“This king,” they murmured, “in his wealth and power, enjoying the blessings of youth, has not known what we have suffered, and therefore cannot appreciate our gratitude. While we were starving in our hovels, he was sitting in his castle, quaffing wine. We can expect nothing from him.”
“At least,” clamored others, “let the great bell be rung, for the thirty-three years are now almost over. We shall never hear its notes of gladness unless it be rung today.”
“No,” replied the king still, “but if you will, go and pray that the Lord may send His angel down to ring the bell, if in His perfect knowledge he sees a being who is worthy of the honor.”
That night many people waited before the church, praying that God in His goodness might send a spirit from on high to ring the silver bell.
The night slowly passed away, and lo, the sun’s first rays were just about to come up over the mountains. Suddenly the sun seemed to pause; the dusk continued. Then there came, as it were, a splendor from the clouds, the brightness of which rested on the church and its tower. The waiting multitude all looked up in astonishment. The bell began to peal. It sent forth its angelic notes—notes such as no human being had ever heard before. The waiting people were enraptured. It seemed to them as if all the Heavenly Host were singing for joy.
The song of the bell was of peace and good will toward men. The sounds echoed and re-echoed among the mountains, and were borne away to the farthest valleys.
Just as the first light of the sun peeped up over the horizon, the splendors faded from the tower and in their stead there appeared the figure of a man clad in light. Across the tower there seemed to be a row of letters. The people looked up and read: “Behold, the man who loved truly his fellow men.”
Then everyone fell to his knees, for there stood the figure of their King. Their hearts died within them, when they remembered how harshly they had spoken of him: but they rejoiced at the same time to know that it was he. They all rose up and went in haste to honor him whom they had scorned of late.
When they reached the palace gate, however, they were not permitted to enter. The angel who had rung the bell had entered the palace before them, and had taken away with him the imperial soul that had unselfishly loved his fellow men.