1. The gate was shut when Christian came up to it, and no one was
visible anywhere about it. The only thing visible was the writing over
the gate which told all pilgrims to knock. Now, when we come up to the
same gate we are disappointed and discouraged that the gatekeeper is not
standing already upon his doorstep and his arms round our neck. We knelt
to-day in secret prayer, and there was only our bed or our chair visible
before us. There was no human being, much less to all appearance any
Divine Presence, in the place. And we prayed a short, indeed, but a not
unearnest prayer, and then we rose up and came away disappointed because
no one appeared. But look at him who is now inheriting the promises. He
knocked, says his history, more than once or twice. That is to say, he
did not content himself with praying one or two seconds and then giving
over, but he continued in prayer till the gatekeeper came. And as he
knocked, he said, so loud and so impatient that all those in the
gatehouse could hear him,
'May I now enter here? Will he within
Open to sorry me, though I have been
A wandering rebel? Then shall I
Not fail to sing his lasting praise on high.'
2. 'We make no objections against any,' said Goodwill; 'notwithstanding
all that they have done before they come hither, they are in no wise cast
out.' He told me all things that ever I did, said the woman of Samaria,
telling her neighbours about our Lord's conversation with her. And,
somehow, there was something in the gatekeeper's words that called back
to Christian, if not all the things he had ever done, yet from among them
the worst things he had ever done. They all rose up black as hell before
his eyes as the gatekeeper did not name them at all, but only said
'notwithstanding all that thou hast done.' Christian never felt his past
life so black, or his burden so heavy, or his heart so broken, as when
Goodwill just said that one word 'notwithstanding.' 'We make no
objections against any; notwithstanding all that they have done before
they come hither, they are in no wise cast out.'