sort of a wedding would you have had?  Just imagine what kind of a wife you would have got, and the prospects you would have had, and what people would have said when they saw you going to be married, and then see how it is today; reckon up the enormous difference.  Or what do you think about it?  Is blind fortune, accident, so-called luck, back of it all?  Folks are always saying:  ’I don’t have any luck; you just can’t do anything nowadays.’  What do you think, Uli?  Is it only luck?  Would you have had this luck if you had stayed a vagabond?  But the misfortune is just that people want to be happy through luck and not by God-fearing lives on which God’s blessing rests.  And so it’s quite fitting that those who are only waiting for luck should be deceived by it, until they come to the knowledge that nothing depends on luck, but everything on the blessing of God.”

“Yes, Your Reverence,” said Uli, “I can’t tell you how much happier I am now than when I was one of the rabble that run around the streets.  But something depends on luck, too; for if I hadn’t come to such a good master no good would have come of me.”

“Uli, Uli,” said the pastor, “was that luck or God’s decree?”

“It’s all the same, I think,” answered Uli.

“Yes,” said the pastor, “it is the same; but it’s not a matter of indifference which you call it, as men think, and that’s just where the difference lies.  The man that talks of luck doesn’t think of God, nor thank Him, nor seek His grace; he seeks luck of and in the world.  He who speaks of God’s providence thinks of Him, thanks Him, seeks to please Him, sees God’s hand in everything; he knows neither bad nor good luck, but to him everything is God’s good guidance, which is to lead him to blessedness.  The different words are the expression of a different state of mind, a different view of life; that is why there is so much difference in the words, and it is important which one we use.  And however good our intentions, still, when we talk of luck, it makes us frivolous or discontented; but if we speak of God’s providence, then these words themselves awaken thoughts in us and direct our eyes to God.”

“Well, yes, Your Reverence,” said Uli, “you’re about right in that, and I’ll bear it in mind.”

“I hope you will come back here with your bride after the service?”

“Very willingly, if you wish it,” said Uli; “but I’m afraid we shall keep you from your work.”

“No one does that,” said the pastor; “for it is not only my office, but also my pleasure, to speak on serious occasions a serious word to hearts in which I can hope for good soil that will bear fruit.  What the pastor says on such occasions is not so soon forgotten.”

Meanwhile Freneli had taken off the fur-lined shoes and put on the proper cap, and with her own hands the hostess had fastened on the wreath.  It was made in the Langental fashion, she said.  “But whatever fashion it is, it’s becoming to you,” she continued.