he imagination and the conscience,--of that
secretest of all secret places, God alone is able to say, I search the
heart. 'As for secret thoughts,' says our author, speaking of his own
former religious life, 'I took no notice of them, neither did I
understand what Satan's temptations were, nor how they were to be
withstood and resisted.' But now all these things are his deepest grief,
as they are ours,--as many of us as have been truly turned in our deepest
hearts to God.

'But,' replied Prudence, 'do you not find sometimes as if those things
were vanquished which at other times are your perplexity?' 'Yes, but
that is but seldom; but they are to me golden hours in which such things
happen to me.' 'Can you remember by what means you find your annoyances
at times as if they were vanquished?' 'Yes, when I think what I saw at
the cross, that will do it; and when I look upon my broidered coat, that
will do it; also, when I look into the roll that I carry in my bosom,
that will do it; and when my thoughts wax warm about whither I am going,
that will do it.' Yes; and these same things have many a time done it to
ourselves also. We also, my brethren--let me tell you your own
undeniable experience--we also have such golden hours sometimes, when we
feel as if we should never again have such an evil heart within us. The
Cross of Christ to us also has done it. It is of such golden hours that
Isaac Watts sings in his noble hymn:

'When I survey the wondrous Cross;'

and as often as we sing that hymn with our eyes upon the object, that
will for a time vanquish our worst cogitations. Also, when we read the
roll that we too carry in our bosom--that is to say, when we go back into
our past life till we see it and feel it all, and till we can think and
speak of nothing else but the sin that abounded in it and the grace that
much more abounded, that has a thousand times given us also golden hours,
even rest from our own evil hearts. And we also have often made our
hearts too hot for sin to show itself, when we read our hearts deep into
such books as _The Paradiso_, _The Pilgrim's Progress_, _The Saint's
Rest_, _The Serious Call_, _The Religious Affections_, and such like.
These books have often vanquished our annoyances, and given us golden
hours on the earth. Yes, but that is but seldom.

'Now, what is it,' asked Prudence, as she wound up this so particular
colloquy, 'that makes you so desirous to go to Mount Zion?'