"These lines I at this time present
To all that will them heed,
Wherein I show to what intent
God saith, 'Convert with speed.'
For these four things come on apace,
Which we should know full well,
Both death and judgment, and, in place
Next to them, heaven and hell."

The following lines are from "Ebal and Gerizim":--

"Thou art like one that hangeth by a thread
Over the mouth of hell, as one half dead;
And oh, how soon this thread may broken be,
Or cut by death, is yet unknown to thee.
But sure it is if all the weight of sin,
And all that Satan too hath doing been
Or yet can do, can break this crazy thread,
'Twill not be long before among the dead
Thou tumble do, as linked fast in chains,
With them to wait in fear for future pains."

The poetical effusion entitled "Prison Meditations" does not in any way
rise above the prosaic level of its predecessors. But it can be read
with less weariness from the picture it presents of Bunyan's prison life,
and of the courageous faith which sustained him. Some unnamed friend, it
would appear, fearing he might flinch, had written him a letter
counselling him to keep "his head above the flood." Bunyan replied in
seventy stanzas in ballad measure, thanking his correspondent for his