"I am, O maiden," answered Timokles. The girl's awe-struck eyes
searched his face.
"Did thy God deliver thee?" she questioned, whispering still.
"Yea," replied Timokles reverently and truly. "Yea, O maiden, my God
delivered me from the leopard."
The girl looked alarmed. She drew back.
"Did he come to thee?" she asked in a terrified whisper. "O
Christian, no one ever before came back from the House of the
Leopard! O Christian; I am afraid of thy God!"
There was real terror in her voice. Timokles was moved with
compassion. He leaned forward, eager to explain to her the truth.
What should he say?
"He is a great God, the only God!" whispered Timokles, reverently.
"O maiden, he is not like an idol! He is the only God. Thou canst
not see him, yet he seeth and loveth thee. Speak to him, and he will
hear. He loveth us. He sent his Son to die for our sins. For that
Son's sake, O maiden, he will blot out our sins, if we entreat him.
O maiden, pray no more to idols! Lo, I tell you of the true God!"
He hardly knew whether she understood or not. She gazed at him as if
half comprehending his words, and then the fact of his having
returned from the House of the Leopard seemed to overwhelm every
other thought, and she murmured, "O Christian, I am afraid of thy
God and thee!"
She fled back to the black tent. Timokles' bound hands made but
awkward work of eating.
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