APOLLYON STAYS CHRISTIAN. 77

lose thee ; but, since thou complainest of thy service and wages, be content to go back,
and what our country will afford I do here promise to give thee.

Curis. But I have let myself to another, even to the King of princes; and how can
I with fairness go back with thee?

Avot. Thou hast done in this according to the proverb, “ changed a bad for a worse ; ”
but it is ordinary for those that have professed themselves His servants, after awhile to
give Him the slip, and return again to me. Do thou so too, and all shall be well.

Curis. [have given Him my faith, and sworn my allegiance to Him; how, then,
ean I go back from this, and not be hanged as a traitor?

Avot. Thou didst the same to me, and yet I am willing to pass by all, if now thou
wilt yet turn again and go back.

Curis. What I promised thee was in my nonage [youth]; and besides, I count that
the Prince under whose banner I now stand is able to absolve me, yea, and to pardon
also what I did as to my compliance with thee. And besides, O thon destroying
Apollyon, to speak the truth, I like His service, His wages, His servants, His govern-
ment, His company, and country, better than thine; therefore leave off to persuade me
further: I am His servant, and I will follow Him.

Avot. Consider again when thou art ins cold blood, what thou art likely to meet
with in the way that thou goest. Thou knowest that for the most part [Tis servants
come to an ill end, because they are transgressors against me and my ways. How
many of them have been put to shameful deaths! And besides, thou countest [is
service better than mine; whereas He never came yet from the place where He is, to
deliver any that served Him out of their hands; but as for me, how many times, as all
the world very well knows, have I delivered, either by power or fraud, those that have
faithfully served me, from Him and His, though taken by them! And so I will de-
liver thee.

Curis. His forbearing at present to deliver them is on purpose to try their love,
whether they will cleave to Him to the end; and, as for the ill end thou sayest they
come to, that is most glorious in their account. For, for present deliverance, they do
not much expect it; for they stay for their glory, and then they shall have it when
their Prince comes in His and the glory of the angels.

Avon. Thou hast already been unfaithful in thy service to Him; and how dost thou
think to receive wages of Him?

Curis. Wherein, O Apollyon, have I been unfaithful to Him?

Aron. Thou didst faint at first setting out, when thou wast almost choked in the
Gulf of Despond. Thou didst attempt wrong ways to be rid of thy burden, whereas