{ The Palace "Beautiful" }

{ A Resting Place for Weary Pilgrims }

POR. Well, I will call out one of the virgins of this place, who
will, if she likes your talk, bring you into the rest of the
family, according to the rules of the house. So Watchful, the
porter, rang a bell, at the sound of which came out at the door
of the house a grave and beautiful damsel, named Discretion, and
asked why she was called.

The porter answered, This man is in a journey from the City of
Destruction to Mount Zion, but being weary and benighted, he
asked me if he might lodge here tonight; so I told him I would
call for thee, who, after discourse had with him, mayest do as
seemeth thee good, even according to the law of the house.

Then she asked him whence he was, and whither he was going, and
he told her. She asked him also how he got into the way; and he
told her. Then she asked him what he had seen and met with in
the way; and he told, her. And last she asked his name; so he
said, It is Christian, and I have so much the more a desire to
lodge here to-night, because, by what I perceive, this place was
built by the Lord of the hill for the relief and security of
pilgrims. So she smiled, but the water stood in her eyes; and
after a little pause, she said, I will call forth two or three
more of the family. So she ran to the door, and called out
Prudence, Piety, and Charity, who, after a little more
discourse with him, had him into the family; and many of them,
meeting him at the threshold of the house, said, Come in, thou
blessed of the Lord; this house was built by the Lord of the
hill, on purpose to entertain such pilgrims in. Then he bowed
his head, and followed them into the house. So when he was come
in and sat down, they gave him something to drink, and consented
together, that until supper was ready, some of them should have
some particular discourse with Christian, for the best
improvement of time; and they appointed Piety, and Prudence, and
Charity to Discourse with him; and thus they began:

PIET. Come, good Christian, since we have been so loving to
you, to receive you in our house this night, let us, if perhaps
we may better ourselves thereby, talk with you of all things
that have happened to you in your pilgrimage.

CHR. With a very good will, and I am glad that you are so well
disposed.

PIET. What moved you at first to betake yourself to a pilgrim's
life?

CHR. I was driven out of my native country by a dreadful sound
that was in mine ears: to wit, that unavoidable destruction did
attend me, if I abode in that place where I was.

PIET. But how did it happen that you came out of your country
this way?

CHR. It was as God would have it; for when I was under the fears
of destruction, I did not know whither to go; but by chance
there came a man, even to me, as I was trembling and weeping,
whose name is Evangelist, and he directed me to the wicket-gate,
which else I should never have found, and so set me into the way
that hath led me directly to this house.

PIET. But did you not come by the house of the Interpreter?

CHR. Yes, and did see such things there, the remembrance of
which will stick by me as long as I live; especially three 
things —— to wit, how Christ, in despite of Satan, maintains his
work of grace in the heart; how the man had sinned himself quite
out of hopes of God's mercy; and also the dream of him that
thought in his sleep the day of judgment was come.

PIET. Why, did you hear him tell his dream?

CHR. Yes, and a dreadful one it was. I thought it made my heart
ache as he was telling of it; but yet I am glad I heard it.

PIET. Was that all that you saw at the house of the
Interpreter?

CHR. No; he took me and had me where he shewed me a stately
palace, and how the people were clad in gold that were in it;
and how there came a venturous man and cut his way through the
armed men that stood in the door to keep him out, and how he was
bid to come in, and win eternal glory. Methought those things
did ravish my heart! I would have stayed at that good man's
house a twelvemonth, but that I knew I had further to go.

PIET. And what saw you else in the way?

CHR. Saw! why, I went but a little further, and I saw one, as I
thought in my mind, hang bleeding upon the tree; and the very
sight of him made my burden fall off my back, (for I groaned
under a very heavy burden,) but then it fell down from off me.
It was a strange thing to me, for I never saw such a thing
before; yea, and while I stood looking up, for then I could not
forbear looking, three Shining Ones came to me. One of them
testified that my sins were forgiven me; another stripped me of
my rags, and gave me this broidered coat which you see; and the
third set the mark which you see in my forehead, and gave me
this sealed roll. (And with that he plucked it out of his
bosom.)

PIET. But you saw more than this, did you not?

CHR. The things that I have told you were the best; yet some
other matters I saw, as, namely —— I saw three men, Simple,
Sloth, and Presumption, lie asleep a little out of the way, as
I came, with irons upon their heels; but do you think I could
awake them? I also saw Formality and Hypocrisy come tumbling
over the wall, to go, as they pretended, to Zion, but they were
quickly lost, even as I myself did tell them; but they would not
believe. But above all, I found it hard work to get up this
hill, and as hard to come by the lions' mouths, and truly if it
had not been for the good man, the porter that stands at the
gate, I do not know but that after all I might have gone back
again; but now I thank God I am here, and I thank you for
receiving of me.

