THE BATTLE OF THE BOOK.
For some time after Amer had gone through the experiences related
in the last chapter, he felt the effects of his time in the cave of
Spiritual Pride, and it was long before he regained the elasticity of
spirit that was natural to him. He walked more cautiously and steadily,
and kept a sharp look-out all round, lest the enemy should get the
better of him, and in this way had many a victory, and was saved many a
blow.
One day, when somewhat tired with his journey, he came across a woman
leading a young girl by the hand.
A glance at the woman's face was enough to convince him that she had to
do with the Radiant City, for her face was beautiful with a calm light
upon it, which he knew could come from no other source.
Her name was Belthiah,* and the name of the girl Iddo.†
* Daughter of the Lord. † Loving.
"We are going the same way," she said, "and so long as our paths do not
diverge, let us keep one another company."
Before long they came across the slow traveller again, still walking
steadily and carefully towards the City.
"After all," said Amer to him, "I have been the one to lose time, for
after leaving you I fell in with the worst foe that I have met yet, and
was completely overcome."
The man looked up with sympathy expressed in every line of his face.
"What was his name?" he asked.
"Spiritual Pride," answered Amer, "and if it had not been for my King
sending me help, I should still be a prisoner in his cave."
"Ah!" said the man, "I have had to meet that foe myself, and I know his
ways. Poor lad!"
"Mother," said Iddo, "have we met that foe yet?"
"Very possibly, my child, and may not have recognised him. Possibly he
might not have taken such pains to overcome us, as he has taken with
these two brave servants of the King. But any day he may tempt us, and
so we must keep our eyes on the Radiant City, where dwells our King."
"Madam," said Amer, "you do not look as if you had been much troubled
on the way. What is the secret of your peace?"
The slow traveller looked uneasily about him.
"I feel the enemy is somewhere near," he said, warningly to Belthiah,
"and he is listening for your answer."
The mother gave him a grateful look, but answered simply:
"We have had communion with our King, and He has given us peace."
"And," answered the girl, "we are shod, you know, with the shoes of
peace. I lost mine one day, and had to turn back to find them."
"Besides," continued Belthiah, "we have so much to make us happy, so
many promises to rest upon."
"And, do you know?" said the girl, looking up confidingly into Amer's
face, "it is not quite certain that we shall ever have to cross the
dark river, which I cannot help sometimes dreading. The King may come
to meet us Himself, and take us up to the City."
"Yes," said her mother, "that is what helps to make us happy. We are
looking for Him: and though we gather from the Guide Book that certain
events must take place before He comes, they may happen very shortly."
"No, no Madam, there you make a mistake," said an irritable voice
behind them, and on looking back they beheld a short, stout man, who
had evidently been making a great effort to catch them up, and now
stood before them wiping his brow, and much agitated. His voice did not
sound like the voice of one travelling to the Radiant City, as it was
rasping and irritable, but the King's Mark was on his forehead, and he
had his Guide Book under his arm.
"I am always having to argue this point with people," he said,
irritably, "there is no event that must happen before the King comes.
But there I am, again," he added, ruefully, "always arguing, always
disputing, and always irritable. I beg your pardon, Madam, but when
I find people who do not see eye to eye with me in these matters,
I seem to be unable to listen to them. My name is Chisleu, which
means rashness. Alas! I am too rightly named."
"Sir," said the girl, concernedly, "your shoes have gone."
"Ah! that's like me!" he exclaimed, looking round to find his shoes
just behind him, "always trying to set others right and going wrong
myself. I lose my shoes, and then Temper comes and torments me. And yet
I am devoted to my King;" and he gave a look towards the Radiant City,
which proved to those around him that his heart was there.
"My good fellow," he said, turning to the slow traveller, "I should
be greatly obliged to you if you would tell me how it is you are so
successful against the enemy. I have been watching you for a long time
as I walked behind you, and you never seem put out whatever happens to
you, and I seldom see you even trip."
At the words a pained expression crossed the face of the traveller, and
he looked around him carefully, as if expecting to find the enemy at
his elbow; moreover, when the stranger praised him, he impulsively put
his hands over his ears to prevent hearing. But now turning his eyes
steadily towards the Radiant City he said:
"It is written in the Guide Book, 'My strength is made perfect in
weakness.'"
Amer, remembering the rules inscribed on the walls of the cave of
Spiritual Pride, noticed how the slow traveller resisted the temptation
to speak of his own experience, and spoke instead of the King.
