t, when we are first told that we must at once prepare
ourselves for a change of life. But I for one would not for worlds miss
that solemn warning, and that last musing-time. It will all be just as
my Master pleases; but if it is within His will I shall till then
continue to petition Him that I may have a passage over the river like
the passage of Standfast. Or, if that may not now be, then, at least, a
musing-time like his. The post from the Celestial City brought Mr.
Standfast's summons "open" in his hand. And thus it was that Standfast's
translation did not take him by surprise. Standfast was not plunged
suddenly and without warning into the terrible river. He took the open
summons into big own hand and read it out like a man. After which he
went, as his manner was, for a good while into a deep and undisturbed
muse. As soon as he came out of his muse he would have Greatheart to be
sent for. And then their last conversation together proceeded. And no
one interfered with the two brave-hearted men. No one interposed, or
said that Greatheart would exhaust or alarm Standfast, or would
injuriously hasten his end. Not only so, but all the way till he was
half over the river, Standfast kept up his own side of the noble
conversation. And it is his side of that half-earthly, whole-heavenly
conversation that I would like to have put into suitable type and
scattered broadcast over all our sick-beds.

6. "Tell me," says Valdes to Julia in his _Christian Alphabet_, "have
you ever crossed a deep river by a ford?" "Yes," says Julia, "I have,
many times." "And have you remarked how that by looking upon the water
it seemed as though your head swam, so that, if you had not assisted
yourself, either by closing your eyes, or by fixing them on the opposite
shore, you would have fallen into the water in great danger of drowning?"
"Yes, I have noticed that." "And have you seen how by keeping always for
your object the view of the land that lies on the other side, you have
not felt that swimming of the head, and so have suffered no danger of
drowning?" "I have noticed that too," replied Julia. Now, it was
exactly this same way of looking, not at the black and swirling river,
but at the angelic conduct waiting for him at the further bank, and then
at the open gate of the Celestial City,--it was this that kept
Standfast's head so steady and his heart like a glowing coal while he
stood and talked in the middle of the giddy st