"Be this, then, a lesson to thy soul, that thou reckon nothing worthless, Because thou heedest not its use, nor knowest the virtues thereof." BUNYAN is his own Pilgrim embodied into life. "God," says he, in the preface to his Autobiography, "did not play in tempting of me; neither did I play when I sank as into the bottomless pit— when the pangs of hell caught hold upon me: wherefore," he adds, "I may not play when relating of them, but be plain and simple, and lay down the thing as it was.” His "fears, and doubts, and sad months" were 66 as the head of Goliath in his hand," and the very sight and remembrance of them, like Goliath's sword to David, "did preach forth God's deliverance to him." There may fall upon these pages the eye of some fainting "soldier of Jesus Christ," whose heart will take new courage as he communes with this stalwart warrior. |