One day a pilgrim came to my door
A good man of sober habits
I invited him in to warm himself and share my hospitality
I was glad of the company as it was a dreadfully lonely existence for me now, as I never saw another soul.
He told me of the world outside, how it had become
It was even worse than I imagined and I asked him how he protected himself in such a brutal place
He told me that he'd been given special armour that protected him from all harm, but a few times he'd forgotten to wear it and had many wounds that testified to this.
We talked well into the night and he told me many tales of the world outside.
He told me of a new language that the people were forced to adopt.
The children were taught it from birth.
It was a universal language.
Many beautiful words had been removed altogether and people had no concept of the meaning of these words any more as they didn't exist
Words had been added also, and still other words had been manipulated to such a degree that they now meant something entirely different.
The humans were encouraged to use the vilest of language, spitting venom at each other at every opportunity. Their speech was profane and blasphemous. They wounded one another with their words, for they were powerful, and made the world an even darker place.
They scoffed at their creator and said “there is no God"
Instead they worshipped themselves and others.
They made idols of other humans and out of wood and clay.
They celebrated their cleverness and wallowed in their depravity.
Lies were told as truth, and truth as lies.
People were no longer allowed to speak out against wickedness, it had become a crime to do so.
They were now forced to embrace and celebrate it or they would be punished and ostracised.
It pained me greatly to hear this
I asked if he knew what had become of my love.
He told me that to his knowledge, no such man existed.
The sons of Adam had given themselves over to the evil ones and no longer had any power to resist wickedness
They revelled in all sorts of terrible and licentious behaviour and were puffed up with pride.
Shame had become an outlawed word, nobody was allowed to speak of it.
Instead they boasted and bragged of their wicked ways.
They loved to speak of their iniquities, each man trying to outdo the other in his mischief
The men thought it was a great accomplishment to defile as many daughters of Eve as possible and bragged about this the most.
The daughters of Eve had also become terribly wicked and many had given themselves over to the spirit of Jezebel.
They had been tricked into exchanging their feminine virtues for the things of the world, all of which were illusions and would be gone in the blink of an eye very shortly.
They flaunted themselves shamelessly and tried to lure as many men down the road to destruction possible. No longer were they equipped with such things as modesty, gracefulness, purity, delicacy, civility, compliancy, reticence, chastity, affability, and politeness". In fact these virtues, if not completely unknown, were scoffed at and thought of as ridiculous. Instead these women had adopted the opposite, they were crude, impolite, unchaste, graceless, lovers of themselves, impure, proud and brash
They'd become wanton, lewd, promiscuous, shameless whores, eager to destroy the souls of men and their own along with them.
The men were unprotected as they had no armour and so they easily succumbed to their superficial charms.
Completely unaware of the soul destroying nature of this evil game.
No one was happy any more, everyone was miserable
But they didn't realise because everyone else was in the same state.
The people had forgotten what happiness was
They'd forsaken joy for pleasure
They'd sold the precious gifts they'd been given, the gifts that can never be stolen, only given away
They'd been tricked into exchanging these priceless gifts for worthless trinkets that would ultimately cause untold grief and bring about their destruction
It grieved me deeply
to hear this.
I asked him where he was headed and he told me that he couldn't speak of it yet, but that he wasn't from the world, that he was trying to find his way home. He said it would be a very long journey as he had much to learn along the way and couldn't arrive at his destination until he had completed many tasks.
He told me that he would return and tell me of his master, the one who had given him the armour.
I was very curious and felt impatient to know.
He collected his meagre belongings and we bid each other farewell.
After he left, I pondered long and hard on the things he had said
I wondered what would become of the world and the people in it
Where once there had been a tiny shred of hope, now was none
Perhaps if not for the pilgrim there would be no goodness in the world at all
I wondered if there were others like him
Others who had been given armour to protect themselves
And who had given it to them?
And why?
There were no answers to these questions
As I couldn't venture outside to find out
So I stayed alone in my shelter
But as least I was safe from harm.