,transcribed from the #ahic ,oliphant ,anderson and ,ferrier edition by ,david ,price1 email ccx#jgd;coventry4ac4uk ,,bunyan ,,characters3 ,,first ,,series ,,being ,,lectures ,,delivered ,,in ,,st4 ,,george',s ,,free ,,church ,,edinburgh ,,by ,,alexander ,,whyte1 ,d4,d4 ,,introductory ',the express image' ,gr4 'the character'4--,heb4 #a4 #c4 ,the word 'character' occurs only once in the ,new ,testament1 and that is in the passage in the prologue of the ,epistle to the ,hebrews1 where the original word is translated 'express image' in our version4 ,our ,lord is the ,express ,image of the ,invisible ,father4 ,no man hath seen ,god at any time4 ,the only-begotten ,son1 who is in the bosom of the ,father1 ,he hath declared ,him4 ,the ,father hath sealed ,his divine image upon ,his ,son1 so that he that hath seen the ,son hath seen the ,father4 ,the ,son is thus the ,father's character stamped upon and set forth in human nature4 ,the ,word was made flesh4 ,this is the highest and best use to which our so expressive word 'character' has ever been put1 and the use to which it is put when we speak of ,bunyan's ,characters partakes of the same high sense and usage4 ,for it is of the outstanding good or evil in a man that we think when we speak of his character4 ,it is really either of his likeness or unlikeness to ,jesus ,christ we speak1 and then1 through ,him1 his likeness or unlikeness to ,god ,himself4 ,and thus it is that the adjective 'moral' usually accompanies our word 'character'--moral or immoral4 ,a man's character does not have its seat or source in his body2 character is not a physical thing3 not even in his mind2 it is not an intellectual thing4 ,character comes up out of the will and out of the heart4 ,there are more good minds1 as we say1 in the world than there are good hearts4 ,there are more clever people than good people2 character1--high1 spotless1 saintly character1--is a far rarer thing in this world than talent or even genius4 ,character is an infinitely better thing than either of these1 and it is of corresponding rarity4 ,and yet so true is it that the world loves its own1 that all men worship talent1 and even bodily strength and bodily beauty1 while only one here and one there either understands or values or pursues moral character1 though it is the strength and the beauty and the sweetness of the soul4 ,we naturally turn to ,bishop ,butler when we think of moral character4 ,butler is an author who has drawn no characters of his own4 ,butler's genius was not creative like ,shakespeare's or ,bunyan's4 ,butler had not that splendid imagination which those two masters in character-painting possessed1 but he had very great gifts of his own1 and he has done us very great service by means of his gifts4 ,bishop ,butler has helped many men in the intelligent formation of their character1 and what higher praise could be given to any author8 ,butler will lie on our table all winter beside ,bunyan2 the bishop beside the tinker1 the philosopher beside the poet1 the moralist beside the evangelical minister4 ,in seeking a solid bottom for our subject1 then1 we naturally turn to ,butler4 ,bunyan will people the house for us once it is built1 but ,butler lays bare for us the naked rock on which men like ,bunyan build and beautify and people the dwelling-place of ,god and man4 ,what exactly is this thing1 character1 we hear so much about8 we ask the sagacious bishop4 ,and how shall we understand our own character so as to form it well till it stands firm and endures8 ',character1' answers ,butler1 in his bald1 dry1 deep way1 'by character is meant that temper1 taste1 disposition1 whole frame of mind from whence we act in one way rather than another 4 4 4 those principles from which a man acts1 when they become fixed and habitual in him we call his character 4 4 4 ,and consequently there is a far greater variety in men's characters than there is in the features of their faces4' ,open ,bunyan now1 with ,butler's keywords in your mind1 and see the various tempers1 tastes1 dispositions1 frames of mind from which his various characters act1 and which1 at bottom1 really make them the characters1 good or bad1 which they are4 ,see the principles which ,bunyan has with such inimitable felicity embodied and exhibited in their names1 the principles within them from which they have acted till they have become a habit and then a character1 that character which they themselves are and will remain4 ,see the variety of ,john ,bunyan's characters1 a richer and a more endless variety than are the features of their faces4 ,christian and ,christiana1 ,obstinate and ,pliable1 ,mr4 ,fearing and ,mr4 ,feeblemind1 ,temporary and ,talkative1 ,mr4 ,by- ends and ,mr4 ,facing-both-ways1 ,simple1 ,sloth1 ,presumption1 that brisk lad ,ignorance1 and the genuine ,mr4 ,brisk himself4 ,and then ,captain ,boasting1 ,mr4 ,high-mind1 ,mr4 ,wet-,eyes1 and so on1 through a less known 7but equally well worth knowing7 company of municipal and military characters in the ,holy ,war4 ,we shall see1 as we proceed1 how this and that character in ,bunyan was formed and deformed4 ,but let us ask in this introductory lecture if we can find out any law or principle upon which all our own characters1 good or bad1 are formed4 ,do our characters come to be what they are by chance1 or have we anything to do in the formation of our own characters1 and if so1 in what way8 ,and here1 again1 ,butler steps forward at our call with his key to our own and to all ,bunyan's characters in his hand1 and in three familiar and fruitful words he answers our question and gives us food for thought and solemn reflection for a lifetime4 ,there are but three steps1 says ,butler1 from earth to heaven1 or1 if you will1 from earth to hell--acts1 habits1 character4 ,all ,butler's prophetic burden is bound up in these three great words--acts1 habits1 character4 ,remember and ponder these three words1 and you will in due time become a moral philosopher4 ,ponder and practise them1 and you will become what is infinitely better--a moral man4 ,for acts1 often repeated1 gradually become habits1 and habits1 long enough continued1 settle and harden and solidify into character4 ,and thus it is that the severe and laconic bishop has so often made us shudder as he demonstrated it to us that we are all with our own hands shaping our character not only for this world1 but much more for the world to come1 by every act we perform1 by every word we speak1 almost by every breath we draw4 ,butler is one of the most terrible authors in the world4 ,he stands on our nearest shelf with ,dante on one side of him and ,pascal on the other4 ,he is indeed terrible1 but it is with a terror that purifies the heart and keeps the life in the hour of temptation4 ,paul sometimes arms himself with the same terror2 only he composes in another style than that of ,butler1 and1 with all his vivid intensity1 he calls it the terror of the ,lord4 ,paul and ,bunyan are of the same school of moralists and stylists2 ,butler went to school to the ,stoics1 to ,aristotle1 and to ,plato4 ,our ,lord ,himself came to be the express image ,he was and is by living and acting under this same universal law of human life--acts1 habits1 character4 ,he was made perfect on this same principle4 ,he learned obedience both by the things that ,he did1 and the things that ,he suffered4 ,butler says in one deep place1 that benevolence and justice and veracity are the basis of all good character in ,god and in man1 and thus also in the ,god-man4 ,and those three foundation stones of our ,lord's character settled deeper and grew stronger to bear and to suffer as ,he went on practising acts and speaking words of justice1 goodness1 and truth4 ,and so of all the other elements of ,his moral character4 ,our ,lord left ,gethsemane a much more submissive and a much more surrendered man than ,he entered it4 ,his forgiveness of injuries1 and thus ,his splendid benevolence1 had not yet come to its climax and crown till ,he said on the cross1 ',father1 forgive them'4 ,and1 as ,he was1 so are we in this world4 ,this world's evil and ill-desert made it but the better arena and theatre for the development and the display of ,his moral character2 and the same instruments that fashioned ,him into the perfect and express image ,he was and is1 are still1 happily1 in full operation4 ,take that divinest and noblest of all instruments for the carving out and refining of moral character1 the will of ,god4 ,how our ,lord made ,his own unselfish and unsinful will to bow to silence and to praise before the holy will of ,his ,father1 till that gave the finishing touch to ,his always sanctified will and heart6 ,and1 happily1 that awful and blessed instrument for the formation of moral character is still active and available to those whose ambition rises to moral character1 and who are aiming at heaven in all they do and all they suffer upon the earth4 ,gethsemane has gone out till it has covered all the earth4 ,its cup1 if not in all the depth and strength of its first mixture1 still in quite sufficient bitterness1 is put many times in life into every man's hand4 ,there is not a day1 there is not an hour of the day1 that the disciple of the submissive and all-surrendered ,son has not the opportunity to say with his ,master1 ,if it be possible1 let this cup pass3 nevertheless1 not as ,i will1 but as ,thou wilt4 ,it is not in the great tragedies of life only that character is tested and strengthened and consolidated4 ,no man who is not himself under ,god's moral and spiritual instruments could believe how often in the quietest1 clearest1 and least tempestuous day he has the chance and the call to say1 ,yea1 ,lord1 ,thy will be done4 ,and1 then1 when the confessedly tragic days and nights come1 when all men admit that this is ,gethsemane indeed1 the practised soul is able1 with a calmness and a peace that confound and offend the bystanders1 to say1 to act so that he does not need to say1 ,not my will1 but ,thine4 ,and so of all the other forms and features of moral character2 so of humility and meekness1 so of purity and temperance1 so of magnanimity and munificence1 so of all self-suppression and self-extinction1 and all corresponding exalting and magnifying and benefiting of other men4 ,whatever other passing uses this present world1 so full of trial and temptation and suffering1 may have1 this surely is the supreme and final use of it--to be a furnace1 a graving-house1 a refining place for human character4 ,literally all things in this life and in this world--,i challenge you to point out a single exception--work together for this supreme and only good1 the purification1 the refining1 the testing1 and the approval of human character4 ,not only so1 but we are all in the very heat of the furnace1 and under the very graving iron and in the very refining fire that our prefigured and predestinated character needs4 ,your life and its trials would not suit the necessities of my moral character1 and you would lose your soul beyond redemption if you exchanged lots with me4 ,you do not put a pearl under the potter's wheel2 you do not cast clay into a refining fire4 ,abraham's character was not like ,david's1 nor ,david's like ,christ's1 nor ,christ's like ,paul's4 ,as ,butler says1 there is 'a providential disposition of things' around every one of us1 and it is as exactly suited to the flaws and excrescences1 the faults and corruptions of our character as if ,providence had had no other life to make a disposition of things for but one1 and that one our own4 ,have you discovered that in your life1 or any measure of that8 ,have you acknowledged to ,god that you have at last discovered the true key of your life8 ,have you given ,him the satisfaction to know that ,he is not making ,his providential dispositions around a stock or a stone1 but that ,he has one under ,his hand who understands ,his hand1 and responds to it1 and rises up to meet and salute it8 ,and we cease to wonder so much at the care ,god takes of human character1 and the cost ,he lays out upon it1 when we think that it is the only work of ,his hands that shall last for ever4 ,it is fit1 surely1 that the ephemeral should minister to the eternal1 and time to eternity1 and all else in this world to the only thing in this world that shall endure and survive this world4 ,all else we possess and pursue shall fade and perish1 our moral character shall alone survive4 ,riches1 honours1 possessions1 pleasures of all kinds3 death1 with one stroke of his desolating hand1 shall one day strip us bare to a winding-sheet and a coffin of all the things we are so mad to possess4 ,but the last enemy1 with all his malice and all his resistless power1 cannot touch our moral character--unless it be in some way utterly mysterious to us that he is made under ,god to refine and perfect it4 ,the ,express ,image carried up to ,his ,father's ,house1 not only the divine life ,he had brought hither with ,him when ,he came to obey and submit and suffer among us2 ,he carried back more than ,he brought1 for ,he carried back a human heart1 a human life1 a human character1 which was and is a new wonder in heaven4 ,he carried up to heaven all the love to ,god and angels and men ,he had learned and practised on earth1 with all the earthly fruits of it4 ,he carried back ,his humility1 ,his meekness1 ,his humanity1 ,his approachableness1 and ,his sympathy4 ,and we see to our salvation some of the uses to which those parts of ,his moral character are at this moment being put in ,his ,father's ,house2 and what we see not now of all the ends and uses and employments of our ,lord's glorified humanity we shall1 mayhap1 see hereafter4 ,and we also shall carry our moral character to heaven2 it is the only thing we have worth carrying so far4 ,but1 then1 moral character is well worth achieving here and then carrying there1 for it is nothing else and nothing less than the divine nature itself2 it is the divine nature incarnate1 incorporate1 and made manifest in man4 ,and it is1 therefore1 immortal with the immortality of ,god1 and blessed for ever with the blessedness of ,god4 ,,evangelist ',do the work of an evangelist4'--,paul to ,timothy4 ,on the #ast of ,june #afdh a very bitter fight was fought at ,maidstone1 in ,kent1 between the ,parliamentary forces under ,fairfax and the ,royalists4 ,till ,cromwell rose to all his military and administrative greatness1 ,fairfax was generalissimo of the ,puritan army1 and that able soldier never executed a more brilliant exploit than he did that memorable night at ,maidstone4 ,in one night the ,royalist insurrection was stamped out and extinguished in its own blood4 ,hundreds of dead bodies filled the streets of the town1 hundreds of the enemy were taken prisoners1 while hundreds more1 who were hiding in the hop-fields and forests around the town1 fell into ,fairfax's hands next morning4 ,among the prisoners so taken was a ,royalist major who had had a deep hand in the ,maidstone insurrection1 named ,john ,gifford1 a man who was destined in the time to come to run a remarkable career4 ,only1 to-day1 the day after the battle1 he has no prospect before him but the gallows4 ,on the night before his execution1 by the courtesy of ,fairfax1 ,gifford's sister was permitted to visit her brother in his prison4 ,the soldiers were overcome with weariness and sleep after the engagement1 and ,gifford's sister so managed it that her brother got past the sentries and escaped out of the town4 ,he lay hid for some days in the ditches and thickets around the town till he was able to escape to ,london1 and thence to the shelter of some friends of his at ,bedford4 ,gifford had studied medicine before he entered the army1 and as soon as he thought it safe he began to practise his old art in the town of ,bedford4 ,gifford had been a dissolute man as a soldier1 and he became1 if possible1 a still more scandalously dissolute man as a civilian4 ,gifford's life in ,bedford was a public disgrace1 and his hatred and persecution of the ,puritans in that town made his very name an infamy and a fear4 ,he reduced himself to beggary with gambling and drink1 but1 when near suicide1 he came under the power of the truth1 till we see him clothed with rags and with a great burden on his back1 crying out1 ',what must ,i do to be saved8' ',but at last'--,i quote from the session records of his future church at ,bedford--',god did so plentifully discover to him the forgiveness of sins for the sake of ,christ1 that all his life after he lost not the light of ,god's countenance1 no1 not for an hour1 save only about two days before he died4' ,gifford's conversion had been so conspicuous and notorious that both town and country soon heard of it3 and instead of being ashamed of it1 and seeking to hide it1 ,gifford at once1 and openly1 threw in his lot with the extremest ,puritans in the ,puritan town of ,bedford4 ,nor could ,gifford's talents be hid2 till from one thing to another1 we find the former ,royalist and dissolute ,cavalier actually the parish minister of ,bedford in ,cromwell's so evangelical but otherwise so elastic establishment4 ,at this point we open ,john ,bunyan's ,grace ,abounding to the ,chief of ,sinners1 and we read this classical passage3--',upon a day the good providence of ,god did cast me to ,bedford to work in my calling3 and in one of the streets of that town ,i came where there were three or four poor women sitting at the door in the sun and talking about the things of ,god4 ,but ,i may say ,i heard1 but ,i understood not1 for they were far above and out of my reach 4 4 4 ,about this time ,i began to break my mind to those poor people in ,bedford1 and to tell them of my condition1 which1 when they had heard1 they told ,mr4 ,gifford of me1 who himself also took occasion to talk with me1 and was willing to be well persuaded of me though ,i think on too little grounds4 ,but he invited me to his house1 where ,i should hear him confer with others about the dealings of ,god with their souls1 from all which ,i still received more conviction1 and from that time began to see something of the vanity and inner wretchedness of my own heart1 for as yet ,i knew no great matter therein 4 4 4 ,at that time also ,i sat under the ministry of holy ,mr4 ,gifford1 whose doctrine1 by the grace of ,god1 was much for my stability4' ,and so on in that inimitable narrative4 ,the first minister whose words were truly blessed of ,god for our awakening and conversion has always a place of his own in our hearts4 ,we all have some minister1 some revivalist1 some faithful friend1 or some good book in a warm place in our heart4 ,it may be a great city preacher2 it may be a humble ,american or ,irish revivalist2 it may be ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress1 or ,the ,cardiphonia1 or the ,serious ,call--whoever or whatever it was that first arrested and awakened and turned us into the way of life1 they all our days stand in a place by themselves in our grateful heart4 ,and ,john ,gifford has been immortalised by ,john ,bunyan1 both in his ,grace ,abounding and in his ,pilgrim's ,progress4 ,in his ,grace ,abounding1 as we have just seen1 and in ,the ,pilgrim1 ,gifford has his portrait painted in holy oil on the wall of the ,interpreter's house1 and again in eloquent pen and ink in the person of ,evangelist4 ,john ,gifford had himself made a narrow escape out of the ,city of ,destruction1 and ,john ,bunyan had1 by ,gifford's assistance1 made the same escape also4 ,the scene1 therefore1 both within that city and outside the gate of it1 was so fixed in ,bunyan's mind and memory that no part of his memorable book is more memorably put than just its opening page4 ,bunyan himself is the man in rags1 and ,gifford is the evangelist who comes to console and to conduct him4 ,bunyan's portraits are all taken from the life4 ,brilliant and well-furnished as ,bunyan's imagination was1 ,bedford was still better furnished with all kinds of men and women1 and with all kinds of saints and sinners4 ,and thus1 instead of drawing upon his imagination in writing his books1 ,bunyan drew from life4 ,and thus it is that we see first ,john ,gifford1 and then ,john ,bunyan himself at the gate of the city2 and then1 over the page1 ,gifford becomes the evangelist who is sent by the four poor women to speak to the awakened tinker4 ',wherefore dost thou so cry8' asks ,evangelist4 ',because1' replied the man1 ',i am condemned to die4' ',but why are you so unwilling to die1 since this life is so full of evils8' ,and ,i suppose we must all hear ,evangelist putting the same pungent question to ourselves every day1 at whatever point of the celestial journey we at present are4 ,yes2 why are we all so unwilling to die8 ,why do we number our days to put off our death to the last possible period8 ,why do we so refuse to think of the only thing we are sure soon to come to8 ,we are absolutely sure of nothing else in the future but death4 ,we may not see to-morrow1 but we shall certainly see the day of our death4 ,and yet we have all our plans laid for to-morrow1 and only one here and one there has any plan laid for the day of his death4 ,and can it be for the same reason that made the man in rags unwilling to die8 ,is it because of the burden on our back8 ,is it because we are not fit to go to judgment8 ,and yet the trumpet may sound summoning us hence before the midnight clock strikes4 ,if this be thy condition1 why standest thou still8 ,dost thou see yonder shining light8 ,keep that light in thine eye4 ,go up straight to it1 knock at the gate1 and it shall be told thee there what thou shalt do next4 ,burdened sinner1 son of man in rags and terror3 ,what has burdened thee so8 ,what has torn thy garments into such shameful rags8 ,what is it in thy burden that makes it so heavy8 ,and how long has it lain so heavy upon thee8 ',i cannot run1' said the man1 'because of the burden on my back4' ,and it has been noticed of you that you do not laugh1 or run1 or dress1 or dance1 or walk1 or eat1 or drink as once you did4 ,all men see that there is some burden on your back2 some sore burden on your heart and your mind4 ,do you see yonder wicket gate8 ,do you see yonder shining light8 ,there is no light in all the horizon for you but yonder light over the gate4 ,keep it in your eye2 make straight1 and make at once for it1 and ,he who keeps the gate and keeps the light burning over it1 ,he will tell you what to do with your burden4 ,he told ,john ,gifford1 and ,he told ,john ,bunyan1 till both their burdens rolled off their backs1 and they saw them no more4 ,what would you not give to-night to be released like them8 ,do you not see yonder shining light8 ,having set ,christian fairly on the way to the wicket gate1 ,evangelist leaves him in order to seek out and assist some other seeker4 ,but yesterday he had set ,faithful's face to the celestial city1 and he is off now to look for another pilgrim4 ,we know some of ,christian's adventures and episodes after ,evangelist left him1 but we do not take up these at present4 ,we pass on to the next time that ,evangelist finds ,christian1 and he finds him in a sorry plight4 ,he has listened to bad advice4 ,he has gone off the right road1 he has lost sight of the gate1 and all the thunders and lightnings of ,sinai are rolling and flashing out against him4 ,what doest thou here of all men in the world8 asked ,evangelist1 with a severe and dreadful countenance4 ,did ,i not direct thee to ,his gate1 and why art thou here8 ,christian told him that a fair-spoken man had met him1 and had persuaded him to take an easier and shorter way of getting rid of his burden4 ,read the whole place for yourselves4 ,the end of it was that ,evangelist set ,christian right again1 and gave him two counsels which would be his salvation if he attended to them3 ,strive to enter in at the strait gate1 and1 ,take up thy cross daily4 ,he would need more counsel afterwards than that2 but1 meantime1 that was enough4 ,let ,christian follow that1 and he would before long be rid of his burden4 ,in the introductory lecture ,bishop ,butler has been commended and praised as a moralist1 and certainly not one word beyond his deserts2 but an evangelical preacher cannot send any man with the burden of a bad past upon him to ,butler for advice and direction about that4 ,while lecturing on and praising the sound philosophical and ethical spirit of the great bishop1 ,dr4 ,chalmers complains that he so much lacks the sal evangelicum1 the strength and the health and the sweetness of the doctrines of grace4 ,legality and ,civility and ,morality are all good and necessary in their own places2 but he is a cheat who would send a guilt- burdened and sick-at-heart sinner to any or all of them4 ,the wicket gate first1 and then ,he who keeps that gate will tell us what to do1 and where next to go2 but any other way out of the ,city of ,destruction but by the wicket gate is sure to land us where it landed ,evangelist's quaking and sweating charge4 ,when ,bishop ,butler lay on his deathbed he called for his chaplain1 and said1 ',though ,i have endeavoured to avoid sin1 and to please ,god to the utmost of my power1 yet from the consciousness of my perpetual infirmities ,i am still afraid to die4' ',my lord1' said his happily evangelical chaplain1 'have you forgotten that ,jesus ,christ is a ,saviour8' ',true1' said the dying philosopher1 'but how shall ,i know that ,he is a ,saviour for me8' ',my lord1 it is written1 ,him that cometh to ,me1 ,i will in no wise cast out4' ',true1' said ,butler1 'and ,i am surprised that though ,i have read that ,scripture a thousand times1 ,i never felt its virtue till this moment1 and now ,i die in peace4' ,the third and the last time on which the pilgrims meet with their old friend and helper1 ,evangelist1 is when they are just at the gates of the town of ,vanity4 ,they have come through many wonderful experiences since last they saw and spoke with him4 ,they have had the gate opened to them by ,goodwill4 ,they have been received and entertained in the ,interpreter's ,house1 and in the ,house ,beautiful4 ,the burden has fallen off their backs at the cross1 and they have had their rags removed and have received change of raiment4 ,they have climbed the ,hill ,difficulty1 and they have fought their way through the ,valley of the ,shadow of ,death4 ,more than the half of their adventures and sufferings are past2 but they are not yet out of gunshot of the devil1 and the bones of many a promising pilgrim lie whitening the way between this and the city4 ,many of our young communicants have made a fair and a promising start for salvation4 ,they have got over the initial difficulties that lay in their way to the ,lord's table1 and we have entered their names with honest pride in our communion roll4 ,but a year or two passes over1 and the critical season arrives when our young communicant 'comes out1' as the word is4 ,up till now she has been a child1 a little maid1 a ,bible-class student1 a young communicant1 a ,sabbath-school teacher4 ,but she is now a young lady1 and she comes out into the world4 ,we soon see that she has so come out1 as we begin to miss her from places and from employments her presence used to brighten2 and1 very unwillingly1 we overhear men and women with her name on their lips in a way that makes us fear for her soul1 till many1 oh1 in a single ministry1 how many1 who promised well at the gate and ran safely past many snares1 at last sell all--body and soul and ,saviour--in ,vanity ,fair4 ,well1 ,evangelist remains ,evangelist still4 ,only1 without losing any of his sweetness and freeness and fulness of promise1 he adds to that some solemn warnings and counsels suitable now1 as never before1 to these two pilgrims4 ,if one may say so1 he would add now such moral treatises as ,butler's ,sermons and ,serious ,call to such evangelical books as ,grace ,abounding and ,a ,jerusalem ,sinner ,saved4 ,to-morrow the two pilgrims will come out of the wilderness and will be plunged into a city where they will be offered all kinds of merchandise1--houses1 lands1 places1 honours1 preferments1 titles1 pleasures1 delights1 wives1 children1 bodies1 souls1 and what not4 ,an altogether new world from anything they have yet come through1 and a world where many who once began well have gone no further4 ,such counsels as these1 then1 ,evangelist gave ,christian and ,faithful as they left the lonely wilderness behind them and came out towards the gate of the seductive city--',let the ,kingdom of ,heaven be always before your eyes1 and believe steadfastly concerning things that are invisible4' ,visible1 tangible1 sweet1 and desirable things will immediately be offered to them1 and unless they have a faith in their hearts that is the substance of things hoped for1 and the evidence of things not seen1 it will soon be all over with them and their pilgrimage4 ',let no man take your crown1' he said also1 as he foresaw at how many booths and counters1 houses1 lands1 places1 preferments1 wives1 husbands1 and what not1 would be offered them and pressed upon them in exchange for their heavenly crown4 ',above all1 look well to your own hearts1' he said4 ,canon ,venables laments over the teaching that ,bunyan received from ,john ,gifford4 ',its principle1' he says1 'was constant introspection and scrupulous weighing of every word and deed1 and even of every thought1 instead of leading the mind off from self to the ,saviour4' ,the canon seems to think that it was specially unfortunate for ,bunyan to be told to keep his heart and to weigh well every thought of it2 but ,i must point out to you that ,evangelist puts as above all other things the most important for the pilgrims the looking well to their own hearts2 and our plain-spoken author has used a very severe word about any minister who should whisper anything to any pilgrim that could be construed or misunderstood into putting ,christ in the place of thought and word and deed1 and the scrupulous weighing of every one of them4 ',let nothing that is on this side the other world get within you2 and above all1 look well to your own hearts1 and to the lusts thereof4' ',set your faces like a flint1' ,evangelist proceeds4 ,how little like all that you hear in the counsels of the pulpit to young women coming out and to young men entering into business life4 ,i am convinced that if we ministers were more direct and plain-spoken to such persons at such times2 if we1 like ,bunyan1 told them plainly what kind of a world it is they are coming out to buy and sell in1 and what its merchandise and its prices are2 if our people would let us so preach to their sons and daughters1 ,i feel sure far fewer young communicants would make shipwreck1 and far fewer grey heads would go down with sorrow to the grave4 ',be not afraid1' said ,robert ,hall in his charge to a young minister1 'of devoting whole sermons to particular parts of moral conduct and religious duty4 ,it is impossible to give right views of them unless you dissect characters and describe particular virtues and vices4 ,the works of the flesh and the fruits of the ,spirit must be distinctly pointed out4 ,to preach against sin in general without descending to particulars may lead many to complain of the evil of their hearts1 while at the same time they are awfully inattentive to the evil of their conduct4' ,take ,evangelist's noble counsels at the gate of ,vanity ,fair1 and then take ,john ,bunyan's masterly description of the ,fair itself1 with all that is bought and sold in it1 and you will have a lesson in evangelical preaching that the evangelical pulpit needed in ,bunyan's day1 in ,robert ,hall's day1 and not less in our own4 ',my sons1 you have heard the truth of the gospel1 that you must through many tribulations enter the ,kingdom of ,god4 ,when1 therefore1 you are come to the ,fair and shall find fulfilled what ,i have here related1 then remember your friend2 quit yourselves like men1 and commit the keeping of your souls to your ,god in well-doing as unto a faithful ,creator4' ,,obstinate ',be ye not as the mule4'--,david4 ,little ,obstinate was born and brought up in the ,city of ,destruction4 ,his father was old ,spare-the-,rod1 and his mother's name was ,spoil-the-,child4 ,little ,obstinate was the only child of his parents2 he was born when they were no longer young1 and they doted on their only child1 and gave him his own way in everything4 ,everything he asked for he got1 and if he did not immediately get it you would have heard his screams and his kicks three doors off4 ,his parents were not in themselves bad people1 but1 if ,solomon speaks true1 they hated their child1 for they gave him all his own way in everything1 and nothing would ever make them say no to him1 or lift up the rod when he said no to them4 ,when the ,scriptures1 in their pedagogical parts1 speak so often about the rod1 they do not necessarily mean a rod of iron or even of wood4 ,there are other ways of teaching an obstinate child than the way that ,gideon took with the men of ,succoth when he taught them with the thorns of the wilderness and with the briars thereof4 ,george ,offor1 ,john ,bunyan's somewhat quaint editor1 gives the readers of his edition this personal testimony3--',after bringing up a very large family1 who are a blessing to their parents1 ,i have yet to learn what part of the human body was created to be beaten4' ,at the same time the rod must mean something in the word of ,god2 it certainly means something in ,god's hand when ,his obstinate children are under it1 and it ought to mean something in a godly parent's hand also4 ,little ,obstinate's two parents were far from ungodly people1 though they lived in such a city2 but they were daily destroying their only son by letting him always have his own way1 and by never saying no to his greed1 and his lies1 and his anger1 and his noisy and disorderly ways4 ,eli in the ,old ,testament was not a bad man1 but he destroyed both the ark of the ,lord and himself and his sons also1 because his sons made themselves vile1 and he restrained them not4 ,god's children are never so soft1 and sweet1 and good1 and happy as just after ,he restrains them1 and has again laid the rod of correction upon them4 ,they then kiss both the rod and ,him who appointed it4 ,and earthly fathers learn their craft from ,god4 ,the meekness1 the sweetness1 the docility1 and the love of a chastised child has gone to all our hearts in a way we can never forget4 ,there is something sometimes almost past description or belief in the way a chastised child clings to and kisses the hand that chastised it4 ,but poor old ,spare-the-,rod never had experiences like that4 ,and young ,obstinate1 having been born like ,job's wild ass's colt1 grew up to be a man like ,david's unbitted and unbridled mule1 till in after life he became the author of all the evil and mischief that is associated in our minds with his evil name4 ,in old ,spare-the-,rod's child also this true proverb was fulfilled1 that the child is the father of the man4 ,for all that little ,obstinate had been in the nursery1 in the schoolroom1 and in the playground--all that1 only in an aggravated way--he was as a youth and as a grown-up man4 ,for one thing1 ,obstinate all his days was a densely ignorant man4 ,he had not got into the way of learning his lessons when he was a child2 he had not been made to learn his lessons when he was a child2 and the dislike and contempt he had for his books as a boy accompanied him through an ignorant and a narrow-minded life4 ,it was reason enough to this so unreasonable man not to buy and read a book that you had asked him to buy and read it4 ,and so many of the books about him were either written1 or printed1 or published1 or sold1 or read1 or praised by people he did not like1 that there was little left for this unhappy man to read1 even if otherwise he would have read it4 ,and thus1 as his mulish obstinacy kept him so ignorant1 so his ignorance in turn increased his obstinacy4 ,and then when he came1 as life went on1 to have anything to do with other men's affairs1 either in public or in private life1 either in the church1 or in the nation1 or in the city1 or in the family1 this unhappy man could only be a drag on all kinds of progress1 and in obstacle to every good work4 ,use and wont1 a very good rule on occasion1 was a rigid and a universal rule with ,obstinate4 ,and to be told that the wont in this case and in that had ceased to be the useful1 only made him rail at you as only an ignorant and an obstinate man can rail4 ,he could only rail2 he had not knowledge enough1 or good temper enough1 or good manners enough to reason out a matter2 he was too hot-tempered for an argument1 and he hated those who had an acquaintance with the subject in hand1 and a self- command in connection with it that he had not4 ',the obstinate man's understanding is like ,pharaoh's heart1 and it is proof against all sorts of arguments whatsoever4' ,like the demented king of ,egypt1 the obstinate man has glimpses sometimes both of his bounden duty and of his true interest1 but the sinew of iron that is in his neck will not let him perform the one or pursue the other4 ',nothing1' says a penetrating writer1 'is more like firm conviction than simple obstinacy4 ,plots and parties in the state1 and heresies and divisions in the church alike proceed from it4' ,let any honest man take that sentence and carry it like a candle down into his own heart and back into his own life1 and then with the insight and honesty there learned carry the same candle back through some of the plots and parties1 the heresies and schisms of the past as well as of the present day1 and he will have learned a lesson that will surely help to cure himself1 at any rate1 of his own remaining obstinacy4 ,all our firm convictions1 as we too easily and too fondly call them1 must continually be examined and searched out in the light of more reading of the best authors1 in the light of more experience of ourselves and of the world we live in1 and in that best of all light1 that increasing purity1 simplicity1 and sincerity of heart alone can kindle4 ,and in not a few instances we shall to a certainty find that what has hitherto been clothing itself with the honourable name and character of a conviction was all the time only an ignorant prejudice1 a distaste or a dislike1 a too great fondness for ourselves and for our own opinion and our own interest4 ,many of our firmest convictions1 as we now call them1 when we shall have let light enough fall upon them1 we shall be compelled and enabled to confess to be at bottom mere mulishness and pride of heart4 ,the mulish1 obstinate1 and proud man never says1 ,i don't know4 ,he never asks anything to be explained to him4 ,he never admits that he has got any new light4 ,he never admits having spoken or acted wrongly4 ,he never takes back what he has said4 ,he was never heard to say1 ,you are right in that line of action1 and ,i have all along been wrong4 ,had he ever said that1 the day he said it would have been a white- stone day both for his mind and his heart4 ,only1 the spoiled son of ,spare-the-,rod never said that1 or anything like that4 ,but1 most unfortunately1 it is in the very best things of life that the true mulishness of the obstinate man most comes out4 ,he shows worst in his home life and in the matters of religion4 ,when our ,obstinate was in love he was as sweet as honey and as soft as butter4 ,his old friends that he used so to trample upon scarcely recognised him4 ,they had sometimes seen men converted1 but they had never seen such an immediate and such a complete conversion as this4 ,he actually invited correction1 and reproof1 and advice1 and assistance1 who had often struck at you with his hands and his feet when you even hinted at such a thing to him4 ,the best upbringing1 the best books1 the best preaching1 the best and most obedient life1 taken all together1 had not done for other men what a woman's smile and the touch of her hand had in a moment done for this once so obstinate man4 ,he would read anything now1 and especially the best books4 ,he would hear and enjoy any preacher now1 and especially the best and most earnest in preaching4 ,his old likes and dislikes1 prejudices and prepossessions1 self-opinionativeness and self-assertiveness all miraculously melted off him1 and he became in a day an open-minded1 intelligent1 good-mannered1 devout-minded gentleman4 ,he who was once such a mule to everybody was now led about by a child in a silken bridle4 ,all old things had passed away1 and all things had become new4 ,for a time2 for a time4 ,but time passes1 and there passes away with it all the humility1 meekness1 pliability1 softness1 and sweetness of the obstinate man4 ,till when long enough time has elapsed you find him all the obstinate and mulish man he ever was4 ,it is not that he has ceased to love his wife and his children4 ,it is not that4 ,but there is this in all genuine and inbred obstinacy1 that after a time it often comes out worst beside those we love best4 ,a man will be affable1 accessible1 entertaining1 the best of company1 and the soul of it abroad1 and1 then1 instantly he turns the latch-key in his own door he will relapse into silence1 and sink back into utter boorishness and bearishness1 mulishness and doggedness4 ,he swallows his evening meal at the foot of the table in silence1 and then he sits all night at the fireside with a cloud out of nothing on his brow4 ,his sunshine1 his smile1 and his universal urbanity is all gone now2 he is discourteous to nobody but to his own wife4 ,nothing pleases him2 he finds nothing at home to his mind4 ,the furniture1 the hours1 the habits of the house are all disposed so as to please him2 but he was never yet heard to say to wife1 or child1 or servant that he was pleased4 ,he never says that a meal is to his taste or a seat set so as to shelter and repose him4 ,the obstinate man makes his house a very prison and treadmill to himself and to all those who are condemned to suffer with him4 ,and all the time it is not that he does not love and honour his household2 but by an evil law of the obstinate heart its worst obstinacy and mulishness comes out among those it loves best4 ,but1 my brethren1 worse than all that1 we have all what good ,bishop ,hall calls 'a stone of obstination' in our hearts against ,god4 ,with all his own depth and clearness and plain-spokenness1 ,paul tells us that our hearts are by nature enmity against ,god4 ,were we proud and obstinate and malicious against men only it would be bad enough1 and it would be difficult enough to cure1 but our case is dreadful beyond all description or belief when our obstinacy strikes out against ,god4 ,we know as well as we know anything1 that in doing this and in not doing that we are going every day right in the teeth both of ,god's law and ,god's grace2 and yet in the sheer obstinacy and perversity of our heart we still go on in what we know quite well to be the suicide of our souls4 ,we are told by our minister to do this and not to do that2 to begin to do this at this new year and to break off from doing that2 but1 partly through obstinacy towards him1 reinforced by a deeper and subtler and deadlier obstinacy against ,god1 and against all the deepest and most godly of the things of ,god1 we neither do the one nor cease from doing the other4 ,there is a sullenness in some men's minds1 a gloom and a bitter air that rises up from the unploughed1 undrained1 unweeded1 uncultivated fens of their hearts that chills and blasts all the feeble beginnings of a better life4 ,the natural and constitutional obstinacy of the obstinate heart is exasperated when it comes to deal with the things of ,god4 ,for it is then reinforced with all the guilt and all the fear1 all the suspicion and all the aversion of the corrupt and self-condemned heart4 ,there is an obdurateness of obstinacy against all the men1 and the books1 and the doctrines1 and the precepts1 and the practices that are in any way connected with spiritual religion that does not come out even in the obstinate man's family life4 ,john ,bunyan's ,obstinate1 both by his conduct as well as by the etymology of his name1 not only stands in the way of his own salvation1 but he does all he can to stand in the way of other men setting out to salvation also4 ,obstinate set out after ,christian to fetch him back by force1 and if it had not been that he met his match in ,christian1 ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress would never have been written4 ',that can by no means be1' said ,christian to his pursuer1 and he is first called ,christian when he shows that one man can be as obstinate in good as another man can be in evil4 ',i never now can go back to my former life4' ,and then the two obstinate men parted company for ever1 ,christian in holy obstinacy being determined to have eternal life at any cost1 and ,obstinate as determined against it4 ,the opening pages of ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress set the two men very graphically and very impressively before us4 ,as to the cure of obstinacy1 the rod in a firm1 watchful1 wise1 and loving hand will cure it4 ,and in later life a long enough and close enough succession of humble1 yielding1 docile1 submissive1 self-chastening and thanksgiving acts will cure it4 ,reading and obeying the best books on the subjugation and the regulation of the heart will cure it4 ,descending with ,dante to where the obstinate1 and the embittered1 and the gloomy1 and the sullen have made their beds in hell will cure it4 ,and much and most agonising prayer will above all cure it4 ',o ,lord1 if thus so obstinate ,i1 ,choose ,thou1 before my spirit die1 ,a piercing pain1 a killing sin1 ,and to my proud heart run them in4 ,,pliable ',he hath not root in himself4'--,our ,lord4 ,with one stroke of ,his pencil our ,lord gives us this ,flaxman-like outline of one of his well-known hearers4 ,and then ,john ,bunyan takes up that so expressive profile1 and puts flesh and blood into it1 till it becomes the well-known ,pliable of ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress4 ,we call the text a parable1 but our ,lord's parables are all portraits--portraits and groups of portraits1 rather than ordinary parables4 ,our ,lord knew this man quite well who had no root in himself4 ,our ,lord had crowds of such men always running after ,him1 and ,he threw off this rapid portrait from hundreds of men and women who caused discredit to fall on ,his name and ,his work1 and burdened ,his heart continually4 ,and ,john ,bunyan1 with all his genius1 could never have given us such speaking likenesses as that of ,pliable and ,temporary and ,talkative1 unless he had had scores of them in his own congregation4 ,our ,lord's short preliminary description of ,pliable goes1 like all ,his descriptions1 to the very bottom of the whole matter4 ,our ,lord in this passage is like one of those masterly artists who begin their portrait- painting with the study of anatomy4 ,all the great artists in this walk build up their best portraits from the inside of their subjects4 ,he hath not root in himself1 says our ,lord1 and we need no more than that to be told us to foresee how all his outside religion will end4 ',without self- knowledge1' says one of the greatest students of the human heart that ever lived1 'you have no real root in yourselves4 ,real self-knowledge is the root of all real religious knowledge4 ,it is a deceit and a mischief to think that the ,christian doctrines can either be understood or aright accepted by any outward means4 ,it is just in proportion as we search our own hearts and understand our own nature that we shall ever feel what a blessing the removal of sin will be2 redemption1 pardon1 sanctification1 are all otherwise mere words without meaning or power to us4 ,god speaks to us first in our own hearts4' ,happily for us our ,lord has annotated ,his own text and has told us that an honest heart is the alone root of all true religion4 ,honest1 that is1 with itself1 and with ,god and man about itself4 ,as ,david says in his so honest psalm1 ',behold1 ,thou desirest truth in the inward parts1 and in the hidden part ,thou shalt make me to know wisdom4' ,and1 indeed1 all the preachers and writers in ,scripture1 and all ,scriptural preachers and writers outside of ,scripture1 are at one in this3 that all true wisdom begins at home1 and that it all begins at the heart4 ,and they all teach us that he is the wisest of men who has the worst opinion of his own heart1 as he is the foolishest of men who does not know his own heart to be the worst heart that ever any man was cursed with in this world4 ',here is wisdom'3 not to know the number of the beast1 but to know his mark1 and to read it written so indelibly in our own heart4 ,and where this first and best of all wisdom is not1 there1 in our ,lord's words1 there is no deepness of earth1 no root1 and no fruit4 ,and any religion that most men have is of this outside1 shallow1 rootless description4 ,this was all the religion that poor ,pliable ever had4 ,this poor creature had a certain slight root of something that looked like religion for a short season1 but even that slight root was all outside of himself4 ,his root1 what he had of a root1 was all in ,christian's companionship and impassioned appeals1 and then in those impressive passages of ,scripture that ,christian read to him4 ,at your first attention to these things you would think that no possible root could be better planted than in the ,bible and in earnest preaching4 ,but even the ,bible1 and1 much more1 the best preaching1 is all really outside of a man till true religion once gets its piercing roots down into himself4 ,we have perhaps all heard of men1 and men of no small eminence1 who were brought up to believe the teaching of the ,bible and the pulpit1 but who1 when some of their inherited and external ideas about some things connected with the ,bible began to be shaken1 straightway felt as if all the grounds of their faith were shaken1 and all the roots of their faith pulled up4 ,but where that happened1 all that was because such men's religion was all rooted outside of themselves2 in the best things outside of themselves1 indeed1 but because1 in our ,lord's words1 their religion was rooted in something outside of themselves and not inside1 they were by and by offended1 and threw off their faith4 ,there is another well- known class of men all whose religion is rooted in their church1 and in their church not as a member of the body of ,christ1 but as a social institution set up in this world4 ,they believe in their church4 ,they worship their church4 ,they suffer and make sacrifices for their church4 ,they are proud of the size and the income of their church2 her past contendings and sufferings1 and present dangers1 all endear their church to their heart4 ,but if tribulation and persecution arise1 that is to say1 if anything arises to vex or thwart or disappoint them with their church1 they incontinently pull up their roots and their religion with it1 and transplant both to any other church that for the time better pleases them1 or to no church at all4 ,others1 again1 have all their religiosity rooted in their family life4 ,their religion is all made up of domestic sentiment4 ,they love their earthly home with that supreme satisfaction and that all-absorbing affection that truly religious men entertain for their heavenly home4 ,and thus it is that when anything happens to disturb or break up their earthly home their rootless religiosity goes with it4 ,other men's religion1 again1 and all their interest in it1 is rooted in their shop2 you can make them anything or nothing in religion1 according as you do or do not do business in their shop4 ,companionship1 also1 accounts for the fluctuations of many men's1 and almost all women's1 religious lives4 ,if they happen to fall in with godly lovers and friends1 they are sincerely godly with them2 but if their companions are indifferent or hostile to true religion1 they gradually fall into the same temper and attitude4 ,we sometimes see students destined for the ,christian ministry also with all their religion so without root in themselves that a session in an unsympathetic class1 a sceptical book1 sometimes just a sneer or a scoff1 will wither all the promise of their coming service4 ,and so on through the whole of human life4 ,he that hath not the root of the matter in himself dureth for a while1 but by and by1 for one reason or another1 he is sure to be offended4 ,so much1 then1--not enough1 nor good enough--for our ,lord's swift stroke at the heart of ,his hearers4 ,but let us now pass on to ,pliable1 as he so soon and so completely discovers himself to us under ,john ,bunyan's so skilful hand4 ,look well at our author's speaking portrait of a well-known man in ,bedford who had no root in himself1 and who1 as a consequence1 was pliable to any influence1 good or bad1 that happened to come across him4 ',don't revile1' are the first words that come from ,pliable's lips1 and they are not unpromising words4 ,pliable is hurt with ,obstinate's coarse abuse of the ,christian life1 till he is downright ashamed to be seen in his company4 ,pliable1 at least1 is a gentleman compared with ,obstinate1 and his gentlemanly feelings and his good manners make him at once take sides with ,christian4 ,obstinate's foul tongue has almost made ,pliable a ,christian4 ,and this finely-conceived scene on the plain outside the city gate is enacted over again every day among ourselves4 ,where men are in dead earnest about religion it always arouses the bad passions of bad men2 and where earnest preachers and devoted workers are assailed with violence or with bad language1 there is always enough love of fair play in the bystanders to compel them to take sides1 for the time at least1 with those who suffer for the truth4 ,and we are sometimes too apt to count all that love of common fairness1 and that hatred of foul play1 as a sure sign of some sympathy with the hated truth itself4 ,when an onlooker says ',don't revile1' we are