OLD HONEST. : 255

had I so done, I am sure you could never have given me the worst on ’t, for a Christian
can never be overcome unless he shall yield of himself.

Great. “Well said, Father Honest,” quoth the guide; “for by this I know thou
art a cock of the right kind, for thou hast said the truth.”

How. And by this also I know that thou knowest what true pilgrimage is; for all
others do think that we are the soonest overcome of any.

Great. Well, now we are so happily met, pray let me crave your name, and the
name of the place you came from.

How. My name I cannot; but I came from the town of Stupidity; it lieth about.
four degrees beyond the City of Destruction.

Great. Oh! are you that countryman? then I deem I have half a guess of you:
your name is old Honesty, is it not?

How. So the old gentleman blushed, and said, “ Not Honesty in the abstract, but
Honest is my name; and I wish that my nature may agree to what I am called. But,
sir,” said the old gentleman, “ how could you guess that Iam such a man, since I came
from such a place?”

Great. I had heard of you before by my Master; for He knows all things that are
done on the earth. But I have often wondered that any should come from your place,
for your town is worse than is the City of Destruction itself.

Hon. Yes, we lie more off from the sun, and so are more cold and senscless. But
were a man in a mountain of ice, yet if the Sun of Righteousness should rise upon him,
his frozen heart shall feel a thaw; and thus it hath been with me.

Great. I believe it, Father Honest, I believe it; for I know the thing is true.

Then the old gentleman saluted all the pilgrims with a holy kiss of charity, and
asked them their names, and how they had fared since they had sect out on their
pilgrimage.

Cur. Then said Christiana, “ My name I suppose you have heard of: good Christian
was my husband, and these are his children.”

But can you think how the old gentleman was taken when she told him who she
was? He skipped, he smiled, he blessed them with a thousand good wishes, saying:

Hoy. I have heard much of your husband, and of his travels and wars which he
underwent in his days. Be it spoken to your comfort, the name of your husband rings
all over these parts of the world: his faith, his courage, his enduring, and his sincerity
under all, have made his name famous. Then he turned him to the boys, and asked
of them their names, which they told him. Then he said unto them, “ Matthew, be
thou like Matthew the publican, not in vice, but in virtue.” Samuel,” said he, “be