a man in a steel cage. Now the man to look on was most sad; and he gave sighs as if he would break his heart.

The man said, "I once did seem to be what I was not fair in mine own eyes, and in the eyes of those that knew me. I was once, as I thought, fair for the Celestial City, and went so far as to have joy at the thoughts that I should get there."

Chr.—"Well, but what art thou now?"

Man.—"I am now a man lost to hope."

Chr.—"But how didst thou get in this state?"

Man.—"I did sin in face of the light of the World, and the grace of God. I made the Spirit grieve, and he is gone."

Then said Christian, "Is there no hope, but you must be kept in the steel cage of gloom?"

Man.—"None at all."

Chr.—"But canst thou not now grieve and turn?"

Man.—"God hath not let me; his Word gives me no aid to faith; yea, he hath shut me up in this steel cage; nor can all the men in the world let me out."

Then said the Interpreter to Christian, "Let this man's wails be dwelt on by thee, and cease not to teach thee how to act."

So he took Christian and led him to a room where one did rise out of bed; and as he put on his clothes he did shake and quake.

Then said Christian, "Why doth this man thus shake?"

So he spoke and said, "This night as I was in my sleep I dreamt, and lo, the sky grew black as ink, when flame flit from the clouds; on which I heard a dread noise, that put me in throes of pain. So I did lift up my eyes in my dream, and saw a man sit on a cloud, with a huge host near to him. I heard, then, a voice that said, 'Come forth, ye dead, and meet your Judge!' And with that the rocks rent, the graves did gape, and the dead that were in them came forth. Then I saw the man that sat on the cloud fold back the book and bid the world draw near. I heard it, in like way, told to them that were near the man that sat on the cloud, 'Bind up the tares, and the chaff, and the stalks, and cast them in the lake that burns with fire.' Then said the voice to the same men, 'Put up my wheat in the barn!' and with that I saw a host caught up in the clouds, but I was left stay."

Chr.—"But what was it that made you so quake at this sight?"

Man.—"Why, I thought that the day of doom had come, and that I was not fit to meet it. But this made me fear most, that some were caught up while I was left."

Then said the Interpreter to Christian, "Hast thou thought well on all these things?"

Chr.—"Yes; and they put me in hope and fear."

Inter.—"Well, keep all things so in thy mind that they may be as a goad in thy sides, to prick thee on in the way thou must go."

Then Christian girt up his loins, and thought but of the long road he had to tread.

So I saw that just as Christian came up to the cross, his load got loose from his neck, and fell from off his back.—Page 25.

Pilgrim's Progress.

CHAPTER VI.
THE CROSS AND THE CONTRAST.

Now I saw in my dream that the high road had on each side a wall for a fence, and that wall went by the name of Salvation. Up this way, then, did Christian run with his load, till he came to a place where was a high slope, and on that place stood a cross, and a short way from it in the vale, a tomb. So I saw in my dream that just as Christian came up with the cross, his load got loose from his neck, and fell from off his back, and did roll till it came to the mouth of the grave, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.

Then was Christian full glad, and said, with a gay heart, "He hath brought me rest by his grief, and life by his death." Then he stood still for a short time to look with awe, for it was a strange thing to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his load.

I saw then in my dream that he went on thus till he came to a vale, where he saw three men in deep sleep, with gyves on their heels. The name of the one was Simple; the next, Sloth; and the third, Presumption.

Christian went to them, if so be he might rouse them; so he said in a loud voice, "You are like them that sleep on the top of a mast, for the Dead Sea is low down at your feet, a gulf that no plumb line can sound; get up, hence and come on."

With this they gave a glum look at him, and spoke in this sort: Simple said, "I see no cause for fear"; Sloth said, "Yet some more sleep"; and Presumption said, "Each tub must stand on its own end." And so they lay down to sleep once more, and Christian went on his way.

FORMALIST AND HYPOCRISY COMING INTO THE WAY OVER THE WALL.

Yet felt he grief to think that men in that sad plight should so spurn the kind act of him that of his own free will sought to help them. And as he did grieve from this cause, he saw two men roll off a wall, on the left hand of the strait way. The name of the one was Formalist, and the name of the next Hypocrisy. So they drew up nigh him, who thus held speech with them:

Chr.—"Sirs, whence came you, and where do you go?"

Form. and Hyp.—"We were born in the land of Vainglory, and are bent for praise to Mount Zion."

Chr.—"Why came you not in at the gate which stands at the head of the way?"

They said, "That to go to the gate to get in was by all their horde thought too far round."

Chr.—"But will it not be thought a wrong done to the Lord of the town where we are bound, thus to break his law which he hath made known to us?"

They told him, "That this act of theirs, as it stood for so long a time, would no doubt be thought good in law by a just judge; and more than this," said they, "if we get in the way, what boots it which way we get in? If we are in, we are in. Thou art but in the way, who, as we see, came in at the gate; and we too are in the way, that fell from the top of the wall. In what, now, is thy state a whit more good than ours?"

Chr.—"I walk by the rule of my Lord; you walk by the rude quirks of your vague whims. At this time you count but as thieves in the sight of the Lord of the way hence I doubt you will not be found true men at the end of the way. By laws and rules you will not get safe, since you came not in by the door. I have, too, a mark on my brow, which you may not have seen, which one of my Lord's most stanch friends put there, in the day that my load fell from off my back. More than this, I will tell you that I then got a roll with a seal on it, to cheer me while I read it, as I go on the way: I was told to give it in at the Celestial Gate, as a sure sign that I, too, should go in at the right time: all which things I doubt you want, and want them for that you came not in at the gate."

CHAPTER VII.
THE HILL DIFFICULTY.

I saw then that they all went on till they came to the foot of the Hill Difficulty, at the end of which was a spring. There were in the same place two ways more than