Octave Feuillet - "Monsieur de Camors, v2"

Ludwig Thoma - "Moral"

Mary Roberts Rinehart - "Long Live the King"

Pierre Loti - "Madame Chrysantheme, v4"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: The Works of John Bunyan Volume 3

J >> John Bunyan >> The Works of John Bunyan Volume 3




The Seventh Motive. To encourage thee a little farther, set to the
work, and when thou hast run thyself down weary, then the Lord
Jesus will take thee up, and carry thee. Is not this enough to
make any poor soul begin his race? Thou, perhaps, criest, O but I
am feeble, I am lame, &c.: well, but Christ hath a bosom; consider,
therefore, when thou hast run thyself down weary, he will put
thee in his bosom: 'He shall gather the lambs with his arms, and
carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with
young' (Isa 40:11). This is the way that fathers take to encourage
their children, saying: Run, sweet babe, while thou art weary,
and then I will take thee up and carry thee. 'He will gather his
lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom.' When they are
weary they shall ride.[19] The Eighth Motive. Or else he will convey
new strength from heaven into thy soul, which will be as well--'The
youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly
fall; but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not
be weary, they shall walk and not faint' (Isa 40:30,31). What
shall I say besides what hath already been said? Thou shalt have
good and easy lodging, good and wholesome diet, the bosom of
Christ to lie in, the joys of heaven to feed on. Shall I speak of
the satiety and of the duration of all these? Verily to describe
them to the height it is a work too hard for me to do.[20]

The Ninth Motive. Again methinks the very industry of the devil,
and the industry of his servants, &c., should make you that have
a desire to heaven and happiness to run apace. Why, the devil, he
will lose no time, spare no pains, also neither will his servants,
both to seek the destruction of themselves and others: and shall
not we be as industrious for our own salvation? Shall the world
venture the damnation of their souls for a poor corruptible crown;
and shall not we venture the loss of a few trifles for an eternal
crown? Shall they venture the loss of eternal friends, as God to
love, Christ to redeem, the Holy Spirit to comfort, heaven for
habitation, saints and angels for company, and all this to get and
hold communion with sin, and this world, and a few base, drunken,
swearing, lying, covetous wretches, like themselves? And shall
not we labour as hard, run as fast, seek as diligently, nay, a
hundred times more diligently, for the company of these glorious
eternal friends, though with the loss of such as these, nay, with
the loss of ten thousand times better than these poor, low, base,
contemptible things? Shall it be said at the last day, that wicked
men made more haste to hell than you did make to heaven?[21] That
they spent more hours, days, and that early and late, for hell,
than you spent for that which is ten thousand thousand of thousands
times better? O let it not be so, but run with all might and main.

Thus you see I have here spoken something, though but little. Now
I shall come to make some use and application of what hath been
said, and so conclude.

[VI. NINE USES OF THIS SUBJECT.]

The first use. You see here, that he that will go to heaven, he
must run for it; yea, and not only run, but so run, that is, as
I have said, to run earnestly, to run continually, to strip off
every thing that would hinder in his race with the rest. Well
then, do you so run? And now let us examine a little.

1. Art thou got into the right way? Art thou in Christ's
righteousness? Do not say yes in thy heart, when in truth there
is no such matter. It is a dangerous thing, you know, for a man
to think he is in the right way, when he is in the wrong. It is
the next way for him to lose his way, and not only so, but if he
run for heaven, as thou sayst thou dost, even to lose that too. O
this is the misery of most men, to persuade themselves that they
run right, when they never had one foot in the way! The Lord
give thee understanding here, or else thou art undone for ever.
Prithee, soul, search when was it thou turned out of thy sins and
righteousness into the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I say, dost
thou see thyself in him? and is he more precious to thee than the
whole world? Is thy mind always musing on him? Dost thou love
to be talking of him--and also to be walking with him? Dost thou
count his company more precious than the whole world? Dost thou
count all things but poor, lifeless, empty, vain things, without
communion with him? Doth his company sweeten all things--and his
absence embitter all things? Soul, I beseech thee, be serious, and
lay it to heart, and do not take things of such weighty concernment
as the salvation or damnation of thy soul, without good ground.

