Mr World and Miss Church-Member | Page 6

us follow this shining path." hopefully urged Miss Church-Member. But it is too rough and steep for Mr. World.]

CHAPTER II.
THE BY-PATH.
1. In their journey Mr. World and Miss Church-Member come to the By-Path leading to the King's Highway; on this Miss Church-Member urges Mr. World to travel. He defers so decisive a step and defends his attitude by the use of sophistry.
2. Miss Church-Member, still hoping to win Mr. World to a better path, forsakes the King's Highway and continues in his company.
3. A tilt with Blackana who defends Miss Church-Member for traveling on the Broad Highway.
The highway of the world was so broad that one could walk thereon as loosely as he wished without fear of stepping from it. Along the way there were so many things to attract the attention that the farther Miss Church-Member journeyed with Mr. World, the less frequently she looked toward the King's Highway. However, her face brightened and her hopes waxed strong as they suddenly came to a place where two ways met.
With quick insight Miss Church-Member saw that the By-Path was a blessed one and that it led directly to the King's Highway.
"Let us follow this shining path," she hopefully suggested. "I know it leads to the way of light and glory."
"Not such a path, my friend," hastily replied Mr. World. "Do you not see the terrible hill to which it leads, and those who are even now struggling to climb its arduous heights?"
"I clearly see it all," she calmly admitted, "but they who struggle most are endeavoring to carry many idols with them. If one will forsake his idols, he can, with ease and pleasure, mount to the shining summit which is but the edge of the King's glorious Highway. Come, Mr. World, hesitate no more. Let procrastination end, and go with me even to the hill, and I will help you to the summit--while Another will help you more."
"Very true, very true," he said, though somewhat irritated, "but we have not yet come to the place where I may wisely follow your advice. This path turning away to the right leads to a place that may seem bright from this point, but nevertheless I know it to be a narrow, rugged way, whereon a few of your friends are trudging, eking out a miserable existence. Urge me not to go thither. If you leave me, I can neither accompany you nor give you my assistance. Surely you have learned, ere this, that your needs are of such a nature that you must inevitably suffer embarrassment without my little help."
Miss Church-Member, with eyes but partly open to her own folly, was grievously perplexed and not a little disappointed. She fell on her knees and wept. Looking up pleadingly into his eyes, she faltered:
"Twice have I yielded to you since we entered into companionship. You well remember the solemn promise you made, but at each time you deferred its fulfillment, and now I must again hear your vain excuses. I have suffered much for your sake, and have now the enmity of many a former friend, and even my pilgrim robe is becoming stained with the filth of this way."
"Come, come, my friend, be a woman and not a sickly suppliant. The portion of the King's Highway which we would reach from this point is too rough for my feet to travel. We will shortly come to a more convenient place; then I can think more seriously of leaving this way."
"Ah!" sighed Miss Church-Member, "you say that in your folly. I can testify, from knowledge, that the way is most delightful and leads to mansions incorruptible in the Celestial City." "Let us cease debating," interrupted Mr. World, with ill-concealed impatience. "If you have sacrificed so much through my fellowship and imagine that you can find better company, you may leave, but you cannot expect me to accompany you on so thorny and rough a path as this which you have so foolishly proposed."
Strengthened by the remnants of Christian virtue yet within her, she sprang to her feet and was about to execute her noble purpose of leaving him. But a number of Mr. World's friends quickly rallied and complimented Miss Church-Member on the good she had already done. "Mr. World is a better man since he has known you," said one. "If you will continue walking with him on his own level, no one can estimate the amount of good you will yet do for him," hopefully spoke another.
These unexpected testimonies aroused anew her missionary spirit and changed her thoughts to these yielding sentences:
"No sacrifice is too great, if victory but comes at last. If there is hope that Mr. World will cease deceiving me and walk in the path of truth, I will consent to be his companion still a little