Mr. World and Miss Church-Member: A Twentieth Century Allegory

p hill Miss Church-Membe

in keeping her away

in company with Mr. World o

d and Miss Church-Member still riding on the gravity road. They were approaching the Shadowy Vale, and

hat she fell fast asleep and opened not her eyes until they

ation, so that she might not fully observe the features that c

ich was well pleasing to him. At length, in partial disguise, h

," said Mr. World re-assuringly as

y to render you such assistance as may be especially helpful to you in your journey, and to disab

ess which characterized his first appearance, and evoked from Miss Church-Member this apology born of her gu

lowship with Mr. World. It is your happy fortune that he has succeeded in preventing you from leaving him. You are an exception to a host of cranks, who, witho

and shame to her heart, and threw her

which all pilgrims walked. Mr. World assisted his companion in alighting,

ps in the rear. Her bowed head indicated the warring of her thoughts. Then I saw that she cast a longing gl

fears by offering all manner of cajolements, n

est only on yonder King's Highway. Can you show me the shortest

ber cast a longing glance toward the King's Highway, a

but, if you will have patience, we will conduct you safely to a point a little farther on where you can conveniently leave this way with al

d kindness, and began to feel that this dark intruder was a

ered as her voice trembled with emotion. "I was told that you are the embodimen

g regularly, and sedulously listen to the sermons and prayers while many sleep who claim to be better than I? You will pardon me, Miss Church-Member," he continued, "bu

id. "Please carry these books caref

ed at Blackana who, with his eyes fixed upon

why Satan has falsifi

h-Mem

iness, answered interrogativel

m Miss Church-Member t

hway from the place whe

is a way opened by the

did he no

My master is about his own business; that is why he is so successful in his work. It is not his busin

between those two fiends, ever nearing an awful destruction, yet vainly imagining, through the deceitfulness of her advisers, that she is nearing the place where

t all necessary advice from her two friend

ed with contempt. I turned my eyes to see poor Miss

The pains and pangs incident to this climbing are over, and if you should come to another hill you will ascend it with more ease. Look about you a

on, being glad to seek relief

ion to others who were ascending the same Hill of Remorse, som

or the attractions on the mountain top were so numerous and so ingeniously arranged

; gardens of shady retreat where one might while away the weary hours in

rldly ease, and poets were writing swe

orld to tarry in one of the gardens of the poets where they might

mpanied her into a garden near by. They were greeted by soun

ng a hymn that had been composed that same d

but the f

poor, the s

comes its b

comes this

hou troubled

unkind, in

cares no m

ll thy pa

hings that w

g sorrows

and be fo

ept this B

While the applause which followed her remarks was dying away, an authoritative old gentleman arose. After standing a moment in dig

ed a love song of the world; this a

d, so brig

thy pleas

days p

our trues

our soul

ife is

s perple

t, in ev

ver

sweet, pla

our dre

mes o

can giv

ed in he

e lik

est rays

r darke

hadows

Miss Church-Member. She looked into the eyes of Mr. World with more than poetry in he