2. Art thou unladen of the things of this world, as pride, pleasures,
profits, lusts, vanities? What! dost thou think to run fast enough
with the world, thy sins and lusts in thy heart? I tell thee,
soul, they that have laid all aside, every weight, every sin, and
are got into the nimblest posture, they find work enough to run;
so to run as to hold out. To run through all that opposition, all
these jostles, all these rubs, over all these stumbling-blocks,
over all the snares from all these entanglements, that the devil,
sin, the world, and their own hearts, lay before them; I tell
thee, if thou art agoing heavenward, thou wilt find it no small
or easy matter. Art thou therefore discharged and unladen of these
things? Never talk of going to heaven if thou art not. It is to be
feared thou wilt be found among the many that 'will seek to enter
in, and shall not be able' (Luke 13:24).

The second use. If so, then, in the next place, what will become
of them that are grown weary before they are got half way thither?
Why, man, it is he that holdeth out to the end that must be saved;
it is he that overcometh that shall inherit all things; it is
not every one that begins. Agrippa gave a fair step for a sudden,
he steps almost into the bosom of Christ in less than half an
hour. Thou, saith he to Paul, hast 'almost persuaded me to be a
Christian' (Acts 26:26). Ah! but it was but almost; and so he had
as good have been never a whit; he stept fair indeed, but yet he
stept short; he was hot while he was at it, but he was quickly out
of wind. O this but almost! I tell you, this but almost, it lost
his soul. Methinks I have seen sometimes how these poor wretches
that get but almost to heaven, how fearfully their almost, and their
but almost, will torment them in hell; when they shall cry out in
the bitterness of their souls, saying, I was almost a Christian.
I was almost got into the kingdom, almost out of the hands of
the devil, almost out of my sins, almost from under the curse of
God; almost, and that was all; almost, but not altogether. O that
I should be almost at heaven, and should not go quite through!
Friend, it is a sad thing to sit down before we are in heaven,
and to grow weary before we come to the place of rest; and if it
should be thy case, I am sure thou dost not so run as to obtain.
But again,

The third use. In the next place, What then will become of them
that some time since were running post-haste to heaven, insomuch
that they seemed to outstrip many, but now are running as fast
back again? Do you think those will ever come thither? What, to
run back again, back again to sin, to the world, to the devil, back
again to the lusts of the flesh? O! 'It had been better for them
not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have
known it, to turn,' to turn back again, 'from the holy commandment'
(2 Peter 2:22). Those men shall not only be damned for sin, but
for professing to all the world that sin is better than Christ;
for the man that runs back again, he doth as good as say, 'I have
tried Christ, and I have tried sin, and I do not find so much
profit in Christ as in sin.'[22] I say, this man declareth this,
even by his running back again. O sad! what a doom they will have,
who were almost at heaven-gates, and then run back again. 'If any
draw back,' saith Christ [by his apostle], 'my soul shall have no
pleasure in him' (Heb 10:38). Again, 'No man having put his hand
to the plough,' that is, set forward, in the ways of God, 'and
looking back,' turning back again, 'is fit for the kingdom of
God' (Luke 9:62). And if not fit for the kingdom of heaven, then
for certain he must needs be fit for the fire of hell. And therefore,
saith the apostle, those that 'bring forth' these apostatizing
fruits, as 'briars and thorns, are rejected, and nigh unto cursing,
whose end is to be burned' (Heb 6:8). O there is never another
Christ to save them by bleeding and dying for them! And if they
shall not escape that neglect, then how shall they escape that
reject and turn their back upon 'so great a salvation?' (Heb
2:3). And if the righteous, that is, they that run for it, will
find work enough to get to heaven, 'then where will the ungodly'
backsliding 'sinner appear?' or if Judas the traitor, or Francis
Spira the backslider, were but now alive in the world to whisper
these men in the ear a little, and tell them what it hath cost
their souls for backsliding, surely it would stick by them and
make them afraid of running back again, so long as they had one
day to live in this world.

The fourth use. So again, fourthly, how unlike to these men's
passions[23] will those be that have all this while sat still,
and have not so much as set one foot forward to the kingdom of
heaven. Surely he that backslideth, and he that sitteth still in
sin, they are both of one mind; the one he will not stir, because
he loveth his sins, and the things of this world; the other he
runs back again, because he loveth his sins, and the things of
this world: is it not one and the same thing? They are all one
here, and shall not one and the same hell hold them hereafter!
He is an ungodly one that never looked after Christ, and he is an
ungodly one that did once look after him and then ran quite back
again; and therefore that word must certainly drop out of the
mouth of Christ against them both, 'Depart from me, ye cursed,
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels'
(Matt 25:41).

