“Father Wilfred!” the boy broke forth at last, “why letteth God such things be?”
“If thou canst perceive the answer to that, lad, thou hast sharper sight than I. God knoweth. But what He doth, we know not now. Passing that word, none other response cometh unto us from Him unto whose eyes alone is present the eternal future.”
“Must we then never know it?” asked Bertram drearily.
“Ay—‘thou shalt know hereafter.’ Yet this behest (promise) is given alonely unto them that sue the Lamb whithersoever He goeth above; and they which begin not that suing through the mire of the base court, shall never end it in the golden banquet hall.”
“But what is it to sue the Lamb?” replied Bertram almost impatiently.
Wilfred laid down his pen, and looked up into the boy’s face, with one of his sweet smiles flitting across his lips. The sketch was finished at last.
“Dear lad!” he said lovingly, “Bertram Lyngern, ask the Lamb to show thee.”
Note 1. A title at this time restricted to the Emperor of Germany. The first English King to whom it was applied, was Richard the Second. It is often said that Henry the Eighth was the first to assume it, but this is an error.
Note 2. It is surely not the least interesting association with the Castle of the Wartburg, whose best-known memories are connected with Luther, to remember that it was the home of Rudolph and Gertrude von der Wart.