too ready to set down that expression of civility as at least the first beginning of true religion4 ,but the religion of ,jesus ,christ cuts far deeper into the heart of man than to the dividing asunder of justice and injustice1 civility and incivility1 ribaldry and good manners4 ,and it is always found in the long-run that the cross of ,christ and its crucifixion of the human heart goes quite as hard with the gentlemanly-mannered man1 the civil and urbane man1 as it does with the man of bad behaviour and of brutish manners4 ',civil men1' says ,thomas ,goodwin1 'are this world's saints4' ,and poor ,pliable was one of them4 ',my heart really inclines to go with my neighbour1' said ,pliable next4 ',yes1' he said1 ',i begin to come to a point4 ,i really think ,i will go along with this good man4 ,yes1 ,i will cast in my lot with him4 ,come1 good neighbour1 let us be going4' ,the apocalyptic side of some men's imaginations is very easily worked upon4 ,no kind of book sells better among those of our people who have no root in themselves than just picture-books about heaven4 ,our missionaries make use of lantern-slides to bring home the scenes in the ,gospels to the dull minds of their village hearers1 and with good success4 ,and at home a magic-lantern filled with the splendours of the ,new ,jerusalem would carry multitudes of rootless hearts quite captive for a time4 ',well said2 and what else8 ,this is excellent2 and what else8' ,christian could not tell ,pliable fast enough about the glories of heaven4 ',there we shall be with seraphim and cherubim1 creatures that will dazzle your eyes to look on them4 ,there also you shall meet with thousands and ten thousands who have gone before us to that place4 ,elders with golden crowns1 and holy virgins with golden harps1 and all clothed with immortality as with a garment4' ',the hearing of all this1' cried ,pliable1 'is enough to ravish one's heart4' ',an overly faith1' says old ,thomas ,shepard1 'is easily wrought4' ,as if the text itself was not graphic enough1 ,bunyan's racy1 humorous1 pathetic style overflows the text and enriches the very margins of his pages1 as every possessor of a good edition of ,the ,pilgrim knows4 ',christian and ,obstinate pull for ,pliable's soul' is the eloquent summary set down on the side of the sufficiently eloquent page4 ,as the picture of a man's soul being pulled for rises before my mind1 ,i can think of no better companion picture to that of ,pliable than that of poor1 hard-beset ,brodie of ,brodie1 as he lets us see the pull for his soul in the honest pages of his inward diary4 ,under the head of ',pliable' in my ,bunyan note- book ,i find a crowd of references to ,brodie2 and if only to illustrate our author's marginal note1 ,i shall transcribe one or two of them4 ',the writer of this diary desires to be cast down under the facileness and plausibleness of his nature1 by which he labours to please men more than ,god1 and whence it comes that the wicked speak good of him 4 4 4 ,the ,lord pity the proneness of his heart to comply with the men who have the power 4 4 4 ,lord1 he is unsound and double in his heart1 politically crafty1 selfish1 not savouring nor discerning the things of ,god 4 4 4 ,let not self-love1 wit1 craft1 and timorousness corrupt his mind1 but indue him with fortitude1 patience1 steadfastness1 tenderness1 mortification 4 4 4 ,shall ,i expose myself and my family to danger at this time8 ,a grain of sound faith would solve all my questions4' ',die ,dom4 ,i stayed at home1 partly to decline the ill-will and rage of men and to decline observation4' ,or1 take another ,sabbath-day entry3 ',die ,dom4 ,i stayed at home1 because of the time1 and the observation1 and the ,earl of ,moray 4 4 4 ,came to ,cuttiehillock4 ,i am neither cold nor hot4 ,i am not rightly principled as to the time4 ,i suspect that it is not all conscience that makes me conform1 but wit1 and to avoid suffering2 ,lord1 deliver me from all this unsoundness of heart4' ,and after this miserable fashion do heaven and earth1 duty and self-interest1 the covenant and the crown pull for ,lord ,brodie's soul through #dbb quarto pages4 ,brodie's diary is one of the most humiliating1 heart-searching1 and heart-instructing books ,i ever read4 ,let all public men tempted and afflicted with a facile1 pliable1 time-serving heart have honest ,brodie at their elbow4 ',glad ,i am1 my good companion1' said ,pliable1 after the passage about the cherubim and the seraphim1 and the golden crowns and the golden harps1 'it ravishes my very heart to hear all this4 ,come on1 let us mend our pace4' ,this is delightful1 this is perfect4 ,how often have we ourselves heard these very words of challenge and reproof from the pliable frequenters of emotional meetings1 and from the emotional members of an emotional but rootless ministry4 ,come on1 let us mend our pace6 ',i am sorry to say1' replied the man with the burden on his back1 'that ,i cannot go so fast as ,i would4' ',christian1' says ,mr4 ,kerr ,bain1 'has more to carry than ,pliable has1 as1 indeed1 he would still have if he were carrying nothing but himself2 and he does have about him1 besides1 a few sobering thoughts as to the length and labour and some of the unforeseen chances of the way4' ,and as ,dean ,paget says in his profound and powerful sermon on ',the ,disasters of ,shallowness'3 ',yes1 but there is something else first2 something else without which that inexpensive brightness1 that easy hopefulness1 is apt to be a frail resourceless growth1 withering away when the sun is up and the hot winds of trial are sweeping over it4 ,we must open our hearts to our religion2 we must have the inward soil broken up1 freely and deeply its roots must penetrate our inner being4 ,we must take to ourselves in silence and in sincerity its words of judgment with its words of hope1 its sternness with its encouragement1 its denunciations with its promises1 its requirements1 with its offers1 its absolute intolerance of sin with its inconceivable and divine long-suffering towards sinners4' ,but preaching like this would have frightened away poor ,pliable4 ,he would not have understood it1 and what he did understand of it he would have hated with all his shallow heart4 ',where are we now8' called ,pliable to his companion1 as they both went over head and ears into the ,slough of ,despond4 ',truly1' said ,christian1 ',i do not know4'--,no work of man is perfect1 not even the all-but-perfect ,pilgrim's ,progress4 ,christian was bound to fall sooner or later into a slough filled with his own despondency about himself1 his past guilt1 his present sinfulness1 and his anxious future4 ,but ,pliable had not knowledge enough of himself to make him ever despond4 ,he was always ready and able to mend his pace4 ,he had no burden on his back1 and therefore no doubt in his heart4 ,but ,christian had enough of both for any ten men1 and it was ,christian's overflowing despondency and doubt at this point of the road that suddenly filled his own slough1 and1 ,i suppose1 overflowed into a slough for ,pliable also4 ,had ,pliable only had a genuine and original slough of his own to so sink and be bedaubed in1 he would have got out of it at the right side of it1 and been a tender- stepping pilgrim all his days4--',is this the happiness you have told me all this while of8 ,may ,i get out of this with my life1 you may possess the brave country alone for me4' ,and with that he gave a desperate struggle or two1 and got out of the mire on that side of the slough which was next his own house2 so he went away1 and ,christian saw him no more4 ',the side of the slough which was next his own house4' ,let us close with that4 ,let us go home thinking about that4 ,and in this trial of faith and patience1 and in that1 in this temptation to sin1 and in that1 in this actual transgression1 and in that1 let us always ask ourselves which is the side of the slough that is farthest away from our own house1 and let us still struggle to that side of the slough1 and it will all be well with us at the last4 ,,help ',i was brought low1 and ,he helped me4'--,david4 ,the ,slough of ,despond is one of ,john ,bunyan's masterpieces4 ,in his description of the slough1 ,bunyan touches his highest water-mark for humour1 and pathos1 and power1 and beauty of language4 ,if we did not have the ,english ,bible in our own hands we would have to ask1 as ,lord ,jeffrey asked ,lord ,macaulay1 where the brazier of ,bedford got his inimitable style4 ,bunyan confesses to us that he got all his ,latin from the prescription papers of his doctors1 and we know that he got all his perfect ,english from his ,english ,bible4 ,and then he got his humour and his pathos out of his own deep and tender heart4 ,the ,god of all grace gave a great gift to the ,english-speaking world and to the ,church of ,christ in all lands when ,he created and converted ,john ,bunyan1 and put it into his head and his heart to compose ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress4 ,his heart-affecting page on the slough has been wetted with the tears of thousands of its readers1 and their tears have been mingled with smiles as they read their own sin and misery1 and the never-to-be-forgotten time and place where their sin and misery first found them out1 all told so recognisably1 so pathetically1 and so amusingly almost to laughableness in the passage upon the slough4 ,we see the ocean of scum and filth pouring down into the slough through the subterranean sewers of the ,city of ,destruction and of the ,town of ,stupidity1 which lies four degrees beyond the ,city of ,destruction1 and from many other of the houses and haunts of men4 ,we see ,his ,majesty's sappers and miners at their wits' end how to cope with the deluges of pollution that pour into this slough that they have been ordained to drain and dry up4 ,for ages and ages the royal surveyors have been laying out all their skill on this slough4 ,more cartloads than you could count of the best material for filling up a slough have been shot into it1 and yet you would never know that so much as a single labourer had emptied his barrow here4 ,true1 excellent stepping-stones have been laid across the slough by skilful engineers1 but they are always so slippery with the scum and slime of the slough1 that it is only now and then that a traveller can keep his feet upon them4 ,altogether1 our author's picture of the ,slough of ,despond is such a picture that no one who has seen it can ever forget it4 ,but better than reading the best description of the slough is to see certain well- known pilgrims trying to cross it4 ,mr4 ,fearing at the ,slough of ,despond was a tale often told at the tavern suppers of that country4 ,never pilgrim attempted the perilous journey with such a chicken-heart in his bosom as this ,mr4 ,fearing4 ,he lay above a month on the bank of the slough1 and would not even attempt the steps4 ,some kind ,pilgrims1 though they had enough to do to keep the steps themselves1 offered him a hand2 but no4 ,and after they were safely over it made them almost weep to hear the man still roaring in his horror at the other side4 ,some bade him go home if he would not take the steps1 but he said that he would rather make his grave in the slough than go back one hairsbreadth4 ,till1 one sunshiny morning1--no one knew how1 and he never knew how himself--the steps were so high and dry1 and the scum and slime were so low1 that this hare-hearted man made a venture1 and so got over4 ,but1 then1 as an unkind friend of his said1 this pitiful pilgrim had a slough of despond in his own mind which he carried always and everywhere about with him1 and made him the proverb of despondency that he was and is4 ,only1 that sunshiny morning he got over both the slough inside of him and outside of him1 and was heard by ,help and his family singing this song on the hither side of the slough3 ',he brought me up also out of an horrible pit1 out of the miry clay1 and set my feet upon a rock1 and established my goings4' ,our pilgrim did not have such a good crossing as ,mr4 ,fearing4 ,whether it was that the discharge from the city was deeper and fouler1 or that the day was darker1 or what1 we are not told1 but both ,christian and ,pliable were in a moment out of sight in the slough4 ,they both wallowed1 says their plain-spoken historian1 in the slough1 only the one of the two who had the burden on his back at every wallow went deeper into the mire2 when his neighbour1 who had no such burden1 instead of coming to his assistance1 got out of the slough at the same side as he had entered it1 and made with all his might for his own house4 ,but the man called ,christian made what way he could1 and still tumbled on to the side of the slough that was farthest from his own house1 till a man called ,help gave him his hand and set him upon sound ground4 ,christiana1 again1 and ,mercy and the boys found the slough in a far worse condition than it had ever been found before4 ,and the reason was not that the country that drained into the slough was worse1 but that those who had the mending of the slough and the keeping in repair of the steps had so bungled their work that they had marred the way instead of mending it4 ,at the same time1 by the tact and good sense of ,mercy1 the whole party got over1 ,mercy remarking to the mother of the boys1 that if she had as good ground to hope for a loving reception at the gate as ,christiana had1 no slough of despond would discourage her1 she said4 ,to which the older woman made the characteristic reply3 ',you know your sore and ,i know mine1 and we shall both have enough evil to face before we come to our journey's end4' ,now1 ,i do not for a moment suppose that there is any one here who can need to be told what the ,slough of ,despond in reality is4 ,indeed1 its very name sufficiently declares it4 ,but if any one should still be at a loss to understand this terrible experience of all the pilgrims1 the explanation offered by the good man who gave ,christian his hand may here be repeated4 ',this miry slough1' he said1 'is such a place as cannot be mended4 ,this slough is the descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction of sin doth continually run1 and therefore it is called by the name of ,despond1 for still as the sinner is awakened about his lost condition there ariseth in his soul many fears and doubts and discouraging apprehensions1 which all of them get together1 and settle in this place1 and this is the reason of the badness of the ground4' ,that is the parable1 with its interpretation2 but there is a passage in ,grace ,abounding which is no parable1 and which may even better than this so pictorial slough describe some men's condition here4 ',my original and inward pollution1' says ,bunyan himself in his autobiography1 'that1 that was my plague and my affliction2 that1 ,i say1 at a dreadful rate was always putting itself forth within me2 that ,i had the guilt of to amazement2 by reason of that ,i was more loathsome in my own eyes than a toad2 and ,i thought ,i was so in ,god's eyes also4 ,sin and corruption would bubble up out of my heart as naturally as water bubbles up out of a fountain4 ,i thought now that every one had a better heart than ,i had4 ,i could have changed heart with anybody4 ,i thought none but the devil himself could equalise me for inward wickedness and pollution of mind4 ,i fell1 therefore1 at the sight of my own vileness1 deeply into despair1 for ,i concluded that this condition in which ,i was in could not stand with a life of grace4 ,sure1 thought ,i1 ,i am forsaken of ,god2 sure ,i am given up to the devil1 and to a reprobate mind4' ',let no man1 then1 count me a fable maker1 ,nor made my name and credit a partaker ,of their derision3 what is here in view1 ,of mine own knowledge ,i dare say is true4' ,sometimes1 as with ,christian at the slough1 a man's way in life is all slashed up into sudden ditches and pitfalls out of the sins of his youth4 ,his sins1 by ,god's grace1 find him out1 and under their arrest and overthrow he begins to seek his way to a better life and a better world2 and then both the burden and the slough have their explanation and fulfilment in his own life every day4 ,but it is even more dreadful than a slough in a man's way to have a slough in his mind1 as both ,bunyan himself and ,mr4 ,fearing1 his exquisite creation1 had4 ,after the awful- enough slough1 filled with the guilt and fear of actual sin1 had been bridged and crossed and left behind1 a still worse slough of inward corruption and pollution rose up in ,john ,bunyan's soul and threatened to engulf him altogether4 ,so terrible to ,bunyan was this experience1 that he has not thought it possible to make a parable of it1 and so put it into the ,pilgrim2 he has kept it rather for the plain1 direct1 unpictured1 personal testimony of the ,grace ,abounding4 ,i do not know another passage anywhere to compare with the eighty-fourth paragraph of ,grace ,abounding for hope and encouragement to a great inward sinner under a great inward sanctification4 ,i commend that powerful passage to the appropriation of any man here who may have stuck fast in the ,slough of ,despond to-day1 and who could not on that account come to the ,lord's ,table4 ,let him still struggle out at the side of the slough farthest from his own house1 and to-night1 who can tell1 ,help may come and give that man his hand4 ,when the ,slough of ,despond is drained1 and its bottom laid bare1 what a find of all kinds of precious treasures shall be laid bare6 ,will you be able to lay claim to any of it when the long-lost treasure-trove is distributed by command of the ,king to its rightful owners8 ',what are you doing there8' the man whose name was ,help demanded of ,christian1 as he still wallowed and plunged to the hither side of the slough1 'and why did you not look for the steps8' ,and so saying he set ,christian's feet upon sound ground again1 and showed him the nearest way to the gate4 ,help is one of the ,king's officers who are planted all along the way to the ,celestial ,city1 in order to assist and counsel all pilgrims4 ,evangelist was one of those officers2 this ,help is another2 ,goodwill will be another1 unless1 indeed1 he is more than a mere officer2 ,interpreter will be another1 and ,greatheart1 and so on4 ,all these are preachers and pastors and evangelists who correspond to all those names and all their offices4 ,only some unhappy preachers are better at pushing poor pilgrims into the slough1 and pushing them down to the bottom of it1 than they are at helping a sinking pilgrim out2 while some other more happy preachers and pastors have their manses built at the hither side of the slough and do nothing else all their days but help pilgrims out of their slough and direct them to the gate4 ,and then there are multitudes of so-called ministers who eat the ,king's bread who can neither push a proud sinner into the slough nor help a prostrate sinner out of it2 no1 nor point him the way when he has himself wallowed out4 ,and then1 there are men called ministers1 too1 who also eat the ,king's bread1 whose voice you never hear in connection with such matters1 unless it be to revile both the pilgrims and their helpers1 and all who run with fear and trembling up the heavenly road4 ,but our pilgrim was happy enough to meet with a minister to whom he could look back all his remaining pilgrimage and say3 ',he brought me up also out of an horrible pit1 out of the miry clay1 and set my feet upon a rock1 and established my goings4 ,and he hath put a new song in my mouth1 even praise to our ,god4' ,now1 as might have been expected1 there is a great deal said about all kinds of help in the ,bible4 ,after the help of ,god1 of which the ,bible and especially the more experimental ,psalms are full1 this fine name is then applied to many ,scriptural persons1 and on many ,scriptural occasions4 ,the first woman whom ,god ,almighty made bore from her ,maker to her husband this noble name4 ,her ,father1 so to speak1 gave her away under this noble name4 ,and of all the sweet and noble names that a woman bears1 there is none so rich1 so sweet1 so lasting1 and so fruitful as just her first ,divine name of a helpmeet4 ,and how favoured of ,god is that man to be accounted whose life still continues to draw meet help out of his wife's fulness of help1 till all her and his days together he is able to say1 ,i have of ,god a helpmeet indeed6 ,for in how many sloughs do many men lie till this daughter of ,help gives them her hand1 and out of how many more sloughs are they all their days by her delivered and kept6 ,sweet1 maidenly1 and most sensible ,mercy was a great help to widow ,christiana at the slough1 and to her and her sons all the way up to the river--a very present help in many a need to her future mother-in-law and her pilgrim sons4 ,let every young man seek his future wife of ,god1 and let him seek her of her ,divine ,father under that fine1 homely1 divine name4 ,for ,god1 who knoweth what we have need of before we ask ,him1 likes nothing better than to make a helpmeet for those who so ask ,him1 and still to bring the woman to the man under that so spouse-like name4 ',what next ,i bring shall please thee1 be assured1 ,thy likeness1 thy fit help1 thy other self1 ,thy wish exactly to thy heart's desire4' ,and then when the apostle is making an enumeration of the various offices and agencies in the ,new ,testament church of his day1 after apostles and teachers and gifts of healing1 he says1 'helps1'--assistants1 that is1 succourers1 especially of the sick and the aged and the poor4 ,and we do not read that either election or ordination was needed to make any given member of the apostolic church a helper4 ,but we do read of helpers being found by the apostle among all classes and conditions of that rich and living church2 both sexes1 all ages1 and all descriptions of church members bore this fine apostolic name4 ',salute ,urbane1 our helper in ,christ 4 4 4 ,greet ,priscilla and ,aquila1 my helpers in ,christ4' ,and both ,paul and ,john and all the apostles were forward to confess in their epistles how much they owed of their apostolic success1 as well as of their personal comfort and joy1 to the helpers1 both men and women1 their ,lord had blessed them with4 ,now1 the most part of us here to-night have been at the ,lord's ,table to- day4 ,we kept our feet firm on the steps as we skirted or crossed the slough that self-examination always fills and defiles for us before every new communion4 ,and before our ,lord let us rise from ,his ,table this morning4 ,he again said to us3 ',ye call ,me ,master and ,lord1 and ye say well1 for so ,i am4 ,if ,i then have given you ,my hand1 and have helped you1 ye ought also to help one another4' ,who1 then1 any more will withhold such help as it is in his power to give to a sinking brother8 ,and you do not need to go far afield seeking the slough of desponding1 despairing1 drowning men4 ,this whole world is full of such sloughs4 ,there is scarce sound ground enough in this world on which to build a slough-watcher's tower4 ,and after it is built1 the very tower itself is soon stained and blinded with the scudding slime4 ,where are your eyes1 and full of what8 ,do you not see sloughs full of sinking men at your very door2 ay1 and inside of your best built and best kept house8 ,your very next neighbour2 nay1 your own flesh and blood1 if they have nothing else of ,greatheart's most troublesome pilgrim about them1 have at least this1 that they carry about a slough with them in their own mind and in their own heart4 ,have you only henceforth a heart and a hand to help1 and see if hundreds of sinking hearts do not cry out your name1 and hundreds of slimy hands grasp at your stretched-out arm4 ,sloughs of all kinds of vice1 open and secret2 sloughs of poverty1 sloughs of youthful ignorance1 temptation1 and transgression2 sloughs of inward gloom1 family disquiet and dispute2 lonely grief2 all manner of sloughs1 deep and miry1 where no man would suspect them4 ,and how good1 how like ,christ ,himself1 and how well-pleasing to ,him to lay down steps for such sliding feet1 and to lift out another and another human soul upon sound and solid ground4 ',know ye what ,i have done to you8 ,for ,i have given you an example1 that ye should do as ,i have done to you4 ,if ye know these things1 happy are ye if ye do them4' ,,mr4 ,,worldly-,,wiseman ',wise in this world4'--,paul4 ,mr4 ,worldly-,wiseman has a long history behind him on which we cannot now enter at any length4 ,as a child1 the little worldling1 it was observed1 took much after his secular father1 but much more after his scheming mother4 ,he was already a self-seeking1 self-satisfied youth2 and when he became a man and began business for himself1 no man's business flourished like his4 ',nothing of news1' says his biographer in another place1 'nothing of doctrine1 nothing of alteration or talk of alteration could at any time be set on foot in the town but be sure ,mr4 ,worldly-,wiseman would be at the head or tail of it4 ,but1 to be sure1 he would always decline those he deemed to be the weakest1 and stood always with those1 in his way of thinking1 that he supposed were the strongest side4' ,he was a man1 it was often remarked1 of but one book also4 ,sunday and ,saturday he was to be found deep in ,the ,architect of ,fortune2 or1 ,advancement in ,life1 a book written by its author so as to 'come home to all men's business and bosoms4' ,he drove over scrupulously once a ,sunday to the ,state church1 of which he was one of the most determined pillars4 ,he had set his mind on being ,lord ,mayor of the town before long1 and he was determined that his eldest son should be called ,sir ,worldly-,wiseman after him1 and he chose his church accordingly4 ,another of his biographers in this connection wrote of him thus3 ',our ,lord ,mayor parted his religion betwixt his conscience and his purse1 and he went to church not to serve ,god1 but to please the king4 ,the face of the law made him wear the mask of the ,gospel1 which he used not as a means to save his soul1 but his charges4' ,such1 in a short word1 was this 'sottish man' who crossed over the field to meet with our pilgrim when he was walking solitary by himself after his escape from the slough4 ',how now1 good fellow8 ,whither away after this burdened manner8' ,what a contrast those two men were to one another in the midst of that plain that day6 ,our pilgrim was full of the most laborious going2 sighs and groans rose out of his heart at every step2 and then his burden on his back1 and his filthy1 slimy rags all made him a picture such that it was to any man's credit and praise that he should stop to speak to him4 ,and then1 when our pilgrim looked up1 he saw a gentleman standing beside him to whom he was ashamed to speak4 ,for the gentleman had no burden on his back1 and he did not go over the plain laboriously4 ,there was not a spot or a speck1 a rent or a wrinkle on all his fine raiment4 ,he could not have been better appointed if he had just stepped out of the gate at the head of the way2 they can wear no cleaner garments than his in the ,celestial ,city itself4 ',how now1 good fellow8 ,whither away after this burdened manner8' ',a burdened manner1 indeed1 as ever ,i think poor creature had4 ,and whereas you ask me whither away1 ,i tell you1 sir1 ,i am going to yonder wicket gate before me2 for there1 as ,i am informed1 ,i shall be put into a way to be rid of my heavy burden4' ',hast thou a wife and children8' ,yes2 he is ashamed to say that he has4 ,but he confesses that he cannot to-day take the pleasure in them that he used to do4 ,since his sin so came upon him1 he is sometimes as if he had neither wife nor child nor a house over his head4 ,john ,bunyan was of ,samuel ,rutherford's terrible experience1--that our sins and our sinfulness poison all our best enjoyments4 ,we do not hear much of ,rutherford's wife and children1 and that1 no doubt1 for the sufficient reason that he gives us in his so open-minded letter4 ,but ,bunyan laments over his blind child with a lament worthy to stand beside the lament of ,david over ,absalom1 and again over ,saul and ,jonathan at ,mount ,gilboa4 ,at the same time1 ,john ,bunyan often felt sore and sad at heart that he could not love and give all his heart to his wife and children as they deserved to be loved and to have all his heart4 ,he often felt guilty as he looked on them and knew in himself that they did not have in him such a father as1 ,god knew1 he wished he was1 or ever in this world could hope to be4 ',yes1' he said1 'but ,i cannot take the pleasure in them that ,i would4 ,i am sometimes as if ,i had none4 ,my sin sometimes drives me like a man bereft of his reason and clean demented4' ',who bid thee go this way to be rid of thy burden8 ,i beshrew him for his counsel4 ,there is not a more troublesome and dangerous way in the world than this is to which he hath directed thee4 ,and besides1 though ,i used to have some of the same burden when ,i was young1 not since ,i settled in that town1' pointing to the town of ,carnal-,policy over the plain1 'have ,i been at any time troubled in that way4' ,and then he went on to describe and denounce the way to the ,celestial ,city1 and he did it like a man who had been all over it1 and had come back again4 ,his alarming description of the upward way reads to us like a page out of ,job1 or ,jeremiah1 or ,david1 or ,paul4 ',hear me1' he says1 'for ,i am older than thou4 ,thou art like to meet with in the way which thou goest wearisomeness1 painfulness1 hunger1 perils1 nakedness1 sword1 lions1 dragons1 darkness1 and in a word1 death1 and what not4' ,you would think that you were reading the eighth of the ,romans at the thirty- fifth verse2 only ,mr4 ,worldly-,wiseman does not go on to finish the chapter4 ,he does not go on to add1 ',i am persuaded that neither death1 nor life1 nor angels1 nor principalities1 nor powers1 nor things present1 nor things to come1 nor height1 nor depth1 nor any other creature1 shall be able to separate us from the love of ,god1 which is in ,jesus ,christ our ,lord4' ,no2 ,worldly-,wiseman never reads the ,romans1 and he never hears a sermon on that chapter when he goes to church4 ,mr4 ,worldly-,wiseman became positively eloquent and impressive and all but convincing as he went so graphically and cumulatively over all the sorrows that attended on the way to which this pilgrim was now setting his face4 ,but1 staggering as it all was1 the man in rags and slime only smiled a sad and sobbing smile in answer1 and said3 ',why1 sir1 this burden upon my back is far more terrible to me than all the things which you have mentioned2 nay1 methinks ,i care not what ,i meet with in the way1 so be ,i can also meet with deliverance from my burden4' ,this is what our ,lord calls a pilgrim having the root of the matter in himself4 ,this poor soul had by this time so much wearisomeness1 painfulness1 hunger1 perils1 nakedness1 sword1 lions1 dragons1 darkness1 death1 and what not in himself1 that all these threatened things outside of himself were but so many bugbears and hobgoblins wherewith to terrify children2 they were but things to be laughed at by every man who is in ernest in the way4 ',i care not what else ,i meet with if only ,i also meet with deliverance4' ,there speaks the true pilgrim4 ,there speaks the man who drew down the ,son of ,god to the cross for that man's deliverance4 ,there speaks the man1 who1 mire1 and rags1 and burdens and all1 will yet be found in the heaven of heavens where the chief of sinners shall see their ,deliverer face to face1 and shall at last and for ever be like ,him4 ,peter examined ,dante in heaven on faith1 ,james examined him on hope1 and ,john took him through his catechism on love1 and the seer came out of the tent with a laurel crown on his brow4 ,i do not know who the examiner on sin will be1 but1 speaking for myself on this matter1 ,i would rather take my degree in that subject than in all the other subjects set for a sinner's examination on earth or in heaven4 ,for to know myself1 and especially1 as the wise man says1 to know the plague of my own heart1 is the true and the only key to all other true knowledge3 ,god and man2 the ,redeemer and the devil2 heaven and hell2 faith1 hope1 and charity2 unbelief1 despair1 and malignity1 and all things of that kind else1 all knowledge will come to that man who knows himself1 and to that man alone1 and to that man in the exact measure in which he does really know himself4 ,listen again to this slough-stained1 sin-burdened1 sighing and sobbing pilgrim1 who1 in spite of all these things--nay1 in virtue of all these things--is as sure of heaven and of the far end of heaven as if he were already enthroned there4 ',wearisomeness1' he protests1 'painfulness1 hunger1 perils1 nakedness1 sword1 lions1 dragons1 darkness1 death1 and what not--why1 sir1 this burden on my back is far more terrible to me than all these things which you have mentioned2 nay1 methinks ,i care not what ,i meet with in the way1 so be ,i can also meet with deliverance from my burden4' ,o ,god6 let this same mind be found in me and in all the men and women for whose souls ,i shall have to answer at the day of judgment1 and ,i shall be content and safe before ,thee4 ,that strong outburst from this so forfoughten man for a moment quite overawed ,worldly-,wiseman4 ,he could not reply to an earnestness like this4 ,he did not understand it1 and could not account for it4 ,the only thing he ever was in such earnestness as that about was his success in business and his title that he and his wife were scheming for4 ,but still1 though silenced by this unaccountable outburst of our pilgrim1 ,worldly-,wiseman's enmity against the upward way1 and especially against all the men and all the books that made pilgrims take to that way1 was not silenced4 ',how camest thou by thy burden at first8' ,by reading this ,book in my hand4' ,worldly-,wiseman did not fall foul of the ,book indeed1 but he fell all the more foul of those who meddled with matters they had not a head for4 ',leave these high and deep things for the ministers who are paid to understand and explain them1 and attend to matters more within thy scope4' ,and then he went on to tell of a far better way to get rid of the burden that meddlesome men brought on themselves by reading that book too much--a far better and swifter way than attempting the wicket-gate4 ',thou wilt never be settled in thy mind till thou art rid of that burden1 nor canst thou enjoy the blessings of wife and child as long as that burden lies so heavy upon thee4' ,that was so true that it made the pilgrim look up4 ,a gentleman who can speak in that true style must know more than he says about such burdens as this of mine2 and1 after all1 he may be able1 who knows1 to give me some good advice in my great straits4 ',pray1 sir1 open this secret to me1 for ,i sorely stand in need of good counsel4' ,let him here who has no such burden as this poor pilgrim had cast the first stone at ,christian2 ,i cannot4 ,if one who looked like a gentleman came to me to-night and told me how ,i would on the spot get to a peace of conscience never to be lost again1 and how ,i would get a heart to-night that would never any more plague and pollute me1 ,i would be mightily tempted to forget what all my former teachers had told me and try this new ,gospel4 ,and especially if the gentleman said that the remedy was just at hand4 ',pray1 sir1' said the breathless and spiritless man1 'wilt thou1 then1 open this secret to me8' ,the wit and the humour and the satire of the rest of the scene must be fully enjoyed over the great book itself4 ,the village named ,morality1 hard by the hill2 that judicious man ,legality1 who dwells in the first house you come at after you have turned the hill2 ,civility1 the pretty young man that ,legality hath to his son2 the hospitality of the village2 the low rents and the cheap provisions1 and all the charities and amenities of the place1--all together make up such a picture as you cannot get anywhere out of ,john ,bunyan4 ,and then the pilgrim's stark folly in entering into ,worldly-,wiseman's secret2 his horror as the hill began to thunder and lighten and threaten to fall upon him2 the sudden descent of ,evangelist2 and then the plain-spoken words that passed between the preacher and the pilgrim1--don't say again that the poorest of the ,puritans were without letters1 or that they had not their own esoteric writings full of fun and frolic2 don't say that again till you are a pilgrim yourself1 and have our ,john ,bunyan for one of your classics by heart4 ,we are near an end1 but before you depart1 stand still a little1 as ,evangelist said to ,christian1 that ,i may show you the words of ,god4 ,and first1 watch yourselves well1 for you all have a large piece of this worldly-wise man in yourselves4 ,you all take something of some ancestor1 remote or immediate1 who was wise only for this world4 ,yes1 to be sure1 for you still decline as they did1 and desert as they did1 those you deem to be the weakest1 and stand with those that you suppose to be the strongest side4 ,the ,architect of ,fortune is perhaps too strong meat for your stomach2 but still1 if you ever light upon its powerful pages1 you will surely blush in secret to see yourself turned so completely inside out4 ,you may not have chosen your church wholly with an eye to your shop2 but you must admit that you see as good and better men than you are doing that every day4 ,and it is a sure sign to you that you do not yet know the plague of your own heart1 unless you know yourself to be a man more set upon the position and the praise that this world gives than you yet are on the position and the praise that come from ,god only4 ,set a watch on your own worldly heart4 ,watch and pray1 lest you also enter into all ,worldly-,wiseman's temptation4 ,this is one of the words of ,god to you4 ,another word of ,god is this4 ,the way of the cross1 said severe ,evangelist1 is odious to every worldly-wise man2 while1 all the time1 it is the only way there is1 and there never will be any other way to eternal life4 ,the only way to life is the way of the cross4 ,there are two crosses1 indeed1 on the way to the ,celestial ,city2 there is1 first1 the ,cross of ,christ1 once for you1 and then there is your cross daily for ,christ1 and it takes both crosses to secure and to assure any man that he is on the right road1 and that he will come at last to the right end4 ',the ,christian's great conquest over the world1' says ,william ,law1 'is all contained in the mystery of ,christ upon the cross4 ,and true ,christianity is nothing else but an entire and absolute conformity to that spirit which ,christ showed in the mysterious sacrifice of ,himself upon the cross4 ,every man is only so far a ,christian as he partakes of this same spirit of ,christ--the same suffering spirit1 the same sacrifice of himself1 the same renunciation of the world1 the same humility and meekness1 the same patient bearing of injuries1 reproaches1 and contempts1 the same dying to all the greatness1 honours1 and happiness of this world that ,christ showed on the cross4 ,we also are to suffer1 to be crucified1 to die1 to rise with ,christ1 or else ,his crucifixion1 ,his death1 and ,his resurrection will profit us nothing4 ',this is the second word of ,god unto thee4 ,and the third thing to-night is this1 that though thy sin be very great1 though thou hast a past life round thy neck enough to sink thee for ever out of the sight of ,god and all good men2 a youth of sensuality now long and closely cloaked over with an after life of worldly prosperity1 worldly decency1 and worldly religion1 all which only makes thee that whited sepulchre that ,christ has in ,his eye when ,he speaks of thee with such a severe and dreadful countenance2 yet if thou confess thyself to be all the whited sepulchre ,he sees thee to be1 and yet knock at ,his gate in all thy rags and slime1 ,he will immediately lay aside that severe countenance and will show thee all ,his goodwill4 ,notwithstanding all that thou hast done1 and all thou still art1 ,he will not deny ,his own words1 or do otherwise than at once fulfil them all to thee4 ,ask1 then1 and it shall be given thee2 seek1 and thou shalt find2 knock1 and it shall be opened unto thee4 ,and with a great goodwill1 ,he will say to those that stand by ,him1 ,take away the filthy garments from him4 ,and to thee ,he will say1 ,behold1 ,i have caused all thine iniquity to pass from thee1 and ,i will clothe thee with change of raiment4 ,,goodwill1 ,,the ,,gatekeeper ',goodwill4'--,luke #b4 #ad4 ',so in process of time ,christian got up to the gate4 ,now there was written over the gate1 ,knock1 and it shall be opened unto you4 ,he knocked1 therefore1 more than once or twice1 saying1 ,may ,i now enter here8 when at last there came a grave person to the gate1 named ,goodwill1 who asked him who was there8' ,the gravity of the gatekeeper was the first thing that struck the pilgrim4 ,and it was the same thing that so struck some of the men who saw most of our ,lord that they handed down to their children the true tradition that ,he was often seen in tears1 but that no one had ever seen or heard ,him laugh4 ,the prophecy in the prophet concerning our ,lord was fulfilled to the letter4 ,he was indeed a man of sorrows1 and ,he early and all ,his life long had a close acquaintance with grief4 ,our ,lord had come into this world on a very sad errand4 ,we are so stupefied and besotted with sin1 that we have no conception how sad an errand our ,lord had been sent on1 and how sad a task ,he soon discovered it to be4 ,to be a man without sin1 a man hating sin1 and hating nothing else but sin1 and yet to have to spend all ,his days in a world lying in sin1 and in the end to have all that world of sin laid upon ,him till ,he was ,himself made sin1--how sad a task was that6 ,great1 no doubt1 as was the joy that was set before our ,lord1 and sure as ,he was of one day entering on that joy1 yet the daily sight of so much sin in all men around ,him1 and the cross and the shame that lay right before ,him1 made ,him1 in spite of the future joy1 all the ,man of ,sorrow ,isaiah had said ,he would be1 and made light-mindedness and laughter impossible to our ,lord1--as it is1 indeed1 to all men among ourselves who have anything of ,his mind about this present world and the sin of this world1 they also are men of sorrow1 and of ,his sorrow4 ,they1 too1 are acquainted with grief4 ,their tears1 like ,his1 will never be wiped off in this world4 ,they will not laugh with all their heart till they laugh where ,he now laughs4 ,then it will be said of them1 too1 that they began to be merry4 ',what was the matter with you that you did laugh in your sleep last night8 asked ,christiana of ,mercy in the morning4 ,i suppose you were in a dream4 ,so ,i was1 said ,mercy1 but are you sure that ,i laughed8 ,yes1 you laughed heartily2 but1 prithee1 ,mercy1 tell me thy dream4 ,well1 ,i dreamed that ,i was in a solitary place and all alone1 and was there bemoaning the hardness of my heart1 when methought ,i saw one coming with wings towards me4 ,so he came directly to me1 and said1 ,mercy1 what aileth thee8 ,now1 when he heard my complaint1 he said1 ,peace be to thee4 ,he also wiped mine eyes with his handkerchief1 and clad me in silver and gold2 he put a chain about my neck also1 and earrings in mine ears1 and a beautiful crown upon my head4 ,so he went up4 ,i followed him till we came to a golden gate2 and ,i thought ,i saw your husband there4 ,but did ,i laugh8 ,laugh6 ay1 and well you might1 to see yourself so well4' ,but to return and begin again4 ,goodwill1 who opened the gate1 was1 as we saw1 a person of a very grave and commanding aspect2 so much so1 that in his sudden joy our pilgrim was a good deal overawed as he looked on the countenance of the man who stood in the gate1 and it was some time afterwards before he understood why he wore such a grave and almost sad aspect4 ,but afterwards1 as he went up the way1 and sometimes returned in thought to the wicket-gate1 he came to see very good reason why the keeper of that gate looked as he did look4 ,the site and situation of the gate1 for one thing1 was of itself enough to banish all light-mindedness from the man who was stationed there4 ,for the gatehouse stood just above the ,slough of ,despond1 and that itself filled the air of the place with a dampness and a depression that could be felt4 ,and then out of the downward windows of the gate1 the watcher's eye always fell on the ,city of ,destruction in the distance1 and on her sister cities sitting like her daughters round about her4 ,and that also made mirth and hilarity impossible at that gate4 ,and then the kind of characters who came knocking all hours of the day and the night at that gate4 ,goodwill never saw a happy face or heard a cheerful voice from one year's end to the other4 ,and when any one so far forgot himself as to put on an untimely confidence and self-satisfaction1 the gatekeeper would soon put him through such questions as quickly sobered him if he had anything at all of the root of the matter in him4 ,terror1 horror1 despair1 remorse1 chased men and women up to that gate4 ,they would often fall before his threshold more dead than alive4 ,and then1 after the gate was opened and the pilgrims pulled in1 the gate had only opened on a path of such painfulness1 toil1 and terrible risk1 that at whatever window ,goodwill looked out1 he always saw enough to make him and keep him a grave1 if not a sad1 man4 ,it was1 as he sometimes said1 his meat and his drink to keep the gate open for pilgrims2 but the class of men who came calling themselves pilgrims2 the condition they came in2 the past1 that in spite of all both he and they could do1 still came in through his gate after them1 and went up all the way with them2 their ignorance of the way1 on which he could only start them2 the multitudes who started1 and the handfuls who held on2 the many who for a time ran well1 but afterwards left their bones to bleach by the wayside2 and all the impossible-to-be- told troubles1 dangers1 sorrows1 shipwrecks that certainly lay before the most steadfast and single-hearted pilgrim--all that was more than enough to give the man at the gate his grave and anxious aspect4 ,not that his great gravity1 with all the causes of it1 ever made him a melancholy1 a morose1 a despairing1 or even a desponding man4 ,far from that4 ,the man of sorrows ,himself sometimes rejoiced in spirit4 ,not sometimes only1 but often ,he lifted up ,his heart and thanked ,his ,father for the work ,his ,father had given ,him to do1 and for the success that had been granted to ,him in the doing of it4 ,and as often as ,he looked forward to the time when he should finish ,his work and receive ,his discharge1 and return to ,his ,father's house1 at the thought of that ,he straightway forgot all ,his present sorrows4 ,and somewhat so was it with ,goodwill at his gate4 ,no man could be but at bottom happy1 and even joyful1 who had a post like his to occupy1 a gate like his to keep1 and1 altogether1 a work like his to do4 ,no man with his name and his nature can ever in any circumstances be really unhappy4 ',happiness is the bloom that always lies on a life of true goodness1' and this gatehouse was full of the happiness that follows on and always dwells with true goodness4 ,goodwill cannot have more happiness till he shuts in his last pilgrim into the ,celestial ,city1 and then himself enters in after him as a shepherd after a lost sheep4 ,the happy1 heavenly1 divine disposition of the gatekeeper was such1 that it overflowed from the pilgrim who stood beside him and descended upon his wife and children who remained behind him in the doomed city4 ,so full of love was the gatekeeper's heart1 that it ran out upon ,obstinate and ,pliable also4 ,his heart was so large and so hospitable1 that he was not satisfied with one pilgrim received and assisted that day4 ,how is it1 he asked1 that you have come here alone8 ,did any of your neighbours know of your coming8 ,and why did he who came so far not come through8 ,alas1 poor man1 said ,goodwill1 is the celestial glory of so little esteem with him that he counteth it not worth running the hazards of a few difficulties to obtain it8 ,our pilgrim got a lifelong lesson in goodwill to all men at that gate that day4 ,the gatekeeper showed such deep and patient and genuine interest in all the pilgrim's past history1 and in all his family and personal affairs1 that ,christian all his days could never show impatience1 or haste1 or lack of interest in the most long- winded and egotistical pilgrim he ever met4 ,he always remembered1 when he was becoming impatient1 how much of his precious time and of his loving attention his old friend ,goodwill had given to him4 ,our pilgrim got tired of talking about himself long before ,goodwill had ceased to ask questions and to listen to the answers4 ,so much was ,christian taken with the courtesy and the kindness of ,goodwill1 that had it not been for his crushing burden1 he would have offered to remain in ,goodwill's house to run his errands1 to light his fires1 and to sweep his floors4 ,so much was he taken captive with ,goodwill's extraordinary kindness and unwearied attention4 ,and since he could not remain at the gate1 but must go on to the city of all goodwill itself1 our pilgrim set himself all his days to copy this gatekeeper when he met with any fellow-pilgrim who had any story that he wished to tell4 ,and many were the lonely and forgotten souls that ,christian cheered and helped on1 not by his gold or his silver1 nor by anything else1 but just by his open ear4 ,to listen with patience and with attention to a fellow-pilgrim's wrongs and sorrows1 and even his smallest interests1 said this ,christian to himself1 is just what ,goodwill so winningly did to me4 ,with all his goodwill the grave gatekeeper could not say that the way to the ,celestial ,city was other than a narrow1 a stringent1 and a heart-searching way4 ',come1' he said1 'and ,i will tell thee the way thou must go4' ,there are many wide ways to hell1 and many there be who crowd them1 but there is only one way to heaven1 and you will sometimes think you must have gone off it1 there are so few companions2 sometimes there will be only one footprint1 with here and there a stream of blood1 and always as you proceed1 it becomes more and more narrow1 till it strips a man bare1 and sometimes threatens to close upon him and crush him to the earth altogether4 ,our ,lord in as many words tells us all that4 ,strive1 ,he says1 strive every day4 ,for many shall seek to enter into the way of salvation1 but because they do not early enough1 and long enough1 and painfully enough strive1 they come short1 and are shut out4 ,have you1 then1 anything in your religious life that ,christ will at last accept as the striving ,he intended and demanded8 ,does your religion cause you any real effort--,christ calls it agony8 ,have you ever had1 do you ever have1 anything that ,he would so describe8 ,what cross do you every day take up8 ,in what thing do you every day deny yourself8 ,name it4 ,put your finger on it4 ,write it in cipher on the margin of your ,bible4 ,would the most liberal judgment be able to say of you that you have any fear and trembling in the work of your salvation8 ,if not1 ,i am afraid there must be some mistake somewhere4 ,there must be great guilt somewhere4 ,at your parents' door1 or at your minister's1 or1 if their hands are clean1 then at your own4 ,christ has made it plain to a proverb1 and ,john ,bunyan has made it a nursery and a schoolboy story1 that the way to heaven is steep and narrow and lonely and perilous4 ,and that1 remember1 not a few of the first miles of the way1 but all the way1 and even through the dark valley itself4 ',almost all that is said in the ,new ,testament of men's watching1 giving earnest heed to themselves1 running the race that is set before them1 striving and agonising1 fighting1 putting on the whole armour of ,god1 pressing forward1 reaching forth1 crying to ,god day and night2 ,i say1 almost all that we have in the ,new ,testament on these subjects is spoken and directed to the saints4 ,where those things are applied to sinners seeking salvation once1 they are spoken of the saints' prosecution of their salvation ten times' 7,jonathan ,edwards74 ,if you have a life at all like that1 you will be sorely tempted to think that such suffering and struggle1 increasing rather than diminishing as life goes on1 is a sign that you are so bad as not to be a true ,christian at all4 ,you will be tempted to think and say so4 ,but all the time the truth is1 that he who has not that labouring1 striving1 agonising1 fearing1 and trembling in himself1 knows nothing at all about the religion of ,christ and the way to heaven2 and if he thinks he does1 then that but proves him a hypocrite1 a self-deceived1 self-satisfied hypocrite2 there is not an ounce of a true ,christian in him4 ,says ,samuel ,rutherford on this matter3 ',christ commandeth ,his hearers to a strict and narrow way1 in mortifying heart-lusts1 in loving our enemy1 in feeding him when he is hungry1 in suffering for ,christ's sake and the gospel's1 in bearing ,his cross1 in denying ourselves1 in becoming humble as children1 in being to all men and at all times meek and lowly in heart4' ,let any man lay all that intelligently and imaginatively alongside of his own daily life4 ,let him name some such heart-lust4 ,let him name also some enemy1 and ask himself what it is to love that man1 and to feed him in his hunger2 what it is in which he is called to suffer for ,christ's sake and the gospel's1 in his reputation1 in his property1 in his business1 in his feelings4 ,let him put his finger on something in which he is every day to deny himself1 and to be humble and teachable1 and to keep himself out of sight like a little child2 and if that man does not find out how narrow and heart-searching the way to heaven is1 he will