The Rocky Island Part 5

One there was amongst them who seemed to have got nothing to carry home with him; and yet he, as well as the rest, had laid out his master's gifts. Then some of the other servants asked him, what he had stored up for the king? and he said that he had no riches which he could shew to them, but that he had an offering which he knew that the merciful heart of the king would make him love and value. Then they asked him to tell them his story; so he said that, as he was walking through the market, he had seen a poor woman weeping and wringing her hands, as if her heart would break: he stopped, and asked her the cause of her sorrow; and she told him that she was a widow, and that some merchants, to whom her husband had owed large sums of money, had come that morning to her house and taken all that she had, and seized her children too; and that they were dragging them away to the slave-market to sell them for slaves in a far land, that they might pay themselves the debt which her husband had owed them. So when he heard her sad tale, he opened his bag of treasure, and found that all the gold which he had got in it would just pay the widow's debt and set her children free. Then he went with her to the merchants, and he told out to them all that sum, and set the children of the widow free, and gave them back to their mother; "and I am taking," he said, "to our merciful king the offering of the widow's tears and grat.i.tude; and I know well that this is an offering which will be well- pleasing in his sight."

So it fared with these faithful servants in their trading; and all the while they were cheerful and light-hearted, because they remembered constantly the love and kindness which their king had shewed to them; and they rejoiced that they were able to serve him and to trade for him with his gifts. They thought also of the goodness of the king's son towards them; they remembered how he had sought them when they were prisoners in the dark dungeons of their tyrant enemy; and they were full of joy when they thought that they should be able to offer to him the goodly pearl, and the other curious gifts, which they had bought. They thought of these things until they longed to hear the trumpet sound, which was to call them out of the town and gather them together for their journey home. When that trumpet might sound, they knew not; but the sun was now pa.s.sed its noon, and the town, which had been so quiet when they came in the early morning along its empty streets, was now full of noise, and bustle, and confusion, as great towns are wont to be, when all the mult.i.tude of sleepers awaken and pour out for pleasure, or business, or idleness, into the streets, and squares, and market-places.

Heartily glad were they now that they had been so early at their traffic.

Now the merchants had shut up all their richest stores; and the markets were full of others who brought false pearls and mock diamonds, instead of the costly gems for which they had traded in the morning. There seemed to be hardly any true traders left. Idlers were there in numbers, and shows and noisy revels were pa.s.sing up and down the streets; and they could see thieves and bad men lurking about at all the corners, seeking whom they could catch, and rob, and plunder.

On all these things the servants looked; sometimes they saw beautiful sights pa.s.s by them, which gladdened their eyes; and sometimes sweet music would fill their ears, as bands of merry harpers and singers walked up and down through the market; and they rejoiced in all of these, but still their hearts were full of thoughts of their kind king, and recollections of his son their prince; and they longed to be at home with them, even when the sights round them were the gayest, and the sounds in their ears were the sweetest; and they were ever watching for the voice of the trumpet, which was to call them again homeward.

But this happy case was not that of all the servants. When these watchful men had been entering the gates of the city in the morning, the thoughtless servants were not yet awake. They had sat up late at their feasting and rejoicings, and when the morning sun rose upon them, they were still in their first deep sleep. The stirring of their fellow-servants moved them a little, and for a while they seemed ready to rise and join them. But their goods were not ready, so they could not go with them; and they might as well, therefore, they thought, wait a little longer and rest themselves, and then follow them to the market. They did not mean to be late, but they saw no reason why they should be so very early.

They slept, therefore, till the sun was high, and then they rose in some confusion, because it was now so late; and they had all their goods to unpack, their stuffs to smooth out, and the dust to shake off from them.

Soon they began about every little thing to find fault with one another, because they were secretly angry with themselves. Each one thought that if his neighbour had not persuaded him to stay, he should have been up, and have entered the city with the earliest: so high words arose between them; and instead of helping one another, and making the best they could of the time which remained, they only hindered one another, and made it later and later before they were ready to begin their trading.

At length, after many hard words and much bad temper, one by one they got away; each as soon as he was ready, and often with his goods all in confusion; every one following his own path, and wandering by himself up the crowded streets of the full town.

Hard work they had to get at all along it when they had pa.s.sed the gates.

All the stream of people seemed now to be setting against them. The idlers jested upon their strange dress; and if they did but try to traffic for their lord, the rude children of the town would gather round them, and hoot, and cry: so that they could not manage to carry on any trade at all.

