182 SHADOWS IN THE PICTURE.

sung German songs which he had heard in the nursery,
and repeated lessons which he had learned at school.
But at length the prospect began to clear away. The
doctor was able to pronounce him free from fever, and
now every means must be employed to raise up the
wan and haggard youth from the infantile imbecility
of frame in which the disease had left him prostrate.

The steps of recovery from a fever are not interest-
ing, and they are familiar. It is best to hasten on to
the time when Carl was so far reinstated as to make
a short excursion for change of air. This had the ex-
pected result, and he came home with the indescribable
glow and exultation of restored health. Then it was
that he felt how good God had been to him, in making
all his bed in his sickness, and sparing a life that
seemed to him so unprofitable. He could read with
new emotions the 116th Psalm, and sing with under- ©
standing those verses of the German hymn, which
begins :— |

‘Tis sweet to me that God, my help,
So faithful stands by me.” *

And he chose this as the most fit occasion for sur-
rendering himself to God, in a complete and unreserved
dedication ; especially as this deliverance concurred
with so remarkable an interposition in behalf of his -
temporal support.

* Das ist mir lieb, dass Gott, mein Hort,
So treulich bei mir steht,