us,

understand, have been taken by him, as well as we; and yet have escaped out of his hand. Who knows, but that God that made the world may cause that Giant Despair may die ? or that, at some time or other, he may forget to lock us in? or that he may, in a short time, have another of his fits before and may lose the use of his limbs ? and if ever that should come to pass again, for my part, I am resolved to pluck up the heart of a man, and to try my utmost to get from under his hand. I was a fool that I did not try to do it before; but, however, my brother, let us be patient, and endure a while. The time may come that may give us a happy release; but let us not be our own murderers. With these words, Hopeful at present did moderate the mind of his brother; so they continued together (in the dark) that day, in their sad and doleful condition.

Well, towards evening, the Giant goes down into the dungeon again, to see if his prisoners had taken his counsel; but when he came there he found them alive; and truly, alive was all; for now, what for want of bread and water, and by reason of the wounds they received when he beat them, they could do little but breathe. But, I say, he found them alive; at which he fell into a grievous rage, and told them that, seeing they had disobeyed his counsel, it should be worse with them than if they had never been born.

At this they trembled greatly, and I think that Christian fell into a swoon ; but, coming a little to himself again, they renewed their discourse about the Giant's counsel; and whether yet they had best to take

Christian still dejected.

@ 66 Despair will make a man his own tormentor, and flounce and fling like a wild bull in a net. Isa. li. 20. Despair! it drives a man to the study of his own ruin, and brings him at last to be his own executioner." [38] In Bunyan's Saved by Grace are ten admirable antidotes against despair.

f Alas, how chang'd! Expressive of his mind,
His eyes are sunk, arms folded, head reclin'd;
Those awful syllables, hell, death, and sin,
Though whisper'd, plainly tell what works within.

Bunyan's experience is thus narrated [12+, No. 163]: "Despair swallowed me up, and that passage fell like a hot thunderbolt upon my conscience, 'He was rejected, for he found no place for repentance.'"

h

it or no. Now Christian again seemed to be for doing it, but Hopeful made his second reply as followeth :

HOPE. My brother, said he, rememberest thou not how Hopeful comforts Valiant thou hast been heretofore? Apollyon him again, by call- could not crush thee, nor could all that thou

ing former things to remembrance.

didst hear, or see, or feel, in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. What hardship, terror, and amazement hast thou already gone through! And art thou now nothing but fear! Thou seest that I am in the dungeon with thee, a far weaker man by nature than thou art; also, this Giant has wounded me as well as thee, and hath also cut off the bread and water from my mouth; and with thee I mourn without the light. But let us exercise a little more patience; remember how thou playedst the man at Vanity Fair, and wast neither afraid of the chain, nor cage, nor yet of bloody death. Wherefore let us (at least to avoid the shame, that becomes not a Christian to be found in) bear up with patience as well as

we can.

Now, night being come again, and the Giant and his wife being in bed, she asked him concerning the prisoners, and if they had taken his counsel. To which he replied, They are sturdy rogues, they choose rather to bear all hardship, than to make away themselves. Then said she, Take them into the castle-yard to-morrow, and show them the bones and skulls of those that thou hast already despatched, and make them believe, ere a week comes to an end, thou also will tear them in pieces, as thou hast done their fellows before them.i

So when the morning was come, the Giant goes to them again, and takes them into the castle-yard, and shows them, as

h Dr. Donne, the Dean of St. Paul's, published a thesis, to prove that suicide might be justifiable. Hopeful answers all his arguments, and proves it to be the foulest of murders. Bunyan thus notices the jailor's intent to commit suicide: "6 Even now, while the earthquake shook the prison, he had murder in his heartmurder, I say, and that of a high nature, even to have killed his own body and soul at once." [46]

It is a curious picture which Bunyan has drawn of the intercourse between the giant and his wife Diffidence. They form a very loving couple in their way; and the giant takes no new step in the treatment of the pilgrims without consulting Mrs. Diffidence over night.

