"How glorious! how wonderful!" he thought, as he stood still and gazed around him; "and what a mystery it is that only man is so often shut out from the universal enjoyment of creation. Why should he be crushed to the earth, and provide in sorrow and pain for his bodily sustenance, while the birds sing and the flowers bloom free from care? Doth He not clothe the lilies, and give the rose and violet their perfume and exquisite hues? Can the Eternal Father care less for an immortal soul? No, no, never!"
He began again to move forward, singing that noblest hymn in the German language, which has been so perfectly translated by John Wesley, beginning—
"Befiehl Du Deine Wege."[[2]]
[[2]] "Commit thou all thy ways."
When he came to the lines—
"Auf! auf! Gib Deinem Schmerze
Und Sorgen gute Nacht.
Lass fahren, was das Herze
Betrübt und traurig macht!"—
he quickened his pace with a firmer tread and lighter heart.
Perhaps he would have sung on to the end of the hymn, had not a voice, clear as a silver bell, greeted him with "Guten Morgen!"
The singer looked in the direction of the voice, and stood like one transfixed at the sight of the vision before him.
On the banks of the brook which flowed past his path sat a lovely maiden clad in white, and bathed her marble-white feet in the crystal water.