suppose, overflowed into a slough for Pliable also. Had Pliable only had
a genuine and original slough of his own to so sink and be bedaubed in,
he would have got out of it at the right side of it, and been a tender-
stepping pilgrim all his days.--'Is this the happiness you have told me
all this while of? May I get out of this with my life, you may possess
the brave country alone for me.' And with that he gave a desperate
struggle or two, and got out of the mire on that side of the slough which
was next his own house; so he went away, and Christian saw him no more.
'The side of the slough which was next his own house.' Let us close with
that. Let us go home thinking about that. And in this trial of faith
and patience, and in that, in this temptation to sin, and in that, in
this actual transgression, and in that, let us always ask ourselves which
is the side of the slough that is farthest away from our own house, and
let us still struggle to that side of the slough, and it will all be well
with us at the last.




HELP


'I was brought low, and He helped me.'--David.

The Slough of Despond is one of John Bunyan's masterpieces. In his
description of the slough, Bunyan touches his highest water-mark for
humour, and pathos, and power, and beauty of language. If we did not
have the English Bible in our own hands we would have to ask, as Lord
Jeffrey asked Lord Macaulay, where the brazier of Bedford got his
inimitable style. Bunyan confesses to us that he got all his Latin from