"Ah!" sighed the stranger, "you are right. It is because I forget the
promises of my King and His Book that I fail; thank you, Sir. But
look, what is that crowd I see before me? If some poor fellow is being
belaboured by the enemy I must be off to help," and he began running,
and would even then have forgotten his shoes, if Iddo had not cried
after him,
"Your shoes, your shoes."
"What a warm heart that man has!" said Belthiah, "full of feeling for
others and of humility."
"But how cross he was," said Iddo, "not as a soldier of the Great King
ought to be."
"Hush, child!" whispered her mother, "the enemy is near. I hear his
whisper in your voice. The King tells us not to judge."
When the travellers had reached the crowd they saw a strange sight. A
large number of pilgrims with the King's Mark upon them were standing
around a man who was talking in a loud voice. In his hand he held
the Guide Book, and as he spoke he tore out first one page and then
another, throwing them behind him.
"It is not by any means authentic," he was saying, "and certain parts
which you have taken for truth are nothing more or less than allegory
and fable, while other apparent prophecies were not written by the
people you 'suppose, but by men long after the events had happened, so
are not prophecies at all."
"Mother, mother," cried Iddo, looking up with tears in her eyes, "do
you hear what the man is saying about our Guide Book?"
But before her mother had time to answer, a loud voice rang out, which
Iddo recognised at once as that of Chisleu, the stranger with whom they
had just been talking.
"That's a lie," he cried, "no one need believe it. The book is true
from beginning to end."
Then there arose an uproar.
"Let the preacher alone," cried one, "he says he has studied the
question, and moreover confesses that he himself is journeying to the
Radiant City. Let him speak. If he has anything to teach us let him do
it."
"But it is false," cried Chisleu, "don't listen to him. He's a wolf in
sheep's clothing."
"Take the intruder away," shouted some of the bystanders, "we wish to
hear what the preacher has to say. It may be true or it may be false,
but we wish to hear him."
"Come away, dear," said her mother to Iddo, "it won't do us any good to
listen."
"But," said Iddo, "what did he mean? No one ever doubts, surely, the
truth of the Guide Book? If it is not true, how shall we ever find
our way to the Radiant City, or indeed how do we know that there is a
Radiant City to find?" she added, sobbing.
"My child," said the mother, "it is a sad fact that now-a-days there
are people who are tearing the Guide Book to pieces. They do not
realize what mischief they are doing, and hope that people's faith will
grow stronger rather than weaker through their criticism, instead of
which the enemy is watching at all such gatherings at which we have
been, and is doing his utmost to sow seeds of doubt in people's minds.
But I think these very attacks on the Book go to prove its authorship.
The enemy cannot leave it alone, as he knows that so long as we have
the Guide Book, and love and believe in it, we will follow it and it
will lead us to the Radiant City. I have never found the Word to fail
me, and it has been the guide of millions of travellers who have now
reached Home. Some, indeed, when just crossing the River, have actually
seen the King, so that those who have gone as far as they were allowed
with them into the dark valley, have been filled with joy, and their
faith has been strengthened. The Guide Book is true from beginning to
end: that good man was right in what he said, although I could have
wished that he had spoken in a more sober manner, and with less heat.
But he cannot argue. His heart is better than his head."
"Oh mother, he frightened me," said Iddo, wiping away her tears, "and
I saw many people were laughing at him. Is he really journeying to the
Radiant City? He is so different from Amer and that good man who has
been walking with us."
"He loves the King, my child," said the mother, "and it is his very
love that makes him speak when perhaps it would be wiser to be silent.
But the King can alter all that is not right in him, and as for me I
would rather have the heart on fire than the brain."
"Where is Amer?" suddenly asked Iddo.
Amer had stayed behind to listen, and now was seen coming towards
them with his eyes bent in deep thought on the ground, his girdle was
hanging loosely about him. They walked together somewhat silently, and
only discovered after some time that the slow traveller was by now far
ahead of them. Evidently he had not waited to hear the words of the
speaker in the crowd, but had walked steadily on, and it was some time
before they caught him up. When at last they did so, Amer asked him if
he had heard what had been said by the orator.
"When I found what he was speaking about," said the traveller quietly,
"I moved on. I made up my mind before I set out on my journey that the
Guide Book was the message of the King of the Radiant City, and if it
is His Book there can be no fabrication or fable in it."
They had not gone far on the road before they came upon a man sitting
bey the wayside with his head hidden in his hands and groaning.
"Friend," said Belthiah, "what is your trouble?"
But he did not look up, a groan was the only answer.
"He has just encountered the enemy," said the slow traveller.
"See how wounded he is," said Amer, "and yet his mind is more wounded
than his body, he scarcely notices the hurt."