be the first who has so found his way thither4 ,no1 no2 be not deceived4 ,deceive not yourself1 and let no man deceive you4 ,god is not mocked1 neither are ,his true saints4 ',would to ,god ,i were back in my pulpit but for one ,sabbath1' said a dying minister in ,aberdeen4 ',what would you do8' asked a brother minister at his bedside4 ',i would preach to the people the difficulty of salvation1' he said4 ,all which things are told1 not for purposes of debate or defiance1 but to comfort and instruct ,god's true people who are finding salvation far more difficult than anybody had ever told them it would be4 ,comfort ,my people1 saith your ,god4 ,speak comfortably to ,my people4 ,come1 said ,goodwill1 and ,i will teach thee about the way thou must go4 ,look before thee1 dost thou see that narrow way8 ,that is the way thou must go4 ,and then thou mayest always distinguish the right way from the wrong4 ,the wrong is crooked and wide1 and the right is straight as a rule can make it1--straight and narrow4 ,goodwill said all that in order to direct and to comfort the pilgrim2 but that was not all that this good man said with that end4 ,for1 when ,christian asked him if he could not help him off with his burden that was upon his back1 he told him3 ',as to thy burden1 be content to bear it until thou comest to the place of deliverance1 for there it will fall from thy back of itself4' ,get you into the straight and narrow way1 says ,goodwill1 with his much experience of the ways and fortunes of true pilgrims2 get you sure into the right way1 and leave your burden to ,god4 ,he appoints the place of deliverance1 and it lies before thee4 ,the place of thy deliverance cannot be behind thee1 and it is not in my house1 else thy burden would have been already off4 ,but it is before thee4 ,be earnest1 therefore1 in the way4 ,look not behind thee4 ,go not into any crooked way2 and one day1 before you know1 and when you are not pulling at it1 your burden will fall off of itself4 ,be content to bear it till then1 says bold and honest ,goodwill1 speaking so true to pilgrim experience4 ,yes2 be content1 ,o ye people of ,god1 crying with this pilgrim for release from your burden of guilt1 and no less those of you who are calling with ,paul for release from the still more bitter and crushing burden made up of combined guilt and corruption4 ,be content till the place and the time of deliverance2 nay1 even under your burden and your bonds be glad1 as ,paul was1 and go up the narrow way1 still chanting to yourself1 ,i thank ,god through ,jesus ,christ our ,lord4 ,it is only becoming that a great sinner should tarry the ,lord's leisure2 all the more that the greatest sinner may be sure the ,lord will come1 and will not tarry4 ,the time is long1 but the thing is sure4 ,and now two lessons from ,goodwill's gate3-- #a4 ,the gate was shut when ,christian came up to it1 and no one was visible anywhere about it4 ,the only thing visible was the writing over the gate which told all pilgrims to knock4 ,now1 when we come up to the same gate we are disappointed and discouraged that the gatekeeper is not standing already upon his doorstep and his arms round our neck4 ,we knelt to-day in secret prayer1 and there was only our bed or our chair visible before us4 ,there was no human being1 much less to all appearance any ,divine ,presence1 in the place4 ,and we prayed a short1 indeed1 but a not unearnest prayer1 and then we rose up and came away disappointed because no one appeared4 ,but look at him who is now inheriting the promises4 ,he knocked1 says his history1 more than once or twice4 ,that is to say1 he did not content himself with praying one or two seconds and then giving over1 but he continued in prayer till the gatekeeper came4 ,and as he knocked1 he said1 so loud and so impatient that all those in the gatehouse could hear him1 ',may ,i now enter here8 ,will he within ,open to sorry me1 though ,i have been ,a wandering rebel8 ,then shall ,i ,not fail to sing his lasting praise on high4' #b4 ',we make no objections against any1' said ,goodwill2 'notwithstanding all that they have done before they come hither1 they are in no wise cast out4' ,he told me all things that ever ,i did1 said the woman of ,samaria1 telling her neighbours about our ,lord's conversation with her4 ,and1 somehow1 there was something in the gatekeeper's words that called back to ,christian1 if not all the things he had ever done1 yet from among them the worst things he had ever done4 ,they all rose up black as hell before his eyes as the gatekeeper did not name them at all1 but only said 'notwithstanding all that thou hast done4' ,christian never felt his past life so black1 or his burden so heavy1 or his heart so broken1 as when ,goodwill just said that one word 'notwithstanding4' ',we make no objections against any2 notwithstanding all that they have done before they come hither1 they are in no wise cast out4' ,,the ,,interpreter ',an interpreter1 one among a thousand4'--,elihu4 ,we come to-night to the ,interpreter's ,house4 ,and since every minister of the gospel is an interpreter1 and every evangelical church is an interpreter's house1 let us gather up some of the precious lessons to ministers and to people with which this passage of the ,pilgrim's ,progress so much abounds4 #a4 ,in the first place1 then1 ,i observe that the ,house of the ,interpreter stands just beyond the ,wicket ,gate4 ,in the whole topography of the ,pilgrim's ,progress there lies many a deep lesson4 ,the church that ,mr4 ,worldly-,wiseman supported1 and on the communion roll of which he was so determined to have our pilgrim's so unprepared name1 stood far down on the other side of ,goodwill's gate4 ,it was a fine building1 and it had an eloquent man for its minister1 and the whole service was an attraction and an enjoyment to all the people of the place2 but our ,interpreter was never asked to show any of his significant things there2 and1 indeed1 neither minister nor people would have understood him had he ever done so4 ,and had any of the parishioners from below the gate ever by any chance stumbled into the ,interpreter's house1 his most significant rooms would have had no significance to them4 ,both he and his house would have been a mystery and an offence to ,worldly-,wiseman1 his minister1 and his fellow-worshippers4 ,john ,bunyan has the clear warrant both of ,jesus ,christ and the ,apostle ,paul for the place on which he has planted the ,interpreter's house4 ',it is given to you1' said our ,lord to ,his disciples1 'to know the mysteries of the ,kingdom of ,heaven1 but to them it is not given4' ,and ,paul tells us that 'the natural man receiveth not the things of the ,spirit of ,god1 for they are foolishness unto him3 neither can he know them1 because they are spiritually discerned4' ,and1 accordingly1 no reader of the ,pilgrim's ,progress will really understand what he sees in the ,interpreter's ,house1 unless he is already a man of a spiritual mind4 ,intelligent children enjoy the pictures and the people that are set before them in this illustrated house1 but they must become the children of ,god1 and must be well on in the life of ,god1 before they will be able to say that the house next the gate has been a profitable and a helpful house to them4 ,all that is displayed here--all the furniture and all the vessels1 all the ornaments and all the employments and all the people of the ,interpreter's ,house--is fitted and intended to be profitable as well as interesting to pilgrims only4 ,no man has any real interest in the things of this house1 or will take any abiding profit out of it1 till he is fairly started on the upward road4 ,in his former life1 and while still on the other side of the gate1 our pilgrim had no interest in such things as he is now to see and hear2 and if he had seen and heard them in his former life1 he would not1 with all the ,interpreter's explanation1 have understood them4 ,as here among ourselves to-night1 they who will understand and delight in the things they hear in this house to-night are those only who have really begun to live a religious life4 ,the realities of true religion are now the most real things in life--to them2 they love divine things now2 and since they began to love divine things1 you cannot entertain them better than by exhibiting and explaining divine things to them4 ,there is no house in all the earth1 after the gate itself1 that is more dear to the true pilgrim heart than just the ,interpreter's ,house4 ',i was glad when it was said to me1 ,let us go into the house of the ,lord4 ,peace be within thy walls1 and prosperity within thy palaces4' #b4 ,and besides being built on the very best spot in all the land for its owner's purposes1 every several room in that great house was furnished and fitted up for the entertainment and instruction of pilgrims4 ,every inch of that capacious and many-chambered house was given up to the delectation of pilgrims4 ,the public rooms were thrown open for their convenience and use at all hours of the day and night1 and the private rooms were kept retired and secluded for such as sought retirement and seclusion4 ,there were dark rooms also with iron cages in them1 till ,christian and his companions came out of those terrible places1 bringing with them an everlasting caution to watchfulness and a sober mind4 ,there were rooms also given up to vile and sordid uses4 ,one room there was full of straws and sticks and dust1 with an old man who did nothing else day nor night but wade about among the straws and sticks and dust1 and rake it all into little heaps1 and then sit watching lest any one should overturn them4 ,and then1 strange to tell it1 and not easy to get to the full significance of it1 the bravest room in all the house had absolutely nothing in it but a huge1 ugly1 poisonous spider hanging to the wall with her hands4 ',is there but one spider in all this spacious room8' asked the ,interpreter4 ,and the water stood in ,christiana's eyes2 she had come by this time thus far on her journey also4 ,she was a woman of a quick apprehension1 and the water stood in her eyes at the ,interpreter's question1 and she said3 ',yes1 ,lord1 there is here more than one4 ,yea1 and spiders whose venom is far more destructive than that which is in her4' ,the ,interpreter then looked pleasantly on her1 and said3 ',thou hast said the truth4' ,this made ,mercy blush1 and the boys to cover their faces1 for they all began now to understand the riddle4 ',this is to show you1' said the ,interpreter1 'that however full of the venom of sin you may be1 yet you may1 by the hand of faith1 lay hold of1 and dwell in the best room that belongs to the ,king's ,house above4' ,then they all seemed to be glad1 but the water stood in their eyes4 ,a wall also stood apart on the grounds of the house with an always dying fire on one side of it1 while a man on the other side of the wall continually fed the fire through hidden openings in the wall4 ,a whole palace stood also on the grounds1 the inspection of which so kindled our pilgrim's heart1 that he refused to stay here any longer1 or to see any more sights--so much had he already seen of the evil of sin and of the blessedness of salvation4 ,not that he had seen as yet the half of what that house held for the instruction of pilgrims4 ,only1 time would fail us to visit the hen and her chickens2 the butcher killing a sheep and pulling her skin over her ears1 and she lying still under his hands and taking her death patiently2 also the garden with the flowers all diverse in stature1 and quality1 and colour1 and smell1 and virtue1 and some better than some1 and all where the gardener had set them1 there they stand1 and quarrel not with one another4 ,the robin-red-breast also1 so pretty of note and colour and carriage1 but instead of bread and crumbs1 and such like harmless matter1 with a great spider in his mouth4 ,a tree also1 whose inside was rotten1 and yet it grew and had leaves4 ,so they went on their way and sang3 ',this place hath been our second stage1 ,here have we heard and seen ,those good things that from age to age ,to others hid have been4 ,the butcher1 garden1 and the field1 ,the robin and his bait1 ,also the rotten tree1 doth yield ,me argument of weight2 ,to move me for to watch and pray1 ,to strive to be sincere1 ,to take my cross up day by day1 ,and serve the ,lord with few4' ,the significant rooms of that divine house instruct us also that all the lessons requisite for our salvation are not to be found in any one scripture or in any one sermon1 but that all that is required by any pilgrim or any company of pilgrims should all be found in every minister's ministry as he leads his flock on from one ,sabbath-day to another1 rightly dividing the word of truth4 ,our ministers should have something in their successive sermons for everybody4 ,something for the children1 something for the slow-witted and the dull of understanding1 and something specially suited for those who are of a quick apprehension2 something at one time to make the people smile1 at another time to make them blush1 and at another time to make the water stand in their eyes4 #c4 ,and1 then1 the ,interpreter's life was as full of work as his house was of entertainment and instruction4 ,not only so1 but his life1 it was well known1 had been quite as full of work before he had a house to work for as ever it had been since4 ,the ,interpreter did nothing else but continually preside over his house and all that was in it and around it1 and it was all gone over and seen to with his own eyes and hands every day4 ,he had been present at the laying of every stone and beam of that solid and spacious house of his4 ,there was not a pin nor a loop of its furniture1 there was not a picture on its walls1 nor a bird nor a beast in its woods and gardens1 that he did not know all about and could not hold discourse about4 ,and then1 after he had taken you all over his house1 with its significant rooms and woods and gardens1 he was full all supper-time of all wise saws and witty proverbs4 ',one leak will sink a ship1' he said that night1 'and one sin will destroy a sinner4' ,and all their days the pilgrims remembered that word from the ,interpreter's lips1 and they often said it to themselves as they thought of their own besetting sin4 ,now1 if it is indeed so1 that every gospel minister is an interpreter1 and every evangelical church an interpreter's house1 what an important passage this is for all those who are proposing and preparing to be ministers4 ,let them reflect upon it3 what a house this is that the ,interpreter dwells in2 how early and how long ago he began to lay out his grounds and to build his house upon them2 how complete in all its parts it is1 and how he still watches and labours to have it more complete4 ,understandest thou what thou here readest8 it is asked of all ministers1 young and old1 as they turn over ,john ,bunyan's pungent pages4 ,and every new room1 every new bird1 and beast1 and herb1 and flower makes us blush for shame as we contrast our own insignificant and ill-furnished house with the noble house of the ,interpreter4 ,let all our students who have not yet fatally destroyed themselves and lost their opportunity lay the ,interpreter's ,house well to heart4 ,let them be students not in idle name only1 as so many are1 but in intense reality1 as so few are4 ,let them read everything that bears upon the ,bible1 and let them read nothing that does not4 ,they have not the time nor the permission4 ,let them be content to be men of one book4 ,let them give themselves wholly to the interpretation of divine truth as its riddles are set in nature and in man1 in scripture1 in providence1 and in spiritual experience4 ,let them store their memories at college with all sacred truth1 and with all secular truth that can be made sacred4 ,and if their memories are weak and treacherous1 let them be quiet under ,god's will in that1 and all the more labour to make up in other ways for that defect1 so that they may have always something to say to the purpose when their future people come up to church hungry for instruction and comfort and encouragement4 ,let them look around and see the sin that sinks the ship of so many ministers2 and let them begin while yet their ship is in the yard and see that she is fitted up and furnished1 stored and stocked1 so that she shall in spite of sure storms and sunken rocks deliver her freight in the appointed haven4 ,when they are lying in bed of a ,sabbath morning1 let them forecast the day when they shall have to give a strict account of their eight years of golden opportunity among the churches1 and the classes1 and the societies1 and the libraries of our university seats4 ,let them be able to name some great book1 ay1 more than one great book1 they mastered1 for every year of their priceless and irredeemable student life4 ,let them all their days have old treasure-houses that they filled full with scholarship and with literature and with all that will minister to a congregation's many desires and necessities1 collected and kept ready from their student days4 ',meditate upon these things2 give thyself wholly up to them1 that thy profiting may appear unto all4' #d4 ,and then with a sly stroke at us old ministers1 our significant author points out to us how much better furnished the ,interpreter's ,house was by the time ,christiana and the boys visited it compared with that early time when ,christian was entertained in it4 ,our pilgrim got far more in the ,interpreter's ,house of delight and instruction than he could carry out of it1 but that did not tempt the ,interpreter to sit down and content himself with taking all his future pilgrims into the same room1 and showing them the same pictures1 and repeating to them the same explanations4 ,no1 for he reflected that each coming pilgrim would need some new significant room to himself1 and therefore1 as soon as he got one pilgrim off his hands1 he straightway set about building and furnishing new rooms1 putting up new pictures1 and replenishing his woods and his waters with new beasts and birds and fishes4 ,i am ashamed1 he said1 that ,i had so little to show when ,i first opened my gates to receive pilgrims1 and ,i do not know why they came to me as they did4 ,i was only a beginner in these things when my first visitor came to my gates4 ,let every long-settled1 middle-aged1 and even grey-headed minister read the life of the ,interpreter at this point and take courage and have hope4 ,let it teach us all to break some new ground in the field of divine truth with every new year4 ,let it teach us all to be students all our days4 ,let us buy1 somehow1 the poorest and the oldest of us1 some new and first-rate book every year4 ,let us not indeed shut up altogether our old rooms if they ever had anything significant in them1 but let us add now a new wing to our spiritual house1 now a new picture to its walls1 and now a new herb to its gardens4 ',resolved1' wrote ,jonathan ,edwards1 'that as old men have seldom any advantage of new discoveries1 because these are beside a way of thinking they have been long used to2 resolved1 therefore1 if ever ,i live to years1 that ,i will be impartial to hear the reasons of all pretended discoveries1 and receive them1 if rational1 how long soever ,i have been used to another way of thinking4' #e4 ,the fickle1 frivolous1 volatile character of so many divinity students is excellently hit off by ,bunyan in our pilgrim's impatience to be out of the ,interpreter's ,house4 ,no sooner had he seen one or two of the significant rooms than this easily satisfied student was as eager to get out of that house as he had been to get in4 ,twice over the wise and learned ,interpreter had to beg and beseech this ignorant and impulsive pilgrim to stop and get another lesson in the religious life before he left the great school-house4 ,all our professors of divinity and all our ministers understand the parable at this point only too well4 ,their students are eager to get into their classes2 like our pilgrim1 they have heard the fame of this and that teacher1 and there is not standing-room in the class for the first weeks of the session4 ,but before ,christmas there is room enough for strangers1 and long before the session closes1 half the students are counting the weeks and plotting to petition the ,assembly against the length and labour of the curriculum4 ,was there ever a class that was as full and attentive at the end of the session as it was at the beginning8 ,never since our poor human nature was so stricken with laziness and shallowness and self-sufficiency4 ,but what is the chaff to the wheat8 ,it is the wheat that deserves and repays the husbandman's love and labour4 ,when ,plato looked up from his desk in the ,academy1 after reading and expounding one of his greatest ,dialogues1 he found only one student left in the class-room1 but then1 that student was ,aristotle4 ',now let me go1' said ,christian4 ',nay1 stay1' said the ,interpreter1 'till ,i have showed thee a little more4' ',sir1 is it not time for me to go8' ',do tarry till ,i show thee just one thing more4' #f4 ',here have ,i seen things rare and profitable1 4 4 4 ,then let me be ,thankful1 ,o good ,interpreter1 to thee4' ,sydney ,smith1 with his usual sagacity1 says that the last vice of the pulpit is to be uninteresting4 ,now1 the ,interpreter's ,house had this prime virtue in it1 that it was all interesting4 ,do not our children beg of us on ,sabbath nights to let them see the ,interpreter's show once more2 it is so inexhaustibly and unfailingly interesting8 ,it is only stupid men and women who ever weary of it4 ,but1 'profitable' was the one and universal word with which all the pilgrims left the ,interpreter's ,house4 ',rare and pleasant1' they said1 and sometimes 'dreadful2' but it was always 'profitable4' ,now1 how seldom do we hear our people at the church door step down into the street saying1 'profitable'8 ,if they said that oftener their ministers would study profit more than they do4 ,the people say 'able1' or 'not at all able'2 'eloquent1' or 'stammering and stumbling'2 'excellent' in style and manner and accent1 or the opposite of all that2 and their ministers1 to please the people and to earn their approval1 labour after these approved things4 ,but if the people only said that the prayers and the preaching were profitable and helpful1 even when they too seldom are1 then our preachers would set the profit of the people far more before them both in selecting and treating and delivering their ,sabbath-day subjects4 ,a lady on one occasion said to her minister1 ',sir1 your preaching does my soul good4' ,and her minister never forgot the grave and loving look with which that was said4 ,not only did he never forget it1 but often when selecting his subject1 and treating it1 and delivering it1 the question would rise in his heart and conscience1 ,will that do my friend's soul any good8 ',rare and profitable1' said the pilgrim as he left the gate2 and hearing that sent the ,interpreter back with new spirit and new invention to fill his house of still more significant1 rare1 and profitable things than ever before4 ',meditate on these things1' said ,paul to ,timothy his son in the gospel1 'that thy profiting may appear unto all4' ',thou art a minister of the word1' wrote the learned ,william ,perkins beside his name on all his books1 'mind thy business4' ,,passion ',a man subject to like passions as we are4'--,james #e4 #ag4 ,that was a very significant room in the ,interpreter's ,house where our pilgrim saw ,passion and ,patience sitting each one in his chair4 ,passion was a young lad who seemed to our pilgrim to be much discontented4 ,he was never satisfied4 ,he would have all his good things now4 ,his governor would have him wait for his best things till the beginning of next year2 but no1 he will have them all now4 ,and then1 when he had got all his good things1 he soon lavished and wasted them all till he had nothing left but rags4 ,then said ,christian to the ,interpreter1 ',expound this matter more fully to me4' ,so he said1 ',those two lads are figures2 ,passion1 of the men of this world2 and ,patience of the men of that which is to come4' ',then ,i perceive1' said ,christian1 ''tis not best to covet things that are now1 but to wait for things to come4' ',you say truth1' replied the ,interpreter1 'for the things that are seen are temporal1 but the things that are not seen are eternal4' ,now from the texts that ,i have taken out of ,james and out of this so significant room in the ,interpreter's ,house1 let me try to tell you something profitable1 if so it may be1 about passion2 the nature of it1 the place it holds1 and the part it performs both in human nature and in the life and the character of a ,christian man4 ,the name of ,passion has already told us his nature1 his past life1 and his present character4 ,the whole nomenclature of ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress and of ,the ,holy ,war is composed on the divine1 original1 and natural principle of embodying the nature of a man in his name4 ,god takes ,his own names to ,himself on that principle4 ,the ,creator gave ,adam his name also on that same principle2 and then ,adam gave their names to all cattle1 to the fowls of the air1 and to every beast of the field on the same principle on which he had got his own name4 ,and so it was at first with all the ,bible names of men and of nations of men4 ,their name contained their nature4 ,and ,john ,bunyan was such a student of the ,bible1 and of no other book but the ,bible1 that all his best books are all full1 like the ,bible1 of the most descriptive and suggestive names4 ,as soon as ,bunyan tells us the name of some new acquaintance or fellow-traveller1 we already know him1 so exactly is his nature put into his name4 ,and thus it is that when we stop for a moment at the door of this little significant room in the ,interpreter's ,house and ask ourselves the meaning of the name ,passion1 we see at once where we are and what we have here before us4 ,for a 'passion' is just some excitement or agitation of the mind caused by some outward thing acting on the mind4 ,the inward world of the mind and heart of man1 and this outward world down into which ,god has placed man1 instantly and continually respond to one another4 ,and what are called1 with so much correctness and propriety1 our passions1 are just those inward responses1 excitements1 and agitations that the outward world causes in the inward world when those two worlds meet together4 ',passion' and 'perturbation' are the old classical names that the ancient philosophers and moralists gave to what they felt in themselves as their minds and their hearts were affected by the world of men and things around them4 ,and they used to illustrate their teaching on the subject of the passions by the figure of a storm at sea4 ,they said that it was because ,god had made the sea sensitive and responsive to the winds that blew over it that a storm at sea ever arose4 ,the storm did not arise and the ships were not wrecked by anything from within the sea itself2 it was the outward world of the winds striking against the quiet and inward world of the waters that roused the storms and sank the ships4 ,and with that illustration well printed in the minds and imaginations of their scholars the old moralists felt their work among their scholars was already all but done4 ,for1 so full of adaptation and appeal is the whole outward world to the mind and heart of man1 and so sensitive and instantly responsive is the mind and heart of man to all the approaches of the outward world1 that the mind and heart of man are constantly full of all kinds of passions1 both bad and good4 ,and1 then1 this is our present life of probation and opportunity1 that all our passions are placed within us and are committed and entrusted to us as so many first elements and so much unformed material out of which we are summoned to build up our life and to shape and complete our character4 ,the springs of all our actions are in our passions4 ,all our activities in life1 trace them all up to their source1 and they will all be found to run up into the wellhead of our passions4 ,all our virtues are cut as with a chisel out of our passions1 and all our vices are just the disorders and rebellions of our passions4 ,our several passions1 as they lie still asleep in our hearts1 have as yet no moral character2 they are only the raw material so to speak1 of moral character4 ,our passions are the life and the riches and the ornaments of human nature1 and it is only because human nature in its present estate is so corrupt and disordered and degraded1 that the otherwise so honourable name of passion has such a sinister sound to us4 ,and the full regeneration and restitution of human nature will be accomplished when every several passion is in its right place1 and when reason and conscience and the ,spirit of ,god shall inspire and rule and regulate all that is within us4 ',on life's vast ocean diversely we sail1 ,reason the card1 but passion is the gale4' ,and not ,elijah only1 as ,james says1 and not ,paul and ,barnabas only1 as they themselves said1 were men of like passions with ourselves1 but our ,lord ,himself was a man of like passions with us also4 ,he took to ,himself a true body1 full of all the appetites of the body1 and a reasonable soul1 full of all the affections1 passions1 and emotions of the soul4 ,only1 in ,him reason and conscience and the law and the ,spirit of ,god were the card and the compass according to which ,he steered ,his life4 ,we have all our ruling passion1 and our ,lord also had ,his4 ,as ,his disciples saw ,his ruling passion kindled in ,his heart and coming out in ,his life1 they remembered that it was written of ,him in an old ,messianic psalm3 ',the zeal of ,thine house hath eaten me up4' ,they were all eaten up of their ruling passions also4 ,one of ambition1 one of emulation1 one of avarice1 and so on1--each several disciple was eaten up of his own besetting sin4 ,but they all saw that it was not so with their ,master4 ,he was eaten up always and wholly of the zeal of ,his ,father's house1 and of absolute surrender and devotion to ,his ,father's service1 till ,his ruling passion was seen to be as strong in ,his death as it had been in ,his life4 ,the ,laird of ,brodie's ,diary has repeatedly been of great use to us in these inward matters1 and his words on this subject are well worth repeating4 ',we poor creatures1' he says1 'are commanded by our affections and passions4 ,they are not at our command4 ,but the ,holy ,one doth exercise all ,his attributes at ,his own will2 they are at ,his command2 they are not passions nor perturbations in ,his mind1 though they transport us4 ,when ,i would hate1 ,i cannot4 ,when ,i would love1 ,i cannot4 ,when ,i would grieve1 ,i cannot4 ,when ,i would desire1 ,i cannot4 ,but it is the better for us that all is as ,he wills it to be4' ,and now1 to come still closer home1 let us look for a moment or two at some of our own ruling and tyrannising passions4 ,and let us look first at self-love--that master-passion in every human heart4 ,let us give self- love the first place in the inventory and catalogue of our passions1 because it has the largest place in all our hearts and lives4 ,nay1 not only has self-love the largest place of any of the passions of our hearts1 but it is out of self-love that all our other evil passions spring4 ,it is out of this parent passion that all the poisonous brood of our other evil passions are born4 ,the whole fall and ruin and misery of our present human nature lies in this1 that in every human being self- love has taken1 in addition to its own place1 the place of the love of ,god and of the love of man also4 ,we naturally now love nothing and no one but ourselves4 ,and as long as self-love is in the ascendant in our hearts1 all the passions that are awakened in us by our self-love will be selfish with its selfishness1 inhumane with its inhumanity1 and ungodly with its ungodliness4 ,and it is to kill and extirpate our so passionate self-love that is the end and aim of all ,god's dealings with us in this world4 ,all that ,god is doing with us and for us in providence and in grace1 in the world and in the church1--it is all to cure us of this deadly disease of self-love4 ,we may never have had that told us before1 and we may not like it1 and we may not believe it2 but there can be no better proof of the truth of what is now said than just this1 that we do not like it and will not have it4 ,self-love will not let us listen to the truth about ourselves2 it puts us in a passion both against the truth and against him who tells the truth1 as the history of the truth abundantly testifies4 ,yes1 your indignant protest is quite true4 ,self- love has her divine rights1--no doubt she has4 ,but you are not commanded to attend to them4 ,your self-love will look after herself4 ,she will manage to have her full share of what is right and proper for any passion to possess even after she cries out that she is trampled upon and despoiled4 ,my brethren1 till you begin to crucify yourselves and to pluck up your self-love by the roots1 you will never know what a cruel and hopeless task the ,christian life is--,i do not say the ,christian profession4 ,nor1 on the other hand1 will you ever discover what a noble task it is--what a divine task and how divinely assisted and divinely recompensed4 ,you will not know what a kennel of hell-hounds your own heart is till you have long sought to enter it and cleanse it out4 ,and after you have done your utmost1 and your best1 death will hurry you away from your but half-accomplished task4 ,only1 in that case you will be able to die in the hope that what is impossible with man is possible with ,god1 as promised by ,him1 and that ,he will not leave your soul in hell1 but will perfect that good thing which alone concerneth you1 even your everlasting deliverance from all sinful self-love4 ,and if self-love is the fruitful mother of all our passions1 then sensuality is surely her eldest son4 ,indeed1 so shallow are we1 and so shallow are our words1 that when we speak of sinful passion most men instantly think of sensuality4 ,there are so many seductive things that appeal to our appetites1 and our appetites are so easily awakened1 and are so imperious when they are awakened1 that when passion is spoken about1 few men think of the soul1 all men think instantly of the body4 ,and no wonder4 ,for1 stupid and besotted as we are1 we must all at some time of our life have felt the bondage and degradation of the senses4 ,passion in the ,interpreter's ,house had soon nothing left but rags4 ,and in this house to-night there are many men whose consciences and hearts and characters are all in such rags from sensual sin1 that when the ,scriptures speak of uncleanness1 or rags1 or corruption1 their thoughts flee at once to sensual sin and its conscience-rending results4 ,cease from sensuality1 said ,cicero1 for if once you give your minds up to sensuality1 you will never be able to think of anything else4 ,ambition1 emulation1 and envy are the leading members of a whole prolific family of satanic passions in the human heart4 ,indeed1 these passions1 taken along with their kindred passions of hatred and ill-will1 are1 in our ,lord's words1 the very lusts of the devil himself4 ,the ,jews hated our ,lord the more for what ,he said about these detestable passions1 but ,his own disciples love ,him only the more that ,he so well knows the evil affections of their hearts1 and so well describes and denounces them4 ,anybody can denounce sensual sin1 and everybody will understand and approve4 ,but spiritual sin1--ambition and emulation and envy and ill- will--these things are more easy to denounce than they are to detect and describe1 and more easy to detect and describe than they are to cast out4 ,these sins seem rather to multiply and to strike a deeper root when you begin to cast them out4 ,what an utterly and abominably evil passion is envy which is awakened not by bad things but by the best things6 ,that another man's talents1 attainments1 praises1 rewards should kindle it1 and that the blame1 the depreciation1 the hurt that another man suffers should satisfy it1--what a piece of very hell must that be in the human heart6 ,what more do we need than just a little envy in our hearts to make us prostrate penitents before ,god and man all our days8 ,what more doctrine1 argument1 proof1 authority1 persuasion should a sane man need beyond a little envy in his heart at his best friend to make him an evangelical believer and an evangelical preacher8 ,how1 in the name of wonder1 is it that men can be so ignorant of the plague of their own hearts as to remain indifferent1 and1 much more1 hostile1 to the gospel of love and holiness8 ,pride1 also1--what a hateful and intolerable passion is that6 ,how stone-blind to his own state must that sinner be whose heart is filled with pride1 and how impossible it is for that man to make any real progress in any kind of truth or goodness6 ,and resentment1--what a deep-seated1 long-lived1 and suicidal passion is that6 ,how it hunts down him it hates1 and how surely it shuts the door of salvation against him who harbours it6 ,forgive us our debts1 the resentful man says in his prayer1 as we forgive our debtors4 ,and detraction1--how some men's ink-horns are filled with detraction for ink1 and how it drops from their tongue like poison6 ,at their every word a reputation dies4 ,life and all its opportunities of doing good and having good done to us is laid like a bag of treasure at our feet1 but1 like the prodigal son in the ,interpreter's ,house1 with all those passions raging in our own hearts at other men1 and in other men's hearts at us1 we have soon nothing left us but rags4 ,god be thanked for every man here who sees and feels that he has nothing left him but rags2 and1 still more1 thanks for all those who see and feel how1 by their bad passions1 sensual and spiritual1 they have left on other people nothing but rags4 ,now1 from all this let us lay it to heart that our sanctification and salvation lie in our mastery over all these and over many other passions that have not even been named4 ,he is an accepted saint of ,god1 who1 taking his and other people's rags to ,god's mercy every day1 every day also in ,god's strength grapples with1 bridles1 and tames his own wild and ungodly passions4 ,be not deceived1 my friends2 he alone is a saint of ,god who is a sanctified man2 and his passions1--as they are the spring of his actions1 so they are the sphere and seat of his sanctification4 ,be not deceived2 that man1 and no other manner of man1 is1 or ever will be1 a partaker of ,god's salvation4 ,you often hear me recommending those students who have first to subdue their own passions and then the passions of those who hear them to study ,jonathan ,edwards' ethical and spiritual writings4 ,well1 just at this present point1 to show you how well that great man practised what he preached1 let me read to you a few lines from his biographer3 ',few men1' says ,henry ,rogers1 'ever attained a more complete mastery over their passions than ,jonathan ,edwards did4 ,this was partly owing to the ascendency of his intellect2 partly1 and in a still greater degree1 to the elevation of his piety4 ,for the subjugation of his passions he was no doubt very greatly indebted to the prodigious superiority of his reason4 ,such was the commanding attitude his reason assumed1 and such the tremendous power with which it controlled the whole man1 that any insurrection among his senses was hopeless2 they had their tenure only by doing fealty and homage to his intellect4 ,those other and more dangerous enemies1 because more subtle and more spiritual1 such as pride1 vanity1 wrath1 and envy1 which lurk in the inmost recesses of our nature1 and some of which have such affinities for a genius like that of ,edwards1 yield not to such exorcism4 ,such more powerful kind of demons go not forth but by prayer and fasting2 to their complete mortification1 therefore1 ,edwards brought incessant watchfulness and devotion2 and seldom1 assuredly1 have they been more nearly expelled from the bosom of a depraved intelligence4' ,we shall be in the best company1 both intellectually and spiritually1 if we work out our own salvation among the sinful passions of our depraved hearts4 ,and then1 as life goes on1 and we continue in well-doing1 we shall be able to measure and register our growth in grace best by watching the effect of outward temptations upon our still sinful and but half-sanctified hearts4 ,and among much to be humbled for1 and much to make us fear and tremble for the issue1 we shall1 from time to time1 have a good conscience and a holy and humble joy that this passion and that is at last showing some signs of crucifixion and mortification4 ,and thus that death to sin shall gradually set in which shall issue at last in an everlasting life unto holiness4 ',then will ,i sprinkle clean water upon you1 and ye shall be clean3 from all your filthiness1 and from all your idols will ,i cleanse you4 ,a new heart also will ,i give you1 and a new spirit will ,i put within you 4 4 4 ,behold1 ,i have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee1 and ,i will clothe thee with change of raiment4 ,in that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of ,david1 and to the inhabitants of ,jerusalem1 for sin and for uncleanness 4 4 4 ,bring forth the best robe and put it upon him1 for this my son was dead1 and is alive again2 he was lost1 and is found 4 4 4 ,what are these that are arrayed in white robes1 and whence came they8 ,these are they which came out of great tribulation1 and have washed their robes1 and made them white in the blood of the ,lamb4' ,,patience ',in your patience possess ye your souls4' 7,revised ,version3 ',in your patience ye shall win your souls4'7--,our ,lord4 ',i saw moreover in my dream that the ,interpreter took the pilgrim by the hand1 and had him into a little room1 where sate two little children1 each one in his chair4 ,the name of the eldest was ,passion and of the other ,patience4 ,passion seemed to be much discontent1 but ,patience was very quiet4 ,then ,christian asked1 ,what is the reason of the discontent of ,passion8 ,the interpreter answered1 ,the governor of them would have him stay for his best things till the beginning of the next year2 but he will have all now4 ,but ,patience is willing to wait4' ,passion and ,patience1 like ,esau and ,jacob1 are twin-brothers4 ,and their names1 like their natures1 spring up from the same root4 ',patience1' says ,crabb in his ,english ,synonyms1 'comes from the active participle to suffer2 while passion comes from the passive participle of the same verb2 and hence the difference between the two names4 ,patience signifies suffering from an active principle1 a determination to suffer2 while passion signifies what is suffered from want of power to prevent the suffering4 ,patience1 therefore1 is always taken in a good sense1 and ,passion always in a bad sense4' ,so far this excellent etymologist4 ,this is1 therefore1 another case of blessing and cursing proceeding out of the same mouth1 and of the same fountain sending forth at the same place both sweet water and bitter4 ,our ,lord tells us in this striking text that our very souls by reason of sin are not our own4 ,he tells us that we have lost hold of our souls before we have as yet come to know that we have souls4 ,we only discover that we have souls after we have lost them4 ,and our ,lord1--our best1 indeed our only1 authority in the things of the soul1--here tells us that it is only by patience that we shall ever win back our lost souls4 ,more1 far more1 is needed to the winning back of a lost soul than its owner's patience1 and our ,lord knew that to ,his cost4 ,but that is not ,his point with us to-night4 ,his sole point with each one of us to-night is our personal part in the conquest and redemption of our sin-enslaved souls4 ,he who has redeemed our souls with ,his own blood tells us with all plainness of speech1 that ,his blood will be shed in vain1 as far as we are concerned1 unless we add to ,his atoning death our own patient life4 ,every human life1 as our ,lord looks at it1 and would have us look at it1 is a vast field of battle in which a soul is lost or won2 little as we think of it or will believe it1 in ,his sight every trial1 temptation1 provocation1 insult1 injury1 and all kinds and all degrees of pain and suffering1 are all so many divinely appointed opportunities afforded us for the reconquest and recovery of our souls4 ,sometimes faith is summoned into the battle-field1 sometimes hope1 sometimes self-denial1 sometimes prayer1 sometimes one grace and sometimes another2 but as with the sound of a trumpet the ,captain of our salvation here summons ,patience to the forefront of the fight4 #a4 ,to begin with1 how much impatience we are all from time to time guilty of in our family life4 ,among the very foundations of our family life how much impatience the husband often exhibits toward the wife1 and the wife toward her husband4 ,patience is the very last grace they look forward to having any need of when they are still dreaming about their married life2 but1 in too many cases1 they have not well entered on that life1 when they find that they need no grace of ,god so much as just patience1 if the yoke of their new life is not to gall them beyond endurance4 ,however many good qualities of mind and heart and character any husband or wife may have1 no human being is perfect1 and most of us are very far from being perfect4 ,when therefore1 we are closely and indissolubly joined to another life and another will1 it is no wonder that sometimes the ill-fitting yoke eats into a lifelong sore4 ,we have all many defects in our manners1 in our habits1 and in our constitutional ways of thinking and speaking and acting1--defects that tempt those who live nearest us to fall into annoyances with us that sometimes deepen into dislike1 and even positive disgust1 till it has been seen1 in some extreme cases1 that home-life has become a very prison-house1 in which the impatient prisoner chafes and jibs and strikes out as he does nowhere else4 ,now1 when any unhappy man or woman wakens up to discover how different life is now to be from what it once promised to become1 let them know that all their past blindness1 and precipitancy1 and all the painful results of all that1 may yet be made to work together for good4 ,in your patience with one another1 says our ,lord1 you will make a conquest of your adverse lot1 and of your souls to the bargain4 ,say to yourselves1 therefore1 that perfection1 faultlessness1 and absolute satisfaction are not to be found in this world4 ,and say also that since you have not brought perfection to your side of the house any more than your partner has to his side1 you are not so foolish as to expect perfection in return for such imperfection4 ,you have your own share of what causes fireside silence1 aversion1 disappointment1 and dislike2 and1 with ,god's help1 say that you will patiently submit to what may not now be mended4 ,and then1 the sterner the battle the nobler will the victory be2 and the lonelier the fight1 the more honour to him who flinches not from it4 ,in your patience possess ye your souls4 ,what a beautiful1 instructive1 and even impressive sight it is to see a nurse patiently cherishing her children6 ,how she has her eye and her heart at all their times upon them1 till she never has any need to lay her hand upon them6 ,passion has no place in her little household1 because patience fills all its own place and the place of passion too4 ,what a genius she displays in her talks to her children6 ,how she cheats their little hours of temptation1 and tides them over the rough places that her eye sees lying like sunken rocks before her little ship6 ,how skilfully she stills and heals their impulsive little passions by her sudden and absorbing surprise at some miracle in a picture-book1 or some astonishing sight under her window6 ,she has a thousand occupations also for her children1 and each of them with a touch of enterprise and adventure and benevolence in it4 ,she is so full of patience herself1 that the little gusts of passion are soon over in her presence1 and the sunshine is soon back brighter than ever in her little paradise4 ,and1 over and above her children rising up and calling her blessed1 what wounds she escapes in her own heart and memory by keeping her patient hands from ever wounding her children6 ,what peace she keeps in the house1 just by having peace always within herself6 ,paul can find no better figure wherewith to set forth ,god's marvellous patience with ,israel during her fretful childhood in the wilderness1 than just that of such a nurse among her provoking children4 ,and we see the deep hold that same touching and instructive sight had taken of the apostle's heart as he returns to it again to the ,thessalonians3 ',we were gentle among you1 even as a nurse cherisheth her children4 ,so1 being affectionately desirous of you1 we were willing to have imparted unto you1 not the gospel of ,god only1 but also our own souls1 because ye were dear unto us4' ,what a school of divine patience is every man's own family at home if he only were teachable1 observant1 and obedient6 #b4 ,clever1 quick-witted1 and1 themselves1 much-gifted men1 are terribly intolerant of slow and stupid men1 as they call them4 ,but the many-talented man makes a great mistake here1 and falls into a great sin4 ,in his fulness of all kinds of intellectual gifts1 he quite forgets from ,whom he has his many gifts1 and why it is that his despised neighbour has so few gifts4 ,if you have ten or twenty talents1 and ,i have only two1 who is to be praised and who is to be blamed for that allotment8 ,your cleverness has misled you and has hitherto done you far more evil than good4 ,you bear yourself among ordinary men1 among less men than yourself1 as if you had added all these cubits to your own stature4 ,you ride over us as if you had already given in your account1 and had heard it said1 ,take the one talent from them and give it to this my ten-talented servant4 ,you seem to have set it down to your side of the great account1 that you had such a good start in talent1 and that your fine mind had so many tutors and governors all devoting themselves to your advancement4 ,and you conduct yourself to us as if the ,righteous ,judge had cast us away from ,his presence1 because we were not found among the wise and mighty of this world4 ,the truth is1 that the whole world is on a wholly wrong tack in its praise and in its blame4 ,we praise the man of great gifts1 and we blame the man of small gifts1 completely forgetful that in so doing we give men the praise that belongs to ,god1 and lay on men the blame1 which1 if there is any blame in the matter1 ought to be laid elsewhere4 ,learn and lay to heart1 my richly-gifted brethren1 to be patient with all men1 but especially to be patient with all stupid1 slow- witted1 ungifted1 ,god-impoverished men4 ,do not add your insults and your ill-usage to the low estate of those on whom1 in the meantime1 ,god's hand lies so cold and so straitened4 ,for who maketh thee to differ from another8 and what hast thou that thou didst not receive8 ,now1 if thou didst receive it1 why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it8 ,call that to mind the next time you are tempted to cry out that you have no patience with your slow-witted servant4 #c4 ',is patient with the bad' is one of the tributes of praise that is paid in the fine paraphrase to that heart that is full of the same love that is in ,god4 ,a patient love to the unjust and the evil is one of the attributes and manifestations of the divine nature1 as that nature is seen both in ,god and in all genuinely godly men4 ,and1 indeed1 in no other thing is the divine nature so surely seen in any man as just in his love to and his patience with bad men4 ,he schools and exercises himself every day to be patient and good to other men as ,god has been to him4 ,he remembers when tempted to resentment how ,god did not resent his evil1 but1 while he was yet an enemy to ,god and to godliness1 reconciled him to ,himself by the death of ,his ,son4 ,and ever since the godly man saw that1 he has tried to reconcile his worst enemies to himself by the death of his impatience and passion toward them1 and has more pitied than blamed them1 even when their evil was done against himself4 ,let ,god judge1 and if it must be1 condemn that bad man4 ,but ,i am too bad myself to cast a stone at the worst and most injurious of men4 ,if we so much pity ourselves for our sinful lot1 if we have so much compassion on ourselves because of our inherited and unavoidable estate of sin and misery1 why do we not share our pity and our compassion with those miserable men who are in an even worse estate than our own8 ,at any rate1 ,i must not judge them lest ,i be judged4 ,i must take care when ,i say1 ,forgive me my trespasses1 as ,i forgive them that trespass against me4 ,not to seven times must ,i grudgingly forgive1 but ungrudgingly to seventy times seven4 ,for with what judgment ,i judge1 ,i shall be judged2 and with what measure ,i mete1 it shall be measured to me again4 ',love harbours no suspicious thought1 ,is patient to the bad3 ,grieved when she hears of sins and crimes1 ,and in the truth is glad4' #d4 ,and then1 most difficult and most dangerous1 but most necessary of all patience1 we must learn how to be patient with ourselves4 ,every day we hear of miserable men rushing upon death because they can no longer endure themselves and the things they have brought on themselves4 ,and there are moral suicides who cast off the faith and the hope and the endurance of a ,christian man because they are so evil and have lived such an evil life4 ,we speak of patience with bad men1 but there is no man so bad1 there is no man among all our enemies who