unyan received from John Gifford. 'Its
principle,' he says, 'was constant introspection and scrupulous weighing
of every word and deed, and even of every thought, instead of leading the
mind off from self to the Saviour.' The canon seems to think that it was
specially unfortunate for Bunyan to be told to keep his heart and to
weigh well every thought of it; but I must point out to you that
Evangelist puts as above all other things the most important for the
pilgrims the looking well to their own hearts; and our plain-spoken
author has used a very severe word about any minister who should whisper
anything to any pilgrim that could be construed or misunderstood into
putting Christ in the place of thought and word and deed, and the
scrupulous weighing of every one of them. 'Let nothing that is on this
side the other world get within you; and above all, look well to your own
hearts, and to the lusts thereof.'

'Set your faces like a flint,' Evangelist proceeds. How little like all
that you hear in the counsels of the pulpit to young women coming out and
to young men entering into business life. I am convinced that if we
ministers were more direct and plain-spoken to such persons at such
times; if we, like Bunyan, told them plainly what kind of a world it is
they are coming out to buy and sell in, and what its merchandise and its
prices are; if our people would let us so preach to their sons and
daughters, I feel sure far fewer young communicants would make shipwreck,
and far fewer grey heads would go down with sorrow to the grave. 'Be not
afraid,' said Robert Hall in his charge to a young minister, 'of devoting
whole sermons to particular parts of moral conduct and religious duty. It
is impossible to give right views of them unless you dissect characters
and describe particular virtues and vices. The works of the flesh and
the fruits of the Spirit must be distinctly pointed out. To preach
against sin in general without descending to particulars may lead many to
complain of the evil of their hearts, while at the same time they are
awfully inattentive to the evil of their conduct.' Take Evangelist's
noble counsels at the gate of Vanity Fair, and then take John Bunyan's
masterly description of the Fair itself, with all that is bought and sold
in it, and you will have a lesson in evangelical preaching that the
evangelical pulpit needed in Bunyan's day, in Robert Hall's day, and not
less in our own.

'My sons, you hav