Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 4Sylvester, Charles Herbert
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Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 4
Sylvester, Charles Herbert
Children's literature; Literature -- Collections
So I saw that, as they went on, there met them two men, in raiment that
shone like gold; also their faces shone as the light. These men asked
the pilgrims whence they came; and they told them. They also asked them
where they had lodged, what difficulties and dangers, what comforts and
pleasures they had met in the way; and they told them.
Then said the men that met them, "You have but two difficulties more to
meet with, and then you are in the city."
Christian, then, and his companion, asked the men to go along with
them; so they told them they would.
"But," said they, "you must obtain it by your own faith."
So I saw in my dream that they went on together, until they came in
sight of the gate.
Now, I further saw, that betwixt them and the gate was a river, but
there was no bridge to go over, and the river was very deep. At the
sight, therefore, of this river, the Pilgrims were much stunned; but
the men that went with them said, "You must go through, or you cannot
come at the gate."
The pilgrims then began to inquire if there was no other way to the
gate; to which they answered, "Yes; but there hath not any, save two,
to-wit, Enoch and Elijah, been permitted to tread that path, since the
foundation of the world, nor shall, until the last trumpet shall
sound."
The Pilgrims then (especially Christian) began to despond in their
minds, and looked this way and that, but no way could be found by them
by which they might escape the river. Then they asked the men if the
waters were all of a depth.
They said, "No;" yet they could not help them in the case; "for," said
they, "you shall find it deeper or shallower as you believe in the King
of the place."
They then addressed themselves to the water; and entering, Christian
began to sink, and crying out to his good friend Hopeful, he said, "I
sink in deep waters; the billows go over my head, all His waves go over
me! Selah."
Then said the other, "Be of good cheer, my brother, I feel the bottom,
and it is good."
Then said Christian, "Ah! my friend, 'the sorrows of death have
compassed me about;' I shall not see the land that flows with milk and
honey;" and with that a great darkness and horror fell upon Christian,
so that he could not see before him. Also here he in a great measure
lost his senses, so that he could neither remember nor orderly talk of
any of those sweet refreshments that he had met with in the way of his
pilgrimage.
But all the words that he spake still tended to discover that he had
horror of mind, and heart-fears that he should die in that river, and
never obtain entrance in at the gate. Here, also, as they that stood by
perceived, he was much in the troublesome thoughts of the sins that he
had committed, both since and before he began to be a pilgrim. It was
also observed that he was troubled with apparitions of hobgoblins and
evil spirits, for ever and anon he would intimate so much by words.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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