has at all hurt us like that man who is within ourselves4 ,and to bear patiently what we have brought upon ourselves1--to endure the inward shame1 the self-reproof1 the self-contempt bitterer to drink than blood1 the lifelong injuries1 impoverishment1 and disgrace1--to bear all these patiently and uncomplainingly1--to acquiesce humbly in the discovery that all this was always in our hearts1 and still is in our hearts--what humility1 what patience1 what compassion and pity for ourselves must all that call forth6 ,the wise nurse is patient with her passionate1 greedy1 untidy1 disobedient child4 ,she does not cast it out of doors1 she does not run and leave it1 she does not kill it because all these things have been and still are in its sad little heart4 ,her power for good with such a child lies just in her pity1 in her compassion1 and in her patience with her child4 ,and the child that is in all of us is to be treated in the same patient1 hopeful1 believing1 forgiving1 divine way4 ,we should all be with ourselves as ,god is with us4 ,he knoweth our frame4 ,he remembereth that we are dust4 ,he shows all patience toward us4 ,he does not look for great things from us4 ,he does not break the bruised reed1 nor quench the smoking flax4 ,he shall not fail nor be discouraged till ,he have set judgment in the earth4 ,and so shall not we4 #e4 ,and1 then1--it is a sufficiently startling thing to say1 but--we must learn to be patient with ,god also4 ,all our patience1 and all the exercises of it1 if we think aright about it1 all run up in the long-run into patience with ,god4 ,but there are some exercises of patience that have to do directly and immediately with ,god and with ,god alone4 ,when any man's heart has become fully alive to ,god and to the things of ,god2 when he begins to see and feel that he lives and moves and has his being in ,god2 then everything that in any way affects him is looked on by him as come to him from ,god4 ,absolutely1 all things4 ,the very weather that everybody is so atheistic about1 the climate1 the soil he labours1 the rain1 the winter's cold and the summer's heat1--true piety sees all these things as ,god's things1 and sees ,god's immediate will in the disposition and dispensation of them all4 ,he feels the untameableness of his tongue in the indecent talk that goes on everlastingly about the weather4 ,all these things may be without ,god to other men1 as they once were to him also1 but you will find that the truly and the intelligently devout man no longer allows himself in such unbecoming speech4 ,for1 though he cannot trace ,god's hand in all the changes of the seasons1 in heat and cold1 in sunshine and snow1 yet he is as sure that ,god's wisdom and will are there as that ,scripture is true and the ,scripture-taught heart4 ',great is our ,lord1 and ,his understanding is infinite4 ,who covereth the heavens with clouds1 and prepareth rain for the earth1 and maketh the grass to grow upon the mountains4 ,he giveth snow like wool2 ,he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes2 ,he casteth forth ,his ice like morsels4 ,who can stand before his cold8' ,here is the patience and the faith of the saints4 ,here are they that keep the commandments of ,god and the faith of ,jesus ,christ4 ,and1 then1 when through rain or frost or fire1 when out of any terror by night or arrow that flieth by day1 any calamity comes on the man who is thus pointed and practised in his patience1 he is able with ,job to say1 ',this is the ,lord4 ,what1 shall we receive good at the hand of ,god and not also receive evil8' ,by far the best thing ,i have ever read on this subject1 and ,i have read it a thousand times since ,i first read it as a student1 is ,dr4 ,thomas ,goodwin's ,patience and its ,perfect ,work4 ,that noble treatise had its origin in the great fire of ,london in #afff4 ,the learned ,president of ,magdalen ,college lost the half of his library1 five hundred pounds worth of the best books1 in that terrible fire4 ,and his son tells us he had often heard his father say that in the loss of his not-to-be-replaced books1 ,god had struck him in a very sensible place4 ,to lose his ,augustine1 and his ,calvin1 and his ,musculus1 and his ,zanchius1 and his ,amesius1 and his ,suarez1 and his ,estius was a sore stroke to such a man4 ,i loved my books too well1 said the great preacher1 and ,god rebuked me by this affliction4 ,let the students here read ,goodwin's costly treatise1 and they will be the better prepared to meet such calamities as the burning of their manse and their library1 as also to counsel and comfort their people when they shall lose their shops or their stockyards by fire4 ',blind unbelief is sure to err1 ,and scan ,his work in vain2 ,god is ,his own interpreter1 ,and ,he will make it plain4' ,and1 then1 in a multitude of ,new ,testament scriptures1 we are summoned to great exercise of patience with the ,god of our salvation1 because it is ,his purpose and plan that we shall have to wait long for our salvation4 ,god has not seen it good to carry us to heaven on the day of our conversion4 ,he does not glorify us on the same day that ,he justifies us4 ,we are appointed to salvation indeed1 but it is also appointed us to wait long for it4 ,this is not our rest4 ,we are called to be pilgrims and strangers for a season with ,god upon the earth4 ,we are told to endure to the end4 ,it is to be through faith and patience that we1 with our fathers1 shall at last inherit the promises4 ,holiness is not a ,jonah's gourd4 ,it does not come up in a night1 and it does not perish in a night4 ,holiness is the ,divine nature1 and it takes a lifetime to make us partakers of it4 ,but1 then1 if the time is long the thing is sure4 ,let us1 then1 with a holy and a submissive patience wait for it4 ',i saw moreover in my dream that ,passion seemed to be much discontent1 but ,patience was very quiet4 ,then ,christian asked1 ,what is the reason of the discontent of ,passion8 ,the ,interpreter answered1 ,the governor of them would have him stay for his best things till the beginning of the next year2 but he will have them all now4 ,but ,patience is willing to wait4' ,,simple1 ,,sloth1 ,,and ,,presumption ',ye did run well1 who did hinder you8'--,paul4 ,it startles us not a little to come suddenly upon three pilgrims fast asleep with fetters on their heels on the upward side of the ,interpreter's ,house1 and even on the upward side of the cross and the sepulchre4 ,we would have looked for those three miserable men somewhere in the ,city of ,destruction or in the ,town of ,stupidity1 or1 at best1 somewhere still outside of the wicket-gate4 ,but ,john ,bunyan did not lay down his ,pilgrim's ,progress on any abstract theory1 or on any easy and pleasant presupposition1 of the ,christian life4 ,he constructed his so lifelike book out of his own experiences as a ,christian man1 as well as out of all he had learned as a ,christian minister4 ,and in nothing is ,bunyan's power of observation1 deep insight1 and firm hold of fact better seen than just in the way he names and places the various people of the pilgrimage4 ,long after he had been at the ,cross of ,christ himself1 and had seen with his own eyes all the significant rooms in the ,interpreter's ,house1 ,bunyan had often to confess that the fetters of evil habit1 unholy affection1 and a hard heart were still firmly riveted on his own heels4 ,and his pastoral work had led him to see only too well that he was not alone in the temptations and the dangers and the still-abiding bondage to sin that had so surprised himself after he was so far on in the ,christian life4 ,it was the greatest sorrow of his heart1 he tells us in a powerful passage in his ,grace ,abounding1 that so many of his spiritual children broke down and came short in the arduous and perilous way in which he had so hopefully started them4 ',if any of those who were awakened by my ministry did after that fall back1 as sometimes too many did1 ,i can truly say that their loss hath been more to me than if one of my own children1 begotten of my body1 had been going to its grave4 ,i think1 verily1 ,i may speak it without an offence to the ,lord1 nothing hath gone so near me as that1 unless it was the fear of the salvation of my own soul4 ,i have counted as if ,i had goodly buildings and lordships in those places where my children were born2 my heart has been so wrapped up in this excellent work that ,i counted myself more blessed and honoured of ,god by this than if ,he had made me the emperor of the ,christian world1 or the lord of all the glory of the earth without it4' ,and ,i have no doubt that we have here the three things that above everything else bereft ,bunyan of so many of his spiritual children personified and then laid down by the heels in ,simple1 ,sloth1 and ,presumption4 ,,simple ,let us shake up ,simple first and ask him what it was that laid him so soon and in such a plight and in such company in this bottom4 ,it was not that which from his name we might at first think it was4 ,it was not the weakness of his intellects1 nor his youth1 nor his inexperience4 ,there is danger enough1 no doubt1 in all these things if they are not carefully attended to1 but none of all these things in themselves1 nor all of them taken together1 will lay any pilgrim by the heels4 ,there must be more than mere and pure simplicity4 ,no blame attaches to a simple mind1 much less to an artless and an open heart4 ,we do not blame such a man even when we pity him4 ,we take him1 if he will let us1 under our care1 or we put him under better care1 but we do not anticipate any immediate ill to him so long as he remains simple in mind1 untainted in heart1 and willing to learn4 ,but1 then1 unless he is better watched over than any young man or young woman can well be in this world1 that simplicity and child-likeness and inexperience of his may soon become a fatal snare to him4 ,there is so much that is not simple and sincere in this world2 there is so much falsehood and duplicity2 there are so many men abroad whose endeavour is to waylay1 mislead1 entrap1 and corrupt the simple- minded and the inexperienced1 that it is next to impossible that any youth or maiden shall long remain in this world both simple and safe also4 ,my son1 says the ,wise ,man1 keep my words1 and lay up my commandments with thee4 ,for at the window of my house ,i looked through my casement1 and beheld among the simple ones1 ,i discerned among the youths1 a young man void of understanding2--and so on1--till a dart strike through his liver1 and he goeth as an ox to the slaughter4 ,and so1 too often in our own land1 the maiden in her simplicity also opens her ear to the promises and vows and oaths of the flatterer1 till she loses both her simplicity and her soul1 and lies buried in that same bottom beside ,sloth and ,presumption4 ,it is not so much his small mind and his weak understanding that is the fatal danger of their possessor1 it is his imbecile way of treating his small mind4 ,in our experience of him we cannot get him1 all we can do1 to read an instructive book4 ,we cannot get him to attend our young men's class with all the baits and traps we can set for him4 ,where does he spend his ,sabbath-day and week-day evenings8 ,we cannot find out until we hear some distressing thing about him1 that1 ten to one1 he would have escaped had he been a reader of good books1 or a student with us1 say1 of ,dante and ,bunyan and ,rutherford1 and a companion of those young men and young women who talk about and follow such intellectual tastes and pursuits4 ,now1 if you are such a young man or young woman as that1 or such an old man or old woman1 you will not be able to understand what in the world ,bunyan can mean by saying that he saw you in his dream fast asleep in a bottom with irons on your heels4 ,no2 for to understand the ,pilgrim's ,progress1 beyond a nursery and five-year-old understanding of it1 you must have worked and studied and suffered your way out of your mental and spiritual imbecility4 ,you must have for years attended to what is taught from the pulpit and the desk1 and1 alongside of that1 you must have made a sobering and solemnising application of it all to your own heart4 ,and then you would have seen and felt that the heels of your mind and of your heart are only too firmly fettered with the irons of ignorance and inexperience and self-complacency4 ,but as it is1 if you would tell the truth1 you would say to us what ,simple said to ,christian1 ,i see no danger4 ,the next time that ,john ,bunyan passed that bottom1 the chains had been taken off the heels of this sleeping fool and had been put round his neck4 ,,sloth ,sloth had a far better head than ,simple had2 but what of that when he made no better use of it8 ,there are many able men who lie all their days in a sad bottom with the irons of indolence and inefficiency on their heels4 ,we often envy them their abilities1 and say about them1 ,what might they not have done for themselves and for us had they only worked hard8 ,just as we are surprised to see other men away above us on the mountain top1 not because they have better abilities than we have1 but because they tore the fetters of sloth out of their soft flesh and set themselves down doggedly to their work4 ,and the same sloth that starves and fetters the mind at the same time casts the conscience and the heart into a deep sleep4 ,i often wonder as ,i go on working among you1 if you ever attach any meaning or make any application to yourselves of all those commands and counsels of which the ,scriptures are full1--to be up and doing1 to watch and pray1 to watch and be sober1 to fight the good fight of faith1 to hold the fort1 to rise early1 and even by night1 and to endure unto death1 and never for one moment to be found off your guard4 ,do you attach any real meaning to these examples of the psalmists1 to these continual commands and examples of ,christ1 and to these urgent counsels of his apostles8 ,do you8 ,against whom and against what do you thus campaign and fight8 ,for fear of whom or of what do you thus watch8 ,what fort do you hold8 ,what occupies your thoughts in night- watches1 and what inspires and compels your early prayers8 ,it is your stupefying life of spiritual sloth that makes it impossible for you to answer these simple and superficial questions4 ,sloth is not the word for it4 ,let them give the right word to insanity like that who sleep and soak in sinful sloth no longer4 ,we have all enemies in our own souls that never sleep1 whatever we may do4 ,there are no irons on their heels4 ,they never procrastinate4 ,they never say to their master1 ,a little more slumber4 ,now1 could you name any hateful enemy entrenched in your own heart1 of which you have of yourself said far more than that8 ,and1 if so1 what have you done1 what are you at this moment doing1 to cast that enemy out8 ,have you any armour on1 any weapons of offence and precision1 against that enemy8 ,and what success and what defeat have you had in unearthing and casting out that enemy8 ,what fort do you hold8 ,on what virtue1 on what grace are you posted by your ,lord to keep for yourself and for ,him8 ,and with what cost of meat and drink and sleep and amusement do you lose it or keep it for ,him8 ,alexander used to leave his tent at midnight and go round the camp1 and spear to his post the sentinel he found sleeping4 ,there is nothing we are all so slothful in as secret1 particular1 importunate prayer4 ,we have an almighty instrument in our hand in secret and exact prayer if we would only importunately and perseveringly employ it4 ,but there is an utterly unaccountable restraint of secret and particularising prayer in all of us4 ,there is a soaking1 stupefying sloth1 that so fills our hearts that we forget and neglect the immense concession and privilege we have afforded us in secret prayer4 ,our sloth and stupidity in prayer is surely the last proof of our fall and of the misery of our fallen state4 ,our sloth with a gold mine open at our feet2 a little more sleep on the top of a mast with a gulf under us that hath no bottom1--no language of this life can adequately describe the besottedness of that man who lies with irons on his heels between ,simple and ,presumption4 ,,presumption ,the greatest theologian of the ,roman ,catholic ,church has made an induction and classification of sins that has often been borrowed by our ,protestant and ,puritan divines4 ,his classification is made1 as will be seen1 on an ascending scale of guilt and aggravation4 ,in the world of sin1 he says1 there are1 first1 sins of ignorance2 next1 there are sins of infirmity2 and then1 at the top1 there are sins of presumption4 ,and this1 it will be remembered1 was the ,psalmist's inventory and estimate of sins also4 ,his last and his most earnest prayer was1 that he might be kept back from all presumptuous sin4 ,now you know quite well1 without any explanation1 what presumption is4 ,don't presume1 you say1 with rising and scarce controlled anger4 ,don't presume too far4 ,take care1 you say1 with your heart beating so high that you can scarcely command it1 take care lest you go too far4 ,and the word of ,god feels and speaks about presumptuous sin very much as you do yourself4 ,now1 what gave this third man who lay in fetters a little beyond the cross the name of ,presumption was just this1 that he had been at the cross with his past sin1 and had left the cross to commit the same sin at the first opportunity4 ,presumption presumed upon his pardon4 ,he presumed upon the abounding grace of ,god4 ,he presumed upon the blood of ,christ4 ,he was so high on the ,atonement1 that he held that the gospel was not sufficiently preached to him1 unless not past sin only and present1 but also all future sin was atoned for on the tree before it was committed4 ,there is a reprobate in ,dante1 who1 all the time he was repenting1 had his eye on his next opportunity4 ,now1 our ,presumption was like that4 ,he presumed on his youth1 on his temptations1 on his opportunities1 and especially on his future reformation and the permanence and the freeness of the gospel offer4 ,when he was in the ,interpreter's ,house he did not hear what the ,interpreter was saying1 the blood was roaring so through his veins4 ,his eyes were so full of other images that he did not see the man in the iron cage1 nor the spider on the wall1 nor the fire fed secretly4 ,he had no more intention of keeping always to the way that was as straight as a rule could make it1 than he had of cutting off both his hands and plucking out both his eyes4 ,when the three shining ones stripped him of his rags and clothed him with change of raiment1 he had no more intention of keeping his garments clean than he had of flying straight up to heaven on the spot4 ,now1 let each man name to himself what that is in which he intentionally1 deliberately1 and by foresight and forethought sins4 ,have you named it8 ,well1 it was for that that this reprobate was laid by the heels on the immediately hither side of the cross and the sepulchre4 ,not that the iron might not have been taken off his heels again on certain conditions1 even after it was on2 but1 even so1 he would never have been the same man again that he was before his presumptuous sin4 ,you will easily know a man who has committed much presumptuous sin1--that is to say1 if you have any eye for a sinner4 ,i think ,i would find him out if ,i heard him pray once1 or preach once1 or even select a psalm for public or for family worship2 even if ,i heard him say grace at a dinner-table1 or reprove his son1 or scold his servant4 ,presumptuous sin has so much of the venom and essence of sin in it that1 forgiven or unforgiven1 even a little of it never leaves the sinner as it found him4 ,even if his fetters are knocked off1 there is always a piece of the poisonous iron left in his flesh2 there is always a fang of his fetters left in the broken bone4 ,the presumptuous saint will always be detected by the way he halts on his heels all his after days4 ,keep back ,thy servant1 ,o ,god1 from presumptuous sin4 ,let him be innocent of the great transgression4 ,dr4 ,thomas ,goodwin says somewhere that the worm that dieth not only comes to its sharpest sting and to its deadliest venom when it is hatched up under gospel light4 ,the very light of nature itself greatly aggravates some of our sins4 ,the light of our early education greatly aggravates others of our sins4 ,but nothing wounds our conscience and then exasperates the wound like a past experience of the same sin1 and1 especially1 an experience of the grace of ,god in forgiving that sin4 ,had we found young ,presumption in his irons before his conversion1 we would have been afraid enough at the sight4 ,had we found him laid by the heels after his first uncleanness1 it would have made us shudder for ourselves4 ,but we are horrified and speechless as we see him apprehended and laid in irons on the very night of his first communion1 and with the wine scarcely dry on his unclean lips4 ,augustine postponed his baptism till he should have his fill of sin1 and till he should no longer return to sin like a dog to his vomit4 ,now1 next ,sabbath is our communion day in this congregation4 ,let us therefore this week examine ourselves4 ,and if we must sin as long as we are in this world1 let it henceforth be the sin of ignorance and of infirmity4 ,so the three reprobates lay down to sleep again1 and ,christian as he left that bottom went on in the narrow way singing3 ',o to grace how great a debtor ,daily ,i'm constrained to be ,let that grace1 ,lord1 like a fetter1 ,bind my wandering heart to ,thee4' ,,the ,,three ,,shining ,,ones ,,at ,,the ,,cross ',salvation shall ,god appoint for walls4'--,isaiah4 ,john ,bunyan's autobiography1 ,grace ,abounding to the ,chief of ,sinners1 is the best of all our commentaries on ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress1 and again to-night ,i shall have to fall back on that incomparable book4 ',now1 ,i saw in my dream that the highway up which ,christian was to go was fenced on either side with a wall1 and that wall is called ,salvation4 ,up this way1 therefore1 did burdened ,christian run1 but not without great difficulty1 because of the load on his back4' ,in the corresponding paragraph in ,grace ,abounding1 our author says1 speaking about himself3 ',but forasmuch as the passage was wonderful narrow1 even so narrow that ,i could not but with great difficulty enter in thereat1 it showed me that none could enter into life but those that were in downright earnest1 and unless also they left this wicked world behind them2 for here was only room for body and soul1 but not for body and soul and sin4' ',he ran thus till he came to a place somewhat ascending1 and upon that place stood a cross1 and a little below in the bottom a sepulchre4 ,so ,i saw in my dream1 that just as ,christian came up with this cross1 his burden loosed from off his shoulders and fell from off his back1 and began to tumble1 and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre1 where it fell in1 and ,i saw it no more4' ,turning again to the ,grace ,abounding1 we read in the #aaeth paragraph3 ',i remember that one day as ,i was travelling into the country and musing on the wickedness and blasphemy of my heart1 and considering of the enmity that was in me to ,god1 that scripture came into my mind1 ,he hath made peace by the blood of ,his ,cross4 ,by which ,i was made to see both again and again and again that day that ,god and my soul were friends by that blood3 yea1 ,i saw that the justice of ,god and my sinful soul could embrace and kiss each other through that blood4 ,that was a good day to me2 ,i hope ,i shall not forget it4 ,i thought ,i could have spoken of ,his love and of ,his mercy to me that day to the very crows that sat upon the ploughed lands before me had they been capable to have understood me4 ,wherefore ,i said in my soul with much gladness1 ,well1 ,i would ,i had a pen and ink here and ,i would write this down before ,i go any farther1 for surely ,i will not forget this forty years hence4' ,from all this we learn that the way to the ,celestial ,city lies within high and close fencing walls4 ,there is not room for many pilgrims to walk abreast in that way2 indeed1 there is seldom room for two4 ,there are some parts of the way where two or even three pilgrims can for a time walk and converse together1 but for the most part the path is distressingly lonely4 ,the way is so fenced up also that a pilgrim cannot so much as look either to the right hand or the left4 ,indeed1 it is one of the laws of that road that no man is to attempt to look except straight on before him4 ,but then there is this compensation for the solitude and stringency of the way that the wall that so encloses it is ,salvation4 ,and ,salvation is such a wall that it is companionship and prospect enough of itself4 ,dante saw a long reach of this same wall running round the bottom of the mount that cleanses him who climbs it1--a long stretch of such sculptured beauty1 that it arrested him and instructed him and delighted him beyond his power sufficiently to praise it4 ,and thus1 that being so1 burdened and bowed down to the earth as our pilgrim was1 he was on the sure way1 sooner or later1 to deliverance4 ,somewhere and sometime and somehow on that steep and high fenced way deliverance was sure to come4 ,and1 then1 as to the burdened man himself4 ,his name was once ,graceless1 but his name is ,graceless no longer4 ,no graceless man runs long between these close and cramping-up walls2 and1 especially1 no graceless man has that burden long on his back4 ,that is not ,graceless any longer who is leaving the ,interpreter's ,house for the fenced way2 that is ,christian1 and as long as he remains ,christian1 the closeness of the fence and the weight of his burden are a small matter4 ,but long-looked-for comes at last4 ,and so1 still carrying his burden and keeping close within the fenced-up way1 our pilgrim came at last to a cross4 ,and a perfect miracle immediately took place in that somewhat ascending ground4 ,for scarcely had ,christian set his eyes on the cross1 when1 without his pulling at it1 or pushing it1 or even at that moment thinking of it1 ere ever he was aware1 he saw his burden begin to tumble1 and so it continued to do till it fell fairly out of his sight into an open sepulchre4 ,the application of all that is surely self-evident4 ,for our way in a holy life is always closely fenced up4 ,it is far oftener a lonely way than otherwise4 ,and the steepness1 sternness1 and loneliness of our way are all aggravated by the remembrance of our past sins and follies4 ,they still1 and more and more1 lie upon our hearts a heart-crushing burden4 ,but if we1 like ,christian1 know how to keep our back to our former house and our face to heaven1 sooner or later we too shall surely come to the cross4 ,and then1 either suddenly1 or after a long agony1 our burden also shall be taken off our back and shut down into ,christ's sepulchre4 ,and ,i saw it no more1 says the dreamer4 ,he does not say that its owner saw it no more4 ,he was too wise and too true a dreamer to say that4 ,it will be remembered that the first time we saw this man1 with whose progress to the ,celestial ,city we are at present occupied1 he was standing in a certain place clothed with rags and with a burden on his back4 ,after a long journey with him1 we have just seen his burden taken off his back1 and it is only after his burden is off and a ,shining ,one has said to him1 ,thy sins be forgiven1 that a second ,shining ,one comes and strips him of his rags and clothes him with change of raiment4 ,now1 why1 it may be asked1 has ,christian had to carry his burden so long1 and why is he still kept so ragged and so miserable and he so far on in the pilgrim's path8 ,surely1 it will be said1 ,john ,bunyan was dreaming indeed when he kept a truly converted man1 a confessedly true and sincere ,christian1 so long in bonds and in rags4 ,well1 as to his rags3 filthy rags are only once spoken of in the ,bible1 and it is the prophet ,isaiah1 whose experience and whose language ,john ,bunyan had so entirely by heart1 who puts them on4 ,and that evangelist among the prophets not only calls his own and ,israel's sins filthy rags1 but ,isaiah is very bold1 and calls their very righteousnesses by that opprobrious name4 ,had that bold prophet said that all his and all his people's unrighteousnesses were filthy rags1 all ,israel would have subscribed to that4 ,there was no man so brutish as not to admit that4 ,but as long as they had any sense of truth and any self-respect1 multitudes of ,isaiah's first hearers and readers would resent what he so rudely said of their righteousnesses4 ,on the other hand1 the prophet's terrible discovery and comparison1 just like our dreamer's dramatic distribution of ,christian experience1 was1 to a certainty1 an immense consolation to many men in ,israel in his day4 ,they gathered round ,isaiah because1 but for him and his evangelical ministry1 they would have been alone in their despair4 ,to them ,isaiah's ministry was a house of refuge1 and the prophet himself a veritable tower of strength4 ,they felt they were not alone so long as ,isaiah dwelt in the same city with them4 ,and thus1 whatever he might be to others1 he was ,god's very prophet to them as his daily prayers in the temple both cast them down and lifted them up4 ',oh that ,thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down 4 4 4 ,but we are all as an unclean thing1 and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags1 and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away4' ,thousands in ,israel found in these terrible words a door of hope1 a sense of fellowship1 and a call to trust and thanksgiving4 ,and tens of thousands have found the same help and consolation out of what have seemed to others the very darkest and most perplexing pages of the ,pilgrim's ,progress and the ,grace ,abounding4 ',it made me greatly ashamed1' says ,hopeful1 'of the vileness of my former life1 and confounded me with the sense of mine own ignorance1 for there never came into mine heart before now that showed me so by contrast the beauty of the ,lord ,jesus4 ,my own vileness and nakedness made me love a holy life4 ,yea1 ,i thought that had ,i now a thousand gallons of blood in my body1 ,i could spill it all for the sake of the ,lord ,jesus4' ,and if you1 my brother1 far on in the way of ,salvation1 still think sometimes that1 after all1 you must be a reprobate because of your filthy rags1 read what ,david ,brainerd wrote with his half-dead hand on the last page of his seraphic journal3 ',how sweet it is to love ,god and to have a heart all for ,god6 ,yes2 but a voice answered me1 ,you are not all for ,god1 you are not an angel4 ,to which my whole soul replied1 ,i as sincerely desire to love and glorify ,god as any angel in heaven4 ,but you are filthy1 and not fit for heaven4 ,when hereupon there instantly appeared above me and spread over me the blessed robes of ,christ's righteousness which ,i could not but exult and triumph in4 ,and then ,i knew that ,i should be as active as an angel in heaven1 and should then be for ever stripped of my filthy garments and clothed with spotless raiment4' ,let me die the death of ,david ,brainerd1 and let my latter end be like his6 ,the third ,shining ,one then came forward and set a mark on the forehead of this happy man4 ,and it was a most ancient and a most honourable mark4 ,for it was the same redeeming mark that was set by ,moses upon the foreheads of the children of ,israel when the ,lord took them into covenant with ,himself at the ,passover in the wilderness4 ,it was the same distinguishing mark also that the man with the slaughter-weapon in his hand first set upon the foreheads of the men who sighed and cried for the abominations that were done in the midst of ,jerusalem4 ,and it was the same glorious mark that ,john saw in the foreheads of the hundred and forty and four thousand who stood upon ,mount ,zion and sang a song that no man knew but those men who had been redeemed from the earth by the blood of the ,lamb4 ,the mark was set for propriety and for ornament and for beauty4 ,it was set upon his forehead so that all who looked on him ever after might thus know to what company and what country he belonged1 and that this was not his rest1 but that he had been called and chosen to a heavenly inheritance4 ,and1 besides1 it was no sooner set upon his forehead than it greatly added to his dignity and his comeliness4 ,he had now the gravity and beauty of an angel2 nay1 the beauty in his measure and the gravity of ,goodwill at the gate himself4 ,and1 then1 as if that were not enough1 the third ,shining ,one also gave him a roll with a seal upon it1 which he was bidden look on as he ran1 and which he was to give in when he arrived at the ,celestial ,gate4 ,now1 what was that sealed roll but just the inward memory and record of all this pilgrim's experiences of the grace of ,god from the day he set out on pilgrimage down to that day when he stood unburdened of his guilt1 unclothed of his rags1 and clothed upon with change of raiment8 ,the roll contained his own secret life1 all sealed and shone in upon by the light of ,god's countenance4 ,the secret of the ,lord with this pilgrim was written within that roll1 a secret that no man could read but he himself alone4 ,it was the same roll that this same ,shining ,one gave to ,abraham1 the first pilgrim and the father of all true pilgrims1 after ,melchizedek1 the priest of the ,most ,high ,god1 had brought forth bread and wine and had blessed that great believer4 ',fear not1 ,abram3 ,i am thy shield1 and thy exceeding great reward4' ,and1 again1 after ,abram had lost his roll1 like our pilgrim in the arbour1 when he recovered it he read thus in it3 ',i am the ,almighty ,god3 walk before ,me1 and be thou perfect4 ,and ,i will make ,my covenant between ,me and thee4' ,and ,abram fell on his face for joy4 ,it was the same roll out of which the ,psalmist proposed to read a passage to all those in his day who feared ,god4 ',come and hear1 all ye that fear ,god1 and ,i will declare what ,he hath done for my soul4' ,it was the same roll also that ,god sent to ,israel in his sore captivity4 ',fear not1 ,o ,israel1 for ,i have redeemed thee2 ,i have called thee by thy name1 thou art ,mine4 ,when thou passest through the waters1 ,i will be with thee4' ,the high priest ,joshua also had the same roll put into his hand1 and that not only for his own comfort1 but to make him the comforter of ,god's afflicted people4 ,for after the ,lord had plucked ,joshua as a brand out of the fire1 and had made his iniquity to pass from him1 and had clothed him with change of raiment1 and had set a fair mitre on his head1 the ,lord gave to ,joshua a sealed roll1 the contents of which may be read to this day in the book of the prophet ,zechariah4 ,nay1 more3 ',will you have me to speak plainly8' says great ,goodwin on this matter4 ',then1 though our ,lord had the assurance of faith that ,he was the ,son of ,god1 for ,he knew it out of the ,scriptures by reading all the prophets1 yet1 to have it sealed to ,him with joy unspeakable and glorious1--this was deferred to the time of ,his baptism4 ,he was then anointed with the oil of assurance and gladness in a more peculiar and transcendent manner4' ',in ,his baptism1' says ,bengel1 'our ,lord was magnificently enlightened4 ,he was previously the ,son of ,god1 and yet the power of the ,divine testimony to ,his ,sonship at ,his baptism long affected ,him in a lively manner4' ,and we see our ,lord reading ,his roll to assure and sustain ,his heart when all outward acceptance and sustenance failed ,him4 ',there is ,one who beareth witness of ,me1 and ,his witness is true4 ,i receive not witness from men4 ,i have a greater witness than even that of ,john4 ,for the ,father ,himself that hath sent ,me1 ,he beareth witness of ,me4' ,no wonder that our heavy- laden pilgrim of yesterday gave three leaps for joy and went on singing with such a roll as that in his bosom4 ,for1 at that supreme moment he had that inward illumination and assurance sealed on his heart that had so gladdened and sustained so many prophets and psalmists and apostles and saints before his day4 ,and though1 like ,abraham and all the other saints who ever had that noble roll put into their keeping1 except ,jesus ,christ1 he often lost it1 yet as often as he again recovered it1 it brought back again with it all his first joy and gladness4 ,but1 as was said at the beginning1 the ,grace ,abounding is the best of all our commentaries on ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress4 ,as thus here also3 ',now had ,i an evidence1 as ,i thought1 of my salvation from heaven1 with many golden seals thereon1 all hanging in my sight4 ,now could ,i remember this manifestation and that other discovery of grace with comfort1 and should often long and desire that the last day were come1 that ,i might be for ever inflamed with the sight and joy of ,him and communion with ,him whose head was crowned with thorns1 whose face was spit on1 and body broken1 and soul made an offering for my sins4 ,for whereas1 before1 ,i lay continually trembling at the mouth of hell1 now1 methought1 ,i was got so far therefrom that ,i could not1 when ,i looked back1 scarce discern it4 ,and oh6 thought ,i1 that ,i were fourscore years old now1 that ,i might die quickly1 that my soul might be gone to rest4' ,then ,christian gave three leaps for joy and went on singing3 ',thus far did ,i come laden with my sin1 ,nor could ought ease the grief that ,i was in ,till ,i came hither3 4 4 4 ,blest ,cross6 blest ,sepulchre6 blest rather be ,the ,man that there was put to shame for me4' ,,formalist ,,and ,,hypocrisy ',a form of godliness4'--,paul4 ,we all began our religious life by being formalists4 ,and we were not altogether to blame for that4 ,our parents were first to blame for that1 and then our teachers1 and then our ministers4 ,they made us say our psalm and our catechism to them1 and if we only said our sacred lesson without stumbling1 we were straightway rewarded with their highest praise4 ,they seldom took the trouble to make us understand the things we said to them4 ,they were more than content with our correct repetition of the words4 ,we were never taught either to read or repeat with our eyes on the object4 ,and we had come to our manhood before we knew how to seek for the visual image that lies at the root of all our words4 ,and thus the ill-taught schoolboy became in us the father of the confirmed formalist4 ,the mischief of this neglect still spreads through the whole of our life1 but it is absolutely disastrous in our religious life4 ,look at the religious formalist at family worship with his household gathered round him all in his own image4 ,he would not on any account let his family break up any night without the habitual duty4 ,he has a severe method in his religious duties that nothing is ever allowed to disarrange or in any way to interfere with4 ,as the hour strikes1 the big ,bible is brought out4 ,he opens where he left off last night1 he reads the regulation chapter1 he leads the singing in the regulation psalm1 and then1 as from a book1 he repeats his regulation prayer4 ,but he never says a word to show that he either sees or feels what he reads1 and his household break up without an idea in their heads or an affection in their hearts4 ,he comes to church and goes through public worship in the same wooden way1 and he sits through the ,lord's ,table in the same formal and ceremonious manner4 ,he has eyes of glass and hands of wood1 and a heart without either blood or motion in it4 ,his mind and his heart were destroyed in his youth1 and all his religion is a religion of rites and ceremonies without sense or substance4 ',because ,i knew no better1' says ,bunyan1 ',i fell in very eagerly with the religion of the times3 to wit1 to go to church twice a day1 and that1 too1 with the foremost4 ,and there should ,i sing and say as others did4 ,withal1 ,i was so overrun with the spirit of superstition that ,i adored1 and that with great devotion1 even all things1 both the high place1 priest1 clerk1 vestment1 service1 and what else belonged to the church3 counting all things holy that were therein contained4 ,but all this time ,i was not sensible of the danger and evil of sin4 ,i was kept from considering that sin would damn me1 what religion soever ,i followed1 unless ,i was found in ,christ4 ,nay1 ,i never thought of ,christ1 nor whether there was one or no4' ,a formalist is not yet a hypocrite exactly1 but he is ready now and well on the way at any moment to become a hypocrite4 ,as soon now as some temptation shall come to him to make appear another and a better man than he really is3 when in some way it becomes his advantage to seem to other people to be a spiritual man3 when he thinks he sees his way to some profit or praise by saying things and doing things that are not true and natural to him1--then he will pass on from being a bare and simple formalist1 and will henceforth become a hypocrite4 ,he has never had any real possession or experience of spiritual things amid all his formal observances of religious duties1 and he has little or no difficulty1 therefore1 in adding another formality or two to his former life of unreality4 ,and thus the transition is easily made from a comparatively innocent and unconscious formalist to a conscious and studied hypocrite4 ',an hypocrite1' says ,samuel ,rutherford1 'is he who on the stage represents a king when he is none1 a beggar1 an old man1 a husband1 when he is really no such thing4 ,to the ,hebrews1 they were faciales1 face- men2 colorati1 dyed men1 red men1 birds of many colours4 ,you may paint a man1 you may paint a rose1 you may paint a fire burning1 but you cannot paint a soul1 or the smell of a rose1 or the heat of a fire4 ,and it is hard to counterfeit spiritual graces1 such as love to ,christ1 sincere intending of the glory of ,god1 and such like spiritual things4' ,yes1 indeed2 it is hard to put on and to go through with a truly spiritual grace even to the best and most spiritually-minded of men2 and as for the true hypocrite1 he never honestly attempts it4 ,if he ever did honestly and resolutely attempt it1 he would at once in that pass out of the ranks of the hypocrites altogether and pass over into a very different category4 ,bunyan lets us see how a formalist and a hypocrite and a ,christian all respectively do when they come to a real difficulty4 ,the three pilgrims were all walking in the same path1 and with their faces for the time in the same direction4 ,they had not held much conference together since their first conversation1 and as time goes on1 ,christian has no more talk but with himself1 and that sometimes sighingly1 and sometimes more comfortably4 ,when1 all at once1 the three men come on the hill ,difficulty4 ,a severe act of self-denial has to be done at this point of their pilgrimage4 ,a proud heart has to be humbled to the dust4 ,a second1 a third1 a tenth place has to be taken in the praise of men4 ,an outbreak of anger and wrath has to be kept under for hours and days4 ,a great injury1 a scandalous case of ingratitude1 has to be forgiven and forgotten2 in short1 as ,rutherford says1 an impossible-to-be-counterfeited spiritual grace has to be put into its severest and sorest exercise2 and the result was--what we know4 ,our pilgrim went and drank of the spring that always runs at the bottom of the hill ,difficulty1 and thus refreshed himself against that hill2 while ,formalist took the one low road1 and ,hypocrisy the other1 which led him into a wide field full of dark mountains1 where he stumbled and fell and rose no more4 ,when1 after his visit to the spring1 ,christian began to go up the hill1 saying3 ',this hill1 though high1 ,i covet to ascend2 ,the difficulty will not me offend2 ,for ,i perceive the way to life lies here2 ,come1 pluck up heart2 let's neither faint nor fear2 ,better1 though difficult1 the right way to go1 ,than wrong1 though easy1 where the end is woe4' ,now1 all this brings us to the last step in the evolution of a perfect hypocrite out of a simple formalist4 ,the perfect and finished hypocrite is not your commonplace and vulgar scoundrel of the playwright and the penny-novelist type2 the finest hypocrite is a character their art cannot touch4 ',the worst of hypocrites1' ,rutherford goes on to say1 'is he who whitens himself till he deceives himself4 ,it is strange that a man hath such power over himself4 ,but a man's heart may deceive his heart1 and he may persuade himself that he is godly and righteous when he knows nothing about it4' ',preaching in a certain place1' says ,boston1 'after supper the mistress of the house told me how ,i had terrified ,god's people4 ,this was by my doctrine of self-love1 self-righteousness1 self-ends1 and such like4 ,she restricted hypocrites to that sort that do all things to be seen of men1 and harped much on this--how can one be a hypocrite who hates hypocrisy in other people8 how can one be a hypocrite and not know it8 ,all this led me to see the need of such doctrine4' ,and if only to show you that this is not the dismal doctrine of antediluvian ,presbyterians only1 ,canon ,mozley says3 ',the ,pharisee did not know that he was a ,pharisee2 if he had known it he would not have been a ,pharisee4 ,he does not know that he is a hypocrite4 ,the vulgar hypocrite knows that he is a hypocrite because he deceives others1 but the true ,scripture hypocrite deceives himself4' ,and the most subtle teacher of our century1 or of any century1 has said3 ',what is a hypocrite8 ,we are apt to understand by a hypocrite one who makes a profession of religion for secret ends without practising what he professes2 who is malevolent1 covetous1 or profligate1 while he assumes an outward sanctity in his words and conduct1 and who does so deliberately1 deceiving others1 and not at all self-deceived4 ,but this is not what our ,saviour seems to have meant by a hypocrite2 nor were the ,pharisees such4 ,the ,pharisees deceived themselves as well as others4 ,indeed1 it is not in human nature to deceive others for any long time without in a measure deceiving ourselves also4 ,when they began1 each in his turn1 to deceive the people1 they were not at the moment self-deceived4 ,but by degrees they forgot that outward ceremonies avail nothing without inward purity4 ,they did not know themselves1 and they unawares deceived themselves as well as the people4' ,what a terrible light1 as of the last day itself1 does all that cast upon the formalisms and the hypocrisies of which our own religious life is full6 ,and what a terrible light it casts on those miserable men who are complete and finished in their self-deception6 ,for the complete and finished hypocrite is not he who thinks that he is better than all other men2 that is hopeless enough2 but the paragon of hypocrisy is he who does not know that he is worse than all other men4 ,and in his stone-blindness to himself1 and consequently to all reality and inwardness and spirituality in religion1 you see him intensely interested in1 and day and night occupied with1 the outside things of religion1 till nothing short of a miracle will open his eyes4 ,see him in the ministry1 for instance1 sweating at his sermons and in his visiting1 till you would almost think that he is the minister of whom ,paul prophesied1 who should spend and be spent for the salvation of men's souls4 ,but all the time1 such is the hypocrisy that haunts the ministerial calling1 he is really and at bottom animated with ambition for the praise of men only1 and for the increase of his congregation4 ,see him1 again1 now assailing or now defending a church's secular privileges1 and he knowing no more1 all the time1 what a church has been set up for on earth than the man in the moon4 ,what a penalty his defence is and his support to a church of ,christ1 and what an incubus his membership must be6 ,or1 see him1 again1 making long speeches and many prayers for the extension of the kingdom of ,christ1 and all the time spending ten times more on wine or whisky or tobacco1 or on books or pictures or foreign travel1 than he gives to the cause of home or foreign missions4 ,and so on1 all through our hypocritical and self-blinded life4 ,through such stages1 and to such a finish1 does the formalist pass from his thoughtless and neglected youth to his hardened1 blinded1 self-seeking life1 spent in the ostensible service of the church of ,christ4 ,if the light that is in such men be darkness1 how great is that darkness6 ,we may all well shudder as we hear our ,lord saying to ministers and members and church defenders and church supporters1 like ourselves3 ',now ye say1 ,we see2 therefore your sin remaineth4' ,now1 the first step to the cure of all such hypocrisy1 and to the salvation of our souls1 is to know that we are hypocrites1 and to know also what that is in which we are most hypocritical4 ,well1 there are two absolutely infallible tests of a true hypocrite1--tests warranted to unmask1 expose1 and condemn the most finished1 refined1 and even evangelical hypocrite in this house to-night1 or in all the world4 ,by far and away the best and swiftest is prayer4 ,true prayer1 that is4 ,for here again our inexpugnable hypocrisy comes in and leads us down to perdition even in our prayers4 ,there is nothing our ,lord more bitterly and more contemptuously assails the ,pharisees for than just the length1 the loudness1 the number1 and the publicity of their prayers4 ,the truth is1 public prayer1 for the most part1 is no true prayer at all4 ,it is at best an open homage paid to secret prayer4 ,we make such shipwrecks of devotion in public prayer1 that if we have a shred of true religion about us1 we are glad to get home and to shut our door4 ,we preach in our public prayers4 ,we make speeches on public men and on public events in our public prayers4 ,we see the reporters all the time in our public prayers4 ,we do everything but pray in our public prayers4 ,and to get away alone1--what an escape that is from the temptations and defeats of public prayer6 ,no2 public prayer is no test whatever of a hypocrite4 ,a hypocrite revels in public prayer4 ,it is secret prayer that finds him out4 ,and even secret prayer will sometimes deceive us4 ,we are crushed down on our secret knees sometimes1 by sheer shame and the strength of conscience4 ,fear of exposure1 fear of death and hell1 will sometimes make us shut our door4 ,a flood of passing feeling will sometimes make us pray for a season in secret4 ,job had all that before him when he said1 ',will the hypocrite delight himself in the ,almighty8 will he always call upon ,god8' ,no1 he will not4 ,and it is just here that the hypocrite and the true ,christian best discover themselves both to ,god and to themselves4 ,the true ,christian will1 as ,job again says1 pray in secret till ,god slays him4 ,he will pray in his dreams2 he will pray till death2 he will pray after he is dead4 ,are you in earnest1 then1 not to be any more a hypocrite and to know the infallible marks of such8 ,ask the key of your closet door4 ,ask the chair at your bedside4 ,ask the watchman what you were doing and why your light was in so long4 ,ask the birds of the air and the beasts of the field and the crows on the ploughed lands after your solitary walk4 ,almost a better test of true and false religion than even secret prayer1 but a test that is far more difficult to handle1 is our opinion of ourselves4 ,in ,his last analysis of the truly justified man and the truly reprobate1 our ,lord made the deepest test to be their opinion of themselves4 ',god1 ,i thank ,thee that ,i am not as this publican1' said the hypocrite4 ',god be merciful to me a sinner1' said the true penitent4 ,and then this fine principle comes in here--not only to speed the sure sanctification of a true ,christian1 but also1 if he has skill and courage to use it1 for his assurance and comfort1--that the saintlier he becomes and the riper for glory1 the more he will beat his breast over what yet abides within his breast4 ,yes2 a man's secret opinion of himself is almost a better test of his true spiritual state than even secret prayer4 ,but1 then1 these two are not competing and exclusive tests2 they always go together and are never found apart4 ,and at the mouth of these two witnesses every true hypocrite shall be condemned and every true ,christian justified4 ,dr4 ,pusey says somewhere that the perfect hypocrite is the man who has the truth of ,god in his mind1 but is without the love of ,god in his heart4 ',truth without love1' says that saintly scholar1 'makes a finished ,pharisee4' ,now we ,scottish and ,free ,church people believe we have the truth1 if any people on the face of the earth have it2 and if we have not love mixed with it1 you see where and what we are4 ,we are called to display a banner because of the truth1 but let love always be our flag-staff4 ,let us be jealous for the truth1 but let it be a godly1 that is to say1 a loving jealousy4 ,when we contend for purity of doctrine and for purity of worship1 when we protest against popery and priestcraft1 when we resist rationalism and infidelity1 when we do battle now for national religion1 as we call it1 and now for the freedom of the church1 let us do it all in love to all men1 else we had better not do it at all4 ,if we cannot do it with clean and all-men-loving hearts1 let us leave all debate and contention to stronger and better men than we are4 ,the truth will never be advanced or guarded by us1 nor will the ,lord of truth and love accept our service or bless our souls1 till we put on the divine nature1 and have our hearts and our mouths still more full of love than our minds and our mouths are full of truth4 ,let us watch ourselves1 lest with all our so-called love of truth we be found reprobates at last because we loved the truth for some selfish or party end1 and hated and despised our brother1 and