The Radiant City : $b An AllegoryGarratt, Evelyn R.
Religion
The Radiant City : $b An Allegory
Garratt, Evelyn R.
Allegories; Christian fiction; Christian life; Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages -- Fiction
"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?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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