and in him. So shall you peradventure possess more of God in lacking than in having. Therefore, be God's; yield to his hand, suffer him to do in thee and to thee, and with thee, what he will; and then nothing here or hereafter shall be able to confound you." (Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent.)

In saying that we are what in our heart we desire to be, Tauler was but restating the Pauline doctrine of justification by faith-the meaning of which essentially is that God judges us not by our attainment but by our aim; not by our character or our works, but by the heavenly ideal, the Christ, that is enshrined within our hearts. Tauler in maintaining that the highest life was

open to all alike did not suggest, nor would he have admitted, that the laity were on account of their callings at any disadvantage in their endeavour to live that life. For he held that every calling was, or could be made, a truly religious one, a means of serving God and the community. " One can spin," he says, another can make shoes, and all these are gifts of the Holy Spirit. I tell you, if I were not a priest, I should esteem it a great gift that I was able to make shoes, and I would try to make them so well as to be a pattern to all." And again he says, "People may shut themselves up in convents, and have their hearts wandering over the world after the things that perish. On the other hand, you may find people at the yearly market in the town, with buying and selling and all sorts of din and noise all round them, and yet they have their hearts so shut in with the Lord that nothing disturbs or distracts them. This is the best convent to live in, the blessed convent of communion with God." "I know a man, the dearest perhaps of all the Friends of God. He worked in the fields all his life, more than forty years, and there he is working still.” 1

A few more sentences from a sermon will reveal further the nature of Tauler's teaching or at any rate such of it as appeals most to the mind of to-day; for of course there is a great deal which, both in thought and expression, is of his own fourteenth century, and is of little spiritual help or value to us. In reading the mediaeval mystics generally, we have to take what we can, and try to get behind and beneath the temporary modes of expression, which often repel us, to the essential

1 Three Friends of God, pp. 117, 119, 128.

meaning, which will sometimes surprise us happily by its truth and wisdom.

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'How can we come to perceive the direct leading of God? By a careful looking at home, and abiding within the gates of thy own soul. Therefore, let a man be at home in his own heart, and cease from his restless chase of and search after outward things. If he is thus at home while on earth, he will surely come to see what there is to do at home-what God commands him inwardly, without means, and also outwardly by the help of means; and then let him surrender himself, and follow God along whatever path his loving Lord thinks fit to lead him, whether it be to contemplation or action, to usefulness or enjoyment; whether in sorrow or in joy, let him follow on. And if God do not give him thus to feel his hand in all things, let him still simply yield himself up, and go without for God's sake, out of love, and still press forward, setting ever before him the lovely example of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. . . . The men who thus tread in his steps do become in very truth the noblest and most glorious of their race; and those who are thus born again into his life are the rich and costly jewels of the Holy Christian Church, and in all ages they work out the highest good, while they look not to the greatness or meanness of their work, nor to their success or failure, but only to the will of God in all things; and for this cause all their works are the best that may be. Neither do they look whether God will place them high or low, for the only thing they care for is, that in all things alike God's will may be done. God grant that it may be thus with each of us. (Sermon for First Sunday in Advent.)

Amen."

V

THOMAS A KEMPIS' IMITATION OF CHRIST

ABOUT the end of the fourteenth century there were living together in the town of Deventer in Holland a number of men who were inspired by the same religious ideal and were seeking to give practical expression to it. They contributed to their mutual support by engaging in various forms of industry, and especially in the copying of manuscripts. Realising themselves the value of sound learning, and spending much of their time in study, they were eager in promoting the education of the young, and they had established, or were helping to maintain, several schools in the neighbourhood, in which poor children were taught free of charge. These men were called "The Brethren of the Common Life." The community had been founded by a remarkable man, Gerard Groot, who had been greatly influenced by the Dutch mystic, John Ruysbroek; and it was now under the charge of one who had been Gerard's friend and disciple, Florentius Radewyn, a man of fine character and conspicuous ability.

At the door of this community, one day in the year 1392, a boy of twelve presented himself. He had come all the way from Kempen, near Cologne, and he asked that he might see his brother John. But he was told that John, who was fifteen years older than himself, had left Deventer and had become a monk in a new

monastery at Windesheim, fourteen miles further north, which the Brethren had established, and which was the first of many religious houses founded by them. So Thomas, for that was his name, went on to Windesheim. After seeing his brother there, he returned to Deventer, bearing no doubt a letter to Florentius commending him to the care of that wise and kindly man. He had attended school in his native town, and now, through the good offices of Florentius, he was placed for further instruction in the Deventer Grammar School. While he was still a scholar he was able to mingle freely with the Brethren, and he learnt to love them more and more for the kind of life they led and for the beautiful spirit of comradeship there was among them. For Florentius he had a special reverence and affection, and long afterwards he wrote: "I used to go into the choir with the other scholars. . . . Once on a time it happened when I was standing near him in the choir that he turned to share our book for the chanting, and he standing behind me, put his hands upon my shoulder-but I stood still, hardly daring to move, bewildered with gratification at so great an honour."1 That touch of one so loved and revered had become for the boy a precious and imperishable memory. At school Thomas learnt to write very beautifully and clearly, as is evident from the autograph copy of the De Imitatione Christi which is preserved in the Royal Library at Brussels; and moreover he was very fond of books, never so happy even then than when he was "in angello cum libello," in a little corner with a little book. So when his schooling was at an end and he became first a noviciate and afterwards a full member

1 The Founders of the New Devotion, p. 104.

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