believed all evil and disbelieved all good concerning our brother4 ,truth without love makes a hypocrite1 says ,dr4 ,pusey2 and evangelical truth without evangelical love makes an evangelical hypocrite1 says ,thomas ,shepard4 ,only where the whole truth is united to a heart full of love have we the perfect ,new ,testament ,christian4 ,,timorous ,,and ,,mistrust ',there is a lion in the way4'--,the ,slothful ,man4 ',i must venture4'--,christian4 ',i at any rate must venture1' said ,christian to ,timorous and ,mistrust4 ',whatever you may do ,i must venture1 even if the lions you speak of should pull me to pieces4 ,i1 for one1 shall never go back4 ,to go back is nothing but death2 to go forward is fear of death and everlasting life beyond it4 ,i will yet go forward4' ,so ,mistrust and ,timorous ran down the hill1 and ,christian went on his way4 ,george ,offor says1 in his notes on this passage1 that civil despotism and ecclesiastical tyranny so terrified many young converts in ,john ,bunyan's day1 that multitudes turned back like ,mistrust and ,timorous2 while at the same time1 many like ,bunyan himself went forward and for a time fell into the lion's mouth4 ,civil despotism and ecclesiastical tyranny do not stand in our way as they stood in ,bunyan's way--at least1 not in the same shape3 but every age has its own lions1 and every ,christian man has his own lions that neither civil despots nor ecclesiastical tyrants know anything about4 ,now1 who or what is the lion in your way8 ,who or what is it that fills you with such timorousness and mistrust1 that you are almost turning back from the way to life altogether8 ,the fiercest of all our lions is our own sin4 ,when a man's own sin not only finds him out and comes roaring after him1 but when it dashes past him and gets into the woods and thickets before him1 and stands pawing and foaming on the side of his way1 that is a trial of faith and love and trust indeed4 ,sometimes a man's past sins will fill all his future life with sleepless apprehensions4 ,he is never sure at what turn in his upward way he may not suddenly run against some of them standing ready to rush out upon him4 ,and it needs no little quiet trust and humble-minded resignation to carry a man through this slough and that bottom1 up this hill and down that valley1 all the time with his life in his hand2 and yet at every turn1 at every rumour that there are lions in the way1 to say1 ,come lion1 come lamb1 come death1 come life1 ,i must venture1 ,i will yet go forward4 ,as ,job also1 that wonderful saint of ,god1 said1 ',hold your peace1 let me alone that ,i may speak1 and let come on me what will4 ,wherefore do ,i take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in my hand8 ,though ,he slay me1 yet will ,i trust in ,him4 ,he also shall be my salvation2 for an hypocrite shall not come before ,him4' ,one false step1 one stumble in life1 one error in judgment1 one outbreak of an unbridled temperament1 one small sin1 if it is even so much as a sin1 of ignorance or of infirmity1 will sometimes not only greatly injure us at the time1 but1 in some cases1 will fill all our future life with trials and difficulties and dangers4 ,many of us shall have all our days to face a future of defeat1 humiliation1 impoverishment1 and many hardships1 that has not come on us on account of any presumptuous transgression of ,god's law so much as simply out of some combination of unfortunate circumstances in which we may have only done our duty1 but have not done it in the most serpent-like way4 ,and when we are made to suffer unjustly or disproportionately all our days for our error of judgment or our want of the wisdom of this world1 or what not1 we are sorely tempted to be bitter and proud and resentful and unforgiving1 and to go back from duty and endurance and danger altogether4 ,but we must not4 ,we must rather say to ourselves1 ,now and here1 if not in the past1 ,i must play the man1 and1 by ,god's help1 the wise man4 ,i must pluck safety henceforth out of the heart of the nettle danger4 ,yes1 ,i made a mistake4 ,i did what ,i would not do now1 and ,i must not be too proud to say so4 ,i acted1 ,i see now1 precipitately1 inconsiderately1 imprudently4 ,and ,i must not gloom and rebel and run away from the cross and the lion4 ,i must not insist or expect that the always wise and prudent man's reward is to come to me4 ,the lion in my way is a lion of my own rearing2 and ,i must not turn my back on him1 even if he should be let loose to leap on me and rend me4 ,i must pass under his paw and through his teeth1 if need be1 to a life with him and beyond him of humility and duty and quiet-hearted submission to his ,god and mine4 ,then1 again1 our salvation itself sometimes1 our true sanctification1 puts on a lion's skin and not unsuccessfully imitates an angry lion's roar4 ,some saving grace that up till now we have been fatally lacking in lies under the very lip of that lion we see standing straight in our way4 ,god in ,his wisdom so orders our salvation1 that we must work out the best part of it with fear and trembling4 ,right before us1 just beside us1 standing over us with his heavy paw upon us1 is a lion1 from under whose paw and from between whose teeth we must pluck and put on that grace in which our salvation lies4 ,repentance and reformation lie in the way of that lion2 resignation also and humility2 the crucifixion of our own will2 the sacrifice of our own heart2 in short1 everything that is still lacking but is indispensable to our salvation lies through that den of lions4 ,one man here is homeless and loveless2 another is childless2 another has a home and children1 and much envies the man who has neither2 one has talents there is no scope for2 another has the scope1 but not the sufficient talent2 another must now spend all his remaining life in a place where he sees that anger and envy and jealousy and malevolence will be his roaring lions daily seeking to devour his soul4 ,there is not a ,christian man or woman in this house whose salvation1 worth being called a salvation1 does not lie through such a lion's thicket as that4 ,our ,lord ,himself was a roaring lion to ,john the ,baptist4 ,for the ,baptist's salvation lay not in his powerful preaching1 but in his being laid aside from all preaching2 not in his crowds increasing1 but in his ,successor's crowds increasing and his decreasing4 ,the ,baptist was the greatest born of woman in that day1 not because he was a thundering preacher--any ordinary mother in ,israel might have been his mother in that3 but to decrease sweetly and to steal down quietly to perfect humility and self- oblivion1--that salvation was reserved for the son of ,elisabeth alone4 ,i would not like to say ,who that is champing and pawing for your blood right in your present way4 ,reverence will not let me say ,who it is4 ,only1 you venture on ,him4 ',yes1 ,i shall venture6' said ,christian to the two terrified and retreating men4 ,now1 every true venture is made against risk and uncertainty1 against anxiety and danger and fear4 ,and it is just this that constitutes the nobleness and blessedness of faith4 ,faith sells all for ,christ4 ,faith risks all for eternal life4 ,faith faces all for salvation4 ,when it is at the worst1 faith still says1 ,very well2 even if there is no ,celestial ,city anywhere in the world1 it is better to die still seeking it than to live on in the ,city of ,destruction4 ,even if there is no ,jesus ,christ1--,i have read about ,him and heard about ,him and pictured ,him to myself1 till1 say what you will1 ,i shall die kissing and embracing that ,divine ,image ,i have in my heart4 ,even if there is neither mercy-seat nor intercession in heaven1 ,i shall henceforth pray without ceasing4 ,far far better for me all the rest of my sinful life to be clothed with sackcloth and ashes1 even if there is no fountain opened in ,jerusalem for sin and uncleanness1 and no change of raiment4 ,christian protested that1 as for him1 lions and all1 he had no choice left4 ,and no more have we4 ,he must away somewhere1 anywhere1 from his past life4 ,and so must we4 ,if all the lions that ever drank blood are to collect upon his way1 let them do so2 they shall not all make him turn back4 ,why should they8 ,what is a whole forest full of lions to a heart and a life full of sin8 ,lions are like lambs compared with sin4 ',good morning6 ,i for one must venture4 ,i shall yet go forward4' ,so ,mistrust and ,timorous ran down the hill1 and ,christian went on his way4 ,so ,i saw in my dream that he made haste and went forward1 that if possible he might get lodging in the house called ,beautiful that stood by the highway side4 ,now1 before he had gone far he entered into a very narrow passage which was about a furlong off from the porter's lodge1 and looking very narrowly before him as he went1 he espied two lions in the way4 ,then was he afraid1 and thought also to go back1 for he thought that nothing but death was before him4 ,but the porter at the lodge1 whose name was ,watchful1 perceiving that ,christian made a halt1 as if he would go back1 cried unto him1 saying1 ',is thy strength so small8 ,fear not the lions1 for they are chained1 and are only placed there for the trial of faith where it is1 and for the discovery of those who have none4 ,keep the midst of the path and no hurt shall come to thee4' ,yes1 that is all we have to do4 ,whatever our past life may have been1 whatever our past sins1 past errors of judgment1 past mistakes and mishaps1 whatever of punishment or chastisement or correction or instruction or sanctification and growth in grace may be under those lions' skins and between their teeth for us1 all we have got to do at present is to leave the lions to ,him who set them there1 and to go on1 up to them and past them1 keeping always to the midst of the path4 ,the lions may roar at us till they have roared us deaf and blind1 but we are far safer in the midst of that path than we would be in our own bed4 ,only let us keep in the midst of the path4 ,when their breath is hot and full of blood on our cheek2 when they paw up the blinding earth2 when we feel as if their teeth had closed round our heart1--still1 all the more1 let us keep in the midst of the path4 ,we must sometimes walk on a razor-edge of fear and straightforwardness2 that is the only way left for us now4 ,but1 then1 we have the ,divine assurance that on that perilous edge no hurt shall come to us4 ',temptations1' says our author in another place1 'when we meet them at first1 are as the lion that roared upon ,samson2 but if we overcome them1 the next time we see them we shall find a nest of honey in them4' ,o ,god1 for grace and sense and imagination to see and understand and apply all that to our own daily life6 ,o to be able to take all that home to-night and see it all there2 lions and runaways1 venturesome souls1 narrow paths1 palaces of beauty1 everlasting life and all6 ,open ,thou our eyes that we may see the wonderful things that await us in our own house at home6 ',things out of hope are compassed oft with venturing4' ,so they are2 and so they were that day with our terrified pilgrim4 ,he made a venture at the supreme moment of his danger1 and things that were quite out of all hope but an hour before were then compassed and ever after possessed by him4 ,make the same venture1 then1 yourselves to-night4 ,naught venture1 naught have4 ,your lost soul is not much to venture1 but it is all that ,christ at this moment asks of you--that you leave your lost soul in ,his hand1 and then go straight on from this moment in the middle of the path3 the path1 that is1 as your case may be1 of purity1 humility1 submission1 resignation1 and self-denial4 ,keep your mind and your heart1 your eyes and your feet1 in the very middle of that path1 and you shall have compassed the ,house ,beautiful before you know4 ,the lions shall soon be behind you1 and the grave and graceful damsels of the ,house--,discretion and ,prudence and ,piety and ,charity--shall all be waiting upon you4 ,,prudence #a ',let a man examine himself4'--,paul4 ,let a man examine himself1 says the apostle to the ,corinthians1 and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup4 ,and thus it was1 that before the pilgrim was invited to sit down at the supper table in the ,house ,beautiful1 quite a number of most pointed and penetrating questions were put to him by those who had charge of that house and its supper table4 ,and thus the time was excellently improved till the table was spread1 while the short delay and the successive exercises whetted to an extraordinary sharpness the pilgrim's hunger for the supper4 ,piety and ,charity1 who had joint charge of the house from the ,master of the house1 held each a characteristic conversation with ,christian1 but it was left to ,prudence to hold the most particular discourse with him until supper was ready1 and it is to that so particular discourse that ,i much wish to turn your attention to-night4 ,with great tenderness1 but at the same time with the greatest possible gravity1 ,prudence asked the pilgrim whether he did not still think sometimes of the country from whence he had come out4 ,yes1 he replied2 how could ,i help thinking continually of that unhappy country and of my sad and miserable life in it2 but1 believe me1--or1 rather1 you cannot believe me1--with what shame and detestation ,i always think of my past life4 ,my face burns as ,i now speak of my past life to you1 and as ,i think what my old companions know and must often say about me4 ,i detest1 as you cannot possibly understand1 every remembrance of my past life1 and ,i hate and never can forgive myself1 who1 with mine own hands1 so filled all my past life with shame and self-contempt4 ,gently stopping the remorseful pilgrim's self-accusations about his past life1 ,prudence asked him if he had not still with him1 and1 indeed1 within him1 some of the very things that had so destroyed both him and all his past life4 ',yes1' he honestly and humbly said4 ',yes1 but greatly against my will3 especially my inward and sinful cogitations4' ,at this ,prudence looked on him with all her deep and soft eyes1 for it was to this that she had been leading the conversation up all the time4 ,prudence had a great look of satisfaction1 mingled with love and pity1 at the way the pilgrim said 'especially my inward and sinful cogitations4' ,those who stood by and observed ,prudence wondered at her delight in the sad discourse on which the pilgrim now entered4 ,but she had her own reasons for her delight in this particular kind of discourse1 and it was seldom that she lighted on a pilgrim who both understood her questions and responded to them as did this man now sitting beside her4 ,now1 my brethren1 all parable apart1 is that your religious experience8 ,are you full of shame and detestation at your inward cogitations8 ,are you tormented1 enslaved1 and downright cursed with your own evil thoughts8 ,i do not ask whether or no you have such thoughts always within you4 ,i do not ask1 because ,i know4 ,but ,i ask1 because ,i would like to make sure that you know what1 and the true nature of what1 goes on incessantly in your mind and in your heart4 ,do you1 or do you not1 spit out your most inward thoughts ten times a day like poison8 ,if you do1 you are a truly religious man1 and if you do not1 you do not yet know the very ,,abc of true religion1 and your dog has a better errand at the ,lord's table than you have4 ,and if your minister lets you sit down at the ,lord's table without holding from time to time some particular discourse with you about your sinful thoughts1 he is deceiving and misleading you1 besides laying up for himself an awakening at last to shame and everlasting contempt4 ,what a mill-stone his communion roll will be round such a minister's neck6 ,and how his congregation will gnash their teeth at him when they see to what his miserable ministry has brought them6 ,let a man examine himself1 said ,paul4 ,what about your inward and sinful cogitations8 asked ,prudence4 ,how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee8 demanded the bold prophet4 ,now1 my brethren1 what have you to say to that particular accusation8 ,do you know what vain thoughts are8 ,are you at all aware what multitudes of such thoughts lodge within you8 ,do they drive you every day to your knees1 and do you blush with shame when you are alone before ,god at the fountain of folly that fills your mind and your heart continually8 ,the ,apostle speaks of vain hopes that make us ashamed that we ever entertained them4 ,you have been often so ashamed1 and yet do not such hopes still too easily arise in your heart8 ,what castles of idiotic folly you still build6 ,were a sane man or a modest woman even to dream such dreams of folly overnight1 they would blush and hide their heads all day at the thought4 ,out of a word1 out of a look1 out of what was neither a word nor a look intended for you1 what a world of vanity will you build out of it6 ,the question of ,prudence is not whether or no you are still a born fool at heart1 she does not put unnecessary questions3 hers to you is the more pertinent and particular question1 whether1 since you left your former life and became a ,christian1 you feel every day increasing shame and detestation at yourself1 on account of the vanity of your inward cogitations4 ,my brethren1 can you satisfy her who is set by her ,master to hold particular discourse with all true ,christians before supper8 ,can you say with the ,psalmist1--could you tell ,prudence where the ,psalmist says1--,i hate vain thoughts1 but ,thy law do ,i love8 ,and can you silence her by telling her that her ,master alone knows with what shame you think that ,he has such a fool as you are among ,his people8 ,anger1 also1 sudden and even long-entertained anger1 was one of the 'many failings' of which ,christian was so conscious to himself4 ,his outbursts of anger at home1 he bitterly felt1 might well be one of the causes why his wife and children did not accompany him on his pilgrimage4 ,and though he knew his failing in this respect1 and was very wary of it1 yet he often failed even when he was most wary4 ,now1 while anger is largely a result of our blood and temperament1 yet few of us are so well-balanced and equable in our temperament and so pure and cool in our blood1 as altogether to escape frequent outbursts of anger4 ,the most happily constituted and the best governed of us have too much cause to be ashamed and penitent both before ,god and our neighbours for our outbursts of angry passion4 ,but ,prudence is so particular in her discourse before supper1 that she goes far deeper into our anger than our wives and our children1 our servants and our neighbours1 can go4 ,she not only asks if we stamp out the rising anger of our heart as we would stamp out sparks of fire in a house full of gunpowder2 but she insists on being told what we think of ourselves when the house of our heart is still so full of such fire and such gunpowder4 ,any man1 to call a man1 would be humbled in his own eyes and in his walk before his house at home after an explosion of anger among them2 but he who would satisfy ,prudence and sit beside her at supper1 must not only never let his anger kindle1 but the simple secret heat of it1 that fire of hell that is hid from all men but himself in the flint of his own hard and proud heart1--what1 asks ,prudence1 do you think of that1 and of yourself on account of that8 ,does that keep you not only watchful and prayerful1 but1 what is the best ground in you of all true watchfulness and prayerfulness1 full of secret shame1 self-fear1 and self-detestation8 ,one forenoon table would easily hold all our communicants if ,prudence had the distribution of the tokens4 ,and1 then1 we who are true pilgrims1 are of all men the most miserable1 on account of that 'failing1' that rankling sting in our hearts1 when any of our friends has more of this world's possessions1 honours1 and praises than we have1 that pain at our neighbour's pleasure1 that sickness at his health1 that hunger for what we see him eat1 that thirst for what we see him drink1 that imprisonment of our spirits when we see him set at liberty1 that depression at his exaltation1 that sorrow at his joy1 and joy at his sorrow1 that evil heart that would have all things to itself4 ,yes1 said ,christian1 ,i am only too conversant with all these sinful cogitations1 but they are all greatly against my will1 and might ,i but choose mine own thoughts1 do you suppose that ,i would ever think these things any more8 ',the cause is in my will1' said ,caesar1 on a great occasion4 ,but the true ,christian1 unhappily1 cannot say that4 ,if he could say that1 he would soon say also that the snare is broken and that his soul has escaped4 ,and then the cause of all his evil cogitations1 his vain thoughts1 his angry feelings1 his envious feelings1 his ineradicable covetousness1 his hell-rooted and heaven-towering pride1 and his whole evil heart of unbelief would soon be at an end4 ',i cannot be free of sin1' said ,thomas ,boston1 'but ,god knows that ,he would be welcome to make havoc of my lusts to-night and to make me henceforth a holy man4 ,i know no lust that ,i would not be content to part with4 ,my will bound hand and foot ,i desire to lay at ,his feet4' ,yes3 such is the mystery and depth of sin in the hearts of all ,god's saints1 that far deeper than their will1 far back behind their will1 the whole substance and very core of their hearts is wholly corrupt and enslaved to sin4 ,and thus it is that while their renewed and delivered will works out1 so far1 their salvation in their walk and conversation among men1 the helplessness of their will in the cleansing and the keeping of their hearts is to the end the sorrow and the mystery of their sanctification4 ,to will was present with ,paul1 and with ,bunyan1 and with ,boston2 but their heart--they could not with all their keeping keep their heart4 ,no man can2 no man who has at all tried it can4 ',might ,i but choose mine own thoughts1 ,i would choose never to think of these things more3 but when ,i would be doing of that which is best1 that which is worst is with me4' ,we can choose almost all things4 ,our will and choice have almost all things at their disposal4 ,we can choose our ,god4 ,we can choose life or death4 ,we can choose heaven or hell4 ,we can choose our church1 our minister1 our books1 our companions1 our words1 our works1 and1 to some extent1 our inward thoughts1 but only to some extent4 ,we can encourage this or that thought2 we can entertain it and dwell upon it2 or we can detect it1 detest it1 and cast it out4 ,but that secret place in our heart where our thoughts hide and harbour1 and out of which they spring so suddenly upon the mind and the heart1 the imagination and the conscience1--of that secretest of all secret places1 ,god alone is able to say1 ,i search the heart4 ',as for secret thoughts1' says our author1 speaking of his own former religious life1 ',i took no notice of them1 neither did ,i understand what ,satan's temptations were1 nor how they were to be withstood and resisted4' ,but now all these things are his deepest grief1 as they are ours1--as many of us as have been truly turned in our deepest hearts to ,god4 ',but1' replied ,prudence1 'do you not find sometimes as if those things were vanquished which at other times are your perplexity8' ',yes1 but that is but seldom2 but they are to me golden hours in which such things happen to me4' ',can you remember by what means you find your annoyances at times as if they were vanquished8' ',yes1 when ,i think what ,i saw at the cross1 that will do it2 and when ,i look upon my broidered coat1 that will do it2 also1 when ,i look into the roll that ,i carry in my bosom1 that will do it2 and when my thoughts wax warm about whither ,i am going1 that will do it4' ,yes2 and these same things have many a time done it to ourselves also4 ,we also1 my brethren--let me tell you your own undeniable experience--we also have such golden hours sometimes1 when we feel as if we should never again have such an evil heart within us4 ,the ,cross of ,christ to us also has done it4 ,it is of such golden hours that ,isaac ,watts sings in his noble hymn3 ',when ,i survey the wondrous ,cross2' and as often as we sing that hymn with our eyes upon the object1 that will for a time vanquish our worst cogitations4 ,also1 when we read the roll that we too carry in our bosom--that is to say1 when we go back into our past life till we see it and feel it all1 and till we can think and speak of nothing else but the sin that abounded in it and the grace that much more abounded1 that has a thousand times given us also golden hours1 even rest from our own evil hearts4 ,and we also have often made our hearts too hot for sin to show itself1 when we read our hearts deep into such books as ,the ,paradiso1 ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress1 ,the ,saint's ,rest1 ,the ,serious ,call1 ,the ,religious ,affections1 and such like4 ,these books have often vanquished our annoyances1 and given us golden hours on the earth4 ,yes1 but that is but seldom4 ',now1 what is it1' asked ,prudence1 as she wound up this so particular colloquy1 'that makes you so desirous to go to ,mount ,zion8' ',why1' replied the pilgrim1 and the water stood in his eyes1 'why1 there ,i hope to see ,him alive that did hang dead on the cross2 and there ,i hope to be rid of all those things that to this day are an annoyance to me2 there they say is no death1 and there shall ,i dwell with such company as ,i love best4 ,for1 to tell you truth1 ,i love ,him1 because by ,him ,i was eased of my burden1 and ,i am weary of my inward sickness2 and ,i would fain be where ,i shall die no more1 and for ever with that company that shall continually cry1 ,holy1 holy1 holy4' ,,charity ',i will walk within my house with a perfect heart4'--,david4 ,there can be nobody here to-night so stark stupid as to suppose that the pilgrim had run away from home and left his wife and children to the work- house4 ,there have been wiseacres who have found severe fault with ,john ,bunyan because he made his ,puritan pilgrim such a bad husband and such an unnatural father4 ,but nobody possessed of a spark of common sense1 not to say religion or literature1 would ever commit himself to such an utter imbecility as that4 ,john ,bunyan's pilgrim1 whatever he may have been before he became a pilgrim1 all the time he was a pilgrim1 was the most faithful1 affectionate1 and solicitous husband in all the country round about1 and the tenderest1 the most watchful1 and the wisest of fathers4 ,this pilgrim stayed all the more at home that he went so far away from home2 he accomplished his whole wonderful pilgrimage beside his own forge and at his own fireside2 and he entered the ,celestial ,city amid trumpets and bells and harps and psalms1 while all the time sleeping in his own humble bed4 ,the ,house ,beautiful1 therefore1 to which we have now come in his company1 is not some remote and romantic mansion away up among the mountains a great many days' journey distant from this poor man's everyday home4 ,the ,house ,beautiful was nothing else1--what else better1 what else so good could it be8--than just this ,christian man's first communion ,sabbath and his first communion table 7first1 that is1 after his true conversion from sin to ,god and his confessed entrance into a new life71 while the country from whence he had come out1 and concerning which both ,piety and ,prudence catechised him so closely1 was just his former life of open ungodliness and all his evil walk and conversation while he was as yet living without ,god and without hope in the world4 ,the country on which he confessed that he now looked back with so much shame and detestation was not ,england or ,bedfordshire1 but the wicked life he had lived in that land and in that shire4 ,and when ,charity asked him as to whether he was a married man and had a family1 she knew quite well that he was1 only she made a pretence of asking him those domestic questions in order thereby to start the touching conversation4 ,beginning1 then1 at home1 as she always began1 ,charity said to ,christian1 ',have you a family8 ,are you a married man8' ',i have a wife and four small children1' answered ,christian4 ',and why did you not bring them with you8' ,then ,christian wept and said1 ',oh1 how willingly would ,i have done so1 but they were all of them utterly averse to my going on pilgrimage4' ',but you should have talked to them and have shown them their danger4' ',so ,i did1' he replied1 'but ,i seemed to them as one that mocked4' ,now1 this of talking1 and1 especially1 of talking about religious things to children1 is one of the most difficult things in the world1--that is1 to do it well4 ,some people have the happy knack of talking to their own and to other people's children so as always to interest and impress them4 ,but such happy people are few4 ,most people talk at their children whenever they begin to talk to them1 and thus1 without knowing it1 they nauseate their children with their conversation altogether4 ,to respect a little child1 to stand in some awe of a little child1 to choose your topics1 your opportunities1 your neighbourhood1 your moods and his as well as all your words1 and always to speak your sincerest1 simplest1 most straightforward and absolutely wisest is indispensable with a child4 ,take your mannerisms1 your condescensions1 your affectations1 your moralisings1 and all your insincerities to your debauched equals1 but bring your truest and your best to your child4 ,unless you do so1 you will be sure to lay yourself open to a look that will suddenly go through you1 and that will swiftly convey to you that your child sees through you and despises you and your conversation too4 ',you should not only have talked to your children of their danger1' said ,charity1 'but you should have shown them their danger4' ,yes1 ,charity2 but a man must himself see his own and his children's danger too1 before he can show it to them1 as well as see it clearly at the time he is trying to show it to them4 ,and how many fathers1 do you suppose1 have the eyes to see such danger1 and how then can they shew such danger to their children1 of all people8 ,once get fathers to see dangers or anything else aright1 and then you will not need to tell them how they are to instruct and impress their children4 ,nature herself will then tell them how to talk to their children1 and when ,nature teaches1 all our children will immediately and unweariedly listen4 ,but1 especially1 said ,charity1 as your boys grew up--,i think you said that you had four boys and no girls8--well1 then1 all the more1 as they grew up1 you should have taken occasion to talk to them about yourself4 ,did your little boy never petition you for a story about yourself2 and as he grew up did you never confide to him what you have never confided to his mother8 ,something1 as ,i was saying1 that made you sad when you were a boy and a rising man1 with a sadness your son can still see in you as you talk to him4 ,in conversations like that a boy finds out what a friend he has in his father1 and his father from that day has his best friend in his son4 ,and then as ,matthew grew up and began to out-grow his brothers and to form friendships out of doors1 did you study to talk at the proper time to him1 and on subjects on which you never venture to talk about to any other boy or man8 ,you men1 ,charity went on to say1 live in a world of your own1 and though we women are well out of it1 yet we cannot be wholly ignorant that it is there4 ,and1 we may well be wrong1 but we cannot but think that fathers1 if not mothers1 might safely tell their men-children at least more than they do tell them of the sure dangers that lie straight in their way1 of the sorrow that men and women bring on one another1 and of what is the destruction of so many cities4 ,we may well be wrong1 for we are only women1 but ,i have told you what we all think who keep this house and hear the reports and repentances of pilgrims1 both ,piety and ,prudence and ,i myself4 ,and ,i1 for one1 largely agree with the three women4 ,it is easier said than done4 ,but the simple saying of it may perhaps lead some fathers and mothers to think about it1 and to ask whether or no it is desirable and advisable to do it1 which of them is to attempt it1 on what occasion1 and to what extent4 ,christian by this time had the ,slough of ,despond with all its history and all that it contained to tell his eldest son about2 he had the wicket gate also just above the slough1 the hill ,difficulty1 the ,interpreter's ,house1 the place somewhat ascending with a cross standing upon it1 and a little below1 in the bottom1 a sepulchre1 not to speak of her who assaulted ,faithful1 whose name was ,wanton1 and who at one time was like to have done even that trusty pilgrim a lifelong mischief4 ,christian rather boasted to ,charity of his wariness1 especially in the matter of his children's amusements1 but ,charity seemed to think that he had carried his wariness into other matters besides amusements1 without the best possible results there either4 ,i have sometimes thought with her that among our multitude of congresses and conferences of all kinds of people and upon all manner of subjects1 room and membership might have been found for a conference of fathers and mothers4 ,fathers to give and take counsel about how to talk to their sons1 and mothers to their daughters4 ,i am much of ,charity's mind1 that1 if more were done at home1 and done with some frankness1 for our sons and daughters1 there would be fewer fathers and mothers found sitting at the ,lord's table alone4 ',you should have talked to them1' said ,charity1 with some severity in her tones1 'and1 especially1 you should have told them of your own sorrow4' ,and then1 coming still closer up to ,christian1 ,charity asked him whether he prayed1 both before and after he so spoke to his children1 that ,god would bless what he said to them4 ,charity believeth all things1 hopeth all things1 but when she saw this man about to sit down all alone at the supper table1 it took ,charity all her might to believe that he had both spoken to his children and at the same time prayed to ,god for them as he ought to have done4 ,our old ministers used to lay this vow on all fathers and mothers at the time of baptism1 that they were to pray both with and for their children4 ,now1 that is a fine formula2 it is a most comprehensive1 and1 indeed1 exhaustive formula4 ,both with and for4 ,and especially with4 ,with1 at such and such times1 on such and such occasions1 and in such and such places4 ,at those times1 say1 when your boy has told a lie1 or struck his little brother1 or stolen something1 or destroyed something4 ,to pray with him at such times1 and to pray with him properly1 and1 if you feel able to do it1 and are led to do it1 to tell him something after the prayer about yourself1 and your own not-yet- forgotten boyhood1 and your father2 it makes a fine time to mix talk and prayer together in that way4 ,charity is not easily provoked1 but the longer she lives and keeps the table in the ,house ,beautiful the more she is provoked to think that there is far too little prayer among pilgrims2 far too little of all kinds of prayer1 but especially prayer with and for their children4 ,but hard as it was to tell all the truth at that moment about ,christian's past walk in his house at home1 yet he was able with the simple truth to say that he had indeed prayed both with and for his children1 and that1 as they knew and could not but remember1 not seldom4 ,yes1 he said1 ,i did sometimes so pray with my boys1 and that too1 as you may believe1 with much affection1 for you must think that my four boys were all very dear to me4 ,and it is my firm belief that all that good man's boys will come right yet3 ,matthew and ,joseph and ,james and ,samuel and all4 ',with much affection4' ,i like that4 ,i have unbounded faith in those prayers1 both for and with1 in which there is much affection4 ,it is want of affection1 and want of imagination1 that shipwrecks so many of our prayers4 ,but this man's prayers had both these elements of sure success in them1 and they must come at last to harbour4 ,at that one word 'with much affection1' this man's closet door flies open and ,i see the old pilgrim first alone1 and then with his arms round his eldest son's neck1 and both father and son weeping together till they are ashamed to appear at supper till they have washed their faces and got their most smiling and everyday looks put on again4 ,you just wait and see if ,matthew and all the four boys down to the last do not escape into the ,celestial ,city before the gate is shut4 ,and when it is asked1 ,who are these and whence came they8 listen to their song and you will hear those four happy children saying that their father1 when they were yet boys1 both talked with them and prayed for and with them with so much affection that therefore they are before the throne4 ,why1 then1 with such a father and with such makable boys1 why was this household brought so near everlasting shipwreck8 ,it was the mother that did it4 ,in one word1 it was the wife and the mother that did it4 ,it was the mistress of the house who wrought the mischief here4 ,she was a poor woman1 she was a poor man's wife1 and one would have thought that she had little enough temptation to harm upon this present world4 ,but there it was1 she did hang upon it as much as if she had been the mother of the finest daughters and the most promising boys in all the town4 ,things like this were from time to time reported to her by her neighbours4 ,one fine lady had been heard to say that she would never have for her tradesman any man who frequented conventicles1 who was not content with the religion of his betters1 and who must needs scorn the parish church and do despite to the saints' days4 ,another gossip asked her what she expected to make of her great family of boys when it was well known that all the gentry in the neighbourhood but two or three had sworn that they would never have a hulking ,puritan to brush their boots or run their errands4 ,and it almost made her husband burn his book and swear that he would never be seen at another prayer-meeting when his wife so often said to him that he should never have had children1 that he should never have made her his wife1 and that he was not like this when they were first man and wife4 ,and in her bitterness she would name this wife or that maid1 and would say1 ,you should have married her4 ,she would have gone to the meeting-house with you as often as you wished4 ,her sons are far enough from good service to please you4 ',my wife1' he softly said1 'was afraid of losing the world4 ,and then1 after that1 my growing sons were soon given over1 all ,i could do1 to the foolish delights of youth1 so that1 what by one thing and what by another1 they left me to wander in this manner alone4' ,and ,i suppose there is scarcely a household among ourselves where there have not been serious and damaging misunderstandings between old-fashioned fathers and their young people about what the old people called the 'foolish delights' of their sons and daughters4 ,and in thinking this matter over1 ,i have often been struck with how ,job did when his sons and his daughters were bent upon feasting and dancing in their eldest brother's house4 ,the old man did not lay an interdict upon the entertainment4 ,he did not take part in it1 but neither did he absolutely forbid it4 ,if it must be it must be1 said the wise patriarch4 ,and since ,i do not know whom they may meet there1 or what they may be tempted to do1 ,i will sanctify them all4 ,i will not go up into my bed till ,i have prayed for all my seven sons and three daughters1 each one of them by their names2 and till they come home safely ,i will rise every morning and offer burnt-offerings according to the number of them all4 ,and do you think that those burnt-offerings and accompanying intercessions would go for nothing when the great wind came from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the banqueting-house8 ,if you cannot banish the love of foolish delights out the hearts of your sons and daughters1 then do not quarrel with them over such things2 a family quarrel in a ,christian man's house is surely far worse than a feast or a dance4 ,only1 if they must feast and dance and such like1 be you all the more diligent in your exercises at home on their behalf till they are back again1 where1 after all1 they like best to be1 in their good1 kind1 liberal1 and loving father's house4 ,have you a family8 ,are you a married man8 ,or1 if not1 do you hope one day to be8 ,then attend betimes to what ,charity says to ,christian in the ,house ,beautiful1 and not less to what he says back again to her4 ,,shame ',whosoever shall be ashamed of ,me1 and of ,my words1 of him shall the ,son of ,man be ashamed1 when ,he shall come in ,his own glory1 and in ,his ,father's1 and of the holy angels4'--,our ,lord4 ,shame has not got the attention that it deserves either from our moral philosophers or from our practical and experimental divines4 ,and yet it would well repay both classes of students to attend far more to shame4 ,for1 what really is shame8 ,shame is an original instinct planted in our souls by our ,maker1 and intended by ,him to act as a powerful and pungent check to our doing of any act that is mean or dishonourable in the eyes of our fellow-men4 ,shame is a kind of social conscience4 ,shame is a secondary sense of sin4 ,in shame1 our imagination becomes a kind of moral sense4 ,shame sets up in our bosom a not undivine tribunal1 which judges us and sentences us in the absence or the silence of nobler and more awful sanctions and sentences4 ,but then1 as things now are with us1 like all the rest of the machinery of the soul1 shame has gone sadly astray both in its objects and in its operations1 till it demands a long1 a severe1 and a very noble discipline over himself before any man can keep shame in its proper place and directed in upon its proper objects4 ,in the present disorder of our souls1 we are all acutely ashamed of many things that are not the proper objects of shame at all2 while1 on the other hand1 we feel no shame at all at multitudes of things that are really most blameworthy1 dishonourable1 and contemptible4 ,we are ashamed of things in our lot and in our circumstances that1 if we only knew it1 are our opportunity and our honour2 we are ashamed of things that are the clear will and the immediate dispensation of ,almighty ,god4 ,and1 then1 we feel no shame at all at the most dishonourable things1 and that simply because the men around us are too coarse in their morals and too dull in their sensibilities to see any shame in such things4 ,and thus it comes about that1 in the very best of men1 their still perverted sense of shame remains in them a constant snare and a source of temptation4 ,a man of a fine nature feels keenly the temptation to shrink from those paths of truth and duty that expose him to the cruel judgments and the coarse and scandalising attacks of public and private enemies4 ,it was in the ,valley of ,humiliation that ,shame set upon ,faithful1 and it is a real humiliation to any man of anything of this pilgrim's fine character and feeling to be attacked1 scoffed at1 and held up to blame and opprobrium4 ,and the finer and the more affectionate any man's heart and character are1 the more he feels and shrinks from the coarse treatment this world gives to those whom it has its own reasons to hate and assail4 ,they had the stocks and the pillory and the shears in ,bunyan's rude and uncivilised day1 by means of which many of the best men of that day were exposed to the insults and brutalities of the mob4 ,the newspapers would be the pillory of our day1 were it not that1 on the whole1 the newspaper press is conducted with such scrupulous fairness and with a love of truth and justice such that no man need shrink from the path of duty through fear of insult and injury4 ,but it is time to come to the encounter between ,shame and ,faithful in the ,valley of ,humiliation4 ,shame1 properly speaking1 is not one of our ,bunyan gallery of portraits at all4 ,shame1 at best1 is but a kind of secondary character in this dramatic book4 ,we do not meet with ,shame directly2 we only hear about him through the report of ,faithful4 ,that first-class pilgrim was almost overcome of ,shame1 so hot was their encounter2 and it is the extraordinarily feeling1 graphic1 and realistic account of their encounter that ,faithful gives us that has led me to take up ,shame for our reproof and correction to-night4 ,religion altogether1 but especially all personal religion1 said ,shame to ,faithful1 is an unmanly business4 ,there is a certain touch of smallness and pitifulness1 he said1 in all religion1 but especially in experimental religion4 ,it brings a man into junctures and into companionships1 and it puts offices and endurances upon one such as try a man if he has any greatness of spirit about him at all4 ,this life on which you are entering1 said ,shame1 will cost you many a blush before you are done with it4 ,you will lay yourself open to many a scoff4 ,the ,puritan religion1 and all the ways of that religious fraternity1 are peculiarly open to the shafts of ridicule4 ,now1 all that was quite true4 ,there was no denying the truth of what ,shame said4 ,and ,faithful felt the truth of it all1 and felt it most keenly1 as he confessed to ,christian4 ,the blood came into my face as the fellow spake1 and what he said for a time almost beat me out of the upward way altogether4 ,but in this dilemma also all true ,christians can fall back1 as ,faithful fell back1 upon the example of their ,master4 ,in this as in every other experience of temptation and endurance1 our ,lord is the forerunner and the example of ,his people4 ,our ,lord was in all points tempted like as we are1 and among all ,his other temptations ,he was tempted to be ashamed of ,his work on earth and of the life and the death ,his work led ,him into4 ,he must have often felt ashamed at the treatment ,he received during ,his life of humiliation1 as it is well called2 and ,he must often have felt ashamed of ,his disciples3 but all that is blotted out by the crowning shame of the cross4 ,we hang our worst criminals rather than behead or shoot them1 in order to heap up the utmost possible shame and disgrace upon them1 as well as to execute justice upon them4 ,and what the hangman's rope is in our day1 all that the cross was in our ,lord's day4 ,and1 then1 as if the cross itself was not shame enough1 all the circumstances connected with ,his cross were planned and carried out so as to heap the utmost possible shame and humiliation upon ,his head4 ,our prison warders have to watch the murderers in their cells night and day1 lest they should take their own life in order to escape the hangman's rope2 but our ,lord1 keenly as ,he felt ,his coming shame1 said to ,his horrified disciples1 ,behold1 we go up to ,jerusalem1 when the ,son of ,man shall be mocked1 and spitefully entreated1 and spitted on2 and they shall scourge ,him and put ,him to death4 ,do you ever think of your ,lord in ,his shame8 ,how they made a fool of ,him1 as we say4 ,how they took off ,his own clothes and put on ,him now a red cloak and now a white2 how they put a sword of lath in ,his hand1 and a crown of thorns on ,his head2 how they bowed the knee before ,him1 and asked royal favours from ,him2 and then how they spat in ,his face1 and struck ,him on the cheek1 while the whole house rang with shouts of laughter4 ,and1 then1 the last indignity of man1 how they stripped ,him naked and lashed ,his naked and bleeding body to a whipping-post4 ,and how they wagged their heads and put out their tongues at ,him when ,he was on the tree1 and invited ,him to come down and preach to them now1 and they would all become ,his disciples4 ,did not ,shame say the simple truth when he warned ,faithful that religion had always and from the beginning made its followers the ridicule of their times8 ,if you are really going to be a religious man1 ,shame went on1 you will have to carry about with you a very tender conscience1 and a more unmanly and miserable thing than a tender conscience ,i cannot conceive4 ,a tender conscience will cost you something1 let me tell you1 to keep it4 ,if nothing else1 a tender conscience will all your life long expose you to the mockery and the contempt of all the brave spirits of the time4 ,that also is true4 ,at any rate1 a tender conscience will undoubtedly compel its possessor to face the brave spirits of the time4 ,there is a good story told to this present point about ,sir ,robert ,peel1 a ,prime ,minister of our ,queen4 ,when a young man1 ,peel was one of the guests at a select dinner-party in the ,west-end of ,london4 ,and after the ladies had left the table the conversation of the gentlemen took a turn such that it could not have taken as long as the ladies were present4 ,peel took no share in the stories or the merriment that went on1 and1 at last1 he rose up and ordered his carriage1 and1 with a burning face1 left the room4 ,when he was challenged as to why he had broken up the pleasant party so soon1 he could only reply that his conscience would not let him stay any longer4 ,no doubt ,peel felt the mocking laughter that he left behind him1 but1 as ,shame said to ,faithful1 the tenderness of the young statesman's conscience compelled him to do as he did4 ,but we are not all ,peels4 ,and there are plenty of workshops and offices and dinner-tables in our own city1 where young men who would walk up to the cannon's mouth without flinching have not had ,peel's courage to protest against indecency or to confess that they belonged to an evangelical church4 ,if a church is only sufficiently unevangelical there is no trial of conscience or of courage in confessing that you belong to it4 ,but as ,shame so ably and honestly said1 that type of religion that creates a tender conscience in its followers1 and sets them to watch their words and their ways1 and makes them tie themselves up from all hectoring liberty--to choose that religion1 and to cleave to it to the end1 will make a young man the ridicule still of all the brave spirits round about him4 ,ambitious young men get promotion and reward every day among us for desertions and apostasies in religion1 for which1 if they had been guilty of the like in war1 they would have been shot4 ',and so you are a ,free ,churchman1 ,i am told4' ,that was all that was said4 ,but the sharp youth understood without any more words1 and he made his choice accordingly2 till it is becoming a positive surprise to find the rising members of certain professions in certain churches4 ,the ,quakers have a proverb in ,england that a family carriage never drives for two generations past the parish church door4 ,of which state of matters ,shame showed himself a shrewd prophet two hundred years ago when he said that but few of the rich and the mighty and the wise remained long of ,faithful's ,puritan opinion unless they were first persuaded to be fools1 and to be of a voluntary fondness to venture the loss of all4 ,and ,i will tell you two other things1 said sharp-sighted and plain-spoken ,shame1 that your present religion will compel you to do if you adhere to it4 ,it will compel you from time to time to ask your neighbour's forgiveness even for petty faults1 and it will insist with you that you make restitution when you have done the weak and the friendless any hurt or any wrong4 ,and every manly mind will tell you that life is not worth having on such humbling terms as those are4 ,whatever may be thought about ,shame in other respects1 it cannot be denied that he had a sharp eye for the facts of life1 and a shrewd tongue in setting those facts forth4 ,he has hit the blot exactly in the matter of our first duty to our neighbour2 he has put his finger on one of the matters where so many of us1 through a false shame1 come short4 ,it costs us a tremendous struggle with our pride to go to our neighbour and to ask his forgiveness for a fault1 petty fault or other4 ,did you ever do it8 ,when did you do it last1 to whom1 and for what8 ,one ,sabbath morning1 now many years ago1 ,i had occasion to urge this elementary evangelical duty on my people here1 and ,i did it as plainly as ,i could4 ,next day one of my young men1 who is now a devoted and honoured elder1 came to me and told me that he had done that morning what his conscience yesterday told him in the church to do4 ,he had gone to a neighbour's place of business1 had asked for an interview1 and had begged his neighbour's pardon4 ,i am sure neither of those two men have forgotten that moment1 and the thought of it has often since nerved me to speak plainly about some of their most unwelcome duties to my people4 ,shame1 no doubt1 pulled back my noble friend's hand when it was on the office bell1 but1 like ,faithful in the text1 he shook him out of his company and went in4 ,i spoke of the remarkable justice of the newspaper press in the opening of these remarks4 ,and it so happens that1 as ,i lay down my pen to rest my hand after writing this sentence and lift a ,london evening paper1 ,i read this editorial note1 set within the well-known brackets at the end of an indignant and expostulatory letter3 ',our correspondent's complaint is just4 ,the paragraph imputing bad motives should not have been admitted4' ,i have no doubt that editor felt some shame as he handed that apologetic note to the printer4 ,but not to speak of any other recognition and recompense1 he has the recompense of the recognition of all honourable-minded men who have read that honourable admission and apology4 ,shame was quite right in his scoff about restitution also4 ,for restitution rings like a trumpet tone through the whole of the law of ,moses1 and then the ,new ,testament republishes that law if only in the exquisite