10. Above all things, take his mind off the King, so that he may not
call to Him. All must be done with the greatest possible speed.
Amer groaned again and again as he read these rules.
How he envied that slow and careful traveller, whom he had once despised. He had indeed sunk in deep waters!
Then he remembered that he had his Guide Book in his pocket. Would it give him any rule as to how to act now that he was sorely smitten and enchained? In the dim light of the cave he bent over it.
The words he read were those of Jonah the prophet, who, like Amer, felt by reason of the punishment of his sin that he was cast out of God's presence.
"'I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of Hell cried I, and Thou heardest my voice. For Thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of Thy sight; yet I will look again toward Thy holy temple . . . . I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever; yet hast Thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. When my heart fainted within me I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto Thee, into Thine holy temple.'"
Amer remembered also the words quoted by the Ambassador, "'This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.'"
There was then this one resource left him; to cry to the King. He was indeed poor, as he had nothing at all to boast of. He had discovered that he was as nothing, that even his good efforts were tinged with sin; that his victories were in no way whatever due to his own bravery; that in fact he was a very poor soldier indeed. So he was just the one to cry to the King, for it was written in the Guide Book, that the "poor man cried" and the Lord heard him. All the rest of that day Amer cried unto the King. As the night drew near he still cried. His chains chafed his wrists and ankles and he grew faint and full of pain; but he still cried on.
It was just his one hope, for had not the Great King promised to hear the "poor man?" In an agony of tears and repentance he cried, and at midnight the answer came. Invisible hands broke off his chains, and led him out of the cave; and when to his wonderful joy he felt the fresh air beating on his forehead, he found also that his armour had been returned to him and that once more he was on the way to the Radiant City. But he had to go back a great part of the way before he caught a sight of the City. The valley which he had descended so easily in the company of Spiritual Pride was a steep one to climb up, and it was not till once more he reached the top of the hill from where he had last seen the Radiant City, that he caught sight of it again. And even then his view of it was misty, and remained so for several days.