at from
that time those dreadful Scriptures left off to trouble me. Oh methought
Christ, Christ, there was nothing but Christ that was before mine eyes. I
could look from myself to Him, and should reckon that all those graces of
God that now were green upon me, were yet but like those crack-groats,
and fourpence-halfpennies that rich men carry in their purses, while
their gold is in their trunks at home. Oh, I saw my gold was in my trunk
at home. In Christ my Lord and Saviour. Further the Lord did lead me
into the mystery of union with the Son of God. His righteousness was
mine, His merits mine, His victory also mine. Now I could see myself in
heaven and earth at once; in heaven by my Christ, by my Head, by my
Righteousness and Life, though on earth by my body or person. These
blessed considerations were made to spangle in mine eyes. Christ was my
all; all my Wisdom, all my Righteousness, all my Sanctification, and all
my Redemption."

CHAPTER III.

The Pilgrim, having now floundered through the Slough of Despond, passed
through the Wicket Gate, climbed the Hill Difficulty, and got safe by the
Lions, entered the Palace Beautiful, and was "had in to the family." In
plain words, Bunyan united himself to the little Christian brotherhood at
Bedford, of which the former loose-living royalist major, Mr. Gifford,
was the pastor, and was formally admitted into their society. In Gifford
we recognize the prototype of the Evangelist of "The Pilgrim's Progress,"
while the Prudence, Piety, and Charity of Bunyan's immortal narrative had
their human representatives in devout female members of the congregation,
known in their little Bedford world as Sister Bosworth, Sister Munnes,
and Sister Fenne, three of the poor women whose pleasant words on the
things of God, as they sat at a doorway in the sun, "as if joy did make
them speak," had first opened Bunyan's eyes to his spiritual ignorance.
He was received into the church by baptism, which, according to his
earliest biographer, Charles Doe "the Struggler," was performed publicly
by Mr. Gifford, in the river Ouse, the "Bedford river" into which Bunyan
tells us he once fell out of a boat, and barely escaped drowning. This
was about the year 1653. The exact date is uncertain. Bunyan never
mentions his baptism himself, and the church books of Gifford's
congregation do not commence till May, 1656, the year after Gifford's
death. He was also admitted to the Holy Commu