He, yes, HE, with His own hand cut the cords,
broke the net, and set us free! Come, all ye that fear God! we then
said, and said it with all sincerity too. And yet, how have we forgotten
what He did for our soul? We start like a guilty thing surprised when we
think how long it is since we had a spell of thanksgiving. Shame on us!
What treacherous hearts we have! What short memories we have! How soon
we forgive ourselves, and so forget the forgiveness of our God! Brethren,
let us still lay plans for praise as we used to do for prayer. If our
friends will go out with us, let us at least insist on walking home
alone. Let us say with Paul that we get sick at sea; and, besides, that
we have some calls to make and some small accounts to settle before we
leave the country. Tell them not to wait dinner for us. And then let us
take plenty of time. Let us stop at all our old stations and call back
all our old terrors; let us repeat aloud our old psalms--the
twenty-fifth, the fifty-first, the hundred and third, and the hundred and
thirtieth. We used to terrify people with our prayers as Standfast
terrified the young pilgrims that day; let us surprise and delight them
now with our psalms of thanksgiving. For, with all our disgraceful
ingratitude in the past, if William Law is right, we are even yet not far
from being great saints, if he is not wrong when he asks: "Would you know
who is the greatest saint in the world? It is not he who prays most or
fasts most; it is not he who gives most alms, or is most eminent for
temperance, chastity, or justice. But it is he who is most thankful to
God, and who has a heart always ready to praise God. This is the
perfection of all virtues. Joy in God and thankfulness to God is the
highest perfection of a divine and holy life." Well, then, what an
endless cause of joy and thankfulness have we! Let us acknowledge it,
and henceforth employ it; and we shall, please God, even yet be counted
as not low down but high up among the saints and the servants of God.

4. Christiana said many kind and wise and beautiful things to all the
other pilgrims before she entered the river, but it was observed that
though she sent for Mr. Standfast, she said not one word to him when he
came; she just gave him her ring. "The touch is human and affecting,"
says Mr. Louis Stevenson, in his delightful paper on Bagster's "Bunyan,"
in the _Magazine of Art_. By the way, do you who are lovers of Bunyan