Then, as I watched them, I saw that some who had been the loudest in talking of what they should do when they were tried, were now the first to give up altogether making any head at all against the crowd of that city. They packed up what goods they might have, and began to think only of looking about them, and following the crowd, and pleasing themselves, like any of the men around them. Then I looked after some of these, and I saw that one of them was led on by the crowd to a place in the town where there was a great show. Outside of it were men in many-coloured dresses, who blew with trumpets, and jested, and cried aloud, and begged all to come in and see the strange sights which were stored within.

Now when the servant came to this place, he watched one and another go in, until at last he also longed to go in and see the sights which were to be gazed on within. So he went to the door, and the porter asked him for money; but when he drew out his purse, and the porter saw that his money belonged to some strange place, and was quite unlike the coin used in that town, he only laughed at it, and said it was good for nothing there, and bid him "stand back." So as he turned away, the porter saw the rich bundle on his back, and then he spoke to him in another tone, and he said, "I will let you in, if you like to give me that bundle of goods." Then for a moment the servant was checked. He thought of his lord and of the reckoning, and he remembered the words, "As good stewards of the manifold grace of G.o.d;" and he had almost determined to turn back, and to fight his way to the market-place, and to trade for his lord, let it cost him what it might;--but just at the moment there was a great burst of the showman's trumpets; and he heard the people shouting for joy within; and so he forgot all but his great desire, and slipping off the bundle from his shoulders, he put it into the hands of the porter, and pa.s.sed in, and I saw him no more.

Then I saw another, who was standing at the corner of a street gating at some strange antics which were being played by a company of the townsmen.

And as he gazed upon them, he forgot all about his trading for his master, and thought only of seeing more of this strange sight. Then I saw that whilst he was thinking only of these follies, some evil-minded men gathered round him, and before he was aware of it, they secretly stole from him all the gold which his lord had given him to lay out for him. The servant did not even know when it was gone, so much was he thinking of staring at the sight before him. But it made me very sad to think that when he went to buy for his master, he would find out, too late, his loss; and that when the trumpet sounded, he would have nothing to carry back with him on the day of reckoning.

Some of these loiterers, too, were treated even worse than this. One of them I saw whom the shows and lights of that town led on from street to street, until he came quite to its farther end; and then he thought that he saw before him, beyond some lonely palings, still finer sights than any he had left; and so he set out to cross over those fields, and see those sights. And when he was half over, some wicked robbers, who laid wait in those desolate places, rushed out upon him from their lurking- place, and ill used him sorely, and robbed him of all his goods and money, and left him upon the ground hardly able to get back to the town which he had left.

Then I saw one of these loiterers who, as he was looking idly at the sights round him, grew very grave, and began to tremble from head to foot. One of his fellows, who stood by and saw him, quickly asked him what made him tremble. At first he could not answer; but after a while he said, that the sound of the trumpet which they had just heard had made him think of the great trumpet-sound of their master, which was to call them all back to his presence, and that he trembled because the evening was coming on, and he had not yet traded for his lord. And "How," he said in great fear, "how shall we ever stand that reckoning with our hands empty?" Then some of his companions in idleness laughed and jeered greatly, and mocked the poor trembler. But his fears were wiser than their mockings; and so, it seemed, he knew, for he cared nothing for them; but only said to them, very sadly and gravely, "You are in the same danger, how then can you jeer at me?" And with that he pointed their eyes up to the sky, and shewed them how low the sun had got already, and that it wanted but an hour at the most to his setting, and then that the trumpet might sound at any moment, and they have nothing to bear home to their lord.

Now, as he spoke, one listened eagerly to him; and whilst the others jeered, he said very gravely, "What can we do? Is it quite too late?"

"It is never too late," said the other, "till the trumpet sounds; and though we have lost so much of the day, perchance we can yet do something: come with me to the market-place, and we will try." So the other joined him, and off they set, pa.s.sing through their companions, who shouted after them all the way they went, until the townsmen who stood round began to jeer and shout after them also: so that all the town was moved. A hard time those two had now, and much they wished that they had gone to the market-place in the early morning, when the streets were empty, and the busy servants had pa.s.sed so easily along. Many were the rough words they had now to bear; many the angry, or ill-natured, crowd through which they had to push; and if any where they met one of their late and idle companions, he was sure to stir up all the street against them, when he saw them pushing on to the market-place.

"Do you think that we shall ever get there?" said he who had been moved by the other's words to him, who led the way, and buffeted with the crowd, like a man swimming through many rough waves in the strong stream of some swift river. "Do you think that we shall ever get there?" "Yes, yes," said the other; "we shall get there still, if we do but persevere."

"But it is so hard to make any way, and the streets seem to grow fuller and fuller; I am afraid that I shall never get through."

