"Too late, too late!"
"Nay," said Amer, "it is the King Himself Who has sent me to you. He would never have sent me had He not been willing to receive you."
Others told him to leave them alone.
"We do not wish to find out what we have lost: leave us alone, man, we have chosen our path and must stick to it," while some who had never heard of the King and His mercy, laughed unbelievingly.
"Had your story been true we should have been told about it long ago," they said. "Nobody ever told us. Would people who have known such good news for years never have taken the trouble to come and help us in our misery if they knew it to be true?"
But every now and then Amer would meet one whose eyes would follow him with a hungry expression visible in them, as he went about proclaiming the Good News, and then he knew that his efforts were not in vain, and he would tell him of the Great King Who had died on the Cross to save him and to give deliverance from the enemy.
"We will fight the enemy together," Amer would say, and he would fall on his knees and pray.
His fellow soldiers had been right when they had told him that the warfare would be fierce and long; it needed all his strength not to give way, and his enemies were watching him determined to make him fall.
"Pity thyself," they would whisper in his ear, "pity thyself, you are losing strength, the battle is too hard, others can do the work, why put yourself into such danger?" Then Pride would murmur,
"You of all people must persevere, you are by far the most successful worker here. No one works so hard as you, and people will listen to you who turn a deaf ear to the other soldiers." Amer found this enemy even more difficult to overcome than the others, and he knew him to be the more dangerous, for if he induced him to continue his work for any other motive than that of obedience to his King, it would be ruined.
Then Despondency would try and seize him.
"Give it all up," he cried, "it is useless, these people are too far gone in wickedness, your efforts are quite in vain."
All these enemies attacked Amer while he was busy about his work, and often he found when he was doing his utmost to break the chains of some poor slave, he would receive a blow from an unseen hand, and it was only by crying to his King fur help that he was able to overcome.
Then his fellow-workers would quite unconsciously be used of the enemy to tempt him.
For these friends sometimes surprised him. Although called by their King to do this work some of them seemed to look upon it rather lightly. They did not apparently feel bound to do it with all their might, neither did they seem to understand Amer's zeal and earnestness.
"We cannot all work like you," they would say to him, "it would be foolish on our part if we did. We should soon break up and not be able to work at all. We really think you tire yourself out with your efforts, and they are often in vain."
"But the people are dying around us," said Amer, "and we are only here to work."
"But there is no cause for such extraordinary self-denial as you seem to think," they said. "You make us feel ashamed of ourselves. Besides you are injuring your health. You are working far too hard." And Amer, listening, recognized the voices of more enemies than one; but he still worked on, and had the joy of leading many a one out of the City of Despair into the sunshine of the road to the Radiant City.
And so he worked on, fighting, praying, and proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom: and as he worked a wonderful radiance began to light up his face. It was the light of the Radiant City that lay upon it. The people among whom he laboured became aware of it.
"I think," they said, "he must be growing like the King he is always telling us about, Who is so loving and merciful."
And his fellow-workers noticed it and talked about it to one another.
"What a beautiful character he has," they said, "he puts us all to shame, but never speaks as if he were the least more faithful or earnest than we are. He is one of the humblest men we have ever come across."
"If I had met that man some twenty years ago," said the one whom Amer had seen with such a very miserable face, on entering the City, "he might have been the saving of me. It is what the man does that makes me half inclined to believe in what he says."
And Amer worked on quite unconscious of the remarks of people about him. What, however, he was conscious of, was that every now and then he caught a gleam of a river in the distance. At first it had somewhat startled him, but as day by day he seemed to be drawing nearer he would look at it earnestly. Was his time approaching to cross it?
He was very conscious now of a Presence by his side, and the companionship of this Presence kept him in peace and joy. But as the River drew near the enemy also approached to make one more effort to capture this brave soldier of the King. Doubt would remind him of some of the words he had listened to on the heath about the Guide Book, but finding that Amer no sooner became aware of his presence than he called upon the King for help and drew out his sword to do combat, he tried another plan. He would haunt his memory with sins he had committed in the City of Punon before he had begun his journey, sins which had been forgiven years ago, questioning him as to how he dared to hope for mercy, considering he had done things of which he was now so ashamed.