"Ah yes!" moaned the man, "I am sore wounded. I have no strength even
to look up, the enemy has overpowered me. I am in the lowest hell."
"Poor man," sighed Iddo gently, "how I wish I could help you."
"Lady," he said urgently to Belthiah, "take your sweet child away, I
am no fit company for her; and you, young man, leave me too. I only
ask this friend to stay a few minutes with me that I may tell him my
trouble."
Slowly they obeyed his request, for none of them could endure the
thought of leaving the poor man in such a plight.
"Friend," said the wounded man to the slow traveller, as he sat down
beside him, "I have lost my Guide Book and I have lost my sword. In
fact the enemy has taken my armour off piece by piece and hope is dead
within me."
"When did the enemy attack you?" asked his companion.
"Ah! that is the sad part of the story. I found someone in distress on
the road. The great enemy Doubt had him in his grip. His Guide Book
had been torn to pieces by those who think they are helping others in
taking out leaf after leaf of the volume and throwing it on one side.
Forgetful of my own weakness and sin, I spent hours with him trying to
combat the enemy by his side, but I forgot to be watchful myself. I
thought I was too strong and too brave a soldier to be overcome, and
forgot to cry to the King; and as I was talking I suddenly felt the
enemy himself seize me, and before I knew where I was he had wrenched
the Book and my sword from my hands, and had dealt me a blow which at
first I thought was that of my death blow. Friend, hope and light and
joy are passed for me. Despair has me in his grip, and rather than
endure this misery, and doubt my King and my City, I mean to go by a
short cut to the dark river."
Then the slow traveller stood up, looked towards the Radiant City, and
prayed.
"Friend," he said, as he fastened his girdle about him more securely,
"I will fight the enemy with you."
"Nay, nay," cried the other, "your fate will be the same as mine. I
pray you not to hinder your journey in this way. I beseech you not to
trouble about me. The enemy will overcome you as he has me. You are
happy in your faith. You have your Guide Book next to your heart, and
your sword in your hand. You believe in the Radiant City, and in your
King. I will not be the one to throw you into the hands of the great
enemy Doubt."
"Friend," said the traveller, while a radiant light from the City
touched his helmet and illumined his face, "when my King calls me to
fight, He will see that I get the victory, and I fight kneeling." And
at that he knelt, and the enemy, who had been invisible, came towards
him in all his strength, and hurled his battle axe at him, but the
traveller parried the blow with the sword. So deadly was the fight
that great drops broke out on the forehead of the combatants, as the
darkness of night overshadowed them. For many hours they wrestled, and
all the time the traveller never rose from his knees.
"Fight," he gasped at last to his companion, "fight, man, for there
are more with us than against us, and I see the glimmering of dawn,"
and even as he spoke a faint light broke upon them, and rested on the
traveller's shield, and by its light the wounded man saw that his own
Guide Book, and the sword he had lost, were lying by his side within
his reach. He stretched out his hands to grasp his sword, and as he
did so invisible hands fastened on his armour, bit by bit, and he was
strengthened for the fight. So skilfully did he now begin to use his
sword that between the two, who both fought on their knees, the enemy
gradually began to falter in his attacks, and was finally driven back.
"The King be praised," said the traveller, as he rose, pale and weary,
and looked towards the Radiant City. The light of it was on his brow,
and his shield and breastplate blazed brighter than they had ever done
before, as he began to help the victorious soldier to his feet.
"The King be praised," echoed the other, "'which teacheth my hands to
war, and my fingers to fight.' 'If the Lord Himself had not been on
our side . . . they had swallowed us up quick . . . But praised be the
Lord; who hath not given us over for a prey unto their teeth.'"
"'Our soul is escaped, even as a bird out of the snare of the fowler,'"
added his friend, "'the snare is broken, and we are delivered. Our help
standeth in the Name of the Lord Who bath made Heaven and Earth.'"
Then the two men grasped hands.
"Friend," said the man, whose wounds had been healed, "tell me your
name, as I shall ever hold it in loving remembrance and gratitude."
"My name is Heman,"* he answered, "and yours, my friend?"
"Joezer,"† he said, "alas! I am rash, and underrate the power of the
enemy. I forgot the fact which you remembered, that this enemy always
aims at the knees. If he can wound the knees he is much more certain
of victory, but I saw you fought kneeling, and copied your example.
Praised be the King for your help and friendship, Heman."
As his fellow traveller passed from him, Heman, looking towards the
Radiant City, cried triumphantly,
"Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of Thy righteous
judgments endureth for ever."
* Faithful. † Whose help is the Lord.