Just as he spoke, a great band of the townspeople, with music, and trumpets, and dancing, met them like a mighty wave of the sea, and seemed sure to drive them back: one of their old companions was dancing amongst the rest; and as I looked hard at him, I saw that it was the same who had given away his precious burden in order to go into the show. Now, as soon as he saw these his former fellows, he called to them by their names, and bid them join him and the townsmen round him. But he that was leading the way shook his head, and said boldly: "No: we will not join with you; we are going to the market-place to traffic for our lord." "It is too late for that," said he; "you lost the morning, and now you cannot trade." Then I saw that he who before had trembled exceedingly grew very pale; but still he held on his way; and he said,--"Yes, we have lost the morning, and a sore thing it is for us; but our good lord will help us even yet; and we WILL serve him, 'redeeming the time, because the days are evil.'" Then he turned to the other and said to him,--

"And will not you stop either? Do not be fooled by this madman: what use is it to go to buy when the shops are all shut, and the market empty?"

Then he hung down his head, and looked as though he would have turned back, and fallen into the throng; but his fellow seized him by the hand, and bid him take courage, and think upon his kind master, and upon the king's son, whose very blood had been shed for them; and with that he seemed to gather a little confidence, and held for a while on in his way with the other.

Then their old companion turned all his seeming love into hatred, and he called upon the crowd round him to lay hands on them and stop them; and this the rabble would fain have done, but that, as it seemed to me, a power greater than their own was with those servants, and strengthened them; until they pushed the rude people aside on the right and on the left, and pa.s.sed safely through them into another street.

Here there were fewer persons, and they had a breathing-time for a while; and as they heard the sound of music and of the crowd pa.s.sing by at some little distance from them, they began to gather heart, and to talk to one another. "I never thought," said the one, "that I could have held on through that crowd; and I never could, if you had not stretched out your hand to help me." "Say, rather, if our master's strength had not been with us," said the other. "But do you think," said he that was fearful, "that he will accept any thing we can bring him now, when the best part of the day is over?" "Yes, I do," he replied. "I have a good hope that he will; for I remember how he said, 'Return, ye backsliding children, return ye even unto me.'" "But how can one who is so trembling and fearful as I am ever traffic for him?" "You can, if you will but hold on; for he has once spoken of his servants 'as faint yet pursuing.'"

"Well," said the other, "I wish that I had your courage; but I do believe that I should not dare to meet such another crowd as that we have just pa.s.sed through; I really thought that they would tear us in pieces." "Our king will never let that be," said the other, "if only we trust in him."

"But are you sure," replied he, "that our king does see us in this town?"

Just as he said this, and before his companion had time to answer him again, they heard a louder noise than ever, of men dancing, and singing, and crowding, and music playing, and horns blowing, as if all the mad sports of the city were coming upon them in one burst. At the front of all they could see their old companion; for the band had turned round by a different street, and now were just beginning to come down that one up which they were pa.s.sing. Then he who had been affrighted before, turned white as snow; and he looked this way and that, to see what he could do.

Now it so happened, that just by where they stood was a great shop, and in its windows there seemed to shine precious stones and jewels, and fine crystals, and gold and ivory. And, as he looked, his eyes fell full upon the shop, and he said to his fellow,--"Look here; surely here is what we want: let us turn in here and traffic for our master, and then we shall escape all this rout which is coming upon us." "No, no!" said the other; "we must push on to the market; that is our appointed place; there our lord bids us trade: we must not turn aside from the trouble which our lateness has brought upon us--we must not offer to our master that which costs us nothing. Play the man, and we shall soon be in the market."

"But we shall be torn in pieces," said the other. "Look at the great crowd: and even now it seems that our old companion sees me, and is beginning to lead the rabble upon us." "Never fear," said he who led the way; "our king will keep us. 'I will not be afraid for ten thousands of the people who have set themselves against us round about.'"

Then I saw that he to whom he spoke did not seem to hear these last words, for the master of the shop had noticed how he cast his eyes upon the goods that were in the window, and was ready in a moment to invite him in. "Come in, come in," he said, "before the crowd sweep you away; come in and buy my pearls, and my diamonds, and my precious stones; come in, come in." And while he halted for a moment to parley with the man, the crowd came upon them, and he was parted from his friend, who had held up his fainting steps; and so he sprung trembling into the shop, scarcely thinking himself safe even there.

Now the man into whose house he had turned, though he was a fair-spoken man, and one who knew well how to seem honest and true, was altogether a deceiver. All his seeming jewels, and diamonds, and pearls, were but shining and painted gla.s.s, which was worth nothing at all to him who was so foolish as to buy it: but this the servant knew not. If it had been in the bright clear light of the morning, he would easily have seen that the diamonds and the pearls were only sparkling and painted gla.s.s, and the gold nothing but tinsel; but the bright light of the morning had pa.s.sed away, and in the red slanting light of the evening sun he could not see clearly; and so the false man persuaded him, and he parted with all the rich treasures which his king had given him, and got nothing for them in exchange which was worth the having, for he filled his bag with bits of painted gla.s.s, which his lord would never accept.

