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for those that are become pilgrims, and we now at this door are such : wherefore we pray that we may be partakers of that for which we at this time are come; for the day, as thou seest, is very far spent, and we are loth to-night to go any further.

DAM. Pray what may I call your name, that I may tell it to my Lord within?

CHR. My name is Christiana; I was the wife of that pilgrim that some years ago did travel this way: and these be his four children. This maiden also is my companion, and is going on pilgrimage too.

Then Innocent ran in (for that was her name), and said to those within, Can you think who is at the door? There is Christiana, and her children, and her companion, all waiting for entertainment here! Then they leaped for joy, and went and told their Master. So he came to the door, and looking upon her, he said, Art thou that Christiana whom Christian, the good man, left behind him, when he betook himself to a pilgrim's life?

CHR. I am that woman that was so hard-hearted as to slight my husband's troubles, and that left him to go on his journey alone: and these are his four children: but now I also am come, for I am convinced that no way is right but this.

INT. Then is fulfilled that which was written of the man that said

Matt 21. 28, 29. to his son, “Go work to-day in my vineyard: and he said to his father, I will not; but afterward he repented, and went."

Then said Christiana, So be it: Amen. God make it a true saying upon me, and grant that I may be found at the last "of him in peace, without spot, and blameless."

INT. But why standest thou thus at the door? Come in, thou daughter of Abraham: we were talking of thee but now; for tidings have come to us before, how thou art become a pilgrim. Come, children, come in: Come, maiden, come.-So he had them all into the house.

So when they were within, they were bidden to sit down and rest them; the which when they had done, those that attended upon the pilgrims in the house came into the room to see them. And one smiled, and another smiled, and they all smiled, for joy that Christiana

tion (Heb. i. 14.). Her past unbelief is indeed | the once disobedient son, who ignored his well known, and how she sought to hinder father's counsel, refused to obey his will, CHRISTIAN in the way; but now these things promised nothing but disobedience, and yet shall be no more remembered against her; "afterwards repented and went" (Matt. xxi. and rather is fulfilled in her the parable of 28, 29).

Christiana in the Significant Rooms.

was become a pilgrim. They also looked upon the boys; they stroked them over their faces with the hand, in token of their kind reception of them they also carried it lovingly to Mercy, and bid them all welcome into their Master's house.

After a while, because supper was not ready, the Interpreter took them into his Significant Rooms, and shewed them what Christiana's husband had seen some time before. Here, therefore, they saw the Man in the Cage, the Man and his Dream, the Man that cut his way through his enemies, and the picture of the biggest of all; together with the rest of those things that were then so profitable to Christian. This done, and after those things had been somewhat digested by Christiana and her company, the Interpreter takes them apart again, and has them first into a room where was a man that could look no way but downwards, with a muck-rake in his hand there stood also one over his head with a celestial crown in his hand, and proffered him that crown for his muck-rake; but the man did neither look up nor regard, but raked to himself the straws, the small sticks, and the dust of the floor.

Then said Christiana, I persuade myself that I know somewhat the meaning of this; for this is the figure of a man of this world; is it not, good sir?

Thou hast said right, said he; and his muck-rake doth show his carnal mind. And whereas thou seest him rather give heed to rake up straws and sticks, and the dust of the floor, than to what He says that calls to him from above, with the celestial crown in his hand; it is to show that heaven is but as a fable to some, and that things here are counted the only things substantial. Now, whereas it was also shewed thee that the man could look no way but downwards, it is to let thee know that earthly things, when they are with power upon men's minds, quite carry their hearts away from God.

Then said Christiana, Oh, deliver me from this muck-rake. That prayer, said the Interpreter, has lain by till it is almost rusty: "Give me not riches" is scarce the prayer of one of ten

Prov. 30. 8.

Spirit; significant of the good fight of faith; significant, also, of dark despair and of the scenes of final Judgment.

The muck-rake.— This is the first of the illustrations peculiar to CHRISTIANA's visit. The crown celestial is proffered in exchange for that implement of Mammon, that muckrake of worldliness, and the offer is not only un

thousand. Straws, and sticks, and dust, with most are the things now looked after.

With that Mercy and Christiana wept, and said, It is, alas! too true. When the Interpreter had shewed them this, he had them into the very best room in the house (a very brave room it was): so he bid them look round about, and see if they could find anything profitable there. Then they looked round and round: for there was nothing to be seen but a very great spider on the wall; and that they overlooked. Then said Mercy, Sir, I see nothing but Christiana held her peace. But said the Interpreter, Look again. She therefore looked again and said, Here is not anything but an ugly spider, who hangs by her hands upon the wall. Then said he, Is there but one spider in all this spacious room? Then the water stood in Christiana's eyes, for she was a woman quick of apprehension: and she said, Yea, Lord, there are more here than one yea, and spiders whose venom is far more destructive than that which is in her. The Interpreter then looked pleasantly on her, and said, Thou hast said the truth. This made Mercy to blush, and the boys to cover their faces for they all began now to understand the riddle.

Then said the Interpreter again, "The spider taketh hold with her hands" (as you see), "and is in kings' palaces." And wherefore is this recorded, but to show you that, how full of the venom of sin soever you be, yet you may, by the hand of faith, lay hold of and dwell in the best room that belongs to the King's house above.

I thought, said Christiana, of something of this; but I could not imagine it all. I thought that we were like spiders, and that we looked like ugly creatures, in what fine rooms soever we were; but that by this spider, this venomous and ill-favoured creature, we were to learn how to act faith, that came not into my thoughts; and yet she had taken hold with her hands, and, as I see, dwelleth in the best room in the house. God has made nothing in vain.

heeded, but is not even recognised! Thus does the service of Mammon blind the eyes, and turn away the attention of the heart from the bright and glorious things of heaven. Ay, while we are, with an earthly mind, gathering the waifs, and strays, and worthless things that are borne on every breeze, all heaven is passing over us, and away from us, and beyond our reach, with its crowns and joys, and its eternal weight of glory.

The spider.-The meaning of this emblem does not at once occur to the minds of the Pilgrims; nor would it be likely to discover itself to our minds without the aid of interpretation. True faith is an active power. It climbs, notwithstanding the known infirmity of the flesh, and is not deterred, even by the felt venom of sin, from laying hold upon Christ, and seeking and finding an entrance into the very best room of his household.