ever
complained that the pots and kettles were ill-mended. It was merely
that being simple-minded, he found in his Bible that besides earning
his bread he had to save or lose his soul. Having no other guide he
took its words literally, and the directions puzzled him.

He grew more and more unhappy--more lowly in his own eyes--

'Wishing him like to those more rich in hope'--

like the women who were so far beyond him on the heavenly road. He was
a poet without knowing it, and his gifts only served to perplex him
further. His speculations assumed bodily forms which he supposed to be
actual visions. He saw his poor friends sitting on the sunny side of a
high mountain refreshing themselves in the warmth, while he was
shivering in frost and snow and mist. The mountain was surrounded by a
wall, through which he tried to pass, and searched long in vain for an
opening through it. At last he found one, very straight and narrow,
through which he struggled after desperate efforts. 'It showed him,'
he said, 'that none could enter into life but those who were in
downright earnest, and unless they left the wicked world behind them,
for here was only room for body and soul, but not for body and soul
and sin.' The vision brought him no comfort, for it passed away and
left him still on the wrong side: a little comfortable self-conceit
would have set him at rest. But, like all real men, Bunyan had the
worst opinion of himself. He looked at his Bible again. He found that
he must be elected. Was he elected? He could as little tell as whether
he had faith. He knew that he longed to be elected, but 'the Scripture
trampled on his desire,' for it said, 'It is not of him that willeth,
or of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy;' therefore,
unless God had chosen him his labour was in vain. The Devil saw his
opportunity; the Devil among his other attributes must have possessed
that of omnipresence, for whenever any human soul was in straits, he
was personally at hand to take advantage of it.

'It may be that you are not elected,' the tempter said to Bunyan. 'It
may be so indeed,' thought he. 'Why then,' said Satan, 'you had as
good leave off and strive no farther; for if indeed you should not be
elected and chosen of God, there is no talk of your being saved.'

A comforting text suggested itself. 'Look at the generations of old;
did any ever trust in the Lord and was confounded?' But these exact
words, unfortunately, were on