Bunyan, John, 1628-1688 -- Criticism and interpretation
bracelet, or a white stone or something; so dear was Mansoul to Him now,
so lovely was Mansoul in His eyes. And, going and coming to the feast, O
how graciously, how lovingly, how courteously, and how tenderly did this
blessed Prince now carry it to the town of Mansoul! In all the streets,
gardens, orchards, and other places where He came, to be sure the poor
should have His blessing and benediction; yea, He would kiss them; and if
they were ill, He would lay His hands on them and make them well. And
was it not now something amazing to behold that in that very place where
Diabolus had had his abode, the Prince of princes should now sit eating
and drinking with all His mighty captains, and men of war, and
trumpeters, and with the singing men and the singing women of His
Father's court! Now did Mansoul's cup run over; now did her conduits run
sweet wine; now did she eat the finest of the wheat, and now drink milk
and honey out of the rock! Now she said, How great is His goodness, for
ever since I found favour in His eyes, how honourable have I ever been!
1. Now, the beginning of it all was, and the best of it all was, that
Emmanuel Himself made the feast. Mansoul did not feast her Deliverer; it
was her Deliverer who feasted her. Mansoul, in good sooth, had nothing
that she had not first and last received, and it was far more true and
seemly and fit in every way that her Prince Himself should in His own way
and at His own expense seal and celebrate the deliverance, the freedom,
the life, the peace, and the joy of Mansoul. And, besides, what had
Mansoul to set before her Prince; or, for the matter of that, before
herself? Mansoul had nothing of herself. Mansoul was not sufficient of
herself for a single day. And how, then, should she propose to feast a
Prince? No, no! the thing was impossible. It was Emmanuel's feast from
first to last. Just as it was at the Lord's table in this house this
morning. You did not spread the table this morning for your Lord. You
did not make ready for your Saviour and then invite Him in. He invited
you. He said, This is My Body broken for you, and This is My Blood shed
for you; drink ye all of it. And had any one challenged you at the fence
door and asked you how one who could not pay his own debts or provide
himself a proper meal even for a single day, could dare to sit down with
such a company at such a feast as that, you would have told him that he
had not seen half your hunger and your nakedness; but that it was just
your very hunger and nakedness and homelessness that had brought you
here; or, rather, it was all that that had moved the Master of the feast
to send for you and to compel you to come here. There was nothing in
your mind and in your mouth more all this day than just that this is the
Lord's Supper, and that He had sent for you and had invited you, and had
constrained and compelled you to come and partake of it. It was the
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