However, he knew not how he had been cheated; or if, perhaps, a thought crossed his mind that all was not right, it was followed by another, which said that it was now too late to alter, and that if he had chosen wrongly, still he must abide by it; and so he waited for the trumpet. But he was not altogether happy; and often and often he wished that he had faced the strife of the mult.i.tude, and pressed on with his trusting companion to the market.

A hard struggle had been his before he had reached it. It seemed indeed at times as if the words of his fearful companion were coming true, and he would be torn altogether in pieces, so fiercely did the crowd press upon him and throng him. But as I watched him in the thickest part of it, I saw that always, just at his last need, something seemed to favour him, and the crowd broke off and left room for him to struggle by. I could hear him chanting, as it were, to himself, when the crowd looked upon him the most fiercely, "I will not be afraid for ten thousands of the people that have set themselves against me round about." And even as he chanted the words, the crowd divided itself in two parts, like a rushing stream glancing by some black rock; and on he pa.s.sed, as though they saw him not.

So it continued, even till he reached the market-place. Right glad was he to find himself there: but even now all his trials were not over. Many of the stalls were empty, and from many more the fair and true traders were gone away; and instead of them were come false and deceitful men, who tried to put off any who dealt with them with pretended jewels and bad goods.

Then did he look anxiously round and round the market, fearing every moment lest the trumpet should sound before he had purchased any thing for his lord. Never, perhaps, all along the way, did he so bitterly regret his early sloth as now, for he wrung his hands together, and said in great bitterness, "What shall I do?" and, "How shall I, a loiterer, traffic for my lord?"

Then his eyes fell upon a shop where were no jewels, nor gold, nor costly silks, nor pearls of great price; but all that was in it was coa.r.s.e sackcloth, and rough and hairy garments, and heaps of ashes, and here and there a loaf of bitter bread, and bitter herbs, and bottles wherein tears were stored. As he gazed on this shop something seemed to whisper to his heart, "Go and buy." So he went with his sorrowful heart, as one not worthy to traffic for his master, and he bought the coa.r.s.est sackcloth, and the ashes of affliction, and many bitter tears: and so he waited for the sounding of the trumpet.

Then suddenly, as some loud noise breaks upon the slumbers of men who sleep, that great trumpet sounded. All through the air came its voice, still waxing louder and louder; and even as it pealed across the sky, all that great city, and its mult.i.tudes, and its lofty palaces, and its show, and its noise, and its revels, all melted away, and were not. And in a moment all the servants were gathered together, and their lord and king stood amongst them. All else was gone, and they and their works were alone with him.

Then was there a fearful trial of every man's work. Then were they crowned with light and gladness who had risen early and traded diligently, and who now brought before their master the fruit of that toil, and labour, and pain. Each one had his own reward; and amongst the richest and the best--as though he brought what the king greatly loved--was his reward who brought unto his master the offering of grat.i.tude from the broken-hearted widow.

Then drew near the servant who had wasted the morning, but had repented of his sloth, and had fought his way through the crowds, and had at last bought the sackcloth. Now he came bringing it with him; and it looked poor, and mean, and coa.r.s.e, as he bore it amongst the heaps of gold, and jewels, and silks, which lay piled up all around; yet did he draw near unto the king; and as he came, he spoke, and said, "A broken and a contrite heart wilt thou not despise." And as he spake, the king looked graciously upon him: a mild and an approving smile sat upon his countenance, and he spoke to him also the blessed words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Then did the coa.r.s.e sackcloth shine as the most rich cloth of gold; then did the ashes of the furnace sparkle as a monarch's jewels; whilst every bitter tear which was stored in the bottle changed into pearls and rubies which were above all price.

Then the king turned to the careless servants, and his voice was terrible to hear, and from his face they fled away. I dared not to look upon them; but I heard their just and most terrible sentence, and I knew that they were driven away for ever from the presence of the king, in which is life and peace; and that they were bound under chains and darkness, deeper and more dreadful than those from which the king's son had graciously delivered them.

_Father_. In what part of G.o.d's word do we read such a parable as this?

_Child_. In the 25th chapter of St. Matthew's gospel, and at the 15th verse.

F. Who is the King who called his servants thus together?

C. Almighty G.o.d.

F. Who are meant by these servants trading in the town?

C. All of us Christians.

F. How do you know that they were Christians?

C. Because they had been delivered from slavery and dungeons by the King's own Son.

F. What is the great town to which they were sent?

C. This world.

F. What are the goods which G.o.d gave them to lay out for him?