Directly a voice spoke to her: “Not far hence, O mortal woman, there is a wide river. It surges on forever. No one who goes this way can escape its waters. Listen now to the voice of Wisdom. Leave this blood-marked way of misery and woe, and come to these happier dominions where ‘her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.’” “Surely I will not be lost,” she replied. “I am depending on the mercy of God who is too kind to be unjust. I will come out all right in the end.” “Take heed, my friend,” pleaded the warning voice. “You are hoping for mercy at the dividing line between time and eternity. Better forget not what the Scripture saith. ‘He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy let him be filthy still.’ So thou canst not wilfully neglect so great salvation and hope that God will cover at last all thy folly. ‘Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.’ ‘To-day, if ye hear his voice, harden not your hearts’” “You have said nothing new to me. They are the old thread-bare passages that I have heard from my youth up, and I am minded to accept a broader view of these statements than you seem to take of them.” At this she tossed her head haughtily and continued her journey, resolving more firmly than ever that she would not spend eternity outside the Gates of Heaven. When she came to the Dark Valley and to the angry swelling currents, her pitiful prayer broke out from the long-covered depth of her soul. “Mercy, O mercy, to a wretch like me!” But no hand came to her rescue. I saw Mr. World and Miss Church-Member as they approached the Place of Warning. They heard the sweet music, rendered so excellently, but gave no attention to the sentiment expressed by the words. They listened only to the harmony of sounds. “O, Miss Church-Member!” pleaded a voice, “you who were once so earnestly engaged on the King’s Highway, will you not, before you reach the River of Death, forsake your perilous course and walk on the path of life eternal?” These words, which would have once brought conviction to her heart, only brought vanity to her head. “‘Judge not, that ye be not judged,’ and go speak to the lost, not to me so well equipped to meet the direst foe. Turn your words to those on the other path, who go hobbling along in misery, not fit to live or die.” “Come, come!” put in Mr. World, “your pearls before swine are only trampled under foot. Forget not so quickly the teachings of our Lord.” As they passed on, in a self-righteous manner, she cheerily looked into his face and said: “It was kind in you to come so promptly to my rescue. I might have prattled there a whole day and yet not have shown them half their folly.” CHAPTER XXV. THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 1. Mr. World and Miss Church-Member getting farther from the light. 2. They drift into the deepening shadows where the path could be traveled only one way.