And we pronounce not
only too soon but VERY SUPERFICIALLY upon the inequalities of
happiness in the lot of those who fear and those who scorn God;
while we look mainly or merely to the outward circumstances of home
and station and bodily well-being, but take no note of the inner and
more enduring elements of felicity, supplied to the sufferer for
Christ by the blended powers of conscience and of hope--the one of
them purified and pacified by the blood of the great sacrifice on
Calvary; the other of them steadily and cheerfully soaring to the
glories and rest of the mount Zion above. Faithful, in his cage,
bearing the gibes and flouts of the rabble who thirsted for his
blood, was one of the happiest men in all Vanity Fair, even ere the
hour when his spirit mounted the fiery chariot that hurried him to
his celestial home.
The style of Bunyan, it may be further said, is one of the countless
and brilliant testimonials to the merit and power of our excellent
received version of the Bible. Shut out, as Bunyan was, from direct
contact with much other literature, he was most thoroughly
conversant with the remains of prophets and apostles, embalmed in
that venerable work. With those scriptures his mind was imbued,
saturated, and tinged, through its whole texture and substance.
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