196 THE PILGRIMS PROGRESS.

And that which makes my grief the more heavy is, because they have no instructor,
nor any to tell them what is to come.

Cur. Bowels becometh pilgrims; and thou dost for thy friends as my good Christian
did for me when he left me: he mourned for that I would not heed nor regard him;
but his Lord and ours did gather up his tears, and put them into His bottle; and now
both I and thou, and these my sweet babes, are reaping the fruit and benefit of them.
I hope, Mercy, that these tears of thine will not be lost; for the Truth hath said that
“they that sow in tears shall reap in joy,” in singing; and “he that goeth forth and
weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing hiz
sheaves with him.” ®
Then said Mercy:

‘* Let the Most Blessed be my mide
If ’t be His blesséd will,
Unto His gate, into His fold,
Up to His holy hill.

‘And let Him never suffer me
To swerve or turn aside
From His free grace and holy ways,
Whate’er shall me betide.

“And let Him gather them of mine
That I have left behind:
Lord, make them pray they may be Thine,
With all their heart and mind.”

Now my old friend proceeded, and said, “ But when Christiana came to the Slough
of Despond, she began to be at a stand; ‘ For,’ said she, ‘this is the place in which
my dear husband had like to have been smothered with mud.’ She perceived also
that, notwithstanding the command of the King to make this place for pilgrims good,
yet it was rather worse than formerly.” So I asked if that was true.

“Yes,” said the old gentleman, “too true, for many there be that pretend to be the
King’s laborers, and say they are for mending the King’s highway, that bring dirt
and dung instead of stones, and so mar instead of mending. Here Christiana, there-
fore, with her boys, did make a stand. But said Mercy, ‘Come, let us venture, only
let us be wary.’ Then they looked well to their steps, and made shift to get stagger-
inely over. Yet Christiana had like to have been in, and that not once nor twice.

“Now, they had no sooner got over, but they thought they heard words that said
unto them, ‘ Blessed is she that believeth, for there shall be a performance of those
things which were told her from the Lord.’ “