When the door was closed behind them, Liese wandered from room to room, unable to settle her mind to any employment. The unusual quietness of the streets made her look out. Not a human being was visible, none of the hum of a city was to be heard, and the evening sun shone upon the gables, and flung the shadows from the lofty houses, amidst a repose as complete as could invest a city of the dead. Liese was presently weary of the still lights and shadows, and longed for sound to dissipate her thoughts. opened a music-book at one of Luther's hymns, and began to sing. This she did with unusual energy, because without fear of being heard, till startled by a knock at the gate. It was only Helena. Who else could it be for every Protestant in Nuremberg, that is, almost the entire population, was hearing or attempting to get within hearing of Martin Luther.

"O, Helena, I was never more glad to see you. you alone?"

She

But are

"Yes. I knew there was no danger of meeting any one during service time. We two, Liese, are almost the only ones shut out from yonder church."

"Do not let us think about that, Helena: it is dangerous. Do sing this hymn with me."

"One of Martin's, I hope. There are none like his. Yes: we will sing it, but not here. I do not know whether it is really very warm, or whether all I have heard to-day has put me into a fever; but I feel stifled in this room. Let us go to the arbor and sing there."

Liese assented, observing that there would be abundance of time before the Hüsens returned, as the service would no doubt be very long, and they would remain to see the great man go home from the church. She did not know of Luther's recipe for a good preacher, one of the ingredients of which is "that he should know when to make an end." The

nuns sought the arbor, where the evening breeze refreshed them, and began to sing, each requesting the other to give the earliest notice of the bustle which would mark the dispersion of the people.

"Beautiful!" exclaimed Helena, after a frequent repetition. "Now let us try one of our vesper services beside it. It is long since we sang any of them together, Liese." "We will then presently; but here is another you have not heard. Join me; it is very simple. Ah!" she resumed when she had gone over it once, "this is not as it ought to

be sung. If we could but once hear Martin himself"I am ever willing to sing," said one who presented himself at the entrance of the arbor. "Music is a fair gift of God, and nearly allied to divinity; and so think some here who will join me with such skill as they have."

So saying, Luther took the book from the hands of the astonished nuns, and uplifted a voice as powerful and as sweet as it had been described. He was joined by some who stood behind and beside him.

Liese and Helena arose to offer their seat to him who was probably wearied with the labors of the day. They had no thought of departing, however. They mingled with the little party of friends who had accompanied their apostle from his church to partake of the hospitality of the Hüsens. Laura's mother was nowhere to be seen: she was within, making her domestic arrangements for the entertainment of her honored guests; but Laura drew Liese's arm within her own, and stood to listen.

Liese did not know whether to be pleased or not at all that passed. Instead of the vehement outcries against ancient superstitions, or the solemn assertion of new doctrines with which she expected Luther would intersperse his conversation, there were sallies of playfulness, and an easy flow of thought and feeling, which would, she thought,

have been suitable in any other good and happy man, but which did not at all answer to her conceptions of him who had stirred up all Christendom into an uproar. His references to religious topics were made in the same spirit and tone of expression; she did not object to their cheerfulness, but she could not understand their freedom. She had learned of late to be reminded of holy things by that which she saw and heard; and the habit was growing upon her so much as to convince her that it is much more easy to live a life of devotion, where a free range among the works of God is allowed, than she had once thought, -more easy than in a convent; but she had never heard such devotional thoughts as are suddenly prompted by passing circumstances immediately expressed like other thoughts, as they were now by the man who was wont to let his full soul overflow into his discourse. He was led on by the suggestions of those about him, especially by one of mild manners and graceful countenance, whom he addressed by the name of Philip. This Philip, whom Liese ascertained to be Melancthon, observed upon the refreshing coolness of the open air, in contrast with the crowded church.

"Even so," said Luther, "does God lead us from one scene of his grace to another. When we entered the church, we thought it a good exchange for the crowded streets; and now we like the stillness of an arbor better than a choir of singers, and yon speckled sky better than the roof that man built up. Yet it was grace that thronged the streets, and grace that hallowed the worship; and it is grace that breathes this coolness over our bodies, and the content that Philip speaks of into our spirits. Thus grace is every where, whether there be preaching or no.”

"God, indeed, preaches wherever there is grace," replied Melancthon, "but men do not know or heed."

There," said Luther, pointing to some kine that entered from the pasture field into an enclosure near,"there go our preachers; there are our milk-bearers, butter-bearers, cheese-bearers, which do daily preach to us faith towards God as our loving father, who careth for us, and will nourish us."

"Then God's preaching has endured as long," observed Melancthon, even backward down to Adam, as Christ's preaching shall endure forward, even when we shall say 'Amen' at heaven's gate."

"Aye," said Luther; "and God will go on at the same time preaching in the old strain, that will never be worn out till this world is worn out. As David heard and made answer, 'Thou madest man to have dominion over the work of thy hands,' so we hear and answer, 'He hath created all things sufficient for us. All the seas are our cellars, all the woods are our huntings, the earth is full of silver and gold, and of innumerable fruits, which are created all for our sakes; the earth is a granary and a larder for us: and he who provided all these put it into the hearts of men and women to help one another to the benefit of them.' So go we in to supper, and try whether there is not grace at the board as well."

As the party left the garden, Helena whispered to Liese, "Father Gottfried saw cattle come home to be milked, and his lattice looked westward, and he hastened to the refectory, yet he never bid us be thankful for the kine, or praise the sunset, or carry our religion to our repast.”

"Because Father Gottfried did not see that the Gospel had any thing to do with these things. He taught us to take the Gospel by turns with other things, which seems to me a fault; but I doubt whether there be not also a fault in ; and yet St. Paul did it, and St. James." "They preached from what they saw; but was it not more gravely, more solemnly?"

"We know not, Helena. Would we could have seen them resting in Gethsemane, or assembling for the evening meal!"

Liese was much less disposed to demur to the propriety of Luther's ease and frankness when supper was over. The host led the conversation to the subject of monastic dedication, on which Martin eagerly enlarged, saying little to offend, and much to astonish, the released devotees, who sat afar off, listening breathlessly to the energetic speech which reached them, and might possibly be partly designed for them. The scope of his argument was, that those who become devotees after a popish fashion evade in part the obligation to devotion; yea, they evade the greater part, being devoted for themselves alone, and not for their brethren. No one could esteem a vow of devotion more than himself, who valued it all the more highly, the more strictly he learned to keep it; and it therefore grieved him to see how few of all who took this vow (for every Christian took it) were strict to observe it, and how those who evaded it most got the most praise. He had himself been one of these unprofitable devotees; but God had given him time, just before he was shut into the outer darkness, to dig up his talent, and get it exchanged before Satan could overtake him.

"Whereupon," said Luther, "he held back his claw and shrunk away, and now the gnashing of teeth is his and not mine; for Christ has given wonderful increase unto my traffic; and every day more and more of the redeemed come to him, and say, 'This friar who used to beg, now buys souls faster than the Pope can chain them, and hide them in dungeons.'

"And this it is to be a devotee," said Melancthon, the Apostles were devotees."

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