Well (said Christian) this is fearful! God help me to watch and be sober, and to pray that I may shun the causes of this man's misery. Sir, is it not time for me to go on my way now? INTER. Tarry till I shall show thee one thing more, and then thou shalt go on thy way. So he took Christian by the hand again, and led him into a chamber where there was one rising out of bed; and as he put on his raiment, he shook and trembled. Then said Christian, Why doth this man thus tremble? The Interpreter then bid him tell to Christian the reason of his so doing. So he began and said, This night as I was in my sleep I dreamed, and behold the heavens grew exceeding black; also it thundered and lightened in most fearful wise, that it put me into an agony. So I looked up in my dream, and saw the clouds rack at an unusual rate; upon which I heard a great sound of a trumpet, and saw also a man sit upon a cloud, attended with the thousands of heaven: they were all in flaming fire: also the heavens were on a burning flame. I heard then a voice saying, Arise ye dead and come to judgment and with that the rocks rent, the graves opened, and the dead that were therein came forth: some of them were exceeding glad and looked upward; and some sought to hide themselves under the mountains: then I saw the man that sat upon the cloud open the book and bid the world draw near. Yet there was, by reason of a fierce flame that issued out and came from before him, a convenient distance betwixt him and them, as betwixt the judge and the prisoners at the bar. I heard it also proclaimed to them that attended on the man that sat on the cloud, Gather together the tares, the chaff, and the stubble, and cast them into the burning lake and with that the bottomless pit opened, just where John 5. 28, 29. 2 Thess. 1. 7—10. 20. 11-15. Ps. 50. 1-3, 22. Dan. 7. 9, 10. 1 make all men see the visitation of God's hand, soul. The dreamer had awakened in the midst and the power of his Word. of these terrors, and therefore "he shook and trembled." The Dream of Judgment.-This is the closing scene of the Interpreter's House, as its great subject-the Judgment-will be the closing scene of the world's great history. In that dream, the dreamer has seen and heard all the terrible accompaniments and associations of the final Judgment. The eye of the Judge was fixed upon him, as though he stood alone for judgment; and his sins rose up and gathered round him, as witnesses against his This is a true description of the final Judgment; but it is the Judgment of sinners. This is pre-eminently the dream of an unconverted man, conscious of his sin, but as yet unable to look to the Saviour of sinners; it is but the transcript of the waking thoughts, and fears, and consciences of the ungodly. But the Judgment has no such terrors to them that are in Jesus. That great day shall The Vision of Judgment. It was also Mal. 4. 1, 2. Matt. 3. 12; 13. 30. Luke 3. 17. 1 about I stood; out of the mouth of which there came, in an abundant manner, smoke, and coals of fire, with hideous noises. said to the same persons, Gather my wheat into the garner: and with that I saw many catched up and carried away into the clouds, but I was left behind. I also sought to hide myself, but I could not, for the man that sat upon the cloud still kept his eye upon me; my sins also came into my mind, and my conscience did accuse me on every side. awaked from my sleep. Thess. 4. 13-18. Upon this I Rom. 2. 14, 15. CHR. But what was it that made you so afraid of this sight? MAN. Why I thought that the day of judgment was come, and that I was not ready for it. But this frighted me most, that the angels gathered up several and left me behind; also the pit of hell opened her mouth just where I stood. My conscience too afflicted me and, as I thought, the Judge had always his eye upon me, showing indignation in his countenance. Then said the Interpreter to Christian, Hast thou considered 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 forward in the way thou must go. Then Christian began to gird up his loins, and to address himself to his journey. Then said the Interpreter, The Comforter be always with thee, good Christian, to guide thee in the way that leads to the city. So Christian went on his way, saying: "Here I have seen things rare and profitable; Things pleasant, dreadful, things to make me stable In what I have begun to take in hand : Then let me think on them, and understand be a day of joy and blessedness to all them tion, and thus partaking of the privileges of that wait for the promised advent of the Lord, the way on which he has entered. So far he "looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious is-as many are-with more or less consciousappearing of the great God and our Saviour ness of sin, repairing to the teaching of the Jesus Christ," Titus ii. 13. INTERPRETER, the Holy Spirit, who will yet Hast thou considered all these things?— lead the Pilgrim onward on the road, beyond This is not mere idle sight-seeing; these the chequered scenes of his pilgrimage, and scenes are the deep experiences of men—what conduct him by the way of the Cross to the they feel, what they fear, what they hope, everlasting Crown. and what they do. "Hast thou considered them?" CHRISTIAN has seen and pondered them. He is undergoing a process of instruc "No fears disturb, no foes molest, CHAPTER VI. THE CROSS AND THE CONTRAST. SINCE the Pilgrim's entrance on the Narrow-way, through the appointed "door," the Wicketgate, he has not only been made a partaker of great and precious privileges, in the direct teaching of the INTERPRETER, but he has also corresponded well with those privileges; and, deeply impressed with the lessons he has learned, he now proceeds along a safe and wellguarded portion of the way-safe, because it was enclosed on either side, and strongly fenced with walls, which were called "Salvation." Along the "Way of Salvation" the burdened Pilgrim, with somewhat of haste, and with somewhat of difficulty too, urges his upward journey. Here he comes in full view of the Cross, and near the Cross, in the hollow, is a Sepulchre. In sight of the Cross he receives the long wished for, the long prayed for deliverance; the thongs and bands that bound his burden to his back are burst asunder, and the burden falls off, and rolls down, and at last disappears for ever through the open mouth of the Sepulchre. All is now rest and peace, life, light, and liberty, mingled with wonder and astonishment, and tempered with the tears of joy. The desired ease from his burden is straightway followed by further evidences of his deliverance. The salutation in common of the "Three Shining Ones," and then the individual gift or message of each: one gives Pardon; another clothes with Change of raiment; while the third bestows the assurance of the Mark, the credential of the Roll, and the impress of the Seal. "Peace be to thee'-all declaring ; Then the third, his finger tracing, In the character and circumstances of the personages subsequently introduced some profitable contrasts are suggested. This chapter contains some remarkable delineations of characters to be met with on the pilgrimage, such as SIMPLE, SLOTH, and PRESUMPTION; and the two men who came leaping over the wall, FORMALIST and HYPOCRISY. These professors of the Christian faith, having the form of godliness but not the power, will be found to have entered, not by the appointed door, but by some one or other of the "many ways that butt down" upon the beaten track. OW I saw in my dream that the highway, up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Up this way therefore did burdened Christian run, but not Isa. 26. 1; 60. 18. without great difficulty, because of the load on his back. He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending, and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below in the bottom a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, Fenced on either side.-The allusion here is | adapted in a secondary sense to those who, like to the figurative language of the prophet- our Pilgrim, instructed and edified by the Holy "Salvation will God appoint for walls and Spirit's comfort, counsel, and encouragement, bulwarks," Isa. xxvi. I; and again, "And thou are drawing near to the foot of the Cross of shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Jesus. Praise," Isa. lx. 18. And although the direct application of these texts is to the final blessedness of the saints, yet the allusion is well A place somewhat ascending.-The Cross is erected on the height of an upward slope, even higher than the upward path. This is to indi |