delightful companions,--a good conscience and a cheerful mind.

"To live as always seeing
The invisible Source of things,
Is the blessedest state of being,
For the quietude it brings."

"Away with those fellows who go howling through life," wrote Beccher,
"and all the while passing for birds of paradise! He that cannot laugh
and be gay should look to himself. He should fast and pray until his
face breaks forth into light."

Martin Luther has told us that he was once sorely discouraged and vexed
at himself, the world, and the church, and at the small success he then
seemed to be having; and he fell into a despondency which affected all
his household. His good wife could not charm it away by cheerful speech
or acts. At length she hit upon this happy device, which proved
effectual. She appeared before him in deep mourning.

"Who is dead?" asked Luther.

"Oh, do you not know, Martin? God in heaven is dead."

"How can you talk such nonsense, Käthe? How can God die? Why, He is
immortal, and will live through all eternity."

"Is that really true?" persisted she, as if she could hardly credit his
assertion that God still lived.

"How can you doubt it? So surely as there is a God in heaven," asserted