seemed to him, he says,

66 as if the book had

been written out of his own heart." The perusal of this volume produced for a time the happiest effect upon his mind. It gave him to see the source of many of his temptations and perplexities, and pointed out to him the "way to escape." So highly did he value the work, that, speaking of it many years after, he says, "I do prefer this book of Martin Luther upon the Galatians above all the books that ever I have seen, (excepting the Holy Bible,) as most fit for a wounded conscience."

Bunyan now for a season went on his way rejoicing," and began to sing, with the Psalmist, "My mountain stands strong; I shall never be moved." He says, "Methought my soul cleaved unto Christ. I felt my love to him as hot as

fire;

...

and now, as Job said, I thought I should die in my nest.' His joyful assurance, however, was not of long continuance. He found that this was but a truce in his warfare; and these comforts served only to support and 'strengthen him for future conflicts. "For," says he, "after the Lord had thus graciously delivered me, and had given me such strong

...

consolation and blessed evidence from heaven, touching my interest in his love through Christ, the tempter came upon me again, and that with

a more grievous and dreadful temptation than before. And that was, to sell and part with this most blessed Christ; to exchange him for the things of this life-for anything. This temptation lay upon me for the space of a year; and did follow me so continually that I was not rid of it one day in a month; no, not sometimes one hour in many days together, unless when I was asleep. . . . Neither my dislike of the thought, nor yet any desire and endeavour to resist it, did in the least shake or abate the continuance or strength thereof; for it did always, in almost whatever I thought, intermix itself therewith, in such sort, that I could neither eat my food, stoop for a pin, chop a stick, or cast mine eye to look on this or that, but still the temptation would come, 'Sell Christ for this; or sell Christ for that; sell him-sell him ;' against which, I may say, for whole hours together, I have been forced to stand as continually leaning and forcing my spirit against it, lest haply, before I was aware, some wicked thought might arise in my heart, that might consent thereto; and sometimes the tempter would make me believe I had consented to it; but then I should be as tortured upon a rack, for whole days together.

"This temptation did put me in such scares, lest I should at some time be overcome there

with, that by the very force of my mind, in labouring to resist this wickedness, my very body would be put in action, by way of pushing or thrusting with my hands or elbows; still answering, as fast as the destroyer said, Sell him, 'I will not, I will not, I will not; no, not for thousands, thousands, thousands of worlds ;' thus reckoning, lest I should, in the midst of these assaults, set too low a value on him,— even until I scarce knew where I was, or how to be composed again."

66

Sometimes the tempter assumed the garb of an angel of light." "In those seasons," says Bunyan, "he would not let me eat my food in quiet; but, forsooth, when I was at the table, I must go hence to pray; I must leave my food now, and just now; so counterfeit holy would this devil be. When I was thus tempted, I would say in myself, 'Now I am at meat, let me make an end.' 'No,' said he, 'you must do displease God, and despise

it now, or you will

Christ."" With these suggestions he was much distracted; for he did not at the time know their source. The truth is, the devil's counterfeit holiness deceived him; and believing these impulses to be from heaven, he felt, when he disobeyed them, as though he had broken a command of God.

"as

But to return : 66 One morning," he says, I did lie in my bed, I was, as at other times, most fiercely assaulted with this temptation, to sell and part with Christ; the wicked suggestion, 'Sell him, sell him,' still running in my mind as fast as a man could speak; against which also, in my mind, as at other times, I answered, 'No, not for thousands, thousands, thousands,' at least twenty times together. But at last, after much striving, even until I was almost out of breath, I felt this thought to pass through my heart, Let him go if he will;' and I thought also that I felt my heart freely consent thereto. O the diligence of Satan! O the desperateness of man's heart!"

Here again we find Bunyan in the predica ment of his Pilgrim, when the latter "did not know his own voice;" and believing that he had now yielded to the temptation and consented to sell his Saviour, he gave himself up as irrecoverably lost. Now," says he, 66 was the battle won, and down fell I, as a bird that is shot from the top of a tree, into great guilt and fearful despair. Thus getting out of my bed, I went moping into the field; but, God knows, with as heavy a heart as mortal man, I think, could bear; where for the space of two hours I was like a man bereft of life, and as now

past all recovery, and bound over to eternal punishment."

To add to his distress, that passage in Hebrews (xii, 16, 17) occurred to his mind, which speaks of Esau having "sold his birthright for one morsel of meat," and afterward, "when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." Applying this text to his own case, he conceived that he was now certainly beyond the reach of mercy. But about ten or eleven o'clock on the same day, as he was walking under a hedge, full of sorrow and guilt, these words of the beloved disciple suddenly rushed in upon him, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin,” 1 John i, 7. "At the same time also," he says, "I had my sin and the blood of Christ thus represented to me,-that my sin, when compared to the blood of Christ, was no more to it than this little clod or stone before me is to the vast and wide field that here I see.... Now I began to conceive peace in my soul, and methought I saw as if the tempter did leer and steal away from me, as being ashamed of what he had done."

But this "modest fit of the devil," as one writer terms it, proved to be but of short dura