Then Prudence thought good to ask him a few questions, and
desired his answer to them.

PRU. Do you not think sometimes of the country from whence you
came?

CHR. Yes, but with much shame and detestation:  Truly, if I had
been mindful of that country from whence I came out, I might
have had opportunity to have returned; but now I desire a better
country, that is, an heavenly.

PRU. Do you not yet bear away with you some of the things that
then you were conversant withal?

CHR. Yes, but greatly against my will; especially my inward and
carnal cogitations, with which all my countrymen, as well as
myself, were delighted; but now all those things are my grief;
and might I but choose mine own things, I would choose never to
think of those things more; but when I would be doing of that
which is best, that which is worst is with me.

PRU. Do you not find sometimes as if those things were
vanquished, which at other times are your perplexity?

CHR. Yes, but that is seldom; but they are to me golden hours in
which such things happen to me.

PRU. Can you remember by what means you find your annoyances,
at times, as if they were vanquished?

CHR. 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.

PRU. And what is it that makes you so desirous to go to Mount
Zion?

CHR. Why, there I hope to see him alive that did hang dead on 
the cross; and there I hope to be rid of all those things that
to this day are in me an annoyance to me; there, they say, there
is no death; and there I shall dwell with such company as I like
best. For, to tell you truth, I love him, because I was by him
eased of my burden; and I am weary of my inward sickness. I
would fain be where I shall die no more, and with the company
that shall continually cry, Holy, Holy, Holy.

Then said Charity to Christian, Have you a family? Are you a
married man?

CHR. I have a wife and four small children.

CHAR. And why did you not bring them along with you?

CHR. Then Christian wept, and said, Oh, how willingly would I
have done it! but they were all of them utterly averse to my
going on pilgrimage.

CHAR. But you should have talked to them, and have endeavoured
to have shewn them the danger of being behind.

CHR. So I did; and told them also of what God had shewn to me of
the destruction of our city; but I seemed to them as one that
mocked, and they believed me not.

CHAR. And did you pray to God that he would bless your counsel
to them?

CHR. Yes, and that with much affection: for you must think that
my wife and poor children were very dear unto me.

CHAR. But did you tell them of your own sorrow, and fear of
destruction? for I suppose that destruction was visible enough
to you.

CHR. Yes, over, and over, and over. They might also see my fears
in my countenance, in my tears, and also in my trembling under
the apprehension of the judgment that did hang over our heads;
but all was not sufficient to prevail with them to come with me.

CHAR. But what could they say for themselves, why they came not?

CHR. Why, my wife was afraid of losing this world, and my
children were given to the foolish delights of youth: so what by
one thing, and what by another, they left me to wander in this
manner alone.

CHAR. But did you not, with your vain life, damp all that you by
words used by way of persuasion to bring them away with you?

CHR. Indeed, I cannot commend my life; for I am conscious to
myself of many failings therein; I know also that a man by his
conversation may soon overthrow what by argument or persuasion
he doth labour to fasten upon others for their good. Yet this I
can say, I was very wary of giving them occasion, by any
unseemly action, to make them averse to going on pilgrimage.
Yea, for this very thing they would tell me I was too precise,
and that I denied myself of things, for their sakes, in which
they saw no evil. Nay, I think I may say, that if what they saw
in me did hinder them, it was my great tenderness in sinning
against God, or of doing any wrong to my neighbour.

CHAR. Indeed Cain hated his brother, because his own works were
evil, and his brother's righteous; and if thy wife and children
have been offended with thee for this, they thereby shew
themselves to be implacable to good, and thou hast delivered thy
soul from their blood.

Now I saw in my dream, that thus they sat talking together until
supper was ready. So when they had made ready, they sat down to
meat. Now the table was furnished with fat things, and with wine
that was well refined: and all their talk at the table was about
the Lord of the hill; as, namely, about what He had done, and
wherefore He did what He did, and why He had builded that house.
And by what they said, I perceived that He had been a great
warrior, and had fought with and slain him that had the power of
death, but not without great danger to Himself, which made me
love Him the more.

For as they said, and as I believe (said Christian), He did it
with the loss of much blood; but that which put glory of grace
into all He did, was, that He did it out of pure love to His
country. And besides, there were some of them of the household
that said they had been and spoke with Him since He did die on
the cross; and they have attested that they had it from His own
lips, that He is such a lover of poor pilgrims, that the like is
not to be found from the east to the west.

They, moreover, gave an instance of what they affirmed, and that
was, He had stripped himself of his glory, that He might do this
for the poor; and that they heard Him say and affirm, 'that He
would not dwell in the mountain of Zion alone.' They said,
moreover, that He had made many pilgrims princes, though by
nature they were beggars born, and their original had been the
dunghill.