On Saturday, the Giant threatened

that shortly he

would pull them

in pieces.

his wife had bidden him. These, said he, were pilgrims as you are, once, and they trespassed in my grounds, as you have done; and when I thought fit, I tore them in pieces, and so, within ten days, I will do you. Go, get you down to your den again; and with that he beat them all the way thither. They lay, therefore, all day on Saturday in a lamentable case, as before.j Now, when night was come, and when Mrs. Diffidence and her husband, the Giant, were got to bed, they began to renew their discourse of their prisoners; and withal the old Giant wondered, that he could neither by his blows nor his counsel bring them to an end. And with that his wife replied, I fear, said she, that they live in hope that some will come to relieve them, or that they have picklocks about them, by the means of which they hope to escape. And sayest thou so, my dear? said the Giant; I will, therefore, search them in the morning. Well, on Saturday, about midnight, they began to pray, and continued in prayer till almost break of day.

Now, a little before it was day, good Christian, as one half amazed, brake out in this passionate speech: What a fool, quoth he, am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty!

I

A key in Chris

tian's bosom, called

Promise, opens any

lock in Doubting

Castle.

have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle. Then said Hopeful, That is good news, good brother; pluck it out of thy bosom, and try.'

Then Christian pulled it out of his bosom, and began to try at the dungeon door, whose bolt (as he turned the key) gave back, and the door flew open with ease, and Christian and Hopeful both came out. Then he went to the outward door

How would the awful lesson of the man in the iron cage, at the Interpreter's house, now recur to poor Christian's mind: "I cannot get out, O now I cannot ! I left off to watch, and am shut up in this iron cage, nor can all the men in the world let me out." Christian's answer to the despairing pilgrim now soon broke upon his memory," The Son of the Blessed is very pitiful."

This key was Heb. ii. 14, 15. [12+, No. 116]

All at once, by a new revelation, which none but the Saviour could make, Christian finds the promises. Christ had been watching over his erring disciples, and kept back the hand of Despair.

m

that leads into the castle-yard, and, with his key, opened that door also. After, he went to the iron gate, for that must be opened too; but that lock went damnable hard, yet the key did open it. Then they thrust open the gate to make their escape with speed, but that gate, as it opened, made such a creaking, that it waked Giant Despair, who, hastily rising to pursue his prisoners, felt his limbs to fail, for his fits took him again, so that he could by no means go after them. Then they went on, and came to the King's highway, and so were safe, because they were out of his jurisdiction.

A pillar erected by Christian and

Now, when they were gone over the stile, they began to contrive with themselves what they should do at that stile, to prevent those that should come after, from falling into the hands of Giant Despair." So they consented to erect there a pillar, and to engrave upon the side thereof this sentence-"Over this stile is the way to Doubting Castle, which is kept by Giant Despair, who despiseth the King of the Celestial Country, and seeks to destroy 'his holy pilgrims." Many, therefore, that followed after, read what was written, and escaped the danger. This done, they sang as follows:

his fellow.

Out of the way we went, and then we found
What 'twas to tread upon forbidden ground;
And let them that come after have a care,
Lest heedlessness makes them, as we, to fare.
Lest they for trespassing his prisoners are,

Whose castle's Doubting, and whose name 's Despair.

They went then till they came to the Delectable Mountains, The Delectable which mountains belong to the Lord of that Mountains. hill of which we have spoken before; so they went up to the mountains, to behold the gardens and orchards,

m Bunyan was a plain spoken man, and feared not to offend delicate ears when the truth required plain dealing. He says, " And, therefore, my brethren, seeing God, our Father, hath sent us, damnable traitors, a pardon from heaven, even all the promises of the gospel, and truth also, sealed to the certainty of it, with the heart-blood of his dear Son, let us not be daunted." [4] texts are looked over, or laid by, as those whose key doth go too hard." 12+, 261-3.]

66

Many

[50 and

"See the Holy War. "An army of terrible doubters," very graphically described.