MRS. TIMOROUS

"But the fearful [literally, the timid and the cowardly] shall have
their part in the second death."--_Revelation xxi_.

No sooner had Secret bidden Christiana farewell than she began with all
her might to make ready for her great journey. "Come, my children, let
us pack up and begone to the gate that leads to the Celestial City, that
we may see your father and be with him, and with his companions, in
peace, according to the laws of that land." And then: "Come in, if you
come in God's name!" Christiana called out, as two of her neighbours
knocked at her door. "Having little to do at home this morning," said
the elder of the two women, "I have come across to kill a little time
with you. I spent last night with Mrs. Light-mind, and I have some good
news for you this morning." "I am just preparing for a journey this
morning," said Christiana, packing up all the time, "and I have not so
much as one moment to spare." You know yourselves what Christiana's
nervousness and almost impatience were. You know how it upsets your good
temper and all your civility when you are packing up for a long absence
from home, and some one comes in, and will talk, and will not see how
behindhand and how busy you are. "For what journey, I pray you?" asked
Mrs. Timorous, for that was her visitor's name. "Even to go after my
good husband," the busy woman said, and with that she fell a-weeping. But
you must read the whole account of that eventful morning in Christiana's
memoirs for yourselves till you have it, as Secret said, by
root-of-heart. On the understanding that you are not total strangers to
that so excellently-written passage I shall now venture a few
observations upon it.

1. Well, to begin with, Mrs. Timorous was not a bad woman, as women went
in that town and in that day. Her companions,--her gossips, as she would
have called them,--were far worse women than she was; and, had it not
been for her family infirmity, had it not been for that timid,
hesitating, lukewarm, and half-and-half habit of mind which she had
inherited from her father, there is no saying what part she might have
played in the famous expedition of Christiana and Mercy and the boys. Her
father had been a pilgrim himself at one time; but he had now for a long
time been known in the town as a turncoat and a temporary, and all his
children had unhappily taken after their father in that. Had her father
held on as he at one time had