The fifth use. Again, here you may see, in the next place, that
is, they that will have heaven must run for it; then this calls
aloud to those who began but a while since to run, I say, for
them to mend their pace if they intend to win; you know that they
which come hindmost, had need run fastest. Friend, I tell thee,
there be those that have run ten years to thy one, nay, twenty
to thy five, and yet if thou talk with them, sometimes they will
say they doubt they shall come late enough. How then will it be
with thee? Look to it therefore that thou delay no time, not an
hour's time, but speedily part with all, with everything that is
an hindrance to thee in thy journey, and run; yea, and so run that
thou mayest obtain.

The sixth use. Again, sixthly, You that are old professors, take
you heed that the young striplings of Jesus, that began to strip
but the other day, do not outrun you, so as to have that scripture
fulfilled on you, 'The first shall be last, and the last first';
which will be a shame to you, and a credit for them. What, for a
young soldier to be more courageous than he that hath been used
to wars! To you that are hindmost, I say, strive to outrun them
that are before you; and you that are foremost, I say, hold your
ground, and keep before them in faith and love, if possible;
for indeed that is the right running, for one to strive to outrun
another; even for the hindmost to endeavour to overtake the
foremost, and he that is before should be sure to lay out himself
to keep his ground, even to the very utmost. But then,

The seventh use. Again, How basely do they behave themselves, how
unlike are they to win, that think it enough to keep company with
the hindmost? There are some men that profess themselves such
as run for heaven as well as any; yet if there be but any lazy,
slothful, cold, half-hearted professors in the country, they will
be sure to take example by them; they think if they can but keep
pace with them they shall do fair; but these do not consider that
the hindmost lose the prize. You may know it, if you will, that
it cost the foolish virgins dear for their coming too late--'They
that were ready went in with him, and the door was shut. Afterward,'
mark, 'afterward came the other,' the foolish, 'virgins, saying,
Lord, Lord, open to us; but he answered, and said,' Depart, 'I know
you not' (Matt 25:10-12). Depart, lazy professors, cold professors,
slothful professors. O! methinks the Word of God is so plain for
the overthrow of you lazy professors, that it is to be wondered
men do take no more notice of it. How was Lot's wife served for
running lazily, and for giving but one look behind her, after the
things she left in Sodom? How was Esau served for staying too long
before he came for the blessing? And how were they served that
are mentioned in the 13th of Luke, 'for staying till the door was
shut?' Also the foolish virgins; a heavy after-groan will they
give that have thus staid too long. It turned Lot's wife into a
pillar of salt (Gen 19:26). It made Esau weep with an exceeding
loud and bitter cry (Heb 12:17). It made Judas hang himself: yea,
and it will make thee curse the day in which thou wast born, if
thou miss of the kingdom, as thou wilt certainly do, if this be
thy course. But,

The eighth use. Again, How, and if thou by thy lazy running
shouldst not only destroy thyself, but also thereby be the cause
of the damnation of some others, for thou being a professor thou
must think that others will take notice of thee; and because thou
art but a poor, cold, lazy runner, and one that seeks to drive
the world and pleasure along with thee: why, thereby others will
think of doing so too. Nay, say they, why may not we as well as
he? He is a professor, and yet he seeks for pleasures, riches,
profits; he loveth vain company, and he is proud, and he is so
and so, and professeth that he is going for heaven; yea, and he
saith also he doth not fear but he shall have entertainment; let
us therefore keep pace with him, we shall fare no worse than he.
O how fearful a thing will it be, if that thou shalt be instrumental
of the ruin of others by thy halting in the way of righteousness!
Look to it, thou wilt have strength little enough to appear before
God, to give an account of the loss of thy own soul; thou needest
not have to give an account for others; why, thou didst stop them
from entering in. How wilt thou answer that saying, You would
not enter in yourselves, and them that would you hinder; for that
saying will be eminently fulfilled on them that through their
own idleness do keep themselves out of heaven, and by giving of
others the same example, hinder them also.

The ninth use. Therefore, now to speak a word to both of you, and
so I shall conclude.

1. I beseech you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that none
of you do run so lazily in the way to heaven as to hinder either
yourselves or others. I know that even he which runs laziest, if
he should see a man running for a temporal life, if he should so
much neglect his own well-being in this world as to venture, when
he is a-running for his life, to pick up here and there a lock of
wool that hangeth by the way-side, or to step now and then aside
out of the way for to gather up a straw or two, or any rotten
stick, I say, if he should do this when he is a-running for his
life, thou wouldst condemn him; and dost thou not condemn thyself
that dost the very same in effect, nay worse, that loiterest
in thy race, notwithstanding thy soul, heaven, glory, and all is
at stake. Have a care, have a care, poor wretched sinner, have a
care.

