University of Virginia Library

“Hear Doctor Eckart, hear him!” he began:
“There was in days of old a learned man,
Who longing for the truth eight years did pray
That God would show him some one who the way
Thereto would show. And on a time, when he
Was in great longing and perplexity,
He heard a voice from heaven, or in his mind:
‘Go to the front of the church, where thou wilt find
One that the way to blessedness will show.’
Thither he went as fast as he could go,
And found a man whose clothes to rags were worn,
Whose bare and dusty feet were bruised and torn,
Who looked like one acquainted long with sorrow.
He greeted him with—‘God give you good-morrow.’
‘I never had ill-morrow.’ Then said he,
Wondering at what he heard, ‘God prosper thee.’
‘I never had aught but prosperity.’
‘Heaven save you,’ said the scholar. He again:
‘Other than saved I never was.’ ‘Explain;
I understand not.’ ‘Willingly,’ said the man,
Whose thoughts upon their conversation ran:
‘Thou wishest me good-morrow; I reply,
I never had ill-morrow; for am I
Hungry or thirsty, I praise God; or, say
That I am shivering, as I am to-day—
Fair or foul weather—hail, or snow, or rain—
As I praised God before, I do again.
Thence comes it that I never had ill-morrow.
And thou didst say, as if I was in sorrow,
God prosper thee, poor man! I answer thus:
Sir, I have never been unprosperous:
For I know how to live with God, and know
That what He does is best, and make it so;
Pleasure or pain, whatever may befall,
I take it cheerfully, as best of all,
And so I never had adversity.
God bless thee, then saidst thou; and I to thee—
I never was unblessed. I long to be
Only of God's will; to the Will Divine
I have so given what once was will of mine
That what God wills, I will, and all is well.’
‘But if God were to cast thee into Hell,
What wouldst thou then?’ the scholar asked. And he:
‘God cast me into Hell? It could not be;
His goodness holds Him back. But, if not so,
I have two arms that would not let Him go:
One is Humility, and therewith I
Would straight take hold of His humanity;
And with the other, that lifts me above
Up to his Godhead, the right arm of Love,
I would embrace Him till He came to me,
And happier there with Him my soul would be
Than in the Heavens without Him!’ Thereupon
The scholar mused, and understood anon
That not the high and learned path he trod,
But one much lower, nearest was to God.
‘Whence comest thou?’ he asked. ‘From God.’ ‘And where
Hast thou found God?’ ‘Where I abandoned care—
Where I abandoned all. I am a king;
My kingdom is my soul, and everything,
Within, without, of which I have control—
All that I am does homage to my soul;
No kingdom on the earth so great as this.’
‘And what hath brought thee to such perfect bliss?’
‘Silence, and thought—a mind with God possessed,
Resolved in nothing less than God to rest:
I have found God—what more the Seraphim?
And everlasting rest and joy in him.’”

So Master Eckart spake, and went his way,
And many wondered, as they do to-day.