176 The Little Bedesman of Christ

ing of kings, and this well of bright water
which is beverage from heaven;” and he
besought God to fill their hearts with an
ardent love of the affluence of holy poverty.

Even the quiet and blessed peace of the
cloister and the hermitage he denied himself;
for he remembered that though the Lord
Christ withdrew into the hills and went into
the wilderness to refresh His soul with prayer
and communion with His heavenly Father,
it was among the sons of men that He had
His dwelling all His days. So he, too, the
Little Bedesman, often tasted great happiness
among the rocks and trees of solitary places;
and his spirit felt the spell of the lonely hills;
and he loved to pray in the woods, and in
their shadow he was consoled by the visits
of Angels, and was lifted bodily from the
earth in ecstasies of joy. But the work
which he had set his hands to do was among
men, and in villages and the busy streets of
cities.

It was not in the first place to save their
own souls and to attain to holiness that he
and his companions abandoned the common
way of life. Long afterwards, when thou-