Properly to be counted among these Friends of God can be set down the unknown author of “Deutsche Theologie,” or “Theologia Germanica,” which contained so much truth that it had the distinguished honor of being put upon the Romish Index of prohibited works. Luther ascribed it to Tauler. It is in his style, and contains his sentiments; but it is now considered more probable that it originated a little later than his time, and was written by some other member of the band. It was their usual practice to conceal their names as much as possible when they wrote, lest a desire for fame should mingle in their endeavors to be useful. Luther placed it next to the Bible and St. Augustine as a source of knowledge concerning God and Christ and man. Baron Bunsen ranks it still higher. And many others have expressed their supreme indebtedness to it for help in respect to the perfect life. It has continued up to the present day to be the favorite handbook of devotion in Germany. Concerning the views and doctrines of these Friends of God, although some of their expressions and opinions may be objected to, considering the corrupt age in which they lived they must be pronounced worthy of high praise. They insisted, first of all, on the uttermost self-renunciation, yet they avoided the system of penances and austerities common in the monasteries. Neither idle contemplation nor passive asceticism found favor with them; they were evangelical and practical, full of good works and the imitation of Christ both in patient suffering and active usefulness. They were animated by an exalted reformatory spirit which threw them out of touch with the ecclesiastics around them. Though they did not in all cases fall under the ban of the Church, they may still be regarded as forerunners of the Reformation. Their Mysticism was a powerful protest against the terrible corruptions of the Romish Church and the cold, barren speculations of scholasticism. They craved and secured direct communion with God, unrestricted by human interposition; an immediate vision of the Almighty, undimmed by any separating veil and unchanged by any distorting medium. The highest form of the Divine life in a man seemed to them to be perfect resignation to the will of God, and they counted prayer to be the best means of bringing about this state of resignation. “To pray for a change in one’s circumstances,” they said, “is to pray that what God sends may be made subject to us, not that we should submit ourselves to it; and so tends to produce self-assertion, not self-renunciation.” Nicholas taught that “when self-renunciation is complete, the soul of man, having become entirely resigned to the Divine will, becomes so entirely assimilated to the Divine nature that it has continually a near fellowship with God; he is always in familiar intercourse with the Spirit of God, who communicates to him all Divine knowledge.” “All things to the beloved are of God; all, therefore, are