THE CROSS AND THE CONTRAST.
NOW I saw in my dream that the high road had on each side a wall for a
fence, and that wall went by the name of Salvation. Up this way, then,
did Christian run with his load, till he came to a place where was a
high slope, and on that place stood a cross, and a short way from it
in the vale, a tomb. So I saw in my dream that just as Christian came
up with the cross, his load got loose from his neck, and fell from off
his back, and did roll till it came to the mouth of the grave, where it
fell in, and I saw it no more.
Then was Christian full glad, and said, with a gay heart, "He hath
brought me rest by his grief, and life by his death." Then he stood
still for a short time to look with awe, for it was a strange thing to
him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his load.
I saw then in my dream that he went on thus till he came to a vale,
where he saw three men in deep sleep, with gyves on their heels. The
name of the one was Simple; the next, Sloth; and the third, Presumption.
Christian went to them, if so be he might rouse them; so he said in a
loud voice, "You are like them that sleep on the top of a mast, for the
Dead Sea is low down at your feet, a gulf that no plumb line can sound;
get up, hence and come on."
With this they gave a glum look at him, and spoke in this sort: Simple
said, "I see no cause for fear"; Sloth said, "Yet some more sleep"; and
Presumption said, "Each tub must stand on its own end." And so they
lay down to sleep once more, and Christian went on his way.
[Illustration: FORMALIST AND HYPOCRISY COMING INTO THE WAY OVER THE
WALL.]
Yet felt he grief to think that men in that sad plight should so spurn
the kind act of him that of his own free will sought to help them. And
as he did grieve from this cause, he saw two men roll off a wall, on
the left hand of the strait way. The name of the one was Formalist, and
the name of the next Hypocrisy. So they drew up nigh him, who thus held
speech with them:
_Chr._--"Sirs, whence came you, and where do you go?"
_Form. and Hyp._--"We were born in the land of Vainglory, and are bent
for praise to Mount Zion."
_Chr._--"Why came you not in at the gate which stands at the head of
the way?"
They said, "That to go to the gate to get in was by all their horde
thought too far round."
_Chr._--"But will it not be thought a wrong done to the Lord of the
town where we are bound, thus to break his law which he hath made known
to us?"
They told him, "That this act of theirs, as it stood for so long a
time, would no doubt be thought good in law by a just judge; and more
than this," said they, "if we get in the way, what boots it which way
we get in? If we are in, we are in. Thou art but in the way, who, as we
see, came in at the gate; and we too are in the way, that fell from the
top of the wall. In what, now, is thy state a whit more good than ours?"
_Chr._--"I walk by the rule of my Lord; you walk by the rude quirks of
your vague whims. At this time you count but as thieves in the sight
of the Lord of the way hence I doubt you will not be found true men at
the end of the way. By laws and rules you will not get safe, since you
came not in by the door. I have, too, a mark on my brow, which you may
not have seen, which one of my Lord's most stanch friends put there, in
the day that my load fell from off my back. More than this, I will tell
you that I then got a roll with a seal on it, to cheer me while I read
it, as I go on the way: I was told to give it in at the Celestial Gate,
as a sure sign that I, too, should go in at the right time: all which
things I doubt you want, and want them for that you came not in at the
gate."