offer prayer and thanks in spirit--it was a custom and ordinance to
bring something from one's possessions, as a proof of devotion: this was
a sacrifice. And the more important the gift to be given, or the request
to be granted, the more costly was the sacrifice. Our God will have no
victims; but whatsoever you do unto one of the least of His, you do unto
Him. Such are our sacrifices. My dear friend, from my heart I thank you;
for you have done me a kindness, in that you have given me a real,
undeniable proof, that my words have penetrated your heart, and that I
do not live on for nothing: and treasure it up in your heart, that you
have caused real joy to one who is often, very often, weighed down with
heaviness and sorrow. You have not only kindled bright tapers upon my
Christmas-tree, but the tree itself burns, gives light, and warms: the
bush burns, and is not consumed, which is an image of the presence of
the Holy Spirit, and its admonition to trust in the Most High in this
wilderness of life, in mourning and in woe. Oh! my dear friend, I have
been nigh unto death. What a solemn, quaking stride is the stride into
eternity! What a difference between ideas of death in the days of
health, and on the brink of the grave! And how shall I show myself
worthy of longer life? By learning better to die. And, mark, when I sit
here in solitude pursuing my thoughts, keeping some and driving away
others, then I can think, that in distant valleys, upon distant
mountains, there are living men who carry my thoughts within their
hearts; and for them I live, and they are near and dear to me, till one
day we shall meet where there is no more parting, no more separation.
Peasant and scholar, let us abide as we are. Give me your hand--
farewell!"

And once again, the soft and the hard hand were clasped together, and
Christopher really trembled as Gellert laid his hand upon his shoulder.
They shook hands, and therewith something touched the heart of each more