story of ,zaccheus4 ,and1 indeed1 take it altogether1 ,i do not know where to find in the same space a finer vindication of ,puritan pulpit ethics than just in this taunting and terrifying attack on ,faithful4 ,there is no better test of true religion both as it is preached and practised than just to ask for and to grant forgiveness1 and to offer and accept restitution4 ,now1 does your public and private life defend and adorn your minister's pulpit in these two so practical matters8 ,could your minister point to you as a proof of the ethics of evangelical teaching8 ,can any one in this city speak up in defence of your church and thus protest3 ',say what you like about that church and its ministers1 all ,i can say is1 that its members know how to make an apology2 as1 also1 how to pay back with interest what they at one time damaged or defrauded'8 ,can any old creditor's widow or orphan stand up for our doctrine and defend our discipline pointing to you8 ,if you go on to be a ,puritan1 said ,shame to ,faithful1 you will have to ask your neighbour's forgiveness even for petty faults1 and you will have to make restitution with usury where you have taken anything from any one1 and how will you like that8 ,and what did you say to all this1 my brother8 ,say8 ,i could not tell what to say at the first4 ,i felt my blood coming up into my face at some of the things that ,shame said and threatened4 ,but1 at last1 ,i began to consider that that which is highly esteemed among men is often had in abomination with ,god4 ,and ,i said to myself again1 ,shame tells me what men do and what men think1 but he has told me nothing about what ,he thinks with ,whom ,i shall soon have alone to do4 ,therefore1 thought ,i1 what ,god thinks and says is wisest and best1 let all the men of the world say what they will4 ,let all false shame1 then1 depart from my heart1 for how else shall ,i look upon my ,lord1 and how shall ,he look upon me at ,his coming8 ,,talkative ',a man full of talk4'--,zophar4 ',let thy words be few4'--,the ,preacher4 ',the soul of religion is the practick part4'--,christian4 ,since we all have a tongue1 and since so much of our time is taken up with talk1 a simple catalogue of the sins of the tongue is enough to terrify us4 ,the sins of the tongue take up a much larger space in the ,bible than we would believe till we have begun to suffer from other men's tongues and especially from our own4 ,the ,bible speaks a great deal more and a great deal plainer about the sins of the tongue than any of our pulpits dare to do4 ,in the ,psalms alone you would think that the psalmists scarcely suffer from anything else worth speaking about but the evil tongues of their friends and of their enemies4 ,the ,book of ,proverbs also is full of the same lashing scourge4 ,and ,james the ,just1 in a passage of terrible truth and power1 tells us that we are already as good as perfect men if we can bridle our tongue2 and that1 on the other hand1 if we do not bridle our tongue1 all our seeming to be religious is a sham and a self-deception1--that man's religion is vain4 ,with many men and many women great talkativeness is a matter of simple temperament and mental constitution4 ,and a talkative habit would be a childlike and an innocent habit if the heart of talker and the hearts of those to whom he talks so much were only full of truth and love4 ,but our hearts and our neighbours' hearts being what they are1 in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin4 ,so much of our talk is about our absent neighbours1 and there are so many misunderstandings1 prejudices1 ambitions1 competitions1 oppositions1 and all kinds of cross-interests between us and our absent neighbours1 that we cannot long talk about them till our hearts have run our tongues into all manner of trespass4 ,bishop ,butler discourses on the great dangers that beset a talkative temperament with almost more than all his usual sagacity1 seriousness1 and depth4 ,and those who care to see how the greatest of our modern moralists deals with their besetting sin should lose no time in possessing and mastering ,butler's great discourse4 ,it is a truly golden discourse1 and it ought to be read at least once a month by all the men and all the women who have tongues in their heads4 ,bishop ,butler points out to his offending readers1 in a way they can never forget1 the certain mischief they do to themselves and to other people just by talking too much4 ,but there are far worse sins that our tongues fall into than the bad enough sins that spring out of impertinent and unrestrained loquacity4 ,there are many times when our talk1 long or short1 is already simple and downright evil4 ,it is ten to one1 it is a hundred to one1 that you do not know and would not believe how much you fall every day and in every conversation into one or other of the sins of the tongue4 ,if you would only begin to see and accept this1 that every time you speak or hear about your absent neighbour what you would not like him to speak or hear about you1 you are in that a talebearer1 a slanderer1 a backbiter1 or a liar1--when you begin to see and admit that about yourself1 you will not wonder at what the ,bible says with such bitter indignation about the diabolical sins of the tongue4 ,if you would just begin to-night to watch yourselves--on the way home from church1 at home after the day is over1 to-morrow morning when the letters and the papers are opened1 and so on1--how instinctively1 incessantly1 irrepressibly you speak about the absent in a way you would be astounded and horrified to be told they were at that moment speaking about you1 then you would soon be wiser than all your teachers in the sins and in the government of the tongue4 ,and you would seven times every day pluck out your tongue before ,god till ,he gives it back to you clean and kind in that land where all men shall love their neighbours1 present and absent1 as themselves4 ,take detraction for an example1 one of the commonest1 and1 surely1 one of the most detestable of the sins of the tongue4 ,and the etymology here1 as in this whole region1 is most instructive and most impressive4 ,in detraction you draw away something from your neighbour that is most precious and most dear to him4 ,in detraction you are a thief1 and a thief of the falsest and wickedest kind4 ,for your neighbour's purse is trash1 while his good name is far more precious to him than all his gold4 ,some one praises your neighbour in your hearing1 his talents1 his performances1 his character1 his motives1 or something else that belongs to your neighbour4 ,some one does that in your hearing who either does not know you1 or who wishes to torture and expose you1 and you fall straight into the snare thus set for you1 and begin at once to belittle1 depreciate1 detract from1 and run down your neighbour1 who has been too much praised for your peace of mind and your self-control4 ,you insinuate something to his disadvantage and dishonour4 ,you quote some authority you have heard to his hurt4 ,and so on past all our power to picture you4 ,for detraction has a thousand devices taught to it by the master of all such devices1 wherewith to drag down and defile the great and the good4 ,but with all you can say or do1 you cannot for many days get out of your mind the heart-poisoning praise you heard spoken of your envied neighbour4 ,never praise any potter's pots in the hearing of another potter1 said the author of the ,nicomachean ,ethics4 ,aristotle said potter's pots1 but he really all the time was thinking of a philosopher's books2 only he said potter's pots to draw off his readers' attention from himself4 ,now1 always remember that ancient and wise advice4 ,take care how you praise a potter's pots1 a philosopher's books1 a woman's beauty1 a speaker's speech1 a preacher's sermon to another potter1 philosopher1 woman1 speaker1 or preacher2 unless1 indeed1 you maliciously wish secretly to torture them1 or publicly to expose them1 or1 if their sanctification is begun1 to sanctify them to their most inward and spiritual sanctification4 ,backbiting1 again1 would seem at first sight to be a sin of the teeth rather than of the tongue1 only1 no sharpest tooth can tear you when your back is turned like your neighbour's evil tongue4 ,pascal has many dreadful things about the corruption and misery of man1 but he has nothing that strikes its terrible barb deeper into all our consciences than this1 that if all our friends only knew what we have said about them behind their back1 we would not have four friends in all the world4 ,neither we would4 ,i know ,i would not have one4 ,how many would you have8 ,and who would they be8 ,you cannot name them4 ,i defy you to name them4 ,they do not exist4 ,the tongue can no man tame4 ',giving of characters' also takes up a large part of our everyday conversation4 ,we cannot well help characterising1 describing1 and estimating one another4 ,but1 as far as possible1 when we see the conversation again approaching that dangerous subject1 we should call to mind our past remorse2 we should suppose our absent neighbour present2 we should imagine him in our place and ourselves in his place1 and so turn the rising talk into another channel4 ,for1 the truth is1 few of us are able to do justice to our neighbour when we begin to discuss and describe him4 ,generosity in our talk is far easier for us than justice4 ,it was this incessant giving of characters that our ,lord had in ,his eye when ,he said in ,his ,sermon on the ,mount1 ,judge not4 ,but our ,lord might as well never have uttered that warning word for all the attention we give it4 ,for we go on judging one another and sentencing one another as if we were entirely and in all things blameless ourselves1 and as if ,god had set us up in our blamelessness in ,his seat of judgment over all our fellows4 ,how seldom do we hear any one say in a public debate or in a private conversation1 ,i don't know2 or1 ,it is no matter of mine2 or1 ,i feel that ,i am not in possession of all the facts2 or1 ,it may be so1 but ,i must not judge4 ,we never hear such things as these said4 ,no one pays the least attention to the ,preacher on the ,mount4 ,and if any one says to us1 ,i must not judge1 we never forgive him1 because his humility and his obedience so condemn all our ill-formed1 prejudiced1 rash1 and ill-natured judgments of our neighbour4 ,since1 therefore1 so ,butler sums up1 it is so hard for us to enter on our neighbour's character without offending the law of ,christ1 we should learn to decline that kind of conversation altogether1 and determine to get over that strong inclination most of us have1 to be continually talking about the concerns1 the behaviour1 and the deserts of our neighbours4 ,now1 it was all those vices of the tongue in full outbreak in the day of ,james the ,just that made that apostle1 half in sorrow1 half in anger1 demand of all his readers that they should henceforth begin to bridle their tongues4 ,and1 like all that most practical apostle's counsels1 that is a most impressive and memorable commandment4 ,for1 it is well known that all sane men who either ride on or drive unruly horses1 take good care to bridle their horses well before they bring them out of their stable door4 ,and then they keep their bridle-hand firm closed on the bridle-rein till their horses are back in the stable again4 ,especially and particularly they keep a close eye and a firm hand on their horse's bridle on all steep inclines and at all sharp angles and sudden turns in the road2 when sudden trains are passing and when stray dogs are barking4 ,if the rider or the driver of a horse did not look at nothing else but the bridle of his horse1 both he and his horse under him would soon be in the ditch1--as so many of us are at the present moment because we have an untamed tongue in our mouth on which we have not yet begun to put the bridle of truth and justice and brotherly love4 ,indeed1 such woe and misery has an untamed tongue wrought in other churches and in other and more serious ages than ours1 that special religious brotherhoods have been banded together just on the special and strict engagement that they would above all things put a bridle on their tongues4 ',what are the chief cares of a young convert8' asked such a convert at an aged ,carthusian4 ',i said ,i will take heed to my ways that ,i trespass not with my tongue1' replied the saintly father4 ',say no more for the present1' interrupted the youthful beginner2 ',i will go home and practise that1 and will come again when ,i have performed it4' ,now1 whatever faults that tall man had who took up so much of ,faithful's time and attention1 he was a saint compared with the men and the women who have just passed before us4 ,talkative1 as ,john ,bunyan so scornfully names that tall man1 though he undoubtedly takes up too much time and too much space in ,bunyan's book1 was not a busybody in other men's matters at any rate4 ,nobody could call him a detractor or a backbiter or a talebearer or a liar4 ,christian knew him well1 and had known him long1 but ,christian was not afraid to leave him alone with ,faithful4 ,we all know men we feel it unsafe to leave long alone with our friends4 ,we feel sure that they will be talking about us1 and that to our hurt1 as soon as our backs are about4 ,but to give that tall man his due1 he was not given with all his talk to tale-bearing or scandal or detraction4 ,had he been guilty of any of these things1 ,faithful would soon have found him out1 and would have left him to go to the ,celestial ,city by himself4 ,but1 after talking for half a day with ,talkative1 instead of finding out anything wrong in the tall man's talk1 ,faithful was so taken and so struck with it1 that he stepped across to ,christian and said1 ',what a brave companion we have got6 ,surely this man will make a most excellent pilgrim6' ',so ,i once thought too1' said ,christian1 'till ,i went to live beside him1 and have to do with him in the business of daily life4' ,yes1 it is near neighbourhood and the business of everyday life that try a talking man4 ,if you go to a meeting for prayer1 and hear some men praying and speaking on religious subjects1 you would say to yourself1 ,what a good man that is1 and how happy must his wife and children and servants and neighbours be with such an example always before them1 and with such an intercessor for them always with ,god6 ,but if you were to go home with that so devotional man1 and try to do business with him1 and were compelled to cross him and go against him1 you would find out why ,christian smiled so when ,faithful was so full of ,talkative's praises4 ,but of all the religiously-loquacious men of our day1 your ministers are the chief4 ,for your ministers must talk in public1 and that often and at great length1 whether they are truly religious men at home or no4 ,it is their calling to talk to you unceasingly about religious matters4 ,you chose them to be your ministers because they could talk well4 ,you would not put up with a minister who could not talk well on religious things4 ,you estimate them by their talk4 ,you praise and pay them by their talk4 ,and if they are to live1 talk incessantly to you about religion they must1 and they do4 ,if any other man among us is not a religious man1 well1 then1 he can at least hold his tongue4 ,there is no necessity laid on him to speak in public about things that he does not practise at home4 ,but we hard-bested ministers must go on speaking continually about the most solemn things4 ,and if we are not extraordinarily watchful over ourselves1 and extraordinarily and increasingly conscientious1 if we are not steadily growing in inwardness and insight and depth and real spirituality of mind and life ourselves1 we cannot escape1--our calling in life will not let us escape1--becoming as sounding brass4 ,there is an awful sentence in ,butler that should be written in letters of fire in every minister's conscience1 to the effect that continually going over religion in talk and making fine pictures of it in the pulpit1 creates a professional insensibility to personal religion that is the everlasting ruin of multitudes of eloquent ministers4 ,that is true4 ,we ministers all feel that to be true4 ,our miserable experience tells us that is only too true of ourselves4 ,what a flood of demoralising talk has been poured out from the pulpits of this one city to-day6--demoralising to preachers and to hearers both1 because not intended to be put in practice4 ,how few of those who have talked and heard talk all this day about divine truth and human duty1 have made the least beginning or the least resolve to live as they have spoken and heard6 ,and1 yet1 all will in words again admit that the soul of religion is the practick part1 and that the tongue without the heart and the life is but death and corruption4 ,let us1 then1 this very night begin to do something practical after all this talk about talk4 ,and let us all begin to do something in the direct line of our present talk4 ,what a noble congregation of evangelical ,carthusians that would make us if we all put a bridle on our tongue to- night before we left this house4 ,for we all have neighbours1 friends1 enemies1 against whom we every day sin with our unbridled tongue4 ,we all have acquaintances we are ashamed to meet1 we have been so unkind and so unjust to them with our tongue4 ,we hang down our head when they shake our hand4 ,yes1 we know the men quite well of whom ,pascal speaks4 ,we know many men who would never speak to us again if they only knew how1 and how often1 we have spoken about them behind their back4 ,well1 let us sin against them1 and against ourselves1 and against our ,master's command and example no more4 ,let this night and this lecture on ,talkative and his kindred see the last of our sin against our ill-used neighbour4 ,let us promise ,god and our own consciences to-night1 that we shall all this week put on a bridle about that man1 and about that subject1 and in that place1 and in that company4 ,let us say1 ,god helping me1 ,i shall for all this week not speak about that man at all1 anything either good or bad1 nor on that subject1 nor will ,i let the conversation turn into that channel at all if ,i can help it4 ,and ,god will surely help us1 till1 after weeks and years of such prayer and such practice1 we shall by slow degrees1 and after many defeats1 be able to say with the ,psalmist1 ',i will take heed to my ways1 that ,i sin not with my tongue4 ,i will keep my mouth with a bridle4 ,i will be dumb with silence4 ,i will hold my peace even from good4' ,,judge ,,hate-,,good ',hear1 ,o heads of ,jacob1 and ye princes of the house of ,israel 4 4 4 who hate the good and love the evil4'--,micah4 ,the portrait of ,judge ,hate-good in ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress is but a poor replica1 as our artists say1 of the portrait of ,judge ,jeffreys in our ,english history books4 ,i am sure you have often read1 with astonishment at ,bunyan's literary power1 his wonderful account of the trial of ,faithful1 when1 as ,bunyan says1 he was brought forth to his trial in order to his condemnation4 ,we have the whole ecclesiastical jurisprudence of ,charles and ,james ,stuart put before us in that single satirical sentence4 ,but1 powerful as ,bunyan's whole picture of ,judge ,hate-good's court is1 it is a tame and a poor picture compared with what all the historians tell us of the injustice and cruelty of the court of ,judge ,jeffreys4 ,macaulay's portrait of the ,lord ,chief ,justice of ,england for ferocity and fiendishness beats out of sight ,bunyan's picture of that judge who keeps ,satan's own seal in ,bunyan's ,book4 ,jeffreys was bred for his future work at the bar of the ,old ,bailey1 a bar already proverbial for the licence of its tongue and for the coarseness of its cases4 ,jeffreys served his apprenticeship for the service that our two last ,stuarts had in reserve for him so well1 that he soon became1 so his beggared biographer describes him1 the most consummate bully that ever disgraced an ,english bench4 ,the boldest impudence when he was a young advocate1 and the most brutal ferocity when he was an old judge1 sat equally secure on the brazen forehead of ,george ,jeffreys4 ,the real and undoubted ability and scholarship of ,jeffreys only made his wickedness the more awful1 and his whole career the greater curse both to those whose tool he was1 and to those whose blood he drank daily4 ,jeffreys drank brandy and sang lewd songs all night1 and he drank blood and cursed and swore on the bench all day4 ,just imagine the state of our ,english courts when a judge could thus assail a poor wretch of a woman after passing a cruel sentence upon her4 ',hangman1' shouted the ermined brute1 ',hangman1 pay particular attention to this lady4 ,scourge her soundly1 man4 ,scourge her till the blood runs4 ,it is the ,christmas season2 a cold season for madam to strip in4 ,see1 therefore1 man1 that you warm her shoulders thoroughly4' ,and you all know who ,richard ,baxter was4 ,you have all read his seraphic book1 ,the ,saints' ,rest4 ,well1 besides being the ,richard ,baxter so well known to our saintly fathers and mothers1 he was also1 and he was emphatically1 the peace-maker of the ,puritan party4 ,baxter's political principles were of the most temperate and conciliatory1 and indeed1 almost royalist kind4 ,he was a man of strong passions1 indeed1 but all the strength and heat of his passions ran out into his hatred of sin and his love of holiness1 and an unsparing and consuming care for the souls of his people4 ,very ,faithful himself stood before the bar of ,judge ,jeffreys in the person of ,richard ,baxter4 ,it took all the barefaced falsehood and scandalous injustice of the crown prosecutors to draw out the sham indictment that was read out in court against inoffensive ,richard ,baxter4 ,but what was lacking in the charge of the crown was soon made up by the abominable scurrility of the judge4 ',you are a schismatical knave1' roared out ,jeffreys1 as soon as ,baxter was brought into court4 ',you are an old hypocritical villain4' ,and then1 clasping his hands and turning up his eyes1 he sang through his nose3 ',o ,lord1 we are ,thy peculiar people3 we are ,thy dear and only people4' ',you old blockhead1' he again roared out1 ',i will have you whipped through the city at the tail of the cart4 ,by the grace of ,god ,i will look after you1 ,richard4' ,and the tiger would have been as good as his word had not an overpowering sense of shame compelled the other judges to protest and get ,baxter's inhuman sentence commuted to fine and imprisonment4 ,and so on1 and so on4 ,but it was ,jeffreys' ',western ,circuit1' as it was called1 that filled up the cup of his infamy--an infamy1 say the historians1 that will last as long as the language and the history of ,england last4 ,the only parallel to it is the infamy of a royal house and a royal court that could welcome home and promote to honour such a detestable miscreant as ,jeffreys was4 ,but the slaughter in ,somerset was only over in order that a similar slaughter in ,london might begin4 ,let those who have a stomach for more blood and tears follow out the hell upon earth that ,james ,stuart and ,george ,jeffreys together let loose on the best life of ,england in their now fast-shortening day4 ,was ,judge ,jeffreys1 some of you will ask me1 born and bred in hell8 ,was the devil his father1 and original sin his mother8 ,or1 was he not the very devil himself come to earth for a season in ,english flesh8 ,no1 my brethren1 not so4 ,judge ,jeffreys was one of ourselves4 ,little ,george ,jeffreys was born and brought up in a happy ,english home4 ,he was baptised and confirmed in an ,english church4 ,he took honours in an ,english university4 ,he ate dinners1 was called to the bar1 conducted cases1 and took silk in an ,english court of justice4 ,and in the ripeness of his years and of his services1 he wore the honourable ermine and sat upon the envied wool-sack of an ,english sovereign4 ,it would have been far less awful and far less alarming to think of1 had ,judge ,jeffreys been1 as you supposed1 a pure devil let loose on the ,church of ,christ and the awakening liberty of ,england4 ,but some innocent soul will ask me next whether there has ever been any other monster on the face of the earth like ,judge ,jeffreys2 and whether by any possibility there are any such monsters anywhere in our own day4 ,yes1 truth compels me to reply4 ,yes1 there are1 plenty1 too many4 ,only their environment1 nowadays1 as our naturalists say1 does not permit them to grow to such strength and dimensions as those of ,james ,stuart1 and ,george ,jeffreys1 his favourite judge4 ,at the same time1 be not deceived by your own deceitful heart1 nor by any other deceiver's smooth speeches4 ,judge ,jeffreys is in yourself1 only circumstances have not yet let him fully show himself in you4 ,still1 if you look close enough and deep enough into your own hearts1 you will see the same wicked light glancing sometimes there that used so to terrify ,judge ,jeffreys' prisoners when they saw it in his wicked eyes4 ,if you lay your ear close enough to your own heart1 you will sometimes hear something of that same hiss with which that human serpent sentenced to torture and to death the men and the women who would not submit to his command4 ,the same savage laughter also will sometimes all but escape your lips as you think of how your enemy has been made to suffer in body and in estate4 ,o yes1 the very same hell-broth that ran for blood in ,judge ,jeffreys' heart is in all our hearts also2 and those who have the least of its poison left in their hearts will be the foremost to confess its presence1 and to hate and condemn and bewail themselves on account of its terrible dregs4 ,,hate-,,good is an awful enough name for any human being to bear4 ,those who really know what goodness is1 and then1 what hatred is1--they will feel how awful a thing it is for any man to hate goodness4 ,but there is something among us sinful men far more awful than even that1 and that is to hate ,god4 ,the carnal mind1 writes the apostle ,paul to the ,romans--and it is surely the most terrible sentence that often terrible enough apostle ever wrote--the carnal mind is enmity against ,god4 ,and ,dr4 ,john ,owen annotating on that sentence is equally terrible4 ,the carnal mind1 he says1 has 'chosen a great enemy indeed4' ,and having mentioned ,john ,owen1 will you let me once more beseech all students of divinity1 that is1 all students1 amongst other things1 of the desperate depravity of the human heart1 to read ,john ,owen's sixth volume till they have it by heart1--by a broken1 believing heart4 ,owen ,on ,indwelling ,sin is one of the greatest works of the great ,puritan period4 ,it is a really great1 and as we nowadays say1 a truly scientific work to the bargain4 ,but all that by the way4 ,yes1 this carnal heart that is still left in every one of us has chosen a great enemy1 and it would need both strong and faithful allies in order to fight him4 ,the hatred that ,his ,son also met with when ,he was in this world is one of the most hateful pages of this hateful world's hateful history4 ,he knew ,his own heart towards ,his enemies1 and thus ,he was able to say to the ,searcher of ,hearts with ,his dying breath1 ,they hated ,me without a cause4 ,truly our hatred is hottest when it is most unjust4 ',look to yourselves1' wrote the apostle ,john to the elect lady and her children4 ,yes2 let us all look sharply and suspiciously to ourselves in this matter now in hand1 and we shall not need ,john ,owen nor anybody else to discover to us the hatred and the hatefulness of our own hearts4 ,look to yourselves1 and the work of the law will soon be fulfilled in you4 ,homo homini lupus1 taught an old philosopher who had studied moral philosophy not in books so much as in his own heart4 ',is no man naturally good8' asked innocent ,lady ,macleod of ,dunvegan ,castle at her guest1 ,dr4 ,samuel ,johnson4 ',no1 madam1 no more than a wolf4' ,that is quite past all question with all those who either in natural morals or in revealed religion look to and know and characterise themselves4 ,we have all an inborn propensity to dislike one another1 and a very small provocation will suddenly blow that banked-up furnace into a flame4 ,it is ever present with me1 says self-examining ,paul1 and hence its so sudden and so destructive outbreaks4 ,so the written or the printed name of our enemy1 his image in our mind1 his passing step1 his figure out of the window2 his wife1 his child1 his carriage1 his cart in the street1 anything1 everything will stir up our heart at the man we do not like4 ,and the whole of our so honest ,bible1 our present text1 and the illustrations of our text in ,judge ,jeffreys' and ,judge ,hate-good's courts1 all go to show that the better a man is the more sometimes will we hate him4 ,good men1 better men than we are1 men who in public life and in private life pursue great and good ends1 of necessity cross and go counter to us in our pursuit of small1 selfish1 evil ends1 and of necessity we hate them4 ,for1 cross a selfish sinner sufficiently and you have a very devil--as many good men1 if they knew it1 have in us4 ,again1 good men who come into contact with us cannot help seeing our bad lives1 our tempers1 our selfishness1 our public and private vices2 and we see that they see us1 and we cannot love those whose averted eye so goes to our conscience4 ,and not only in the hatred of good men1 but if you know of ,god how to watch yourselves1 you will find yourselves out every day also in the hatred of good movements1 good causes1 good institutions1 and good works4 ,there are doctors who would far rather hear of their rival's patient expiring in his hands than hear their rival's success trumpeted through all the town4 ,there are ministers1 also1 who would rather that the masses of the city and the country sank yet deeper into improvidence and drink and neglect of ordinances than that they were rescued by any other church than their own4 ,they hate to hear of the successes of another church4 ,there are party politicians who would rather that the ship of the state ran on the rocks both in her home and her foreign policy than that the opposite party should steer her amid a nation's cheers into harbour4 ,and so of good news4 ,i will stake the divine truth of this evening's ,scriptures1 and of their historical and imaginative illustrations1 on the feelings1 if you know how to observe1 detect1 characterise1 and confess them1--the feelings1 ,i say1 that will rise in your heart to-morrow morning when you read what is good news to other men1 even to good men1 and to the families and family interests of good men4 ,it does not matter one atom into what profession1 office1 occupation1 interest you track the corrupt heart of man1 as sure as a substance casts a shadow1 so sure will you find your own selfish heart hating goodness when the goodness does not serve or flatter you4 ,now1 though they will never be many1 yet there must be some men among us1 one here and another there1 who have so looked at and found out themselves4 ,i can well believe that some men here came up to this house to-night trembling in their heart all the way4 ,they felt the very advertisement go through them like a knife3 they felt that they were summoned up hither almost by name as to judgment4 ,for they feel every day1 though they have never told their feelings to any1 that they have this horrible heart deep-seated within them to love evil and to hate good4 ,they gnash their teeth at themselves as they catch themselves rejoicing in iniquity4 ,they feel their hearts expanding1 and they know that their faces shine1 when you tell them evil tidings4 ,they sicken and lose heart and sit solitary when you carry to them a good report4 ,they feel as ,john ,bunyan felt1 that no one but the devil can equal them in pollution of heart4 ,and their wonder sometimes is that the ,searcher of ,hearts does not drive them down where devils dwell and hate ,god and man and one another4 ,they look around them when the penitential psalm is being sung1 and they smile bitterly to themselves4 ,o people of ,god1 they say1 you do not know what you are saying4 ,leave that psalm to me4 ,i can sing it4 ,i can tell to ,god what ,he knows about sin1 and about sin in the heart4 ,stand away back from me1 that man says1 for ,i am a leper4 ,the chief of sinners is beside you4 ,a whited sepulchre stands open beside you4--,stop now1 ,o hating and hateful man1 and let me speak for a single moment before we separate4 ,before you say any more about yourself1 and before you leave the house of ,god1 lift up your broken heart and with all your might bless ,god that ,he has opened your eyes and taught you how to look at yourself and how to hate yourself4 ,there are hundreds of honest ,christian men and women in this house at this moment to whom ,god has not done as1 in ,his free grace1 ,he has done to you4 ,for ,he has not only begun a good work in you1 but ,he has begun that special and peculiar work which1 when it goes on to perfection1 makes a great and an eminent saint of ,god4 ,to know your own heart as you evidently know it1 and to hate it as you say you hate it1 and to hunger after a clean heart as1 with every breath1 you hunger1--all that1 if you would only believe it1 sets you1 or will yet set you1 high up among the people of ,god4 ,be comforted2 it is your bounden duty to be comforted4 ,god deserves it at your hands that you be more than comforted amid such unmistakable signs of ,his eminent grace to you4 ,and be patient under your exceptional sanctification4 ,rome was not built in a day4 ,you cannot reverse the awful law of your sanctification4 ,you cannot be saved by ,jesus ,christ and ,his ,holy ,spirit without seeing yourself1 and you cannot see yourself without hating yourself1 and you cannot begin to hate yourself without all your hatred henceforth turning against yourself4 ,you are deep in the red-hot bosom of the refiner's fire4 ,and when you are once sufficiently tried by the ,divine ,refiner of ,souls1 ,he will in ,his own good time and way bring you out as gold4 ,be patient1 therefore1 till the coming of the ,lord4 ,and say continually amid all your increasing knowledge of yourself1 and amid all your increasing hatred of yourself1 ',as for me1 ,i will behold ,thy face in righteousness2 ,i shall be satisfied when ,i awake with ,thy likeness4' ,,faithful ,,in ,,vanity ,,fair #b ',be thou faithful4'--,rev4 #b4 #aj4 ,the breadth of ,john ,bunyan's mind1 the largeness of his heart1 and the tolerance of his temper all come excellently out in his fine portrait of ,faithful4 ,new beginners in personal religion1 when they first take up ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress in earnest1 always try to find out something in themselves that shall somewhat correspond to the recorded experience of ,christian1 the chief pilgrim4 ,and they are afraid that all is not right with them unless they1 like him1 have had1 to begin with1 a heavy burden on their back4 ,they look for something in their religious life that shall answer to the ,slough of ,despond also1 to the ,hill ,difficulty1 to the ,house ,beautiful1 and1 especially and indispensably1 to the place somewhat ascending with a cross upon it and an open sepulchre beneath it4 ,and because they cannot always find all these things in themselves in the exact order and in the full power in which they are told of ,christian in ,bunyan's book1 they begin to have doubts about themselves as to whether they are true pilgrims at all4 ,but here is ,faithful1 with whom ,christian held such sweet and confidential discourse1 and yet he had come through not a single one of all these things4 ,the two pilgrims had come from the same ,city of ,destruction indeed1 and they had met at the gate of ,vanity and passed through ,vanity ,fair together1 but1 till they embraced one another again in the ,celestial ,city1 that was absolutely all the experience they had in common4 ,faithful had never had any such burden on his back as that was which had for so long crushed ,christian to the earth4 ,and the all but complete absence of such a burden may have helped to let ,faithful get over the ,slough of ,despond dry shod4 ,he had the good lot to escape ,sinai also and the ,hill ,difficulty1 and his passing by the ,house ,beautiful and not making the acquaintance of ,discretion and ,prudence and ,charity may have had something to do with the fact that one named ,wanton had like to have done him such a mischief4 ,his remarkable experiences1 however1 with ,adam the ,first1 with ,moses1 and then with the ,man with holes in ,his hands1 all that makes up a page in ,faithful's autobiography we could ill have spared4 ,his encounter with ,shame also1 and soon afterwards with ,talkative1 are classical passages in his so individual history4 ,altogether1 it would be almost impossible for us to imagine two pilgrims talking so heartily together1 and yet so completely unlike one another4 ,a very important lesson surely as to how we should abstain from measuring other men by ourselves1 as well as ourselves by other men2 an excellent lesson also as to how we should learn to allow for all possible varieties among good men1 both in their opinions1 their experiences1 and their attainments4 ,true ,puritan as the author of ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress is1 he is no ,procrustes4 ,he does not cut down all his pilgrims to one size1 nor does he clip them all into one pattern4 ,they are all thinking men1 but they are not all men of one way of thinking4 ,john ,bunyan is as fresh as ,nature herself1 and as free and full as ,holy ,scripture herself in the variety1 in the individuality1 and even in the idiosyncrasy of his spiritual portrait gallery4 ,vanity ,fair is one of ,john ,bunyan's universally-admitted masterpieces4 ,the very name of the fair is one of his happiest strokes4 ,thackeray's famous book owes half its popularity to the happy name he borrowed from ,john ,bunyan4 ,thackeray's author's heart must have leaped in his bosom when ,vanity ,fair struck him as a title for his great satire4 ',then ,i saw in my dream that when they were got out of the wilderness they presently saw a town before them1 and the name of that town is ,vanity1 and at that town there is a fair kept called ,vanity ,fair4 ,the fair is kept all the year long1 and it beareth the name of ,vanity ,fair1 because the town where it is kept is lighter than ,vanity4 ,and1 also1 because all that is sold there is vanity4 ,as is the saying of the wise1 ,all that cometh is vanity4 ,the fair is no new erected business1 but a thing of ancient standing3 ,i will show you the original of it4 ,about five thousand years ago there were pilgrims walking to the ,celestial ,city1 as these two honest persons now are1 and ,beelzebub1 ,apollyon1 and ,legion1 with their companions1 perceiving that by the path that the pilgrims made1 that their way to the city lay through this town of ,vanity1 they contrived there to set up a fair3 a fair wherein should be sold all sorts of vanity1 and that it should last all the year long4 ,therefore at this fair are all such merchandise sold as houses1 lands1 trades1 places1 honours1 preferments1 titles1 countries1 kingdoms1 pleasures1 and delights of all sorts1 as wives1 husbands1 children1 masters1 servants1 lives1 blood1 bodies1 souls1 silver1 gold1 precious stones1 and what not4 ,and1 moreover1 at this fair at all times there is to be seen juggling1 cheats1 games1 plays1 fools1 apes1 knaves1 and rogues1 and that of every kind4' ,and then our author goes on to tell us the names of the various streets and rows where such and such wares are vended4 ,and from that again he goes on to tell how the ,prince of princes ,himself went at one time through this same fair1 and that upon a fair day too1 and how the lord of the fair himself came and took ,him from street to street to try to get ,him induced to cheapen and buy some of the vain merchandise4 ,but as it turned out ,he had no mind to the merchandise in question1 and ,he therefore passed through the town without laying out so much as one farthing upon its vanities4 ,the fair1 therefore1 you will see1 is of long standing and a very great fair4 ,now1 our two pilgrims had heard of all that1 they remembered also what ,evangelist had told them about the fair1 and so they buttoned up their pockets and pushed through the booths in the hope of getting out at the upper gate before any one had time to speak to them4 ,but that was not possible1 for they were soon set upon by the men of the fair1 who cried after them3 ',hail1 strangers1 look here1 what will you buy8' ',we buy the truth only1' said ,faithful1 'and we do not see any of that article of merchandise set out on any of your stalls4' ,and from that began a hubbub that ended in a riot1 and the riot in the apprehension and shutting up in a public cage of the two innocent pilgrims4 ,lord ,hate-good was the judge on the bench of ,vanity in the day of their trial1 and the three witnesses who appeared in the witness-box against the two prisoners were ,envy1 ,superstition1 and ,pickthank4 ,the twelve jurymen who sat on their case were ,mr4 ,blindman1 ,mr4 ,no-good1 ,mr4 ,malice1 ,mr4 ,love-lust1 ,mr4 ,live-loose1 ,mr4 ,heady1 ,mr4 ,high-mind1 ,mr4 ,enmity1 ,mr4 ,liar1 ,mr4 ,cruelty1 ,mr4 ,hate-light1 and ,mr4 ,implacable1--,mr4 ,blindman to be the foreman4 ,and it was before these men that ,faithful was brought forth to his trial in order to his condemnation4 ,and very soon after his trial ,faithful came to his end4 ',now ,i saw that there stood behind the multitude a chariot and a couple of horses waiting for ,faithful1 who 7so soon as his adversaries had despatched him7 was taken up into it1 and straightway was carried up through the clouds1 with sound of trumpet1 the nearest way to the ,celestial gate4' ,now1 ,i cannot tell you how it was1 ,i cannot account for it to myself1 but it is nevertheless absolutely true that as ,i was reading my author last week and was meditating my present exposition1 it came somehow into my mind1 and ,i could not get it out of my mind1 that there is a great and a close similarity between ,john ,bunyan's ,vanity ,fair and a general election4 ,and1 all ,i could do to keep the whole thing out of my mind1 one similarity after another would leap up into my mind and would not be put out of it4 ,i protest that ,i did not go out to seek for such similarities1 but the more ,i frowned on them the thicker they came4 ,and then the further question arose as to whether ,i should write them down or no2 and then much more1 as to whether ,i should set them out before my people or no4 ,as you will easily believe1 ,i was immediately in a real strait as to what ,i should do4 ,i saw on the one side what would be sure to be said by ill-natured people and people of a hasty judgment4 ,and ,i saw with much more anxiety what would be felt even when they restrained themselves from saying it by timid and cautious and scrupulous people4 ,i had the full fear of all such judges before my eyes2 but1 somehow1 something kept this before my eyes also1 that1 as ,evangelist met the two pilgrims just as they were entering the fair1 so1 for anything ,i knew to the contrary1 it might be of ,god1 that ,i also1 in my own way1 should warn my people of the real and special danger that their souls will be in for the next fortnight4 ,and as ,i thought of it a procession of people passed before me all bearing to this day the stains and scars they had taken on their hearts and their lives and their characters at former general elections4 ,and1 like ,evangelist1 ,i felt a divine desire taking possession of me to do all ,i could to pull my people out of gunshot of the devil at this election4 ,and1 then1 when ,i read again how both the pilgrims thanked ,evangelist for his exhortation1 and told him withal that they would have him speak further to them about the dangers of the way1 ,i said at last to myself1 that the thanks of one true ,christian saved in anything and in any measure from the gun of the devil are far more to be attended to by a minister than the blame and the neglect of a hundred who do not know their hour of temptation and will not be told it4 ,and so ,i took my pen and set down some similarities between ,vanity ,fair and the approaching election1 with some lessons to those who are not altogether beyond being taught4 ,well1 then1 in the first place1 the only way to the ,celestial ,city ran through ,vanity ,fair2 by no possibility could the advancing pilgrims escape the temptations and the dangers of the fatal fair4 ,he that will go to the ,celestial ,city and yet not go through ,vanity ,fair must needs go out of the world4 ,and so it is with the temptations and trials of the next ten days4 ,we cannot get past them4 ,they are laid down right across our way4 ,and to many men now in this house the next ten days will be a time of simply terrible temptation4 ,if ,i had been quite sure that all my people saw that and felt that1 ,i would not have introduced here to-night what some of them1 judging too hastily1 will certainly call this so secular and unseemly subject4 ,but ,i am so afraid that many not untrue1 and in other things most earnest men amongst us1 do not yet know sufficiently the weakness and the evil of their own hearts1 that ,i wish much1 if they will allow me1 to put them on their guard4 '',tis hard1' said ,contrite1 who was a householder and had a vote in the town of ,vanity1 ''tis hard keeping our hearts and our spirits in any good order when we are in a cumbered condition4 ,and you may be sure that we are full of hurry at fair-time4 ,he that lives in such a place as this is1 and that has to do with such as we have to do with1 has need of an item to caution him to take heed every hour of the day4' ,now1 if all my people1 and all this day's communicants1 were only contrite enough1 ,i would leave them to the hurry of the approaching election with much more comfort4 ,but as it is1 ,i wish to give them such an item as ,i am able to caution them for the next ten days4 ,let them know1 then1 that their way for the next fortnight lies1 ,i will not say through a fair of jugglings and cheatings1 carried on by apes and knaves1 but1 to speak without figure1 their way certainly lies through what will be to many of them a season of the greatest temptation to the very worst of all possible sins--to anger and bitterness and ill-will2 to no end of evil-thinking and evil-speaking2 to the breaking up of lifelong friendships2 and to widespread and lasting damage to the cause of ,christ1 which is the cause of truth and love1 meekness and a heavenly mind4 ,now1 amid all that1 as ,evangelist said to the two pilgrims1 look well to your own hearts4 ,let none of all these evil things enter your heart from the outside1 and let none of all these evil things come out of your hearts from the inside4 ,set your faces like a flint from the beginning against all evil-speaking and evil-thinking4 ,let your own election to the kingdom of heaven be always before you1 and walk worthy of it2 and amid all the hurry of things seen and temporal1 believe steadfastly concerning the things that are eternal1 and walk worthy of them4 ',we buy the truth and we sell it not again for anything1' was the reply of the two pilgrims to every stall-keeper as they passed up the fair1 and this it was that made them to be so hated and hunted down by the men of the fair4 ,and1 in like manner1 there is nothing more difficult to get hold of at an election time than just the very truth4 ,all the truth on any question is not very likely to be found put forward in the programme of any man or any party1 and1 even if it were1 a general election is not the best time for you to find it out4 ',i design the search after truth to be the one business of my life1' wrote the future ,bishop ,butler at the age of twenty-one4 ,and whether you are to be a member of ,parliament or a silent voter for a member of ,parliament1 you1 too1 must love truth and search for her as for hid treasure from your youth up4 ,you must search for all kinds of truth1--historical1 political1 scientific1 and religious1--with much reading1 much observation1 and much reflection4 ,and those who have searched longest and dug deepest will always be found to be the most temperate1 patient1 and forbearing with those who have not yet found the truth4 ,i do not know who first said it1 but he was a true disciple of ,socrates and ,plato who first said it4 ',plato1' he said1 'is my friend1 and ,socrates is my friend1 but the truth is much more my friend4' ,there is a thrill of enthusiasm1 admiration and hope that goes through the whole country and comes down out of history as often as we hear or read of some public man parting with all his own past1 as well as with all his leaders and patrons and allies and colleagues in the present1 and taking his solitary way out after the truth4 ,many may call that man ,quixotic1 visionary1 unpractical1 imprudent1 and he may be all that and more1 but to follow conscience and the love of truth even when they are for the time leading him wrong is noble1 and is every way far better both for himself and for the cause he serves1 than if he were always found following his leaders loyally and even walking in the way of righteousness with the love of self and the love of party at bottom ruling his heart4 ,how healthful and how refreshing at an election time it is to hear a speech replete with the love of the truth1 full knowledge of the subject1 and with the dignity1 the good temper1 the respect for opponents1 and the love of fair play that full knowledge of the whole subject is so well fitted to bring with it6 ,and next to hearing such a speaker is the pleasure of meeting such a hearer or such a reader at such a time4 ,now1 ,i want such readers and such hearers1 if not such speakers1 to be found all the next fortnight among my office-bearers and my people4 ,be sure you say to some of your political opponents something like this3--',i do not profess to read all the speeches that fill the papers at present4 ,i do not read all the utterances made even on my own side1 and much less all the utterances made on your side4 ,but there is one of your speakers ,i always read1 and ,i almost always find him instructive and impressive1 a gentleman1 if not a ,christian4 ,he is fair1 temperate1 frank1 bold1 and independent2 and1 to my mind at least1 he always throws light on these so perplexing questions4' ,now1 if you have the intelligence and the integrity and the fair-mindedness to say something like that to a member of the opposite party you have poured oil on the waters of party2 nay1 you are in that a wily politician1 for you have almost1 just in saying that1 won over your friend to your own side4 ,so noble is the love of truth1 and so potent is the high-principled pursuit and the fearless proclamation of the truth4 ,a general election is a trying time to all kinds of public men1 but it is perhaps most trying of all to ,christian ministers4 ,unless they are to disfranchise themselves and are to detach and shut themselves in from all interest in public affairs altogether1 an election time is to our ministers1 beyond any other class of citizens perhaps1 a peculiarly trying time4 ,how they are to escape the ,scylla of cowardice and the contempt of all free and true men on the one hand1 and the ,charybdis of pride and self-will and scorn of other men's opinions and wishes on the other1 is no easy dilemma to our ministers4 ,some happily constituted and happily circumstanced ministers manage to get through life1 and even through political life1 without taking or giving a wound in all their way4 ,they are so wise and so watchful2 they are so inoffensive1 unprovoking1 and conciliatory2 and even where they are not always all that1 they have around them sometimes a people who are so patient and tolerant and full of the old-fashioned respect for their minister that they do not attempt to interfere with him4 ,then1 again1 some ministers preach so well1 and perform all their pastoral work so well1 that they make it unsafe and impossible for the most censorious and intolerant of their people to find fault with them4 ,but all our ministers are not like that4 ,and all our congregations are not like that4 ,and those of our ministers who are not like that must just be left to bear that which their past unwisdom or misfortune has brought upon them4 ,only1 if they have profited by their past mistakes or misfortunes1 a means of grace1 and an opportunity of better playing the man is again at their doors4 ,i am sure you will all join with me in the prayer that all our ministers1 as well as all their people1 may come well out of the approaching election4 ,there is yet one other class of public men1 if ,i may call them so1 many of whom come almost worse out of an election time than even our ministers1 and that class is composed of those1 who1 to continue the language of ,vanity ,fair1 keep the cages of the fair4 ,i wish ,i had to- night1 what ,i have not1 the ear of the conductors of our public journals4 ,for1 what an omnipotence in ,god's providence to this generation for good or evil is theirs6 ,if they would only all consider well at election times1 and at all times1 who they put into their cages and for what reason2 if they would only all ask what can that man's motives be for throwing such dirt at his neighbour2 if they would only all set aside all the letters they will get during the next fortnight that are avowedly composed on the old principle of calumniating boldly in the certainty that some of it will stick1 what a service they would do to the cause of love and truth and justice1 which is1 surely1 after all1 their own cause also6 ,the very best papers sin sadly in this respect when their conductors are full for the time of party passion4 ,and it is inexpressibly sad when a reader sees great journals to which he owes a lifelong debt of gratitude absolutely poisoned under his