The Radiant City

by Evelyn R. Garratt

"Then," said Iddo, "this shows me how wrong I have been to have come here at all. If they say such things in this land it is no place for a servant of the King," and there was a firmness in her tone of voice and a look of resolute determination in her eyes, which Adin had never thought to see in her timid little friend. She liked her all the better for it.

"Put your scruples away," she urged, "and let us enjoy ourselves. I shall miss you if you go."

"It is so hard to leave you in this town," said Iddo, with tears in her eyes, "if only you would come too. Think what it will be to be shut out of the Radiant City at last!"

"There you are again! In such dead earnest! They are quite right here when they say that people who are on the way to the Radiant City are so terribly tiring. They will not take things as they find them or leave people as they find them, but will always be trying to save them from what they look upon as their doom. Why not let people believe what they like? So long as they are happy, why disturb them?"

"Of course you feel like that if you don't believe in anything strongly," answered Iddo, "but when you are sure that there is a Radiant City, and that those who will not listen to the Voice of the King inviting them there, will be shut out at last, it makes all the difference."

"Go, then, little believer," said Adin, "and try and save others, but don't save me, I beg you;" and with a laugh and nod the girl turned away, and Iddo felt that the last word had been said between them.

She had no friend now in the Land of Indifference, but stood alone. A feeling of great isolation took possession of her; but she knew it was through her own carelessness and fault that she was in such a plight, and she determined at once to leave the place. She had some difficulty in finding her way back. The streets were intricate, and so crowded with men and women that her progress was slow. But no sooner had she begun to retrace her steps in earnest, than she fancied she saw a glimmer of light in the far distance which she knew must come from the Radiant City.

But the enemy who had been watching her for some time, fearful now of losing his prey, began to dodge her steps, and the family of Morbids clung around her, so as to impede her progress.

"There is no use trying to get out of the land," they cried, "you have got too used to its ways. You will not find your mother, you don't deserve it. You have been playing in the enemy's country all this time, and now expect the King to welcome you back. He will never do it. It will take years to get rid of the marks of the land upon you," and by other words they did all they could to drag her back and discourage her.

Then the far worse enemy, Doubt, met her just as she was passing through the gate, and hurled his darts at her face, that for a time she was so blinded by him that no sight could she get of the Radiant City, and she began to wonder if Adin's words were true, and she had been following a mere dream—a mirage. But the very fierceness of the enemy's assault made Iddo cry the louder and the more persistently to the King, and though at first no answer seemed to be vouchsafed and she was only conscious of the sharp arrows of the enemy, she would not give in. The King was her only hope, and she knew He would help her.