Page:The Pilgrim's Progress, the Holy War, Grace Abounding Chunk1.djvu/253

Rh the fire, also, and smoke of the pit were much easier to be discerned. Then said Christiana to Mercy, Now I see what my poor husband went through. I have heard much of this place, but I never was here before now. Poor man! he went here all alone in the night; he had night almost quite through the way; also these fiends were busy about him, as if they would have torn him in pieces. Many have spoken of it, but none can tell what the Valley of the Shadow of Death should mean until they come in it themselves. "The heart knoweth its own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with its joy." To be here is a fearful thing.

Great. This is like doing business in great waters, or like going down into the deep; this is like being in the heart of the sea, and like going down to the bottoms of the mountains; now it seems as if the earth, with its bars, were about us for ever. "But let them that walk in darkness, and have no light, trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon their God." For my part, I have told you already, I have gone often through this valley, and have been much harder put to it than now I am, and yet you see I am alive. I would not boast, for that I am not my own saviour. But I trust we shall have a good deliverance. Come, let us pray for light to Him that can lighten our darkness, and that can rebuke, not only these, but all the Satans in hell.

So they cried and prayed, and God sent light and deliverance; for there was now no let in their way, no, not there where but now they were stopped with a pit. Yet they were not got through the valley; so they went on still, and behold great stinks and loathsome smells, to the great annoyance of them. Then said Mercy to Christiana, It is not so pleasant being here as at the gate, or at the Interpreters, or at the house where we lay last. Oh, but, said one of the boys, it is not so bad to go through here,