very eyes with the malignant spirit of untruthful partisanship4 ,but so long as our public cages are so kept1 let those who are exposed in them resolve to imitate ,christian and ,faithful1 who behaved themselves amid all their ill- usage yet more wisely1 and received all the ignominy and shame that was cast upon them with so much meekness and patience that it actually won to their side several of the men of the fair4 ,my brethren1 this is the last time this season that ,i shall be able to speak to you from this pulpit2 and1 perhaps1 the last time altogether4 ,but1 if it so turns out1 ,i shall not repent that the last time ,i spoke to you1 and that1 too1 immediately after the communion table1 the burden of my message was the burden of my ,master's message after the first communion table4 ',if ye know these things1 happy are ye if ye do them4 ,a new commandment ,i give unto you1 that ye love one another4 ,by this shall all men know that ye are ,my disciples1 if ye have love one to another4 ,herein is ,my ,father glorified1 that ye bear much fruit1 so shall ye be ,my disciples4 ,these things have ,i spoken unto you that in ,me ye might have peace4 ,in the world ye shall have tribulation2 but be of good cheer1 ,i have overcome the world4 ,know ye what ,i have done unto you8 ,ye call ,me ,master and ,lord1 and ye say well1 for so ,i am4' ,,by-,,ends ',ye seek ,me1 not because ye saw the miracles1 but because ye did eat of the loaves4'--,our ,lord4 ,in no part of ,john ,bunyan's ingenious book is his strong sense and his sarcastic and humorous vein better displayed than just in his description of ,by-ends1 and in the full and particular account he gives of the kinsfolk and affinity of ,by-ends4 ,is there another single stroke in all sacred literature better fitted at once to teach the gayest and to make the gravest smile than just ,john ,bunyan's sketch of ,by-ends' great-grandfather1 the founder of the egoistical family of ,fairspeech1 who was1 to begin with1 but a waterman who always looked one way and rowed another8 ,by-ends' wife also is a true helpmate to her husband4 ,she was my ,lady ,feigning's favourite daughter1 under whose nurture and example the young lady had early come to a quite extraordinary pitch of good breeding2 and now that she was a married woman1 she and her husband had1 so their biographer tells us1 two firm points of family religion in which they were always agreed and according to which they brought up all their children1 namely1 never to strive too much against wind and tide1 and always to watch when ,religion was walking on the sunny side of the street in his silver slippers1 and then at once to cross over and take his arm4 ,but abundantly amusing and entertaining as ,john ,bunyan is at the expense of ,by-ends and his family and friends1 he has far other aims in view than the amusement and entertainment of his readers4 ,bunyan uses all his great gifts of insight and sense and humour and scorn so as to mark unmistakably the road and to guide the progress of his reader's soul to ,god1 his chiefest end and his everlasting portion4 ,it was no small part of our ,lord's life of humiliation on the earth1--much more so than ,his being born in a low condition and being made under the law1--to have to go about all ,his days among men1 knowing in every case and on every occasion what was in man4 ,it was a real humiliation to our ,lord to see those watermen of the sea of ,tiberias sweating at their oars as they rowed round and round the lake after ,him2 and ,his humiliation came still more home to ,him as often as ,he saw ,his own disciples disputing and pressing who should get closest to ,him while for a short season ,he walked in the sunshine2 just as it was ,his estate of exaltation already begun1 when ,he could enter into ,himself and see to the bottom of ,his own heart1 till ,he was able to say that it was ,his very meat and drink to do ,his father's will1 and to finish the work ,his ,father had given ,him to do4 ,the men of ,capernaum went out after our ,lord in their boats because they had eaten of the multiplied loaves and hoped to do so again4 ,zebedee's children had forsaken all and followed our ,lord1 because they counted to sit the one on ,his right hand and the other on ,his left hand in ,his soon-coming kingdom4 ,the pain and the shame all that cost our ,lord1 we can only remotely imagine4 ,but as for ,himself1 our ,lord never once had to blush in secret at ,his own motives4 ,he never once had to hang down ,his head at the discovery of ,his own selfish aims and by-ends4 ,happy man6 ,the thought of what ,he should eat or what ,he should drink or wherewithal ,he should be clothed never troubled ,his head4 ,the thought of success1 as ,his poor-spirited disciples counted success1 the thought of honour and power and praise1 never once rose in ,his heart4 ,all these things1 and all things like them1 had no attraction for ,him2 they awoke nothing but indifference and contempt in him4 ,but to please ,his ,father and to hear from time to time ,his ,father's voice saying that ,he was well pleased with ,his beloved ,son1--that was better than life to our ,lord4 ,to find out and follow every new day ,his ,father's mind and will1 and to finish every night another part of ,his ,father's appointed work1--that was more than ,his necessary food to our ,lord4 ,the great schoolmen1 as they meditated on these deep matters1 had a saying to the effect that all created things take their true goodness or their true evil from the end they aim at4 ,and thus it was that our ,lord1 aiming only at ,his ,father's ends and never at ,his own1 both manifested and attained to a ,divine goodness1 just as the greedy crowds of ,galilee and the disputatious disciples1 as long and as far as they made their belly or their honour their end and aim1 to that extent fell short of all true goodness1 all true satisfaction1 and all true acceptance4 ,by-ends was so called because he was full of low1 mean1 selfish motives1 and of nothing else4 ,all that this wretched creature did1 he did with a single eye to himself4 ,the best things that he did became bad things in his self-seeking hands4 ,his very religion stank in those men's nostrils who knew what was in his heart4 ,by-ends was one of our ,lord's whited sepulchres4 ,and so deep1 so pervading1 and so abiding is this corrupt taint in human nature1 that long after a man has had his attention called to it1 and is far on to a clean escape from it1 he still--nay1 he all the more--languishes and faints and is ready to die under it4 ,just hear what two great servants of ,god have said on this humiliating and degrading matter4 ,writing on this subject with all his wonted depth and solemnity1 ,hooker says1 ',even in the good things that we do1 how many defects are there intermingled6 ,for ,god in that which is done1 respecteth especially the mind and intention of the doer4 ,cut off1 then1 all those things wherein we have regarded our own glory1 those things which we do to please men1 or to satisfy our own liking1 those things which we do with any by-respect1 and not sincerely and purely for the love of ,god1 and a small score will serve for the number of our righteous deeds4 ,let the holiest and best things we do be considered4 ,we are never better affected to ,god than when we pray2 yet1 when we pray1 how are our affections many times distracted6 ,how little reverence do we show to that ,god unto whom we speak6 ,how little remorse of our own miseries6 ,how little taste of the sweet influence of ,his tender mercy do we feel6 ,the little fruit we have in holiness1 it is1 ,god knoweth1 corrupt and unsound2 we put no confidence at all in it1 we challenge nothing in the world for it1 we dare not call ,god to a reckoning as if we had ,him in our debt-books2 our continued suit to ,him is1 and must be1 to bear with our infirmities1 and to pardon our offences4' ,and ,thomas ,shepard1 a divine of a very different school1 as we say1 but a saint and a scholar equal to the best1 and indeed with few to equal him1 thus writes in his ,spiritual ,experiences3--',on ,sabbath morning ,i saw that ,i had a secret eye to my own name in all that ,i did1 for which ,i judged myself worthy of death4 ,on another ,sabbath1 when ,i came home1 ,i saw the deep hypocrisy of my heart1 that in my ministry ,i sought to comfort and quicken others1 that the glory might reflect on me as well as on ,god4 ,on the evening before the sacrament ,i saw that mine own ends were to procure honour1 pleasure1 gain to myself1 and not to the ,lord1 and ,i saw how impossible it was for me to seek the ,lord for ,himself1 and to lay up all my honour and all my pleasures in ,him4 ,on ,sabbath-day1 when the ,lord had given me some comfortable enlargements1 ,i searched my heart and found my sin4 ,i saw that though ,i did to some extent seek ,christ's glory1 yet ,i sought it not alone1 but my own glory too4 ,after my ,wednesday sermon ,i saw the pride of my heart acting thus1 that presently my heart would look out and ask whether ,i had done well or ill4 ,hereupon ,i saw my vileness to make men's opinions my rule4 ,the ,lord thus gave me some glimpse of myself and a good day that was to me4' ,one would think that this was ,by-ends himself climbed up into the ministry4 ,and so it was4 ,and yet ,david ,brainerd could write on his deathbed about ,thomas ,shepard in this way4 ',he valued nothing in religion that was not done to the glory of ,god1 and1 oh6 that others would lay the stress of religion here also4 ,his method of examining his ends and aims and the temper of his mind both before and after preaching1 is an excellent example for all who bear the sacred character4 ,by this means they are like to gain a large acquaintance with their own hearts1 as it is evident he had with his4' ,but it is not those who bear the sacred character of the ministry alone who are full of by-ends4 ,we all are4 ,you all are4 ,and there is not one all-reaching1 all-exposing1 and all-humbling way of salvation appointed for ministers1 and another1 a more external1 superficial1 easy1 and self- satisfied way for their people4 ,no4 ,not only must the ambitious and disputing disciples enter into themselves and become witnesses and judges and executioners within themselves before they can be saved or be of any use in the salvation of others--not only they1 but the fishermen of the ,lake of ,tiberias1 they also must open their hearts to these stabbing words of ,christ1 and see how true it is that they had followed ,him for loaves and fishes1 and not for ,his grace and ,his truth4 ,and only when they had seen and submitted to that humiliating self-discovery would their true acquaintance with ,christ and their true search after ,him begin4 ,come1 then1 all my brethren1 and not ministers only1 waken up to the tremendous importance of that which you have utterly neglected1 it may be ostentatiously neglected1 up to this hour1--the true nature1 the true character1 of your motives and your ends4 ,enter into yourselves4 ,be not strangers and foreigners to yourselves4 ,let not the day of judgment be any surprise to you4 ,witness against1 judge1 and execute yourselves1 and that especially because of your by-aims and by-ends4 ,take up the touchstone of truth and lay it upon your most secret heart4 ,do not be afraid to discover how double-minded and deceitful your heart is4 ,hunt your heart down4 ,track it to its most secret lair4 ,put its true name1 and continue to put its true name1 upon the main motive of your life4 ,extort an answer by boot and by wheel1 only extort an answer from the inner man of the heart1 to the torturing question as to what is his treasure1 his hope1 his deepest wish1 his daily dream4 ,watch not against any outward enemy1 keep all your eyes and all your ears to your own thoughts4 ,god keeps ,his awful eye on your thoughts4 ,his eye goes at every glance to that great depth in you4 ,even ,his all-seeing eye can go no deeper into you than to your secret thoughts4 ,go you as deep as ,god goes1 and you will be a wise man2 go as deep and as often as ,he does1 and then you will soon come to see eye to eye with ,god1 not only about your own thoughts1 but about ,his thoughts too1 and about everything else4 ,till you begin to watch your own thoughts1 and to watch them especially in their aims and their ends1 you will have no idea what that moral and spiritual life is that all ,god's saints live2 that life that ,christ lived1 and which ,he this night summons you all to enter henceforth upon4 ,it is such a happy fact that it cannot be too often told1 that in the things of the soul really and truly to know and feel the disease is to have already entered on the remedy4 ,you will not feel1 indeed1 that you have entered on the remedy2 but that does not much matter so long as you really have4 ,and there is nothing more certain among all the certainties of divine things than that he who feels himself to be in death and hell with his heart so full of by-ends is all the time as far from death and hell as any one can be who is still on this side of heaven4 ,when a man's whole will and desire is set on ,god1 as is now and then the case1 that man is perilously near a sudden and an abundant entrance into that life and that presence where his heart has for so long been4 ,when a man is half mad with his own heart1 as ,thomas ,shepard for one was1 that stranger on the earth is at last within a step of that happy coast where all wishes end4 ,watch that man4 ,take a last look at that man4 ,he will soon be taken out of your sight4 ,ere ever he is himself aware1 he will be rapt up into that life where saints and angels seek not their own will1 labour not for their own profit or promotion1 listen not for their own praises1 but find their blessedness1 the half of which had not here been told them1 in glorifying ,god and in enjoying ,him for ever4 ,you must all have heard the name of a book that has helped many a saint now in glory to the examination and the keeping of his own heart4 ,i refer to ,jeremy ,taylor's ,holy ,living and ,dying4 ,take two or three of ,taylor's excellent rules with you as you go down from ,god's house to-night4 ',if you would really live a holy life and die a holy death1' says ,taylor1 'learn to reflect in your every action on your secret end in it2 consider with yourself why you do it1 and what you propound to yourself for your reward4 ,pray importunately that all your purposes and all your motives may be sanctified4 ,renew and rekindle your purest purposes by such ejaculations as these3 ,not unto us1 ,o ,god1 not unto us1 but to ,thy name be all the praise4 ,i am in this ,thy servant2 let all the gain be ,thine4 ,in great and eminent actions let there be a special and peculiar act of resignation or oblation made to ,god2 and in smaller and more frequent actions fail not to secure a pious habitual intention4' ,and so on4 ,and above all1 ,i will add1 labour and pray till you feel in your heart that you love ,god with a supreme and an ever-growing love4 ,and1 far as that may be above you as yet1 impress your heart with the assurance that such a love is possible to you also1 and that you can never be safe or happy till you attain to that love4 ,other men once as far from the supreme love of ,god as you are have afterwards attained to it2 and so will you if you continue to set it before yourself4 ,think often on ,god2 read the best books about ,god2 call continually upon ,god2 hold an intimate communion with ,god1 till you feel that you also actually and certainly love ,god4 ,and though you begin with loving ,god because ,he first loved you1 you will1 beginning with that1 rise far above that till you come to love ,him for what ,he is in ,himself as well as for what ,he has done for you4 ',i have done this in order to have a seat in the ,academy1' said a young man1 handing the solution of a problem to an old philosopher4 ',sir1' was the reply1 'with such dispositions you will never earn a seat there4 ,science must be loved for its own sake1 and not for any advantage to be derived from it4' ,and much more is that true of the highest of all the sciences1 the knowledge and the love of ,god4 ,love ,him1 then1 till you arrive at loving ,him for ,himself1 and then you shall be for ever delivered from all self-love and by-ends1 and shall both glorify and enjoy ,god for ever4 ,as all they now do who engaged their hearts on earth to the service and the love and the enjoyment of ,god is such psalms and prayers as these3 ',whom have ,i in heaven but ,thee8 and there is no one on earth that ,i desire beside ,thee4 ,how excellent is ,thy loving-kindness1 ,o ,god6 ,the children of men shall put their trust under the shadow of ,thy wings4 ,for with ,thee is the fountain of life1 and in ,thy light shall we see light4 ,as for me1 ,i will behold ,thy face in righteousness3 ,i shall be satisfied when ,i awake with ,thy likeness4 ,thou wilt show me the path of life2 in ,thy presence is fullness of joy1 and at ,thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore4' ,,giant ,,despair ',a wounded spirit who can bear8'--,solomon4 ,every schoolboy has ,giant ,despair by heart4 ,the rough road after the meadow of lilies1 the stile into ,by-,path-,meadow1 the night coming on1 the thunder and the lightning and the waters rising amain1 ,giant ,despair's apprehension of ,christian and ,hopeful1 their dreadful bed in his dungeon from ,wednesday morning till ,saturday night1 how they were famished with hunger and beaten with a grievous crab-tree cudgel till they were not able to turn1 with many other sufferings too many and too terrible to be told which they endured till ,saturday about midnight1 when they began to pray1 and continued in prayer till almost break of day2--,john ,bunyan is surely the best story-teller in all the world4 ,and1 then1 over and above that1 as often as a boy reads ,giant ,despair and his dungeon to his father and mother1 the two hearers are like ,christian and ,hopeful when the ,delectable shepherds showed them what had happened to some who once went in at ,by-,path stile3 the two pilgrims looked one upon another with tears gushing out1 but yet said nothing to the shepherds4 ,john ,bunyan's own experience enters deeply into these terrible pages4 ,in composing these terrible pages1 ,bunyan writes straight and bold out of his own heart and conscience4 ,the black and bitter essence of a whole black and bitter volume is crushed into these four or five bitter pages4 ,last week ,i went over ,grace ,abounding again1 and marked the passages in which its author describes his own experiences of doubt1 diffidence1 and despair1 till ,i gave over counting the passages1 they are so many4 ,i had intended to illustrate the passage before us to-night out of the kindred materials that ,i knew were so abundant in ,bunyan's terrible autobiography1 but ,i had to give up that idea4 ,it would have taken two or three lectures to itself to tell all that ,bunyan suffered all his life long from an easily-wounded spirit4 ,the whole book is just ,giant ,despair and his dungeon1 with a gleam here and there of that sunshiny weather that threw the giant into one of his fits1 in which he always lost for the time the use of his limbs4 ,return often1 my brethren1 to that masterpiece1 ,grace ,abounding to the ,chief of ,sinners4 ,i have read it a hundred times1 but last week it was as fresh and powerful and consoling as ever to my sin-wounded spirit4 ,let me select some of the incidents that offer occasion for a comment or two4 #a4 ,and1 in the first place1 take notice1 and lay well to heart1 how sudden1 and almost instantaneous1 is the fall of ,christian and ,hopeful from the very gate of heaven to the very gate of hell4 ,all the ,sabbath and the ,monday and the ,tuesday before that fatal ,wednesday1 the two pilgrims had walked with great delight on the banks of a very pleasant river2 that river1 in fact1 which ,david the ,king called the river of ,god1 and ,john1 the river of the water of life4 ,they drank also of the water of the river1 which was pleasant and enlivening to their weary spirits4 ,on either side of the river was there a meadow curiously beautified with lilies1 and it was green all the year long4 ,in this meadow they lay down and slept1 for here they might lie down and sleep safely4 ,when they awoke they gathered again of the fruits of the trees1 and drank again of the water of the river1 and then lay down again to sleep4 ,thus they did several days and nights4 ,now1 could you have believed it that two such men as our pilgrims were could be in the enjoyment of all that the first half of the week1 and then by their own doing should be in ,giant ,despair's deepest dungeon before the end of the same week8 ,and yet so it was4 ,and all that is written for the solemn warning of those who are at any time in great enlargement and refreshment and joy in their spiritual life4 ,it is intended for all those who are at any time revelling in a season of revival3 those1 for example1 who are just come home from ,keswick or ,dunblane1 as well as for all those who at home have just made the discovery of some great master of the spiritual life1 and who are almost beside themselves with their delight in their divine author4 ,if they are new beginners they will not take this warning well1 nor will even all old pilgrims lay it aright to heart2 but there it is as plain as the plainest1 simplest1 and most practical writer in our language could put it4 ,behold ye how these crystal streams do glide ,to comfort pilgrims by the highway side2 ,the meadows green1 besides their fragrant smell1 ,yield dainties for them3 ,and he that can tell ,what pleasant fruits1 yea leaves1 these trees do yield1 ,will soon sell all that he may buy this field4 ,thus the two pilgrims sang3 only1 adds our author in a parenthesis1 they were not1 as yet1 at their journey's end4 #b4 ',now1 ,i beheld in my dream that they had not journeyed far when the river and the way for a time parted4 ,at which the two pilgrims were not a little sorry4' ,the two pilgrims could not perhaps be expected to break forth into dancing and singing at the parting of the river and the way1 even though they had recollected at that moment what the brother of the ,lord says about our counting it all joy when we fall into divers temptations4 ,but it would not have been too much to expect from such experienced pilgrims as they by this time were1 that they should have suspected and checked and commanded their sorrow4 ,they should have said something like this to one another3 ,well1 it would have been very pleasant had it been our ,king's will and way with us that we should have finished the rest of our pilgrimage among the apples and the lilies and on the soft and fragrant bank of the river2 but we believe that it must in some as yet hidden way be better for us that the river and our road should part from one another at least for a season4 ,come1 brother1 and let us go on till we find out our ,master's deep and loving mind4 ,but1 instead of saying that1 ,christian and ,hopeful soon became like the children of ,israel as they journeyed from ,mount ,hor1 their soul was much discouraged because of the way4 ,and always as they went on they wished for a softer and a better way4 ,and it was so that they very soon came to the very thing they so much wished for4 ,for1 what is that on the left hand of the hard road but a stile1 and over the stile a meadow as soft to the feet as the meadow of lilies itself8 '',tis just according to my wish1' said ,christian2 'here is the easiest going4 ,come1 good ,hopeful1 and let us go over4' ,hopeful3 ',but how if the path should lead us out of the way8' ',that's not like1' said the other2 'look1 doth it not go along by the wayside8' ,so ,hopeful1 being persuaded by his fellow1 went after him over the stile4 ,call to mind1 all you who are delivered and restored pilgrims1 that same stile that once seduced you4 ,to keep that stile ever before you is at once a safe and a seemly occupation of mind for any one who has made your mistakes and come through your chastisements4 ,christian's eyes all his after-days filled with tears1 and he turned away his face and blushed scarlet1 as often as he suddenly came upon any opening in a wall at all like that opening he here persuaded ,hopeful to climb through4 ,it is too much to expect that those who are just mounting the stile1 and have just caught sight of the smooth path beyond it1 will let themselves be pulled back into the hard and narrow way by any persuasion of ours4 ,christian put down ,hopeful's objection till ,hopeful broke out bitterly when the thunder was roaring over his head and he was wading about among the dark waters3 ',oh that ,i had kept myself in my way6' ,are you a little sorry to- night that the river and the way are parting in your life8 ,is your soul discouraged in you because of the soreness of the way8 ,and as you go do you still wish for some better way than the strait way8 ,and have you just espied a stile on the left hand of your narrow and flinty path1 and on looking over it is there a pleasant meadow8 ,and does your companion point out to your satisfaction1 and1 almost to your good conscience1 that the soft road runs right along the hard road1 only over the stile and outside the fence8 ,then1 good-bye4 ,for it is all over with you4 ,we shall meet you again1 please ,god2 but when we meet you again1 your mind and memory will be full of shame and remorse and suffering enough to keep you in songs of repentance for all the rest of your life on earth4 ,farewell6 ,the ,pilgrims now1 to gratify the flesh1 ,will seek its ease2 but oh6 how they afresh ,do thereby plunge themselves new grieves into3 ,who seek to please the flesh themselves undo4 #c4 ,the two transgressors had not gone far on their own way when night came on and with the night a very great darkness4 ,but what soon added to the horror of their condition was that they heard a man fall into a deep pit right before them1 and it sounded to them as if he was dashed to pieces by his fall4 ,so they called to know the matter1 but there was none to answer1 only they heard a groaning4 ,then said ,hopeful3 ,where are we now8 ,then was his fellow silent1 as mistrusting that he had led ,hopeful out of the way4 ,now1 all that also is true to the very life1 and has been taken down by ,bunyan from the very life4 ,we have all heard men falling and heard them groaning just a little before us after we had left the strait road4 ,they had just gone a little farther wrong than we had as yet gone1--just a very little farther2 in some cases1 indeed1 not so far1 when they fell and were dashed to pieces with their fall4 ,it was well for us at that dreadful moment that we heard the same voice saying to us for our encouragement as said to the two trembling transgressors3 ',let thine heart be toward the highway1 even the way that thou wentest2 turn again4' ,now1 what is it in which you are at this moment going off the right road8 ,what is that life of disobedience or self-indulgence that you are just entering on8 ,keep your ears open and you will hear hundreds of men and women falling and being dashed to pieces before you and all around you4 ,are you falling of late too much under the power of your bodily appetites8 ,it is not one man1 nor two1 well known to you1 who have fallen never to rise again out of that horrible pit4 ,are you well enough aware that you are being led into bad company8 ,or1 is your companion1 who is not a bad man in anything else1 leading you1 in this and in that1 into what at any rate is bad for you8 ,you will soon1 unless you cut off your companion like a right hand1 be found saying with misguided and overruled ,hopeful3 ,oh that ,i had kept me to my right way6 ,and so on in all manner of sin and trespass4 ,those who have ears to hear such things hear every day one man after another falling through lust or pride or malice or idleness or infidelity1 till there is none to answer4 #d4 ',all hope abandon' was the writing that ,dante read over the door of hell4 ,and the two prisoners all but abandoned all hope when they found themselves in ,giant ,despair's dungeon4 ,only1 ,christian1 the elder man1 had the most distress because their being where they now were lay mostly at his door4 ,all this part of the history also is written in ,bunyan's very heart's blood4 ',i found it hard work1' he tells us of himself1 'to pray to ,god because despair was swallowing me up4 ,i thought ,i was as with a tempest driven away from ,god4 ,about this time ,i did light on that dreadful story of that miserable mortal1 ,francis ,spira1 a book that was to my troubled spirit as salt when rubbed into a fresh wound2 every groan of that man with all the rest of his actions in his dolours1 as his tears1 his prayers1 his gnashing of teeth1 his wringing of hands1 was as knives and daggers in my soul1 especially that sentence of his was frightful to me3 ,man knows the beginning of sin1 but who bounds the issues thereof8' ,we never read anything like ,spira's experience and ,grace ,abounding and ,giant ,despair's dungeon in the books of our day4 ,and why not1 do you think8 ,is there less sin among us modern men1 or did such writers as ,john ,bunyan overdraw and exaggerate the sinfulness of sin8 ,were they wrong in holding so fast as they did hold that death and hell are the sure wages of sin8 ,has divine justice become less fearful than it used to be to those who rush against it1 or is it that we are so much better men8 ,is our faith stronger and more victorious over doubt and fear8 ,is it that our hope is better anchored8 ,whatever the reason is1 there can be no question but that we walk in a liberty that our fathers did not always walk in4 ,whether or no our liberty is not recklessness and licentiousness is another matter4 ,whether or no it would be a better sign of us if we were better acquainted with doubt and dejection and diffidence1 and even despair1 is a question it would only do us good to put to ourselves4 ,when we properly attend to these matters we shall find out that1 the holier a man is1 the more liable he is to the assaults of doubt and fear and even despair4 ,we have whole psalms of despair1 so deep was ,david's sense of sin1 so high were his views of ,god's holiness and justice1 and so full of diffidence was his wounded heart4 ,and ,david's ,son1 when our sin was laid upon ,him1 felt the curse and the horror of ,his state so much that ,his sweat was in drops of blood1 and ,his cry in the darkness was that ,his ,god had forsaken ,him4 ,and when our spirits are wounded with our sins1 as the spirits of all ,god's great saints have always been wounded1 we too shall feel ourselves more at home with ,david and with ,asaph1 with ,spira even1 and with ,bunyan4 ,despair is not good1 but it is infinitely better than indifference4 ',it is a common saying1' says ,south1 'and an observation in divinity1 that where despair has slain its thousands1 presumption has slain its ten thousands4 ,the agonies of the former are indeed more terrible1 but the securities of the latter are far more fatal4' #e4 ',i will1' says ,paul to ,timothy1 'that men pray everywhere1 lifting up holy hands without doubting4' ,and1 just as ,paul would have it1 ,christian and ,hopeful began to lift up their hands even in the dungeon of ,doubting ,castle4 ',well1' we read1 'on ,saturday night about midnight they began to pray1 and continued in prayer till almost break of day4 ,now1 before it was day1 good ,christian1 as one half amazed1 broke out in this passionate speech3 ,what a fool1 quoth he1 am ,i thus to lie in a stinking dungeon when ,i may as well walk at liberty2 ,i have a key in my bosom1 called ,promise1 that will1 ,i am persuaded1 open any lock in all ,doubting ,castle4 ,then said ,hopeful3 ,that's good news1 good brother2 pluck it out of thy bosom and try4' ,then ,christian pulled the key out of his bosom and the bolt gave back1 and ,christian and ,hopeful both came out1 and you may be sure they were soon out of the giant's jurisdiction4 ,now1 ,i do not know that ,i can do better at this point1 and in closing1 than just to tell you about some of that bunch of keys that ,john ,bunyan found from time to time in his own bosom1 and which made all his prison doors one after another fly open at their touch4 ',about ten o'clock one day1 as ,i was walking under a hedge1 full of sorrow and guilt1 ,god knows1 and bemoaning myself for my hard hap1 suddenly this sentence bolted in upon me3 ,the blood of ,christ remits all guilt4 ,again1 when ,i was fleeing from the face of ,god1 for ,i did flee from ,his face1 that is1 my mind and spirit fled before ,him2 for by reason of ,his highness ,i could not endure2 then would the text cry3 ,return unto ,me2 it would cry with a very great voice3 ,return unto me1 for ,i have redeemed thee4 ,and this would make me look over my shoulder behind me to see if ,i could discern that this ,god of grace did follow me with a pardon in ,his hand4 ,again1 the next day1 at evening1 being under many fears1 ,i went to seek the ,lord1 and as ,i prayed1 ,i cried1 with strong cries3 ,o ,lord1 ,i beseech ,thee1 show me that ,thou hast loved me with an everlasting love4 ,i had no sooner said it but1 with sweetness1 this returned upon me as an echo or sounding-again1 ,i have loved thee with an everlasting love4 ,now1 ,i went to bed at quiet2 also1 when ,i awaked the next morning it was fresh upon my soul and ,i believed it 4 4 4 ,again1 as ,i was then before the ,lord1 that ,scripture fastened on my heart3 ,o man1 great is thy faith1 even as if one had clapped me on the back as ,i was on my knees before ,god 4 4 4 ,at another time ,i remember ,i was again much under this question3 ,whether the blood of ,christ was sufficient to save my soul8 ,in which doubt ,i continued from morning till about seven or eight at night1 and at last1 when ,i was1 as it were1 quite worn out with fear1 these words did sound suddenly within my heart3 ,he is able4 ,methought this word able was spoke so loud unto me and gave such a justle to my fear and doubt as ,i never had all my life either before that or after 4 4 4 ,again1 one morning1 when ,i was at prayer and trembling under fear1 that piece of a sentence dashed in upon me3 ,my grace is sufficient4 ,at this1 methought3 ,oh1 how good a thing it is for ,god to send ,his word6 4 4 4 ,again1 one day as ,i was in a meeting of ,god's people1 full of sadness and terror1 for my fears were again strong upon me1 and as ,i was thinking that my soul was never the better1 these words did with great power suddenly break in upon me3 ,my grace is sufficient for thee1 ,my grace is sufficient for thee1 three times together2 and1 oh6 methought that every word was a mighty word unto me2 as ,my1 and grace1 and sufficient1 and for thee4 ,these words were then1 and sometimes still are1 far bigger words than others are4 ,again1 one day as ,i was passing in the field1 and that1 too1 with some dashes in my conscience1 suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul3 ,thy righteousness is in heaven4 ,and methought withal ,i saw1 with the eyes of my soul1 ,jesus ,christ at ,god's right hand4 ,i saw also1 moreover1 that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better1 nor my bad frame that made my righteousness worse1 for my righteousness was ,jesus ,christ ,himself1 the same yesterday1 to-day1 and for ever 4 4 4 ,again1 oh1 what did ,i see in that blessed sixth of ,john3 ,him that cometh to ,me ,i will in nowise cast out4 ,i should in those days often flounce toward that promise as horses do toward sound ground that yet stick in the mire4 ,oh6 many a pull hath my heart had with ,satan for this blessed sixth of ,john 4 4 4 ,and1 again1 as ,i was thus in a muse1 that ,scripture also came with great power upon my spirit3 ,not by works of righteousness which we have done1 but according to ,his mercy ,he saved us4 ,now was ,i got on high3 ,i saw my self within the arms of ,grace and ,mercy1 and though ,i was before afraid to think of a dying hour1 yet now ,i cried3 ,let me die4 ,now death was lovely and beautiful in my sight2 for ,i saw that we shall never live indeed till we be gone to the other world4 ,heirs of ,god1 methought1 heirs of ,god6 ,god himself is the portion of ,his saints4 ,this did sweetly revive my spirit1 and help me to hope in ,god2 which when ,i had with comfort mused on a while1 that word fell with great weight upon my mind3 ,oh ,death1 where is thy sting8 ,oh ,grave1 where is thy victory8 ,at this ,i became both well in body and mind at once1 for my sickness did presently vanish1 and ,i walked comfortably in my work for ,god again4' ,such were some of the many keys by the use of which ,god let ,john ,bunyan so often out of despair into full assurance and out of darkness into light4 ,which of the promises have been of such help to you8 ,over what ,scriptures have you ever cried out3 ,oh1 how good a thing it is for ,god to send me ,his word6 ,which are the biggest words in all the ,bible to you8 ,to what promise did you ever flounce as a horse flounces when he is sticking in the mire8 ,and has any word of ,god so made ,god your ,god that even death itself1 since it alone separates you from ,his presence1 is lovely and beautiful in your eyes8 ,have you a cluster of such keys in your bosom8 ,if you have1 take them all out to-night and go over them again with thanksgiving before you sleep4 ,,knowledge ',i will give you pastors after ,mine own heart1 which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding4' ,the ,delectable ,mountains rise out of the heart of ,immanuel's ,land4 ,this fine range of far-rolling hills falls away on the one side toward the plain of ,destruction1 and on the other side toward the land of ,beulah and the ,celestial ,city1 and the way to the ,celestial ,city runs like a bee- line over these well-watered pastures4 ,standing on a clear day on the highest peak of the ,delectable ,mountains1 if you have good eyes you can see the hill ,difficulty in the far-back distance with a perpetual mist clinging to its base and climbing up its sides1 which mist the shepherds say to you rises all the year round off the ,slough of ,despond1 while1 beyond that again the heavy smoke of the city of ,destruction and the town of ,stupidity shuts in the whole horizon4 ,and then1 when you turn your back on all that1 in favourable states of the weather you can see here and there the shimmer of that river over which there is no bridge2 and1 then again1 so high above the river that it seems to be a city standing in heaven rather than upon the earth1 you will see the high towers and shining palace roofs and broad battlements of the ,new ,jerusalem itself4 ,the two travellers should have spent the past three days among the sights of the ,delectable ,mountains2 and they would have done so had not the elder traveller misled the younger4 ,but now that they were set free and fairly on the right road again1 the way they had spent the past three days and three nights made the gardens and the orchards and the pastures that ran round the bottom and climbed up the sides of the ,delectable ,mountains delectable beyond all description to them4 ,now1 there were on the tops of those mountains certain shepherds feeding their flocks1 and they stood by the highway side4 ,the two travellers therefore went up to the shepherds1 and leaning upon their staves 7as is common with weary travellers when they stand to talk with any by the way71 they asked3 ,whose delectable mountains are these8 and whose be the sheep that feed upon them8 ,these mountains1 replied the shepherds1 are ,immanuel's ,land1 and they are within sight of the city2 the sheep also are ,his1 and ,he laid down ,his life for them4 ,after some more talk like this by the wayside1 the shepherds1 being pleased with the pilgrims1 looked very lovingly upon them and said3 ,welcome to the ,delectable ,mountains4 ,the shepherds then1 whose names were ,knowledge1 ,experience1 ,watchful1 and ,sincere1 took them by the hand to lead them to their tents1 and made them partake of what was ready at present4 ,they said1 moreover3 ,we would that you should stay with us a while to be acquainted with us1 and yet more to solace yourselves with the cheer of these ,delectable ,mountains4 ,then the travellers told them they were content to stay2 and so they went to rest that night because it was now very late4 ,the four shepherds lived all summer-time in a lodge of tents well up among their sheep1 while their wives and families had their homes all the year round in the land of ,beulah4 ,the four men formed a happy fraternity1 and they worked among and watched over their ,master's sheep with one united mind4 ,what one of those shepherds could not so well do in the tent or in the fold or out on the hillside1 some of the others better did4 ,and what one of them could do to any perfection all the others by one consent left that to him to do4 ,you would have thought that they were made by a perfect miracle to fit into one another1 so harmoniously did they live and work together1 and such was the bond of brotherly love that held them together4 ,at the same time1 there was one of the happy quaternity who1 from his years on the hills1 and his services in times of trial and danger1 and one thing and another1 fell always1 and with the finest humility too1 into the foremost place1 and his name1 as you have already heard1 was ,knowledge4 ,old ,mr4 ,know-all the children in the villages below ran after him and named him as they clustered round his staff and hid in the great folds of his shepherd's coat4 ,now1 in all this ,john ,bunyan speaks as a child to children2 but1 of such children as ,john ,bunyan and his readers is the kingdom of heaven4 ,my very youngest hearer here to-night knows quite well1 or1 at any rate1 shrewdly suspects1 that ,knowledge was not a shepherd going about with his staff among woolly sheep2 nor would the simplest-minded reader of ,john ,bunyan's book go to seek the ,delectable ,mountains and ,immanuel's ,land in any geographer's atlas1 or on any schoolroom map4 ,oh1 no4 ,i do not need to stop to tell the most guileless of my hearers that old ,knowledge was not a shepherd whose sheep were four-footed creatures1 but a minister of the gospel1 whose sheep are men1 women1 and children4 ,nor are the ,delectable ,mountains any range of hills and valleys of grass and herbs in ,england or ,scotland4 ,the prophet ,ezekiel calls them the mountains of ,israel2 but by that you all know that he had in his mind something far better than any earthly mountain4 ,that prophet of ,israel had in his mind the church of ,god with its synagogues and its sacraments1 with all the grace and truth that all these things conveyed from ,god to the children of ,israel4 ,as ,david also sang in the twenty-third ,psalm3 ',the ,lord is my ,shepherd1 ,i shall not want4 ,he maketh me to lie down in green pastures2 ,he leadeth me beside the still waters4' ,knowledge1 then1 is a minister2 but every congregation has not such a minister set over it as ,knowledge is4 ,all our college-bred and ordained men are not ministers like ,knowledge4 ,this excellent minister takes his excellent name from his great talents and his great attainments4 ,and while all his great talents are his ,master's gift to him1 his great attainments are all his own to lay out in his ,master's service4 ,to begin with1 his ,master had given ,his highly-favoured servant a good understanding and a good memory1 and many good and suitable opportunities4 ,now1 a good understanding is a grand endowment for a minister1 and his ministerial office will all his days afford him opportunity for the best understanding he can bring to it4 ,the ,christian ministry1 first and last1 has had a noble roll of men of a strong understanding4 ,the author of the book now open before us was a man of a strong understanding4 ,john ,bunyan had a fine imagination1 with great gifts of eloquent1 tender1 and most heart-winning utterance1 but in his case also all that was bottomed in a strong ,english understanding4 ,then1 again1 a good memory is indispensable to a minister of knowledge4 ,you must be content to take a second1 a third1 or even a lower place still if your ,master has withheld from you a good memory4 ,dr4 ,goodwin has a passage on this point that ,i have often turned up when ,i had again forgotten it4 ',thou mayest have a weak memory1 perhaps1 yet if it can and doth remember good things as well and better than other things1 then it is a sanctified memory1 and the defilement of thy memory is healed though the imperfection of it is not2 and1 though thou art to be humbled for it as a misery1 yet thou art not to be discouraged2 for ,god doth not hate thee for it1 but pities thee2 and the like holds good and may be said as to the want of other like gifts4' ,you cannot be a man of a commanding knowledge anywhere1 and you must be content to take a very subordinate and second place1 even in the ministry1 unless you have both a good understanding and a good memory2 but then1 at the last day your ,master will not call you and your congregation to an account for what ,he has not committed to your stewardship4 ,and on that day that will be something4 ,but not only must ministers of knowledge have a good mind and a good memory2 they must also be the most industrious of men4 ,other men may squander and kill their time as they please1 but a minister had as good kill himself at once out of the way of better men unless he is to hoard his hours like gold and jewels4 ,he must read only the best books1 and he must read them with the 'pain of attention4' ,he must read nothing that is not the best4 ,he has not the time4 ,and if he is poor and remote and has not many books1 he will have ,butler1 and let him read ,butler's ,preface to his ,sermons till he has it by heart4 ,the best books are always few1 and they must be read over and over again when other men are reading the 'great number of books and papers of amusement that come daily in their way1 and which most perfectly fall in with their idle way of reading and considering things4' ,and1 then1 such a minister must store up what he reads1 if not in a good memory1 then in some other pigeon-hole that he has made for himself outside of himself1 since his ,master has not seen fit to furnish him with such a repository within himself4 ,and1 then1 after all that1--for a good minister is not made yet1--understanding and memory and industry must all be sanctified by secret prayer many times every day1 and then laid out every day in the instruction1 impression1 and comfort of his people4 ,and1 then1 that privileged people will be as happy in possessing that man for their minister as the sheep of ,immanuel's ,land were in having ,knowledge set over them for their shepherd4 ,they will never look up without being fed4 ,they will every ,sabbath-day be led by green pastures and still waters4 ,and when they sing of the mercies of the ,lord to them and to their children1 and forget not all ,his benefits1 among the best of their benefits they will not forget to hold up and bless their minister4 ,but1 then1 there is1 nowadays1 so much sound knowledge to be gained1 not to speak of so many books and papers of mere pastime and amusement1 that it may well be asked by a young man who is to be a minister whether he is indeed called to be like that great student who took all knowledge for his province4 ,yes1 indeed1 he is4 ,for1 if the minister and interpreter of nature is to lay all possible knowledge under contribution1 what must not the minister of ,jesus ,christ and the interpreter of ,scripture and providence and experience and the human heart be able to make the sanctified use of8 ,yes1 all kinds and all degrees of knowledge1 to be called knowledge1 belong by right and obligation to his office who is the minister and interpreter of ,him ,who made all things1 ,who is the ,heir of all things1 and by ,whom all things consist4 ,at the same time1 since the human mind has its limits1 and since human life has its limits1 a minister of all men must make up his mind to limit himself to the best knowledge2 the knowledge1 that is1 that chiefly concerns him1--the knowledge of ,god so far as ,god has made ,himself known1 and the knowledge of ,christ4 ,he must be a student of his ,bible night and day and all his days4 ,if he has not the strength of understanding and memory to read his ,bible easily in the original ,hebrew and ,greek1 let him all the more make up for that by reading it the oftener and the deeper in ,english4 ,let him not only read his ,bible deeply for his sermons and prayers1 lectures and addresses1 let him do that all day every day of the week1 and then read it all night1 and every night of the week1 for his own soul4 ,let every minister know his ,bible down to the bottom1 and with his ,bible his own heart4 ,he who so knows his ,bible and with it his own heart has almost books enough4 ,all else is but ostentatious apparatus4 ,when a minister has neither understanding nor memory wherewith to feed his flock1 let him look deep enough into his ,bible and into his own heart1 and then begin out of them to write and speak4 ,and1 then1 for the outside knowledge of the passing day he will read the newspapers1 and though he gives up all the morning to the newspapers1 and returns to them again in the evening1 his conscience will not upbraid him if he reads as ,jonathan ,edwards read the newsletters of his day1--to see how the kingdom of heaven is prospering in the earth1 and to pray for its prosperity4 ,and1 then1 by that time1 and when he has got that length1 all other kinds of knowledge will have fallen into its own place1 and will have taken its own proper proportion of his time and his thought4 ,he was a man of a great understanding and a great memory and great industry who said that he had taken all knowledge for his province4 ,but he was a far wiser man who said that knowledge is not our proper happiness4 ,our province1 he went on to say1 is virtue and religion1 life and manners3 the science of improving the temper and making the heart better4 ,this is the field assigned us to cultivate3 how much it has lain neglected is indeed astonishing4 ,now1 my brethren1 two dangers1 two simply terrible dangers1 arise to every one of you out of all this matter of your ministers and their knowledge4 #a4 ,the first danger is1--to be frank with you on this subject1--that you are yourselves so ignorant on all the matters that a minister has to do with1 that you do not know one minister from another1 a good minister from one who is really no minister at all4 ,now1 ,i will put it to you1 on what principle and for what reason did you choose your present minister1 if1 indeed1 you did choose him8 ,was it because you were assured by people you could trust that he was a minister of knowledge and knew his own business8 ,or was it that when you went to worship with him for yourself you have not been able ever since to tear yourself away from him1 nor has any one else been able to tear you away1 though some have tried8 ,when you first came to the city1 did you give1 can you remember1 some real anxiety1 rising sometimes into prayer1 as to who your minister among so many ministers was to be8 ,or did you choose him and your present seat in his church because of some real or supposed worldly interest of yours you thought you could further by taking your letter of introduction to him8 ,had you heard while yet at home1 had your father and mother talked of such things to you1 that rich men1 and men of place and power1 political men and men high in society1 sat in that church and took notice of who attended it and who did not8 ,do you1 down to this day1 know one church from another so far as spiritual and soul- saving knowledge is concerned8 ,do you know that two big buildings1 called churches1 may stand in the same street1 and have men1 called ministers1 carrying on certain services in them from week to week1 and yet1 for all the purposes for which ,christ came and died and rose again and gave ministers to ,his church1 these two churches and their ministers are farther asunder than the two poles8 ,do you understand what ,i am saying8 ,do you understand what ,i have been saying all night1 or are you one of those of whom the prophet speaks in blame and in pity as being destroyed for lack of knowledge8 ,well1 that is your first danger1 that you are so ignorant1 and as a consequence1 so careless1 as not to know one minister from another4 #b4 ,and your second danger in connection with your minister is1 that you have1 and may have long had1 a good minister1 but that you still remain yourself a bad man4 ,my brethren1 be you all sure of it1 there is a special and a fearful danger in having a specially good minister4 ,think twice1 and make up your mind well1 before you call a specially good minister1 or become a communicant1 or even an adherent under a specially good minister4 ,if two bad men go down together to the pit1 and the one has had a good minister1 as1 ,god have mercy on us1 sometimes happens1 and the other has only had one who had the name of a minister1 the evangelised reprobate will lie in a deeper bed in hell1 and will spend a more remorseful eternity on it than will the other4 ,no man among you1 minister or no minister1 good minister or bad1 will be able to sin with impunity4 ,but he who sins on and on after good preaching will be beaten with many stripes4 ',woe unto thee1 ,chorazin6 ,woe unto thee1 ,bethsaida6 ,for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in ,tyre and ,sidon1 they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes4 ,but ,i say unto you1 it shall be more tolerable for ,tyre and ,sidon at the day of judgment than for you4' ',thou that hast knowledge1' says a powerful old preacher1 'canst not sin so cheap as another that is ignorant4 ,places of much knowledge'--he was preaching in the university pulpit of ,oxford--'and plentiful in the means of grace are dear places for a man to sin in4 ,to be drunken or unclean after a powerful sermon1 and after the ,holy ,ghost has enlightened thee1 is more than to have so sinned