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He then said, I think I do. |
Keep that light in your eye, quoth Evangelist, and go straight up to it; so shall you see the gate, at which, when you knock, it shall be told you what you are to do. |
Then I saw in my dream that Christian -- for that was his name -- set off to run. |
Now he had not gone far from his own door, when his wife and young ones, who saw him, gave a loud wail to beg of him to come back; but the man put his hands to his ears, and ran on with a cry of Life! Life! The friends of his wife, too, came out to see him run, and as he went, some were heard to mock him, some to use t... |
Then said Christian, Friends, why are you come? |
To bid you go back with us, said they. |
But, quoth he, that can by no means be; you dwell in the City of Destruction, the place where I, too, was born. I know it to be so, and there you will die and sink down to a place which burns with fire; be wise, good friends, and come with me. |
What! and leave our good, and all out kith and kin? |
Yes, said Christian, for that all which you might leave is but a grain to that which I seek, and if you will go with me and hold it firm, you shall fare as well as I; for there, where I go, you will find all you want and to spare. Come with me, and prove my words. |
Obstinate. -- What are the things you seek, since you leave all the world to find them? |
Christian. -- I seek those joys that fade not, which are laid up in a place of bliss -- safe there for those who go in search of them. Read it so, if you will, in my book. |
Obstinate. -- Tush! Off with your book. Will you go back with us or no? |
Christian. -- No, not I, for I have laid my hand to the plough. |
Obstinate. -- Come, friend Pliable, let us turn back and leave him; there is a troop of such fools who, when they take up with a whim by the end, are more wise in their own eyes than ten men who know how to think. |
Pliable. -- Nay, do not scorn him; if what the good Christian says is true, the things he looks to are of more worth than ours: my heart leans to what he says. |
Obstinate. -- What! more fools still! Go back, go back, and be wise. |
Christian. -- Nay, but do you come with your friend Pliable; there are such things to be had as those I just spoke of, and more too. If you give no heed to me, read here in this book which comes to us from God, who could not lie. |
Pliable. -- Well, friend Obstinate, I think now I have come to a point; and I mean to go with this good man, and to cast my lot in with his. Then said he to Christian, Do you know the way to the place you speak of? |
Christian. -- I am told by a man whose name is Evangelist, to do my best to reach a gate that is in front of us, where I shall be told how to find the way. |
So they went on side by side. |
Obstinate. -- And I will go back to my place; I will not be one of such vain folk. |
Now I saw in my dream, that when Obstinate was gone back, Christian and Pliable set off to cross the plain, and they spoke thus as they went: -- |
Christian. -- Well, Pliable, how do you do now? I am glad you have a mind to go with me. |
Pliable. -- Come, friend Christian, since there are none but we two here, tell me more of the things of which we go in search. |
Christian. -- I can find them in my heart, though I know not how to speak of them with my tongue; but yet, since you wish to know, this book tells us of a world that hast no bounds, and a life that has no end. |
Pliable. -- Well said, and what else? |
Christian. -- That there are crowns of light in store for us, and robes that will make us shine like the sun. |
Pliable. -- This, too, is good; and what else? |
Christian. -- That there shall be no more care nor grief for he that owns the place will wipe all tears from our eyes. |
Pliable. -- And what friends shall we find there? |
Christian. -- There we shall be with all the saints, in robes so bright that our eyes will grow dim to look on them. There shall we meet those who in this world have stood out for the faith, and have been burnt on the stake, and thrown to wild beasts, for the love they bore to the Lord. They will not harm us, but will ... |
Pliable. -- But how shall we get to share all this? |
Christian. -- The Lord of that land saith, if we wish to gain that world we shall be free to have it. |
Pliable. -- Well, my good friend, glad am I to hear of these thing: come on, let us mend our pace. |
Christian. -- I can not go so fast as I would, for this load on my back. |
Then I saw in my dream that just as they had come to an end of this talk, they drew near to a slough that was in the midst of the plain, and as they took no heed, they both fell in. The name of the slough was Despond. Here they lay for a time in the mud; and the load that Christian had on his back made him sink all the... |
Pliable. -- Ah! friend Christian, where are you now? |
Christian. -- In truth, I do no know. |
Then Pliable said to his friend, Is this the bliss of which you have told me all this while? If we have such ill speed when we first set out, what may we look for twixt this and the end of our way? And with that he got out of the mire on that side of the slough which was next to his own house; then off he went, and Chr... |
So Christian was left to strive in the Slough of Despond as well as he could; yet his aim was to reach that side of the slough that was next The Wicket Gate, which at last he did, but he could not get out for the load that was on his back; till I saw in my dream that a man came to him whose name was Help. |
What do you do here? said Help. |
Christian. -- I was bid to go this way by Evangelist, who told me to pass up to yon gate, that I might flee from the wrath to come, and on my way to it I fell in here. |
Help. -- But why did you not look for the steps? |
Christian. -- Fear came so hard on me that I fled the next way and fell in. |
Help. -- Give me your hand. |
So he gave him his hand, and he drew him out, and set him on firm ground, and bade him go on his way. |
Then in my dream I went up to Help and said to him, Sir, since this place is on the way from The City of Destruction to The Wicket Gate, how is it that no one mends this patch of ground, so that those who come by may not fall in the slough? |
Help. -- This slough is such a place as no one can mend. It is the spot to which doth run the scum and filth that wait on sin, and that is why men call it the Slough of Despond. When the man of sin wakes up to a sense of his own lost state, doubts and fears rise up in his soul, and all of them drain down and sink in th... |
Now I saw in my dream that by this time Pliable had gone back to his house once more, and that his friends came to see him: some said how wise it was to come home, and some that he was a fool to have gone. Some, too, were found to mock him, who said -- Well, had I set out, I would not have been so base as to come back ... |
Now as Christian went on his way he saw a man come through the field to meet him, whose name was Mr. Worldly Wiseman, and he dwelt in the town of Carnal Policy, which was near that whence Christian came. He had heard some news of Christian; for his flight from The City of Destruction had made much noise, and was now th... |
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