door. "But what if the steeple itself should come down?" This
thought banished him altogether, and he bade adieu to bell-ringing.
And by a similar series of concessions, eventually, but with longer
delay, he gave up another practice, for which his conscience checked
him--dancing. All these improvements in his conduct were a source of
much complacency to himself, though all this while he wanted the
soul-emancipating and sin-subduing knowledge of Jesus Christ. The
Son had not made him free.

There is such a thing as cant. It is possible for flippant
pretenders to acquire a peculiar phraseology, and use it with a
painful dexterity; and it is also possible for genuine Christians to
subside into a state of mind so listless or secular, that their talk
on religious topics will have the inane and heartless sound of the
tinkling cymbal. But as there is an experimental religion, so is it
possible for those who have felt religion in its vitality to exchange
their thoughts regarding it, and to relate what it--or rather, God in
it--has done for them. There are few things which indicate a
healthier state of personal piety than such a frank and full-hearted
Christian intercourse. It was a specimen of such communings which
impressed on the mind of Bunyan the need of something beyond an
outside reformation. He had gone to Bedford in prosecution of his
calling, when, passing along the street, he noticed a few poor women
sitting in a doorway, and talking together. He drew near to listen
to their discourse. It surprised him; for though he had by this time
become a great talker on sacred subjects, their themes were far
beyond his reach. God's work in their souls, the views they had
obtained of their natural misery and of God's love in Christ Jesus,
what words and promises had particularly refreshed them and
strengthened them against the temptations of Satan; it was of matters