Chapter XVI: The Brink of the River

Amer's path had now for some time led him by the banks of the river that flowed through the Valley of the Shadows. In its shadows he found many waiting for the King's guard to take them across, and going in and out among them, Amer did what he could to remind them of the King's love and of His mercy.

He had not much time to think now of his own dangers and difficulties, indeed he had to leave the keeping of his soul to his faithful Creator and King; and he was surrounded with an invisible army of angels, who warded the enemy off again and again when he was engaged with those he was seeking to comfort.

Every now and then, however, he found himself gripped by the enemies who are peculiarly busy with those soldiers who are spending their lives in working for others.

When Amer saw some of the pilgrims, as they passed through the valley, paying but scant notice (because wrapped up in their own soul's welfare) to those in hopeless misery who were on the borders of the river, he found himself again and again passing a hard judgment on their conduct, and criticising their selfishness, forgetting that there had been a time in his own history, when his thoughts had been so engaged with the health of his own soul, that he had had no eyes to see the needs of others.

Then there were some who did what they could to help, but whose help was so unwise in Amer's eyes, and so far from being profitable, that the enemy, Impatience, took hold of him, and pushed him to the ground more than once. He had in fact, constantly to be reminding himself of the words in the Guide Book,

"'Judge not, that ye be not judged,' 'Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth.'" And when he felt conscious of these enemies he could only cry to his King, as he drew out his sword, and his cry was always heard and answered.

Amer's voice was the last that many a pilgrim heard this side of the dark river.

He had been in the Valley for some time when he suddenly heard his name spoken by a voice that made his heart beat, and he saw, standing on the very brink of the river, Gabrielle, but so altered that he hardly recognized her. Indeed, though she looked so pale and thin that he felt she must be very near the end of her journey, the expression of her face was so unlike that he had ever seen upon it that he was amazed; it reminded him of the light that he had noticed on the face of Heman as he passed to the Radiant City.

"You did not expect to meet me on the journey," she said, as he grasped her hands, "but Amer, when I saw you were in such dead earnest and would not give up the Radiant City or your King even for me, I felt there must be some truth in what others told me was a mere legend, and I could not rest till I had set out on the same journey."

"And Desmond?" asked Amer.

"I never married him," she answered, "how could I when once I had known you. When I told you I should, I said it out of pique, I never really intended to, though my father did all he could to persuade me. But I could not rest till I had passed through the East Gate. But oh! my journey has been so short! I have had such a little time in which to prove my loyalty to my King. Just a few short weeks! And now I have to cross the River. How can I be sure that the King will receive me after forgetting Him for so long? I feel the enemy Doubt is doing what he can to wrench my soul away from Him."

Amer looked at the River and noticed that across it lay the shadow of the Cross, as it had done during the passing of Heman.

"Dearest," he said, "you must get beneath the Cross, then Doubt will fly from you."

"Is it there for me?" she asked faintly.

"As much for you as for the warrior who for years has fought under the King's banner."

"Help me to get within its shadow," she pleaded: and Amer, putting his arm around her, gently moved her in its direction, and as she stood beneath its shadow, he saw a peace steal across her face.

"I think my feet have touched the brink," she whispered, "I wish, oh! I wish, you were coming too."

"I will not leave you till the King has hold of your hand," said Amer, as her head sunk on his breast.

"Are you quite sure I am under the shadow of the Cross?" she murmured.

"Yes, these are the King's own words," he answered:

"'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.' 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.'"

"Then He must have come to save me," said Gabrielle, but her words were so faint that Amer could scarcely hear them.

Suddenly she raised her head from his shoulder.

"It is the King," she said, while a radiance from the City lighted her face, "He is calling to me," and Amer, as he loosed his hold of her, saw her step down into the cold waters and stretch out her hand to some Invisible One.

Then, as he stood still as if turned to stone, he suddenly fell to the ground, for an enemy whom he had never met before had fallen upon him. Rebellion had thrown his arrow successfully at him, and now stood over his fallen prey so that he was unable to rise. For the time his shadow was so deep and dark that Amer nearly lost the sight of the Radiant City: and so well did Rebellion do his work that his victim lay without so much as an effort to rid himself of him. He could only think of the one he had found but to lose again, and was full of hard thoughts of the way by which he was being led. He could not live without Gabrielle, he cried. So successfully had he hitherto managed to banish her from his thoughts, that he had imagined that his love for her could never again be roused to its full heat. But now that he had once more seen her, had looked into her eyes, had heard her voice, and had found her so infinitely sweeter than he could have pictured, he felt his will rise up against the will of his King, and so lay unresistingly in the grip of Rebellion. His strength all seemed to have vanished, his work to have lost its interest, his path impossible to tread any longer.

Suddenly in the distance he heard the sound of singing.

"If God Himself be for me
I can a host defy."

It was the band of singing pilgrims, Iddo and Chisleu amongst them, praising, as they passed on the heights above the Dark Valley.

Then, with a sudden spring, Amer leapt up, and drawing his sword, he fought. Fought in the strength of his King, crying out all the time for help to overcome. And the enemy, taken by surprise, and perceiving that this soldier, who had looked so weak and helpless, was now resolved to conquer, gradually drew back, till a favourable moment came to turn and fly.

Then once more Amer took up his work in the Valley, and found that the thought of Gabrielle having passed to the Radiant City made it seem nearer to him than ever before, and recognized the fact that though divided from him by the River, she was really much closer to him than she had ever been while in the Dark City.