twenty times before4 ,thou mightest have sinned ten times more and been damned less4 ,for does not ,jesus ,christ the ,judge say to thee1 ,this is thy condemnation1 that so much light has come to thee8' ,and1 taking the then way of execution as a sufficiently awful illustration1 the old ,oxford ,puritan goes on to say that to sin against light is the highest step of the ladder before turning off4 ,and1 again1 that if there are worms in hell that die not1 it is surely gospel light that breeds them4 ,,experience ',my heart had great experience4'--,the ,preacher4 ',i will give them pastors after ,mine own heart4' ,experience1 the excellent shepherd of the ,delectable ,mountains1 had a brother in the army1 and he was an equally excellent soldier4 ,the two brothers--they were twin-brothers--had been brought up together till they were grown-up men in the same town of ,mansoul4 ,all the ,experience family1 indeed1 had from time immemorial hailed from that populous and important town1 and their family tree ran away back beyond the oldest extant history4 ,the two brothers1 while in all other things as like as two twin-brothers could be1 at the same time very early in life began to exhibit very different talents and tastes and dispositions2 till1 when we meet with them in their full manhood1 the one is a soldier in the army and the other a shepherd on the ,delectable ,mountains4 ,the soldier-brother is thus described in one of the military histories of his day3 ',a man of conduct and of valour1 and a person prudent in matters4 ,a comely person1 moreover1 well-spoken in negotiations1 and very successful in undertakings4 ,his colours were the white colours of ,mansoul and his scutcheon was the dead lion and the dead bear4' ,the shepherd-brother1 on the other hand1 is thus pictured out to us by one who has seen him4 ,a traveller who has visited the ,delectable ,mountains1 and has met and talked with the shepherds1 thus describes ,experience in his excellent itinerary3 ',knowledge1' he says1 ',i found to be the sage of the company1 spare in build1 high of forehead1 worn in age1 and his tranquil gait touched with abstractedness4 ,while ,experience was more firmly knit in form and face1 with a shrewd kindly eye and a happy readiness in his bearing1 and all his hard-earned wisdom evidently on foot within him as a capability for work and for control4' ,this1 then1 was the second of the four shepherds1 who fed ,immanuel's sheep on the ,delectable ,mountains4 ,but here again to-night1 and in the case of ,experience1 just as last ,sabbath night and in the case of ,knowledge1 in all this ,john ,bunyan speaks to children1--only the children here are the children of the kingdom of heaven4 ,the veriest child who reads the ,delectable ,mountains begins to suspect before he is done that ,knowledge and ,experience are not after all two real and true shepherds going their rounds with their staves and their wallets and their wheeling dogs4 ,yes1 though the little fellow cannot put his suspicions into proper words for you1 all the same he has his suspicions that he is being deceived by you and your ,sabbath book2 and1 ten to one1 from that sceptical day he will not read much more of ,john ,bunyan till in after-life he takes up ,john ,bunyan never for a single ,sabbath again to lay him down4 ,yes1 let the truth be told at once1 ,experience is simply a minister1 and not a real shepherd at all2 a minister of the gospel1 a preacher1 and a pastor2 but1 then1 he is a preacher and a pastor of no ordinary kind1 but of the selectest and very best kind4 #a4 ,now1 my brethren1 to plunge at once out of the parable and into the interpretation1 ,i observe1 in the first place1 that pastors who are indeed to be pastors after ,god's own heart have all to pass into their pastorate through the school of experience4 ,preaching after ,god's own heart1 and pastoral work of the same divine pattern1 cannot be taught in any other school than the school of experience4 ,poets may be born and not made1 but not pastors nor preachers4 ,nay1 do not all our best poets first learn in their sufferings what afterwards they teach us in their songs8 ,at any rate1 that is certainly the case with preachers and pastors4 ,as my own old minister once said to me in a conversation on this very subject1 ',even ,god ,himself cannot inspire an experience4' ,no4 ,for if ,he could ,he would surely have done so in the case of ,his own ,son1 to ,whom in the gift of the ,holy ,ghost ,he gave all that ,he could give and all that ,his ,son could receive4 ,but an experience cannot in the very nature of things be either bestowed on the one hand or received and appropriated on the other4 ,an experience in the unalterable nature of the thing itself must be undergone4 ,the ,holy ,ghost ,himself after ,he has been bestowed and received has to be experimented upon1 and taken into this and that need1 trial1 cross1 and care of life4 ,he is not sent to spare us our experiences1 but to carry us through them4 ,and thus it is 7to keep for a moment in sight of the highest illustration we have of this law of experience71 thus it is1 ,i say1 that the apostle has it in his ,epistle to the ,hebrews that though ,christ ,himself were a ,son1 yet learned ,he obedience by the things that ,he suffered4 ,and being by experience made perfect ,he then went on to do such and such things for us4 ,why1 for instance1 for one thing1 why do you think was our ,lord able to speak with such extraordinary point1 impressiveness1 and assurance about prayer2 about the absolute necessity and certainty of secret1 importunate1 persevering prayer having1 sooner or later1 in one shape or other1 and in the best possible shape1 its answer8 ,why but because of ,his own experience8 ,why but because ,his own closet1 hilltop1 all-night1 and up-before-the-day prayers had all been at last heard and better heard than ,he had been able to ask8 ,we can quite well read between the lines in all our ,lord's parables and in all the passages of ,his sermons about prayer4 ,the unmistakable traces of otherwise untold enterprises and successes1 agonies and victories of prayer1 are to be seen in every such sermon of ,his4 ,and so1 in like manner1 in all that ,he says to ,his disciples about the sweetness of submission1 resignation1 and self-denial1 as also about the nourishment for ,his soul that ,he got out of every hard act of obedience1--and so on4 ,there is running through all our ,lord's doctrinal and homiletical teaching that note of reality and of certitude that can only come to any teaching out of the long and deep and intense experience of the teacher4 ,and as the ,master was1 so are all ,his ministers4 ,when ,i read1 for instance1 what ,william ,law says about the heart-searching and heart-cleansing efficacy of intercessory prayer in the case of him who continues all his life so to pray1 and carries such prayer through all the experiences and all the relationships of life1 ,i do not need you to tell me where that great man of ,god made that great discovery4 ,i know that he made it in his own closet1 and on his own knees1 and in his own evil heart4 ,and so1 also1 when ,i come nearer home4 ,whenever ,i hear a single unconventional1 immediate1 penetrating1 overawing petition or confession in a minister's pulpit prayer or in his family worship1 ,i do not need to be told out of what prayer-book he took that4 ,i know without his telling me that my minister has been1 all unknown to me till now1 at that same school of prayer to which his ,master was put in the days of ,his flesh1 and out of which ,he brought the experiences that ,he afterwards put into the ,friend at midnight1 and the ,importunate widow1 as also into the ,egg and the scorpion1 the ,bread and the stone1 the ,knocking and the opening1 the ,seeking and the finding4 ,his children thus most dear to ,him1 ,their heavenly ,father trains1 ,through all the hard experience led ,of sorrows and of pains4 ,and if ,his children1 then ten times more the tutors and governors of ,his children1--the pastors and the preachers ,he prepares for ,his people4 #b4 ,again1 though ,i will not put those two collegiate shepherds against one another1 yet1 in order to bring out the whole truth on this matter1 ,i will risk so far as to say that where we cannot have both ,knowledge and ,experience1 by all means let us have ,experience4 ,yes1 ,i declare to you that if ,i were choosing a minister for myself1 and could not have both the book-knowledge and the experience of the ,christian life in one and the same man2 and could not have two ministers1 one with all the talents and another with all the experiences2 ,i would say that1 much as ,i like an able and learned sermon from an able and learned man1 ,i would rather have less learning and more experience4 ,and1 then1 no wonder that such pastors and preachers are few4 ,for how costly must a thoroughly good minister's experience be to him6 ,what a quantity and what a quality of experience is needed to take a raw1 light-minded1 ignorant1 and self-satisfied youth and transform him into the pastor1 the tried and trusted friend of the tempted1 the sorrow-laden1 and the shipwrecked hearts and lives in his congregation6 ,what years and years of the selectest experiences are needed to teach the average divinity student to know himself1 to track out and run to earth his own heart1 and thus to lay open and read other men's hearts to their self-deceived owners in the light of his own4 ,a matter1 moreover1 that he gets not one word of help toward in all his college curriculum4 ,david was able to say in his old age that he fed the flock of ,god in ,israel according to the integrity of his heart1 and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands4 ,but what years and years of shortcoming and failure in private and in public life lie behind that fine word 'integrity'6 as also what stumbles and what blunders behind that other fine word 'skilfulness'6 ,but1 then1 how a lightest touch of a preacher's own dear-bought experience skilfully let fall brightens up an obscure scripture6 ,how it sends a thrill through a prayer6 ,how it wings an arrow to the conscience6 ,how it sheds abroad balm upon the heart6 ,let no minister1 then1 lose heart when he is sent back to the school of experience4 ,he knows in theory that tribulation worketh patience1 and patience experience1 but it is not theory1 but experience1 that makes a minister after ,god's own heart4 ,i sometimes wish that ,i may live to see a chair of ,experimental ,religion set up in all our colleges4 ,i fear it is a dream1 and that it must have been pronounced impracticable long ago by our wisest heads4 ,still1 all the same1 that does not prevent me from again and again indulging my dream4 ,i indulge my fond dream again as often as ,i look back on my own tremendous mistakes in the management of my own personal and ministerial life1 as well as sometimes see some signs of the same mistakes in some other ministers4 ,in my dream for the ,church of the future ,i see the programme of lectures in the ,experimental ,class and the accompanying examinations4 ,i see the class library1 and ,i envy the students4 ,i am present at the weekly book-day1 and at the periodical addresses delivered to the class by those town and country ministers who have been most skilful in their pastorate and most successful in the conversion and in the character of their people4 ,and1 unless ,i wholly deceive myself1 ,i see1 not all the class--that will never be till the millennium--but here and there twos and threes1 and more men than that1 who will throw their whole hearts into the work of such a class till they come out of the hall in experimental religion like ,sir ,proteus in the play3 ,their years but young1 but their experience old1 ,their heads unmellowed1 but their judgment ripe4 ,it is quite true1 that1 as my old minister shrewdly said to me1 even the ,holy ,ghost cannot inspire an experience4 ,no4 ,but a class of genuine experimental divinity would surely help to foster and develop an experience4 ,and1 till the class is established1 any student who has the heart for it may lay in the best of the class library for a few shillings4 ,mr4 ,thin will tell you that there is no literature that is such a drug in the market as the best books of ,experimental ,divinity4 ,no wonder1 then1 that we make such slow and short way in the skilfulness1 success1 and acceptance of our preaching and our pastorate4 #c4 ,but1 at the same time1 my brethren1 all your ministers' experience of personal religion will be lost upon you unless you are yourselves attending the same school4 ,the salvation of the soul1 you must understand1 is not offered to ministers only4 ,ministers are not the only men who are1 to begin with1 dead in trespasses and sins4 ,the ,son of ,god did not die for ministers only4 ,the ,holy ,ghost is not offered to ministers only4 ,a clean1 humble1 holy heart is not to be the pursuit of ministers only4 ,it is not to ,his ministers only that our ,lord says1 ,take up ,my yoke and learn of ,me4 ,the daily cross is not the opportunity of ministers only4 ,it is not to ministers only that tribulation worketh patience1 and patience experience1 and experience hope4 ,it was to all who had obtained like precious faith with their ministers that ,peter issued this exhortation that they were to give all diligence to add to their faith virtue1 and to virtue knowledge1 and to knowledge temperance1 and to temperance patience1--and so on4 ,now1 my brethren1 unless all that is on foot in yourselves1 as well as in your ministers1 then their progress in ,christian experience will only every new ,sabbath-day separate you and your ministers further and further away from one another4 ,when a minister is really making progress himself in the life of religion that progress must come out1 and ought to come out1 both in his preaching and in his prayers4 ,and1 then1 two results of all that will immediately begin to manifest themselves among his people4 ,some of his people will visibly1 and still more will invisibly1 make corresponding progress with their minister2 while some others1 alas6 will fall off in interest1 in understanding1 and in sympathy till at last they drop off from his ministry altogether4 ,that is an old law in the ,church of ,god3 'like people like priest1' and 'like priest like people4' ,and while there are various influences at work retarding and perplexing the immediate operation of that law1 at the same time1 he who has eyes to see such things in a congregation and in a community will easily see ,hosea's great law of congregational selection in operation every day4 ,like people gradually gravitate to like preachers4 ,you will see1 if you have the eyes1 congregations gradually dissolving and gradually being consolidated again under that great law4 ,you will see friendships and families even breaking up and flying into pieces2 and1 again1 new families and new friendships being built up on that very same law4 ,if you were to study the session books of our city congregations in the light of that law1 you would get instruction4 ,if you just studied who lifted their lines1 and why2 and1 again1 what other people came and left their lines1 and why1 you would get instruction4 ,the shepherds in ,israel did not need to hunt up and herd their flocks like the shepherds in ,scotland4 ,a shepherd on the mountains of ,israel had nothing more to do than himself pass up into the pasture lands and then begin to sing a psalm or offer a prayer1 when1 in an instant1 his proper sheep were all round about him4 ,the sheep knew their own shepherd's voice1 and they fled from the voice of a stranger4 ,and so it is with a true preacher1--a preacher of experience1 that is4 ,his own people know no voice like his voice4 ,he does not need to bribe and flatter and run after his people4 ,he may have1 he usually has1 but few people as people go in our day1 and the better the preacher sometimes the smaller the flock4 ,it was so in our ,master's case4 ,the multitude followed after the loaves but they fled from the feeding doctrines1 till ,he first tasted that dejection and that sense of defeat which so many of ,his best servants are fed on in this world4 ,still1 as our ,lord did not tune ,his pulpit to the taste of the loungers of ,galilee1 no more will a minister worth the name do anything else but press deeper and deeper into the depths of truth and life1 till1 as was the case with his ,master1 his followers1 though few1 will be all the more worth having4 ,the ,delectable ,mountains are wide and roomy4 ,they roll far away both before and behind4 ,immanuel's ,land is a large place1 and there are many other shepherds among those hills and valleys besides ,knowledge and ,experience and ,watchful and ,sincere4 ,and each several shepherd has1 on the whole1 his own sheep4 ,knowledge has his2 ,experience has his2 ,watchful has his2 and ,sincere has his2 and all the other here unnamed shepherds have all theirs also4 ,for1 always1 like shepherd like sheep4 ,yes4 ,hosea must have been something in ,israel somewhat analogous to a session-clerk among ourselves4 ',like priest like people' is certainly a digest of some such experience4 ,let some inquisitive beginner in ,hebrew this winter search out the prophet upon that matter1 consulting ,mr4 ,hutcheson and ,dr4 ,pusey1 and he will let me hear the result4 #d4 ,now1 my brethren1 in closing1 we must all keep it clearly before our minds1 and that too every day we live1 that ,god orders and overrules this whole world1 and1 indeed1 keeps it going very much just that ,he may by means of it make unceasing experiment upon ,his people4 ,experiment1 you know1 results in experience4 ,there is no other way by which any man can attain to a religious experience but by undergoing temptation1 trial1 tribulation3--experiment4 ,and it gives a divine dignity to all things1 great and small1 good and bad1 when we see them all taken up into ,god's hand1 in order that by means of them ,he may make for ,himself an experienced people4 ,human life on this earth1 when viewed under this aspect1 is one vast workshop4 ,and all the shafts and wheels and pulleys2 all the crushing hammers1 and all the whirling knives2 all the furnaces and smelting-pots2 all the graving tools and smoothing irons1 are all so many divinely-designed and divinely-worked instruments all directed in upon this one result1--our being deeply experienced in the ways of ,god till we are for ever fashioned into ,his nature and likeness4 ,our faith in the unseen world and in our unseen ,god and ,saviour is at one time put to the experiment4 ,at another time it is our love to ,him2 the reality of it1 and the strength of it4 ,at another time it is our submission and our resignation to ,his will4 ,at another time it is our humility1 or our meekness1 or our capacity for self-denial1 or our will and ability to forgive an injury1 or our perseverance in still unanswered prayer2 and so on the ever-shifting but never-ceasing experiment goes4 ,i do beseech you1 my brethren1 take that true view of life home with you again this night4 ,this true view of life1 namely1 that experience in the divine life can only come to you through your being much experimented upon4 ,meet all your trials and tribulations and temptations1 then1 under this assurance1 that all things will work together for good to you also if you are only rightly exercised by means of them4 ,nothing else but this growing experience and this settling assurance will be able to support you under the sudden ills of life2 but this will do it4 ,this1 when you begin by experience to see that all this life1 and all the good and all the ill of this life1 are all under this splendid divine law1--that your tribulations also are indeed working within you a patience1 and your patience an experience1 and your experience a hope that maketh not ashamed4 ,,watchful ',son of man1 ,i have made thee a watchman unto the house of ,israel4'--,the word of the ,lord to ,ezekiel4 ',they watch for your souls4'--,the ,apostle to the ,hebrews4 ,there were four shepherds who had the care of ,immanuel's sheep on the ,delectable ,mountains1 and their names were ,knowledge1 ,experience1 ,watchful1 and ,sincere4 ,now1 in that very beautiful episode of his great allegory1 ,john ,bunyan is doing his very utmost to impress upon all his ministerial readers how much there is that goes to the making of a good minister1 and how much every good minister has to do4 ,each several minister must do all that in him lies1 from the day of his ordination to the day of his death1 to be all to his people that those four shepherds were to ,immanuel's sheep4 ,he is to labour1 in season and out of season1 to be a minister of the ripest possible knowledge1 the deepest and widest possible experience1 the most sleepless watchfulness1 and the most absolute and scrupulous sincerity4 ,now1 enough has perhaps been said already about a minister's knowledge and his experience2 enough1 certainly1 and more than enough for some of us to hope half to carry out2 and1 therefore1 ,i shall at once go on to take up ,watchful1 and to supply1 so far as ,i am able1 the plainest possible interpretation of this part of ,bunyan's parable4 #a4 ,every true minister1 then1 watches1 in the words of the apostle1 for the souls of his people4 ,an ordinary minister's everyday work embraces many duties and offers many opportunities1 but through all his duties and through all his opportunities there runs this high and distinctive duty of watching for the souls of his people4 ,a minister may be a great scholar1 he may have taken all sacred learning for his province1 he may be a profound and a scientific theologian1 he may be an able church leader1 he may be a universally consulted authority on ecclesiastical law1 he may be a skilful and successful debater in church courts1 he may even be a great pulpit orator1 holding thousands entranced by his impassioned eloquence2 but a true successor of the prophets of the ,old ,testament and of the apostles of the ,new ,testament he is not1 unless he watches for the souls of men4 ,all these endowments1 and all these occupations1 right and necessary as1 in their own places1 they all are1--great talents1 great learning1 great publicity1 great popularity1--all tend1 unless they are taken great care of1 to lead their possessors away from all time for1 and from all sympathy with1 the watchfulness of the ,new ,testament minister4 ,watching over a flock brings to you none of the exhilaration of authority and influence1 none of the intoxication of publicity and applause4 ,your experiences are the quite opposite of all these things when you are watching over your flock4 ,your work among your flock is all done in distant and lonely places1 on hillsides1 among woods and thickets1 and in cloudy and dark days4 ,you spend your strength among sick and dying and wandering sheep1 among wolves and weasels1 and what not1 of that verminous kind4 ,at the same time1 all good pastors are not so obscure and forgotten as all that4 ,some exceptionally able and exceptionally devoted and self-forgetful men manage to combine both extremes of a minister's duties and opportunities in themselves4 ,our own ,sir ,henry ,moncreiff was a pattern pastor4 ,there was no better pastor in ,edinburgh in his day than dear ,sir ,henry was2 and yet1 at the same time1 everybody knows what an incomparable ecclesiastical casuist ,sir ,henry was4 ,mr4 ,moody1 again1 is a great preacher1 preaching to tens of thousands of hearers at a time2 but1 at the same time1 ,mr4 ,moody is one of the most skilful and attentive pastors that ever took individual souls in hand and kept them over many years in mind4 ,but these are completely exceptional men1 and what ,i want to say to commonplace and limited and everyday men like myself is this1 that watching for the souls of our people1 one by one1 day in and day out1--that1 above everything else1 that1 and nothing else1--makes any man a pastor of the apostolic type4 ,an able man may know all about the history1 the habitat1 the various species1 the breeds1 the diseases1 and the prices of sheep1 and yet be nothing at all of a true shepherd4 ,and so may a minister4 #b4 ,pastoral visitation1 combined with personal dealing1 is by far the best way of watching for souls4 ,i well remember when ,i first began my ministry in this congregation1 how much ,i was impressed with what one of the ablest and best of our then ministers was reported to have testified on his deathbed4 ,calling back to his bedside a young minister who had come to see him1 the dying man said3 ',prepare for the pulpit2 above everything else you do1 prepare for the pulpit4 ,let me again repeat it1 should it at any time stand with you between visiting a deathbed and preparing for the pulpit1 prepare for the pulpit4' ,i was immensely impressed with that dying injunction when it was repeated to me1 but ,i have lived1--,i do not say to put my preparation for the pulpit1 such as it is1 second to my more pastoral work in my week's thoughts1 but--to put my visiting in the very front rank and beside my pulpit4 ',we never were accustomed to much visiting1' said my elders to me in their solicitude for their young minister when he was first left alone with this whole charge2 'only appear in your own pulpit twice on ,sabbath3 keep as much at home as possible3 we were never used to much visiting1 and we do not look for it4' ,well1 that was most kindly intended2 but it was much more kind than wise4 ,for ,i have lived to learn that no congregation will continue to prosper1 or1 if other more consolidated and less exacting congregations1 at any rate not this congregation1 without constant pastoral attention4 ,and remember1 ,i do not complain of that4 ,far1 far from that4 ,for ,i am as sure as ,i am of anything connected with a minister's life1 that a minister's own soul will prosper largely in the measure that the souls of his people prosper through his pastoral work4 ,no preaching1 even if it were as good preaching as the apostle's itself1 can be left to make up for the neglect of pastoral visitation and personal intercourse4 ',i taught you from house to house1' says ,paul himself1 when he was resigning the charge of the church of ,ephesus into the hands of the elders of ,ephesus4 ,what would we ministers not give for a descriptive report of an afternoon's house-to-house visitation by the ,apostle ,paul6 ,now in a workshop1 now at a sickbed1 now with a ,greek1 now with a ,jew1 and1 in every case1 not discussing politics and cursing the weather1 not living his holidays over again and hearing of all the approaching marriages1 but testifying to all men in his own incomparably winning and commanding way repentance toward ,god and faith toward the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,we city ministers call out and complain that we have no time to visit our people in their own houses2 but that is all subterfuge4 ,if the whole truth were told about the busiest of us1 it is not so much want of time as want of intention2 it is want of set and indomitable purpose to do it2 it is want of method and of regularity such as all business men must have2 and it is want1 above all1 of laying out every hour of every day under the ,great ,taskmaster's eye4 ,many country ministers again1--we1 miserable men that we are1 are never happy or well placed1--complain continually that their people are so few1 and so scattered1 and so ignorant1 and so uninteresting1 and so unresponsive1 that it is not worth their toil to go up and down in remote places seeking after them4 ,it takes a whole day among bad roads and wet bogs to visit a shepherd's wife and children1 and two or three bothies and pauper's hovels on the way home4 ',on the morrow1' so runs many an entry in ,thomas ,boston's ,memoirs1 ',i visited the sick1 and spent the afternoon in visiting others1 and found gross ignorance prevailing4 ,nothing but stupidity prevailed2 till ,i saw that ,i had enough to do among my handful4 ,i had another diet of catechising on ,wednesday afternoon1 and the discovery ,i made of the ignorance of ,god and of themselves made me the more satisfied with the smallness of my charge 4 4 4 ,twice a year ,i catechised the parish1 and once a year ,i visited their families4 ,my method of visitation was this4 ,i made a particular application of my doctrine in the pulpit to the family1 exhorted them all to lay all these things to heart1 exhorted them also to secret prayer1 supposing they kept family worship1 urged their relative duties upon them1' etc4 etc4 ,and then at his leaving ,ettrick1 he writes3 ',thus ,i parted with a people whose hearts were knit to me and mine to them4 ,the last three or four years had been much blessed1 and had been made very comfortable to me1 not in respect of my own handful only1 but others of the countryside also4' ,jonathan ,edwards called ,thomas ,boston 'that truly great divine4' ,i am not such a judge of divinity as ,jonathan ,edwards was1 but ,i always call ,boston to myself that truly great pastor4 ,but my lazy and deceitful heart says to me3 ,no praise to ,boston1 for he lived and did his work in the quiet ,forest of ,ettrick4 ,true1 so he did4 ,well1 then1 look at the populous and busy town of ,kidderminster4 ,and let me keep continually before my abashed conscience that hard-working corpse ,richard ,baxter4 ,absolutely on the same page on which that dying man enters diseases and medicines enough to fill a doctor's diary after a whole day in an incurable hospital1 that noble soul goes on to say3 ',i preached before the wars twice each ,lord's ,day1 but after the wars but once1 and once every ,thursday1 besides occasional sermons4 ,every ,thursday evening my neighbours that were most desirous1 and had opportunity1 met at my house4 ,two days every week my assistant and ,i myself took fourteen families between us for private catechising and conference2 he going through the parish1 and the town coming to me4 ,i first heard them recite the words of the ,catechism1 and then examined them about the sense1 and lastly urged them1 with all possible engaging reason and vehemency1 to answerable affection and practice4 ,if any of them were stalled through ignorance or bashfulness1 ,i forbore to press them1 but made them hearers1 and turned all into instruction and exhortation4 ,i spent about an hour with a family1 and admitted no others to be present1 lest bashfulness should make it burdensome1 or any should talk of the weakness of others4' ,and then he tells how his people's necessity made him practise physic among them1 till he would have twenty at his door at once4 ',all these my employments were but my recreations1 and1 as it were1 the work of my spare hours4 ,for my writings were my chiefest daily labour4 ,and blessed be the ,god of mercies that brought me from the grave and gave me1 after wars and sickness1 fourteen years' liberty in such sweet employment6' ,let all ministers who would sit at home over a pipe and a newspaper with a quiet conscience keep ,boston's ,memoirs and ,baxter's ,reliquiae at arm's-length4 #c4 ,our young communicants' classes1 and still more1 those private interviews that precede and finish up our young communicants' classes1 are by far our best opportunities as pastors4 ,i remember ,dr4 ,moody ,stuart telling me long ago that he had found his young communicants' classes to be the most fruitful opportunities of all his ministry2 as1 also1 next to them1 times of baptism in families4 ,and every minister who tries to be a minister at all after ,dr4 ,moody ,stuart's pattern1 will tell you something of the same thing4 ,they get at the opening history of their young people's hearts before their first communion4 ,they make shorthand entries and secret memoranda at such a season like this3 ',a4 a rebuke to me4 ,he had for long been astonished at me that ,i did not speak to him about his soul4 ,b4 traced his conversion to the singing of ',the sands of time are sinking' in this church last summer4 ,c4 was spoken to by a room-mate4 ,d4 was to be married1 and she died4 ,of ,e4 ,i have great hope4 ,f41 were she anywhere but at home1 ,i would have great hopes of her1'--and so on4 ,but1 then1 when a minister takes boldness to turn over the pages of his young communicants' roll for half a lifetime--ah me1 ah me6 ,what was ,i doing to let that so promising communicant go so far astray1 and ,i never to go after him8 ,and that other4 ,and that other4 ,and that other4 ,till we can read no more4 ,o ,god of mercy1 when ,thou inquirest after blood1 let me be hidden in the cleft of that ,rock so deeply cleft for unwatchful ministers6 #d4 ,and then1 as ,dr4 ,joseph ,parker says1 who says everything so plainly and so powerfully3 ',there is pastoral preaching as well as pastoral visitation4 ,there is pastoral preaching2 rich revelation of divine truth2 high1 elevating treatment of the ,christian mysteries2 and he is the pastor to me who does not come to my house to drink and smoke and gossip and show his littleness1 but who1 out of a rich experience1 meets me with ,god's word at every turn of my life1 and speaks the something to me that ,i just at that moment want4' ,let us not have less pastoral visitation in the time to come1 but let us have more and more of such pastoral preaching4 #e4 ,but1 my brethren1 it is time for you1 as ,john said to the elect lady and her children1 to look to yourselves4 ,the salvation of your soul is precious1 and its salvation is such a task1 such a battle1 such a danger1 and such a risk1 that it will take all that your most watchful minister can do1 and all that you can do yourself1 and all that ,god can do for you1 and yet your soul will scarcely be saved after all4 ,you do not know what salvation is nor what it costs4 ,you will not be saved in your sleep4 ,you will not waken up at the last day and find yourself saved by the grace of ,god and you not know it4 ,you will know it to your bitter cost before your soul is saved from sin and death4 ,you and your minister too4 ,and therefore it is that ,he ,who is to judge your soul at last says to you1 as much as ,he says it to any of ,his ministers1 ,watch6 ,what ,i say unto one ,i say unto all1 ,watch4 ,watch and pray1 lest you enter into temptation4 ,look to yourself1 then1 sinner4 ,in ,christ's name1 look to yourself and watch yourself4 ,you have no enemy to fear but yourself4 ,no one can hurt a hair of your head but yourself4 ,have you found that out8 ,have you found yourself out8 ,do you ever look in the direction of your own heart8 ,have you begun to watch what goes on in your own heart8 ,what is it to you what goes on in the world around you compared with what goes on in the world within you8 ,look1 then1 to yourself4 ,watch1 above all watching1 yourself4 ,watch what it is that moves you to do this or that4 ,stop sometimes and ask yourself why you do such and such a thing4 ,did you ever hear of such a thing as a motive in a human heart8 ,and did your minister1 watching for your soul1 ever tell you that your soul will be lost or saved1 condemned or justified at the last day according to your motives8 ,you never knew that6 ,you were never told that by your minister6 ,miserable pair6 ,what does he take up his ,sabbaths with8 ,and what leads you to waste your ,sabbaths and your soul on such a stupid minister8 ,but1 shepherd or no shepherd1 minister or no minister1 look to yourself4 ,look to yourself when you lie down and when you rise up2 when you go out and when you come in2 when you are in the society of men and when you are alone with your own heart4 ,look to yourself when men praise you1 and look to yourself when men blame you4 ,look to yourself when you sit down to eat and drink1 and still more when you sit and speak about your absent brother4 ,look to yourself when you meet your enemy or your rival in the street1 when you pass his house1 or hear or read his name4 ,yes1 you may well say so4 ,at that rate a man's life would be all watching4 ,so it would4 ,and so it must4 ,and more than that1 so it is with some men not far from you who never told you how much you have made them watch4 ,did you never know all that till now8 ,were you never told that every ,christian man1 ,i do not mean every communicant1 but every truly and sincerely and genuinely ,christian man watches himself in that way8 ,for as the one essential and distinguishing mark of a ,new ,testament minister is not that he is an able man1 or a studious man1 or an eloquent man1 but that he is a pastor and watches for souls1 so it is the chiefest and the best mark1 and to himself the only safe and infallible mark1 that any man is a sincere and true ,christian man1 that he watches himself always and in all things looks first and last to himself4 ,,sincere ',in all things showing sincerity4'--,paul to ,titus4 ,charles ,bennett has a delightful drawing of ,sincere in ,charles ,kingsley's beautiful edition of ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress4 ,you feel that you could look all day into those clear eyes4 ,your eyes would begin to quail before you had looked long into the fourth shepherd's deep eyes2 but those eyes of his have no cause to quail under yours4 ,this man has nothing to hide from you4 ,he never had4 ,he loves you1 and his love to you is wholly without dissimulation4 ,he absolutely and unreservedly means and intends by you and yours all that he has ever said to you and yours1 and much more than he has ever been able to say4 ,the owner of those deep blue eyes is as true to you when he is among your enemies as he is true to the truth itself when he is among your friends4 ,mark also the unobtrusive strength of his mouth1 all suffused over as it is with a most winning and reassuring sweetness4 ,the fourth shepherd of the ,delectable ,mountains is one of the very best of ,bennett's excellent portraits4 ,but ,mr4 ,kerr ,bain's pen-and-ink portrait of ,sincere in his ,people of the ,pilgrimage is even better than ,bennett's excellent drawing4 ',sincere is softer in outline and feature than ,watchful4 ,his eye is full-open and lucid1 with a face of mingled expressiveness and strength--a lovable1 lowly1 pure-spirited man--candid1 considerate1 willing1 cheerful--not speaking many words1 and never any but true words4' ,happy sheep that have such a shepherd6 ,happy people6 if only any people in the ,church of ,christ could have such a pastor4 ,it is surely too late1 too late or too early1 to begin to put tests to a minister's sincerity after he has been licensed and called and is now standing in the presence of his presbytery and surrounded with his congregation4 ,it is a tremendous enough question to put to any man at any time3 ',are not zeal for the honour of ,god1 love to ,jesus ,christ1 and desire of saving souls your great motives and chief inducement to enter into the function of the holy ministry8' ,a man who does not understand what it is you are saying to him will just make the same bow to these awful words that he makes to all your other conventional questions4 ,but the older he grows in his ministry1 and the more he comes to discover the incurable plague of his own heart1 and with that the whole meaning and full weight of your overwhelming words1 the more will he shrink back from having such questions addressed to him4 ,fools will rush in where ,moses and ,isaiah and ,jeremiah and ,peter and ,paul feared to set their foot4 ,paul was to be satisfied if only he was let do the work of a minister all his days and then was not at the end made a castaway4 ,and yet1 writing to the same church1 ,paul says that his sincerity among them had been such that he could hold up his ministerial life like spotless linen between the eye of his conscience and the sun4 ,but all that was written and is to be read and understood as ,paul's ideal that he had honestly laboured after1 rather than as an actual attainment he had arrived at4 ,great as ,paul's attainments were in humility1 in purity of intention1 and in simplicity and sincerity of heart1 yet the mind of ,christ was not so given even to ,his most gifted apostle1 that he could seriously say that he had attained to such utter ingenuity1 simplicity1 disengagement from himself1 and surrender to ,christ1 as to be able to face the sun with a spotless ministry4 ,all he ever says at his boldest and best on that great matter is to be read in the light of his universal law of personal and apostolic imperfection--,not that ,i have attained1 either am already perfect2 but ,i follow after4 ,and blessed be ,god that this is all that ,he looks for in any of ,his ministers1 that they follow all their days after a more and more godly sincerity4 ,it was the apostle's love of absolute sincerity1--and1 especially1 it was his bitter hatred of all the remaining dregs of insincerity that he from time to time detected in his own heart1--it was this that gave him his good conscience before a ,god of pity and compassion1 truth and grace4 ,and with something of the same love of perfect sincerity1 accompanied with something of the same hatred of insincerity and of ourselves on account of it1 we1 too1 toward this same ,god of pity and compassion1 will hold up a conscience that would fain be a good conscience4 ,and till it is a good conscience we shall hold up with it a broken heart4 ,and that genuine love of all sincerity1 and that equally genuine hatred of all remaining insincerity1 will make all our ministerial work1 as it made all ,paul's apostolic work1 not only acceptable1 but will also make its very defects and defeats both acceptable and fruitful in the estimation and result of ,god4 ,it so happens that ,i am reading for my own private purposes at this moment an old book of #afda1 ,drexilius ,on a ,right ,intention1 and ,i cannot do better at this point than share with you the page ,i am just reading4 ',not to be too much troubled or daunted at any cross event1' he says1 'is the happy state of his mind who has entered on any enterprise with a pure and pious intention4 ,that great apostle ,james gained no more than eight persons in all ,spain when he was called to lay down his head under ,herod's sword4 ,and was not ,god ready to give the same reward to ,james as to those who converted kings and whole kingdoms8 ,surely ,he was4 ,for ,god does not give ,his ministers a charge as to what they shall effect1 but only as to what they shall intend to effect4 ,wherefore1 when his art faileth a servant of ,god1 when nothing goes forward1 when everything turneth to his ruin1 even when his hope is utterly void1 he is scarce one whit troubled2 for this1 saith he to himself1 is not in my power1 but in ,god's power alone4 ,i have done what ,i could4 ,i have done what was fit for me to do4 ,fair and foul is all of ,god's disposing4' ,and1 then1 this simplicity and purity of intention gives a minister that fine combination of candour and considerateness which we saw to exist together so harmoniously in the character of ,sincere4 ,such a minister is not tongue-tied with sinister and selfish intentions4 ,his sincerity toward ,god gives him a masterful position among his people4 ,his words of rebuke and warning go straight to his people's consciences because they come straight out of his own conscience4 ,his words are their own witness that he is neither fearing his people nor fawning upon his people in speaking to them4 ,and1 then1 such candour prepares the way for the utmost considerateness when the proper time comes for considerateness4 ,such a minister is patient with the stupid1 and even with the wicked and the injurious1 because in all their stupidity and wickedness and injuriousness they have only injured and impoverished themselves4 ,and if ,god is full of patience and pity for the ignorant and the evil and the out of the way1 then ,his sincere-hearted minister is of all men the very man to carry the divine message of forgiveness and instruction to such sinners4 ,yes1 ,mr4 ,bain must have seen ,sincere closely and in a clear light when he took down this fine feature of his character1 that he is at once candid and considerate--with a whole face of mingled expressiveness and strength4 ,writing about sincerity and a right intention in young ministers1 old ,drexilius says3 ',when ,i turn to clergymen1 ,i would have sighs and groans to speak for me4 ,for1 alas6 ,i am afraid that there be found some which come into the ministry1 not that they may obtain a holy office in which to spend their life1 but for worse ends4 ,to enter the ministry with a naughty intention is to come straight to destruction4 ,let no minister think at any time of a better living1 but only at all times of a holier life4 ,wherefore1 ,o ministers and spiritual men1 consider and take heed4 ,there can be no safe guide to your office but a right1 sincere1 pure intention4 ,whosoever cometh to it with any other conduct or companion must either return to his former state of life1 or here he shall certainly perish 4 4 4 ,what is more commendable in a religious man than to be always in action and to be exercised one while in teaching the ignorant1 another while in comforting such as are troubled in mind1 sometimes in making sermons1 and sometimes in admonishing the sick8 ,but with what secret malignity doth a wrong intention insinuate itself into these very actions that are the most religious6 ,for ofttimes we desire nothing else but to be doing4 ,we desire to become public1 not that we may profit many1 but because we have not learned how to be private4 ,we seek for divers employments1 not that we may avoid idleness1 but that we may come into people's knowledge4 ,we despise a small number of hearers1 and such as are poor1 simple1 and rustical1 and let fly our endeavours at more eminent chairs1 though not in apparent pursuit2 all which is the plain argument of a corrupt intention4 ,o ye that wait upon religion1 ,o ministers of ,god1 this is to sell most transcendent wares at a very low rate--nay1 this is to cast them1 and yourselves too1 into the fire4' ,there are some outstanding temptations to insincerity in some ministers that must be pointed out here4 7#a7 ,ministers with a warm rhetorical temperament are beset continually with the temptation to pile up false fire on the altar2 to dilate1 that is1 both in their prayers and in their sermons1 upon certain topics in a style that is full of insincerity4 ,ministers who have no real hold of divine things in themselves will yet fill their pulpit hour with the most florid and affecting pictures of sacred and even of evangelical things4 ,this is what our shrewd and satirical people mean when they say of us that ,so-and-so has a great sough of the gospel in his preaching1 but the sough only4 7#b7 ,another kindred temptation to even the best and truest of ministers is to make pulpit appeals about the evil of sin and the necessity of a holy life that they themselves do not feel and do not attempt to live up to4 ,butler has a terrible passage on the heart-hardening effects of making pictures of virtue and never trying to put those pictures into practice4 ,and readers of ,newman will remember his powerful application of this same temptation to literary men in his fine sermon on ,unreal ,words4 7#c7 ,another temptation is to affect an interest in our people and a sympathy with them that we do not in reality feel4 ,all human life is full of this temptation to double-dealing and hypocrisy2 but1 then1 it is large part of a minister's office to feel with and for his people1 and to give the tenderest and the most sacred expression to that feeling4 ,and1 unless he is a man of a scrupulously sincere1 true1 and tender heart1 his daily duties will soon develop him into a solemn hypocrite4 ,and if he feels only for his own people1 and for them only when they become and as long as they remain his own people1 then his insincerity and imposture is only the more abominable in the sight of ,god4 7#d7 ,archbishop ,whately1 with that strong ,english common sense and that cultivated clear-headedness that almost make him a writer of genius1 points out a view of sincerity that it behoves ministers especially to cultivate in themselves4 ,he tells us not only to act always according to our convictions1 but also to see that our convictions are true and unbiassed convictions4 ,it is a very superficial sincerity even when we actually believe what we profess to believe4 ,but that is a far deeper and a far nobler sincerity which watches with a strict and severe jealousy over the formation of our beliefs and convictions4 ,ministers must1 first for themselves and then for their people1 live far deeper down than other men4 ,they must be at home among the roots1 not of actions only1 but much more of convictions4 ,we may act honestly enough out of our present convictions and principles1 while1 all the time1 our convictions and our principles are vitiated at bottom by the selfish ground they ultimately stand in4 ,let ministers1 then1 to begin with1 live deep down among the roots of their opinions and their beliefs4 ,let them not only flee from being consciously insincere and hypocritical men2 let them keep their eye like the eye of ,god continually on that deep ground of the soul where so many men unknown to themselves deceive themselves4 ,and1 thus exercised1 they shall be able out of a deep and clean heart to rise far above that trimming and hedging and self-seeking and self-sheltering in disputed and unpopular questions which is such a temptation to all men1 and is such a shame and scandal in a minister4 ,now1 my good friends1 we have kept all this time to the fourth shepherd and to his noble name1 but let us look in closing at some of his sheep1--that is to say1 at ourselves4 ,for is it not said in the prophet3 ,ye my flock1 the flock of my pasture1 are men1 and ,i am your ,god1 saith the ,lord ,god4 ,all1 therefore1 that has been said about the sincerity and insincerity of ministers is to be said equally of their people also in all their special and peculiar walks of life4 ,sincerity is as noble a virtue1 and insincerity is as detestable a vice1 in a doctor1 or a lawyer1 or a schoolmaster1 or a merchant1--almost1 if not altogether1 as much so as in a minister4 ,your insincerity and hypocrisy in your daily intercourse with your friends and neighbours is a miserable enough state of mind1 but at the root of all that there lies your radical insincerity toward ,god and your own soul4 ,in his ,christian ,perfection ,william ,law introduces his readers to a character called ,julius1 who goes regularly to prayers1 and there confesses himself to be a miserable sinner who has no health in him2 and yet that same ,julius cannot bear to be informed of any imperfection or suspected to be wanting in any kind or degree of virtue4 ,now1 ,law asks1 can there be a stronger proof that ,julius is wanting in the sincerity of his devotions8 ,is it not as plain as anything can be that that man's confessions of sin are only words of course1 a certain civility of sacred speech in which his heart has not a single atom of share8 ,julius confesses himself to be in great weakness1 corruption1 disorder1 and infirmity1 and yet he is mortally angry with you if at any time you remotely and tenderly hint that he may be just a shade wrong in his opinions1 or one hair's-breadth off what is square and correct in his actions4 ,look to yourself1 ,julius1 and to your insincere heart4 ,look to yourself at all times1 but above all other times at the times and in the places of your devotions4 ,ten to one1 my hearer of to- night1 you may never have thought of that before4 ,and what would you think if you were told that this ,sincere shepherd was appointed us for this evening's discourse1 and that you were led up to this house1 just that you might have your attention turned to your many miserable insincerities of all kinds1 but especially to your so ,julius-like devotions8 ',and ,nathan said unto ,david1 ,thou art the man4 ,and ,david said unto ,nathan1 ,i have sinned against the ,lord4' ,what1 then1 my truly miserable fellow-sinner and fellow-worshipper1 what are we to do8 ,am ,i to give up preaching altogether because ,i am continually carried on under the impulse of the pulpit far beyond both my attainments and my intentions8 ,am ,i to cease from public prayer altogether because when engaged in it ,i am compelled to utter words of contrition and confession and supplication that little agree with the everyday temper and sensibility of my soul8 ,and am ,i wholly to eschew pastoral work because my heart is not so absolutely clean and simple and sincere toward all my own people and toward other ministers' people as it ought to be8 ,no6 ,never6 ,never6 ,let me rather keep my heart of such earth and slag in the hottest place of temptation1 and then1 such humiliating discoveries as are there continually being made to me of myself will surely at last empty me of all self-righteousness and self- sufficiency1 and make me at the end of my ministry1 if not till then1 the penitent pastor of a penitent people4 ,and when thus penitent1 then surely1 also somewhat more sincere in my designs and intentions1 if not even then in my attainments and performances4 ',o ,eternal ,god1 ,who hast made all things for man1 and man for ,thy glory1 sanctify my body and my soul1 my thoughts and my intentions1 my words and my actions1 that whatsoever ,i shall think or speak or do may be by me designed to the glory of ,thy name4 ,o ,god1 turn my necessities into virtue1 and the works of nature into the works of grace1 by making them orderly1 regular1 temperate1 subordinate1 and profitable to ends beyond their own proper efficacy4 ,and let no pride or self-seeking1 no covetousness or revenge1 no impure mixtures or unhandsome purposes1 no little ends and low imaginations1 pollute my spirit or unhallow any of my words or actions4 ,but let my body be the servant of my spirit1 and both soul and body servants of my ,lord1 that1 doing all things for ,thy glory here1 ,i may be made a partaker of ,thy glory hereafter2 through ,jesus ,christ1 my ,lord4 ,amen4' ,,footnotes #a ,delivered on the ,sabbath before ,communion4 #b ,delivered ,june #bfth1 #ahib1 on the eve of a general election4