This library is built in the open.
If you spot an error, have a suggestion, or just want to say hello — we’d love to hear from you.

The entire page is enclosed within a decorative border made of repeating small woodcut icons resembling stylized leaf buds or fleurs-de-lis. At the beginning of the body text is a large, square ornamental woodcut initial "M" decorated with intricate leaf and vine patterns.
It is written that there was once a learned man who, for eight years, asked God with fervent prayers to show him a person who could teach him the way to the highest perfection that can be attained in this life. When he was once in a state of great longing, he was prompted to go to the church door, where he would find a person who would show him and teach him the way of the highest truth. And when he arrived there, he found a poor man whose feet were split possibly implying calloused or cracked from exposure and full of dirt and mud, and all his clothes were hardly worth three mites a mite was the smallest unit of currency. He greeted him and said, "God give you a good morning." The man answered, "I have never had a bad morning." He said, "May God grant you good fortune; how do you answer me so?" He said, "I have never had misfortune." He said to him again, "Since you are blessed, how do you give me such an answer?" He said, "I have never been miserable." He said to him, "Explain this to me better, for I cannot understand you." The poor man answered, "Gladly. You say that God should give me a good morning: to that, I answer that I never had a bad morning, for if I am hungry, I praise God; if I am freezing, hailing, snowing, raining, etc., be it good or bad weather, I praise God; if I am miserable and despised, I praise God; therefore, I never experienced a bad morning. You also say that God should give me good fortune; to that, I say that I never had misfortune, for I know how to live with God, and I know that what He does is the best; and whatever God gave me or imposed upon me, whether it be joy or sorrow, sweet or sour, I took it joyfully from God as the very best, and therefore I never had misfortune. You also say, 'May God make you blessed'; to that, I say that I was never miserable, for I wanted only to be in God's will, and I had surrendered my will to God's will so completely that whatever God wants, that I want. And therefore I was never miserable, for I wanted only to be in His will, and I had completely surrendered my will to Him." The learned man said, "But if God wanted to cast you into Hell, what would you say to that?" Then the poor man spoke, "Cast me into Hell? If He casts me into Hell, I have two arms with which to embrace Him. The one arm is true humility; I place that under Him, and with it, I am united with His holy Humanity. And with the right arm of love, which is united with His holy Divinity, I embrace Him so that He would have to be with me in Hell. Therefore, I would rather be in Hell and have God, than be in Heaven and not have God." Then this learned man understood that true gelatenheyt surrender or resignation with groundless humility is the nearest way to God.
The man further asked the poor person, "From where have you come?" He answered, "From God." He asked, "Where have you found God?" He answered, "There where I left all creatures behind." He asked further, "Where have you left God?" He answered, "In pure hearts and in willing people." He asked, "What kind of man are you?" He answered, "A king." The man asked, "Where is your kingdom?" The poor man answered, "That is my soul, for I can govern my inner and outer senses in such a way that all my desires and the powers of my soul are subservient to me. And this Kingdom is greater than any kingdom on earth." The man said, "What has brought you to this perfection?" The poor man answered, "My silence, my high thoughts, and my union with God have done that, for I could never rest in any things that were less than God. Now I have found God, and I have rest and peace eternally in God."