him so, that they made him at last afraid of a sorry girl." So there is no help, trust, strength, or safety for us but in Christ, in his great grace in us, upon us, and for us. Great-Grace must be our champion, as he was Little-Faith's, or it is all over with us.

Little-Faith dwelt in the town of Sincere, and his sincerity was a very precious thing in him, for the Lord looketh on the heart, and on the man who trembleth at his word. Moreover, our blessed Lord hath said, that he will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax; and where there is smoke, as with Little-Faith, there was but little else, so that he was under a cloud all the while, stifled as it were, with the smoke of his evidences, and seeking in vain to find his own fire, yet there is hope of a blaze; it will break out at last, and burn brightly. So if a man can but say, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief, if he says this sincerely, he need never be discouraged; let him hope in the Lord. Little-Grace can trust in Christ, and Great-Grace can do no more; and if "one promise doth belong to thee," says an excellent old writer, "then all do; for every one conveys a whole Christ; and Christ will acknowledge thee to be his, if he sees but one mark of his child upon thee in truth and sincerity. For God brings not a pair of scales to weigh your graces, and if they be too light refuseth them; but he brings a touch-stone to try them; and if they be pure gold, though never so little of it, it will pass current with him; though it be but smoke, not flame, though it be but as a wick in the socket, (as the original hath it,) likelier to

die and go out, than continue, which we use to throw away; yet he will not quench it, but accept it." This is a sweet comforting truth, but let it not be turned to indolence or licentiousness; for if a man would have God to work out his salvation for him, he must also be willing and industrious to work it out himself with fear and trembling.

The next character which the Pilgrims met with in their way to the City, after, by the help of the Shining One, they had escaped the net of the Flatterer, was an open, broad, blaspheming Atheist. He pretended to have been twenty years seeking the Celestial City, and had not found it, and now he knew there was no such thing in existence, and was determined to take his full swing of the pleasures of this life, to make amends for all the labor he had undergone. There is no doubt that Bunyan had met with such characters; they are to be found sometimes now; and dangerous indeed they are to the young and inexperienced. This man Atheist reminds me of a professed preacher of the Gospel, but a denier of our Lord's Divinity and Atonement, to whom I referred as having been settled over one of Mr. Legality's parishes, who had been in early life the subject of many and strong religious impressions, but had denied the faith, and become worse than an infidel. This man used to say, just as Atheist to Christian and Hopeful, though not that there was no Celestial City, yet that there was no need of such a laborious pilgrimage to come at it, for that he had been through all this pretended religious experience, and knew it to be all nonsense, a perfectly needless and

foolish trouble.

"The lips of a fool will swallow up himself. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk mischievous madness. He knoweth not how to go to the City." This fool Atheist lost his labor with Christian and Hopeful, for they had seen the Gate of the Celestial City from the top of the Delectable Mountains. So when temptations to unbelief and Atheism beset the Christian, he may very properly throw himself back upon his past experience of God's loving kindness, when the candle of the Lord shined upon him, and he could see afar off. So David, in trouble and darkness, remembered God from such and such a place, when he had commanded deliverance, and he knew he would command it again.

But now the Pilgrims enter on the Enchanted Ground. The air of that region tends to such drowsiness, that it disposed the Pilgrims to lie down at once and sleep; and Hopeful would have done so, had it not been for the warnings of Christian, who bade his brother remember what the good Shepherds had told them. Hopeful was inclined to say with Paul, "I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?" May I not lie down and take a short nap? said Hopeful. Sleep is refreshing to the laboring man, and I can scarcely hold my eyes open. Ah, these short naps for Pilgrims! The sleep of death, in the Enchanted Air of this world, usually begins with one of these short naps.

Sleeping here, there is no safety; for if you give way to your almost irresistible inclination, it

becomes more irresistible, you are in imminent danger of the lethargy of spiritual death. Wherefore, beware of spiritual indolence; it is a gradual, but fearful and powerful temptation. Wherefore, let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. O beware of a lukewarm formality in your spiritual exercises, especially in prayer, in family prayer, in secret prayer. And rest not in the form, but pray earnestly to God to infuse more life and earnestness in your devotions, to give you a more vivid view and sense of eternal realities, to wake you up, and to shake from you this sloth, and to make you vigorous and fervent in spirit. This is what is needed, for in this Enchanted Ground of indolence and spiritual slumber you must, though it crucify your own flesh, resist this dangerous inclination to sleep.

This desire to slumber is sometimes an indication of spiritual coldness, rather than of spiritual fatigue, for those who have been exercising themselves vigorously are not apt to feel it; so that it indicates a state in the soul, like that which takes place in the body, when a person is near perishing in the snow. There is an account in the voyages of some of our early circumnavigators about the globe, of a danger of this kind that came upon them when travelling in a certain frozen region, which I always think of when I come to this place in the Pilgrim's Progress. The surgeon of the company, a man of great skill and firmness, warned his companions that they would feel a great inclination to sleep, but that so sure as they gave way to it, they would die in it, for no power

on earth could wake them. But if I remember right, this very surgeon, Dr. Solander, was one of the first to be overcome with this irresistible desire to sleep; and had they not, by main force, kept him from it, he would have lain down in the cold, and slept, and died. Now, when this inclination to spiritual slumber is the result of spiritual coldness, a man is in danger indeed. It is time to bestir yourself, for if you yield to this propensity, it is most likely that death will overtake you in it. Wherefore rouse up, and walk on, and beat yourself, if need be, and call earnestly upon God to save you, and Christ will be your guide.

The way Christian and Hopeful took to avoid this danger was excellent and very instructive. They sang and conversed together, and Hopeful related to Christian the deeply interesting account of his own Christian experience. While they were thus musing, singing and talking, the fire burned, and the danger grew less and less, the more they became interested. So sweet is heavenly conversation between Christians, so good to warm and enliven the heart. No wonder, where there is so little of it, and so much and constant vain and trifling talk on the vanities of this world, that there should be so much spiritual coldness. Some men are all ear and tongue in earthly things, conversable and social in the highest degree on the business, arts, and manners of this world, but when it comes to things of spiritual experience, when it comes to that exhortation, Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, ah, how little salt is there! Attic salt, as the world calls