2. If yet there shall be any that, notwithstanding this advice,
will still be flaggering and loitering in the way to the kingdom
of glory, be thou so wise as not to take example by them. Learn
of no man further than he followeth Christ. But look unto Jesus,
who is not only 'the author and finisher of faith,' but who did,
'for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of God' (Heb
12:2). I say, look to no man to learn of him no further than he
followeth Christ. 'Be ye followers of me,' saith Paul, 'even as
I also am of Christ' (1 Cor 11:1). Though he was an eminent man,
yet his exhortation was, that none should follow him any further
than he followed Christ.

VII. PROVOCATION. [TO RUN WITH THE FOREMOST.]

Now that you may be provoked to run with the foremost, take notice
of this. When Lot and his wife were running from cursed Sodom
to the mountains, to save their lives, it is said that his wife
looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt; and
yet you see that neither her practice, nor the judgment of God
that fell upon her for the same, would cause Lot to look behind
him. I have sometimes wondered at Lot in this particular; his
wife looked behind her, and died immediately, but let what would
become of her, Lot would not so much as look behind him to see
her. We do not read that he did so much as once look where she was,
or what was become of her; his heart was indeed upon his journey,
and well it might: there was the mountain before him, and the
fire and brimstone behind him; his life lay at stake and he had
lost it if he had but looked behind him. Do thou so run: and in
thy race remember Lot's wife, and remember her doom; and remember
for what that doom did overtake her; and remember that God made
her an example for all lazy runners, to the end of the world: and
take heed thou fall not after the same example. But, if this will
not provoke thee, consider thus,

1. Thy soul is thy own soul, that is either to be saved or lost;
thou shalt not lose my soul by thy laziness. It is thy own soul,
thy own ease, thy own peace, thy own advantage, or disadvantage.
If it were my soul that thou art desired to be good unto, methinks
reason should move thee somewhat to pity it. But alas, it is thy
own, thy own soul. 'What shall it profit a man if he shall gain
the whole world, and lose his own soul?' (Mark 8:36). God's people
wish well to the souls of others, and wilt not thou wish well to
thy own? And if this will not provoke thee, then think again,

2. If thou lose thy soul, it is thou also that must bear the blame.
It made Cain stark mad to consider that he had not looked to his
brother Abel's soul. How much more will it perplex thee to think,
that thou hadst not a care of thy own? And if this will not provoke
thee to bestir thyself, think again,

3. That if thou wilt not run, the people of God are resolved to
deal with thee even as Lot dealt with his wife, that is, leave
thee behind them. It may be thou hast a father, mother, brother,
&c., going post-haste to heaven, wouldst thou be willing to be
left behind them? Surely no. Again,

4. Will it not be a dishonour to thee to see the very boys and
girls in the country to have more wit than thyself? It may be the
servants of some men, as the horsekeeper, ploughman, scullion,
&c., are more looking after heaven than their masters. I am apt
to think sometimes, that more servants than masters, that more
tenants than landlords, will inherit the kingdom of heaven. But
is not this a shame for them that are such? I am persuaded you
scorn, that your servants should say that they are wiser than you
in the things of this world; and yet I am bold to say, that many
of them are wiser than you in the things of the world to come,
which are of great concernment.

VIII. A SHORT EXPOSTULATION.

Well then, sinner, what sayest thou? Where is thy heart? Wilt thou
run? Art thou resolved to strip? Or art thou not? Think quickly,
man, it is no dallying in this matter. Confer not with flesh and
blood; look up to heaven, and see how thou likest it; also to
hell--of which thou mayst understand something by my book, called,
A few Sighs from Hell; or the Groans of a damned Soul; which I
wish thee to read seriously over--and accordingly devote thyself.
If thou dost not know the way, inquire at the Word of God. If thou
wantest company, cry for God's Spirit. If thou wantest encouragement,
entertain the promises. But be sure thou begin by times; get into
the way; run apace and hold out to the end; and the Lord give thee
a prosperous journey. Farewell.



