so personal and vital that they spake to one another. "And methough
they spake as if you had made them speak; they spoke with such
pleasantness of Scripture language, and with such appearance of grace
in all they said, that they were to me as if they had found a new
world--as if they were 'people that dwelt alone, and were not to be
reckoned among their neighbours!'"

The conversation of these poor people made a deep impression on
Bunyan's mind. He saw that there was something in real religion into
which he had not yet penetrated. He sought the society of these
humble instructors, and learned from them much that he had not known
before. He began to read the Bible with new avidity; and that
portion which had formerly been most distasteful, the Epistles of
Paul, now became the subject of his special study. A sect of
Antinomians, who boasted that they could do whatsoever they pleased
without sinning, now fell in his way. Professors of religion were
rapidly embracing their opinions, and there was something in their
wild fervour and apparent raptures, prepossessing to the ardent mind
of Bunyan. He read their books, and pondered their principles; but
prefaced his examination with the simple prayer,--"O Lord, I am a
fool, and not able to know the truths from error. Lord, leave me not
to my own blindness. If this doctrine be of God, let me not despise
it; if it be of the devil, let me not embrace it. Lord, in this
matter I lay my soul only at thy foot: let me not be deceived, I
humbly beseech thee." His prayer was heard, and he was saved from
this snare of the devil.

The object to which the eye of an inquiring sinner should be turned,
is CHRIST--the finished work and the sufficient Saviour. But, in
point of fact, the chief stress of the more evangelical instruction