Things As They Are

Below is a excerpt from Amy Carmichael's book The way Things Are.  Amy was a missionary who spent her entire life on the mission field.  I have updated the English vernacular.

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"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 saw, as it seemed, this:

I was standing on a patch of grass over looking a precipice that appeared endless.  All that I could see were cloud shapes, black and furiously coiled, and great shadow-shrouded hollows.  I drew back, dizzy.

Then I saw forms of people.

They were moving in single file line towards the cliff face.

I saw a woman with a baby in her arms and another little child holding on to her dress.  She was on the very edge.

Then I saw that she was blind.

Lifting her foot for the next step...it trod air.  She went over and the children went with her.  Oh the cry as they went over!

Then I saw streams of people following from all quarters.  All of them were blind.  All of them were headed straight for the precipice.  Shrieks pierced the air as they suddenly realized that they were falling, throwing their arms up to catch tufts of grass that gave way.  Still some went over without making a sound.

Agony.  I wondered in agony why no one stopped them at the edge.  I could not.  I was stuck where I stood.  I could not call; though I tried, only a whisper would come.

Then I saw along the edge there were sentries set at intervals.  But the intervals were great...too great.  There were wide, unguarded gaps.  In these gaps, multitudes fell over the edge quite unknowingly until it was too late.  the green grass I was standing in seemed blood-red to me, and the gulf yawned like the mouth of hell.

Then I saw a peaceful scene. folks were picnicking under a tree with their backs turned to the gulf.  they were oblivious to the cries and the myriad of souls going over the edge.  they were busy making daisy chains.  Every once in a while, a piercing scream would cause them to pause in their activity.  If one of their number stood up and wanted to go investigate, they would pull them back down and focus them on their work there.

One sentry left her post to go and rest.  No one came to replace her and thousands of people perished in her absence in the waterfall of souls.

Once a child caught a tuft of grass and screamed longer and louder than usual.  The child was very near the group of picnickers.  A girl stood up to go run and help her, but the others in the group pulled her back down and began to sing a hymn so loud that the girl could no longer hear the screams of the child.  But the time the girl was able to break free and run to the edge to save the child, it was too late. 

Then through the volume of the hymn being sung came another sound; the sound like the pain of a million broken hearts wrung out is one full drop, one solitary sob.  The horror of the great darkness was upon me, for I knew it was the Cry of Blood. 

Then I hear a voice.

The voice of the Lord said to me, "What have you done?  The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the earth."  (Genesis 4:10)

The tom-toms still beat heavily, the darkness still shuddered about me; I heard the screams.  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?"