| The Glory of the Common Life |
Chapter 8 |
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Some of us know how hard it is to pray and count on God’s coming with help in some intolerable sorrow, and then not to have him come. From the old crusading days comes this pathetic story. A crusader returning from the Holy Land was seized by enemies and cast into prison. There he lay month after month; hoping that in some way relief might come to him. One day he heard the sounds of martial music, faint and far away, and his heart leaped with joy. The sounds came nearer and still nearer, and soon he caught the notes of old, familiar airs. Then, looking out through the grating of his cell window, he saw the flashing of spears. Closer the column came, and then, with wild emotion, he saw that it was a company of his own men, the same men with whom he had gone to the Holy Land. Right under his window they were passing – he saw their very faces and recognized them. He cried out to them, but the music drowned his cries, and they rode on and away, their banners passing out of sight, leaving him in hopelessness in his prison.
So it seemed with John in his dungeon. News of the beautiful things Jesus was doing outside came to his windows continually. He was working great miracles. “Will he not come this way?” the chafing lion in the dungeon cried. “Will he not come and take me out of this terrible prison?” But the music died out on the air, and he came not. As we think of this we can understand why John began to ask questions about Jesus. “Is he really the Messiah, as I used to believe he was?”
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