Thus they discoursed together till late at night; and after they
had committed themselves to their Lord for protection, they
betook themselves to rest: the Pilgrim they laid in a large
upper chamber, whose window opened towards the sun-rising: the
name of the chamber was Peace; where he slept till break of day
and then he awoke and sang: 

      Where am I now? Is this the love and care
      Of Jesus for the men that pilgrims are?
      Thus to provide that I should be forgiven!
      And dwell already the next door to heaven!


So in the morning they all got up; and, after some more
discourse, they told him that he should not depart till they had
shewn him the rarities of that place. And first they had him
into the study, where they shewed him records of the greatest
antiquity; in which, as I remember my dream, they shewed him
first the pedigree of the Lord of the hill, that He was the Son
of the Ancient of Days, and came by that eternal generation.
Here also was more fully recorded the acts that He had done, and
the names of many hundreds that He had taken into his service;
and how He had placed them in such habitations that could
neither by length of days nor decays of nature be dissolved.

Then they read to him some of the worthy acts that some of His
servants had done: as, how they had subdued kingdoms, wrought
righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword,
out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, and
turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

They then read again, in another part of the records of the
house, where it was shewed how willing their Lord was to receive
into his favour any, even any, though they in time past had
offered great affronts to His person and proceedings. Here also
were several other histories of many other famous things, of all
which Christian had a view; as of things both ancient and
modern; together with prophecies and predictions of things that
have their certain accomplishment, both to the dread and
amazement of enemies, and the comfort and solace of pilgrims.

The next day they took him and had him into the armoury, where
they shewed him all manner of furniture, which their Lord had
provided for pilgrims, as sword, shield, helmet, breastplate,
all-prayer, and shoes that would not wear out. And there was
here enough of this to harness out as many men for the service
of their Lord as there be stars in the heaven for multitude.

They also shewed him some of the engines with which some of His
servants had done wonderful things. They shewed him Moses' rod;
the hammer and nail with which Jael slew Sisera; the pitchers,
trumpets, and lamps too, with which Gideon put to flight the
armies of Midian. Then they shewed him the ox's goad wherewith
Shamgar slew six hundred men. They shewed him also the jaw-bone
with which Samson did such mighty feats. They shewed him,
moreover, the sling and stone with which David slew Goliath of
Gath; and the sword, also, with which their Lord will kill the
Man of Sin, in the day that he shall rise up to the prey. They
shewed him, besides, many excellent things, with which
Christian was much delighted. This done, they went to their
rest again.


Then I saw in my dream, that on the morrow he got up to go
forward; but they desired him to stay till the next day also;
and then, said they, "We will, if the day be clear, shew you the
Delectable Mountains," which, they said, would yet further add
to his comfort, because they were nearer the desired haven than
the place where at present he was; so he consented and stayed.
When the morning was up, they had him to the top of the house,
and bid him look south; so he did: and behold, at a great
distance, he saw a most pleasant mountainous country, beautified
with woods, vineyards, fruits of all sorts, flowers also, with
springs and fountains, very delectable to behold. Then he asked
the name of the country. They said it was Immanuel's Land; and
it is as common, said they, as this hill is, to and for all the
pilgrims. "And when thou comest there from thence," said they,
"thou mayest see to the gate of the Celestial City, as the
shepherds that live there will make appear."

Now he bethought himself of setting forward, and they were
willing he should. "But first," said they, "let us go again
into the armoury." So they did; and when they came there, they
harnessed him from head to foot with what was of proof, lest,
perhaps, he should meet with assaults in the way. He being,
therefore, thus accoutred, walketh out with his friends to the
gate, and there he asked the porter if he saw any pilgrims pass
by. Then the porter answered, "Yes."

CHR. Pray, did you know him? said he.

POR. I asked him his name, and he told me it was Faithful.

CHR. Oh, said Christian, I know him; he is my townsman, my near
neighbour; he comes from the place where I was born. How far do
you think he may be before?

POR. He is got by this time below the hill.

CHR. Well, said Christian, good Porter, the Lord be with thee,
and add to all thy blessings much increase, for the kindness
that thou hast shewed to me.

Then he began to go forward; but Discretion, Piety, Charity, and
Prudence would accompany him down to the foot of the hill. So
they went on together, reiterating their former discourses, till
they came to go down the hill. Then said Christian, "As it was
difficult coming up, so, so far as I can see, it is dangerous
going down." "Yes," said Prudence, "so it is, for it is a hard
matter for a man to go down into the Valley of Humiliation, as
thou art now, and to catch no slip by the way; therefore," said
they, "are we come out to accompany thee down the hill." So he
began to go down, but very warily; yet he caught a slip or two.

Then I saw in my dream that these good companions, when
Christian was gone to the bottom of the hill, gave him a loaf of
bread, a bottle of wine, and a cluster of raisins; and then he
went on his way.

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