were tumbling in the Slough of Despond. A sense of shame pursues them as long as they live, for their tergiversasion. Oftentimes the inhabitants of that city do at first as stoutly ridicule those who turn back as those who set out; and oftentimes you will find those who have turned back become the loudest in their ridicule of the

whole pilgrimage. Alas! the world is full of Pliables, who have not decision enough, in the face of contempt, trial and danger, to run towards heaven; and yet they have many designs of doing so; but the Word in their hearts is among thorns; the cares and pleasures and riches of this world, the lusts of other things, choke the Word, although there be good designs; and hence the proverb, that hell is paved with good intentions.

Farewell, then, to Pliable, who after a desperate struggle or two, got out of the mire on that side of the slough that was nearest his own house, and so Christian saw him no more forever. If he had borne Christian's burden, at first setting out, that is, if he had had an awakened conscience, a view of his guilt, and of the wrath which he deserved, and had reason to dread on account of it, not forty Sloughs of Despond would have turned him back, nor all the ridicule in the world would have moved him And you see in the case of these two men how much more powerful are the terrors of the law and a sense of sin, as motives in an unconverted mind, than any mere description of the glories of heaven. That is good in its place, good when there is also a sense of sin to accompany it; and as in the case

of Christian, where there is this burden on the soul, then the description of those glories will have an effect deep and lasting, while in the case of one who does not feel that burden, does not see and feel his guilt, as with Pliable, the most ravishing description of Heaven, will be but as a sweet tune on a flute flung to the wind and forgotten; it will make but a momentary impression, create only a transitory, superficial sympathy. There must be the preaching of the law and a law-work in the conscience, before men are likely even to set out resolutely for heaven, and without this lawwork they do almost invariably turn back; unless, indeed, avoiding the Slough of Despond, and all the difficulties Christian met with, they take up with a false hope, as Ignorance did, and make a profession of religion; in which case they may, even as Ignorance, hold on to the last, and even at the river of Death, be ferried over in the boat of one named Self-Conceit, not to find out their error, till on coming up and knocking at the gate, and crying, Lord, Lord, open unto us, the Lord shall answer, I never knew you.

And now is poor Christian left to struggle alone; and with the burden on his back, lamentable indeed is his case in the Slough of Despond. And here he would have remained and died, for he would struggle in no direction but that toward the Wicket Gate, the side farthest from his own house, had not a heavenly helper reached forth his hand to draw him out. Some men, like Pliable, endeavor to throw off their convictions of sin, by returning to worldly pleasures, getting out of the Slough on the

side nearest the City of Destruction; this, you remember, Bunyan himself did at one time; from his convictions he returned desperately to his sports. But the resolute Pilgrim, once fixed toward heaven, will not seek to be rid of his burden in any way but by going to Christ; in the midst of his distressing convictions, he will still struggle, as Christian did, toward the side farthest from the City of Destruction; and so doing he will find help.

In this Slough of Despond there were good and firm steps, sound promises to stand upon, a causeway indeed, better than adamant, clear across the treacherous quagmires; but mark you, fear followed Christian so hard, that he fled the nearest way, and fell in, not stopping to look for the steps, or not thinking of them. Now this is often just the operation of fear; it sets the threatenings against the promises, when it ought simply to direct the soul from the threatenings, to the promises. That is the object of the threatenings to make the promises shine, and to make the soul lay hold upon them, and that is the purpose and the tendency of a salutary fear of the divine wrath on account of sin, to make the believer flee directly to the promises, and advance on them to Christ. But in general, men under conviction of sin, having more desire to escape from hell than to get to Christ; more desire to be relieved of their distresses than to become holy; are blinded by the very fears which should have pointed out the promises, and without looking narrowly for those steps, they struggle for relief rather than holiness, for comfort rather than Christ, and so fall deeper into difficulty. Just so

in all applications that we make of any remedies but the Gospel; in all directions that we go for relief but just to Christ, and with all the physicians we can have without him, our sickness of sin and misery never grows better, but rather grows worse. Flying from our fears, we fly only into greater guilt and fear, if we do not flee to Christ. Struggling to be rid of our burden, it only sinks us deeper in the mire, if we do not rest by faith upon the promises, and so come indeed to Christ. Precious promises they are, and so free and full of forgiveness and eternal life, that certainly the moment a dying soul feels its guilt and misery, that soul may lay hold upon them, and find Christ in them; and were it not for unbelief, there need be no Slough of Despond for the soul to struggle and plunge in its mire of depravity.

You see, said the dreamer's teacher, this Slough of Despond is a dreadful place, because unbelief and sin are such deep and dreadful evils. And as long as unbelief continues it cannot be mended; for still as the sinner is awakened about his lost condition, there arise in his soul many fears and doubts, and discouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together and settle in this place; and this is the reason of the badness of this ground.

It is not the pleasure of the King that this place should remain so bad: his laborers also have, by the direction of his majesty's surveyors, been above these eighteen hundred years employed about this patch of ground, if perhaps it might have been mended; millions of cartloads of wholesome instructions have been swallowed up in it, that have

at all seasons been brought from all places of the King's dominions; the very best materials to make good ground of the place, if so it might have been mended; but it is the Slough of Despond still, and so will be, when they have done what they can. Nevertheless, the steps are there, if the burdened and terrified Pilgrims will but take them; and the ground is good, when they are once got in at the gate. There was also a heavenly Helper for poor Christian, as there always will be for one who is humble and sincere, even though, in the excess of his fear, he misses the steps, and seems to be sinking to destruction. The Lord will not leave him to perish, any more than he left Peter, because of his unbelief, to sink to the bottom. The Lord Jesus Christ can never resist that outcry of the sinking soul, Lord, save me, I perish!

And now you may think perhaps that Christian having got out of the Slough of Despond, and fairly on his way, it is all well with him; but not so, for now he comes into a peril that is far greater than the last, a peril through which we suppose that every soul that ever goes on pilgrimage passes, and a peril in which multitudes that get safely across the Slough of Despond, perish forever. For now Christian meets, not with mud and mire, but with Mr. Worldly Wiseman, from the great town of Carnal Policy, who besets and way-lays him with another gospel. He directs him to a famous preacher of that gospel, Mr. Legality, a gentleman whose parish is in the very respectable village of Morality, where there are nice, honest and amiable neighbors, in credit and good fashion, where pro