I found this powerfully convicting piece over at Katherine Sophia's blog, "
Seek Him First" ... may God forgive me for my selfish fears and for closing my eyes to the needs of my lost friends!
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by Amy Carmichael
The tom-toms thumped straight on all night, and the darkness shuddered
round me like a living, feeling thing. I could not go to sleep, so I lay
awake and looked; and I saw, as it seemed, this:
That I stood on a grassy patch, and at my feet a ravine broke straight
down into infinite space. I looked, but saw no bottom; only cloud
shapes, black and furiously coiled, and great shadow-shrouded hollows,
and unfathomable depths. Back I drew, dizzy at the depth.
Then I saw forms of people moving toward the edge. There was a woman
with a baby in her arms and another little child holding on to her
dress. She was on the very edge. She lifted her foot for the next step…
Then, to my horror, I saw that she was blind. Before I could say
anything she was over, and the children with her. Their cries pierced
the air as they fell into the inky blackness of the ravine!
Then I saw more streams of people flowing from all quarters. All were
blind, stone blind; all walked straight toward the edge. There were
shrieks as they suddenly knew themselves falling, and a tossing up of
helpless arms, catching, clutching at empty air. But some went over
quietly, and fell without a sound.
Then I wondered, with a wonder that was sheer agony, why no one stopped
them at the edge. I could not. I was glued to the ground, and I couldn’t
even yell; though I strained and tried, only a whisper would come out.
Then I saw that along the edge there were sentries set at intervals.
But the intervals were too large; there were wide, unguarded gaps
between. And over these gaps the people fell in their blindness,
unwarned; and the green grass seemed blood-red to me, and the ravine
yawned like the mouth of hell.
Then I saw, like a little picture of peace, a group of people under some
trees with their backs turned towards the ravine. They were making
daisy chains. Sometimes when a piercing shriek cut the quiet air and
reached them, it disturbed them and they thought it was a rather crude
noise. And if one of their group started up and wanted to go and do
something to help, then all the others would pull that one down. “Why
should you get so excited about it? You must wait for a definite call to
go! You haven’t finished your daisy chain yet. It would be really
selfish,” they said, “to leave us to finish the work alone.”
There was another group. It was made up of people whose great desire was
to get more sentries out; but they found that very few wanted to go,
and sometimes there were no sentries for miles and miles along the edge.
Once a girl stood alone in her place, waving the people back; but her
mother and other relations called, and reminded her that her furlough
was due; she must not break the rules. And being tired and needing a
change, she had to go and rest for awhile; but no one was sent to guard
her gap, and over and over the people fell, like a waterfall of souls.
Once a child grabbed at a tuft of grass that grew at the very edge of
the ravine; it clung convulsively, and it called – but nobody seemed to
hear. Then the roots of the grass gave way, and with a cry the child
went over, its two little hands still holding tight to the torn-off
bunch of grass. And the girl who longed to be back in her gap thought
she heard the little one cry, and she sprang up and wanted to go; at
which her friends reproved her, reminding her that no one is necessary
anywhere; “The gap would be well taken care of!” they said. And then
they sang a hymn.
Then through the hymn came another sound like the pain of a million
broken hearts wrung out in one full drop, one sob. And a horror of great
darkness was upon me, for I knew that it was “The Cry of the Blood”.
Then a voice thundered. It was the voice of the Lord, and He said, “What
hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from
the ground.”
The tom-toms still beat heavily, the darkness still shuddered and
shivered about me; I heard the yells of the devil-dancers and weird,
wild shrieks of the devil-possessed just outside the gate.
What does it matter, after all? It has gone on for years; it will go on
for years. Why make such a fuss about it?
God forgive us! God arouse us! Shame us out of our callousness! Shame us out of our sin!