But Amer was able by this time to distinguish between the voices from the Radiant City and the voices of the enemy, and he clasped his breastplate the closer; besides which he noticed that the shadow of a Cross was always at hand, and when the enemy taunted him and tried to make him doubt his King's love and forgiveness, he flung himself beneath it, and when fighting under its shadow he always came off conqueror. At this time too he kept looking towards the Radiant City with the words:—
"'I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me.'"
As he drew nearer the River he thought less about it and more of the City beyond it. At times he almost fancied he could hear the songs of triumph that he knew were being sung there in honour of his King; and many a time when utterly weary he lay down to sleep, he would dream of it, of its streets of gold, and gates of pearl, and above all of the King, Who was the Light thereof.
When Iddo, whose path had led her with Chisleu and the other singing pilgrims into the City of Despair, went up and down its streets singing of the King, Amer would look up and smile, adding his voice to hers. But when alone, the words most often on the lips of this good soldier, were those telling of his need and of the King's power to supply the need.
"My Saviour I have nought to pleadIn Earth beneath or Heaven above;But just my own exceeding need,And Thine exceeding love."
"My Saviour I have nought to pleadIn Earth beneath or Heaven above;But just my own exceeding need,And Thine exceeding love."
"My Saviour I have nought to pleadIn Earth beneath or Heaven above;But just my own exceeding need,And Thine exceeding love."
"My Saviour I have nought to plead
In Earth beneath or Heaven above;
But just my own exceeding need,
And Thine exceeding love."
Those who were with Amer noticed how full of love and patience he now was: how the enemy, Irritability, which had so often given him a blow on his lips, was silent: how he never judged unkindly or spoke ill of people, but like his Master and King was filled with a consuming pity for them.
But if his friends had had eyes to see, they would have been aware of a crowd of evil spirits on the watch for him, who would surely have worked him ill had he not been in such constant communion with his King. As it was they could never get near him, for the Presence of his King was around him like a wall of fire, and a shadow of a Cross enveloped him.
Amer remembered at times his question to the Ambassador when he had started on his journey, as to whether it was the lot of every soldier to be harried at the end, as was Heman the Brave; and every now and then, when for a moment he lost sight of his King, Fear crept up, hoping to gain possession of him; but so used was he now to confide his thoughts to his King, that Fear could get no more than a sudden look at the man he hoped to conquer. Indeed, the enemies that had crowded so hopefully around him when they were aware of how near Amer was to crossing the River, had to be content with looking at him from a distance, and gradually, as they noticed that the nearer he drew to the River, the brighter and more peaceful grew the expression of his face, they lost hope.
Then it was, that while in the act of cheering a fellow pilgrim, Amer heard his name called, and, with the light of the Radiant City on his brow and his King's name on his lips, he plunged without fear into the cold waters to fall at the feet of his King.
Then Chisleu and Iddo, who had seen his passing, burst into a triumphant song:
"The saints of God, their conflict past,And life's long battle won at last,No more they need the shield or sword,They cast them down before their Lord:Oh happy saints, for ever blessed,At Jesus' feet how safe your rest."
"The saints of God, their conflict past,And life's long battle won at last,No more they need the shield or sword,They cast them down before their Lord:Oh happy saints, for ever blessed,At Jesus' feet how safe your rest."
"The saints of God, their conflict past,And life's long battle won at last,No more they need the shield or sword,They cast them down before their Lord:Oh happy saints, for ever blessed,At Jesus' feet how safe your rest."
"The saints of God, their conflict past,
And life's long battle won at last,
No more they need the shield or sword,
They cast them down before their Lord:
Oh happy saints, for ever blessed,
At Jesus' feet how safe your rest."
And the pilgrims on the hill above, caught up the words and sang again:—
"Oh happy saints, for ever blessed,At Jesus' feet how safe your rest."
"Oh happy saints, for ever blessed,At Jesus' feet how safe your rest."
"Oh happy saints, for ever blessed,At Jesus' feet how safe your rest."
"Oh happy saints, for ever blessed,
At Jesus' feet how safe your rest."
But some there were who fell on their knees and wept, for they loved him so.
And Iddo, seeing them, turned away with tears in her eyes, for he had been as a brother to her. Then, after a moment, she stood erect and strong, while the light from the Radiant City fell on her face.
"It is only till He come," she said.
"Yes, till He come," answered Chisleu, and then they both went back into the City of Despair to work and to watch,
"Till He Come."
THE END.