principal in the temple to do his work therein."

So strong was this superstitious feeling--one shared by the ignorant
peasantry in many portions of England, even at the present day--that
"had he but seen a priest, though never so sordid and debauched in
his life, his spirit would fall under him; and he could have lain
down at their feet and been trampled upon by them--their name, their
garb, and work, did so intoxicate and bewitch him." It little
matters what form superstition takes--image-worship, priest-worship,
or temple-worship; nothing is transforming except Christ in the
heart, a Saviour realized, accepted, and enthroned. Whilst adoring
the altar, and worshipping the surplice, and deifying the individual
who wore it, Bunyan continued to curse and blaspheme, and spend his
Sabbaths in the same riot as before.

One day, however, he heard a sermon on the sin of Sabbath-breaking.
It fell heavy on his conscience; for it seemed all intended for him.
It haunted him throughout the day, and when he went to his usual
diversion in the afternoon, its cadence was still knelling in his
troubled ear. He was busy at a game called "Cat," and had already
struck the ball one blow, and was about to deal another, when "a
voice darted from heaven into his soul, 'Wilt thou leave thy sins and
go to heaven, or have thy sins and go to hell?'" His arm was
arrested, and looking up to heaven, it seemed as if the Lord Jesus
was looking down upon him in remonstrance and severe displeasure;
and, at the same instant, the conviction flashed across him, that he
had sinned so long that repentance was now too late. "My state is
surely miserable--miserable if I leave my sins, and but miserable if
I follow them. I can but be damned; and if I must be so, I had as
good be damned for many sins as few." In the desperation of this