"Sir," said Amer, "can you tell me if this is the way to the Radiant City, and how the gate is to be opened?"
"Why do you want to know, my lad?" asked the stranger.
"Because I am in great trouble of mind, and am bent on escaping from this dark place. But I do not know how I can be sure that I shall be allowed to make the journey, as I have so long put it off."
"What is your trouble," asked the stranger.
"I am my own trouble," he replied, "I have resolutely shut my ears to the Voice, and have spent much of my short life in folly and sin; and now my heart will not let me rest. My sins are such that I am unable to look up. Sir, are you able to give me comfort?"
The stranger pointed to some words carved on the stone above the gate which Amer had not noticed:—
"'Come unto Me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.'"
"That is the message of the Great King to you, my lad," he said.
"To me!" murmured Amer, astonished.
"Yes, to you. To all that need Him, to all who have sinned and want His forgiveness, to all that hope in His mercy, to all who feel themselves to be miserable sinners and to need a Saviour."