embittered, and the gloomy, and the sullen have made their beds in hell
will cure it. And much and most agonising prayer will above all cure it.

'O Lord, if thus so obstinate I,
Choose Thou, before my spirit die,
A piercing pain, a killing sin,
And to my proud heart run them in.




PLIABLE


'He hath not root in himself.'--Our Lord.

With one stroke of His pencil our Lord gives us this Flaxman-like outline
of one of his well-known hearers. And then John Bunyan takes up that so
expressive profile, and puts flesh and blood into it, till it becomes the
well-known Pliable of _The Pilgrim's Progress_. We call the text a
parable, but our Lord's parables are all portraits--portraits and groups
of portraits, rather than ordinary parables. Our Lord knew this man
quite well who had no root in himself. Our Lord had crowds of such men
always running after Him, and He threw off this rapid portrait from
hundreds of men and women who caused discredit to fall on His name and
His work, and burdened His heart continually. And John Bunyan, with all
his genius, could never have given us such speaking likenesses as that of
Pliable and Temporary and Talkative, unless he had had scores of them in
his own congregation.