FOOTNOTES:

[1] It was the commonly received opinion that, at the moment
of death, the angels and devils strove to carry away the soul.
If the dying man had received the consecrated wafer, the devils
were scared at it, and lost their victim. Hence the prayer--'From
lightning, battle, murder, and sudden death, good Lord, deliver
us'; a curious contrast to, 'Thy will be done'! Were they sinners
above all men upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them?
(Luke 13:4). O that men would rely upon the righteousness of Christ
stimulating them to run for glory, as heavenly footmen, and not
upon the nostrums of Antichrist!--Ed.

[2] In a very beautifully ornamented Liturgy of the Church of
England, prior to the Reformation, after the Salisbury use, printed
in 1526 (in the Editor's library), is this direction--'These iii.
prayers be wrytten in the chapel of the holy crosse in Rome, who
that deuoutly say them they shall obteyne ten hundred thousand
years of pardon for deadly sins graunted of oure holy father Jhon
xxii pope of Rome.' The three prayers only occupy twenty-six short
lines, and may be gravely repeated in two minutes. Such was and IS
Popery!! But at the end of all this promised pardon for a million
of years--what then? Will eternal torments commence?--Ed.

[3] How awfully is this pictured to the soul in that solemn account
of the day of death and judgment in Matthew 25; and how strikingly
applied in the Pilgrim's Progress in the character of Ignorance.--Ed.


[4] 'When the bell begins to toll,
Lord have mercy on the soul.'


The Papists imagine that there is an extraordinary power in the
bell hallowed by baptism to drive away the spirits of darkness, so
that the departing soul may take its journey without molestation!!
It was also intended to rouse the faithful to pray for the
dead person's soul. This, and other superstitious practices, were
suspended during the Protectorate in some parishes, if not generally,
but were revived at the Restoration, because the omission injured
the revenues of the church.--See Brand's Popular Antiquities.--Ed.

[5] This quotation, probably made from memory, is a mixture of
the Genevan and the present version.--Ed.

[6] Francis Spira, in 1548, being a lawyer in great repute in
Italy, professed gospel principles, but afterwards relapsed into
Popery, and became a victim of black despair. The man in the iron
cage, at the Interpreter's house, probably referred to Spira. The
narrative of his fearful state is preceded by a poem:--


'Here see a soul that's all despair, a man
All hell, a spirit all wounds. Who can
A wounded spirit bear?
Reader, wouldst see what you may never feel,
Despair, racks, torments, whips of burning steel?
Behold this man, this furnace, in whose heart
Sin hath created hell. O! in each part
What flames appear?
His thoughts all stings; words, swords;
Brimstone his breath;
His eyes, flames; wishes, curses; life, a death,
A thousand deaths live in him, he not dead--
A breathing corpse in living scalding lead.'--Ed.


[7] How plain and important is this direction. Saul the persecutor
ran fast, but the faster he ran in his murderous zeal the further
he ran from the prize. Let every staunch sectarian examine prayerfully
his way, especially if the sect he belongs to is patronized by
princes, popes, or potentates, and endowed with worldly honours.
He may be running from and not to heaven.--Ed.

[8] He that trusts in the sect to which he belongs is assuredly
in the wrong way, whether it be the Church of Rome or England,
Quaking, Ranting, Baptists, or Independents. Trust in Christ must
be all in all. First be IN Christ, then run for heaven, looking
unto Christ. Keep fellowship with those who are the purest, and
run fastest in the ordinances of the gospel which are revealed in
the Word. Follow no human authority nor craft, seek the influence
of the Holy Spirit for yourself, that you may be led into all
truth, then you will so run as to obtain.--Ed.

[9] How plain is this direction, and how does it commend itself to
our common-sense; lumpish shoes, and pockets filled with stones,
how absurd for a man who is running a race!! Stop, my dear reader,
have you cast away all useless encumbrances, and all easily besetting
sins? Is your heart full of mammon, or pride, or debauchery? if
so, you have no particle of strength to run for heaven, but are
running upon swift perdition.--Ed.

[10] This is one of those beautiful ideas which so abound in all
Bunyan's works. Our way to the kingdom is consecrated by the cross
of Christ, and may be known throughout by the sprinkling of his
blood, his groans, his agonies. All the doctrines that put us in
the way are sanctified by the atonement; all the spurs to a diligent
running in that way are powerful as motives, by our being bought
with that precious price, the death of Emmanuel. O! my soul,
be thou found looking unto Jesus, he is THE WAY, the only way to
heaven.--Ed.