From all this we learn that the way to the Celestial City lies within
high and close fencing walls. There is not room for many pilgrims to
walk abreast in that way; indeed, there is seldom room for two. There
are some parts of the way where two or even three pilgrims can for a time
walk and converse together, but for the most part the path is
distressingly lonely. The way is so fenced up also that a pilgrim cannot
so much as look either to the right hand or the left. Indeed, it is one
of the laws of that road that no man is to attempt to look except
straight on before him. But then there is this compensation for the
solitude and stringency of the way that the wall that so encloses it is
Salvation. And Salvation is such a wall that it is companionship and
prospect enough of itself. Dante saw a long reach of this same wall
running round the bottom of the mount that cleanses him who climbs it,--a
long stretch of such sculptured beauty, that it arrested him and
instructed him and delighted him beyond his power sufficiently to praise
it. And thus, that being so, burdened and bowed down to the earth as our
pilgrim was, he was on the sure way, sooner or later, to deliverance.
Somewhere and sometime and somehow on that steep and high fenced way
deliverance was sure to come. And, then, as to the burdened man himself.
His name was once Graceless, but his name is Graceless no longer. No
graceless man runs long between these close and cramping-up walls; and,
especially, no graceless man has that burden long on his back. That is
not Graceless any longer who is leaving the Interpreter's House for the
fenced way; that is Christian, and as long as he remains Christian, the
closeness of the fence and the weight of his burden are a small matter.
But long-looked-for comes at last. And so, still carrying his burden and
keeping close within the fenced-up way, our pilgrim came at last to a
cross. And a perfect miracle immediately took place in that somewhat
ascending ground. For scarcely had Christian set his eyes on the cross,
when, without his pulling at it, or pushing it, or even at that moment
thinking of it, ere ever he was aware, he saw his burden begin to tumble,
and so it continued to do till it fell fairly out of his sight into an
open sepulchre.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account