Father is represented as saying such inviting things.  Venture upon the cross.  Survey the wondrous cross and then make a bold venture upon it.  Think who that is who is bleeding to death upon the cross, and why?  Look at Him till you never afterwards can see anything else.  Look at God’s Eternal, Divine, Well-pleasing Son with all the wages of sin dealt out to Him, body and soul, on that tree to the uttermost farthing.  And, devil incarnate though you indeed are, yet, say, if that spectacle does not satisfy you, and encourage you, and carry your cowardice captive.  Venture!  I say, venture!  And if you find at last that you have ventured too far—­if you have sinned and corrupted yourself beyond redemption—­then it will be some consolation and distinction to you in hell that you had out-sinned the infinite grace of God, and had seen the end of the unsearchable riches of Christ.  Timid sinner, I but mock thee, therefore venture!  Fearful sinner, venture!  Cowardly sinner, venture.  Venture thyself upon thy God, upon Christ thy Saviour, and upon His cross.  Venture all thy guilt and all thy corruption taken together upon Christ hanging upon His cross, and make that tremendous venture now!

MERCY

   “Blessed are the merciful:  for they shall obtain mercy.”—­Our Lord.

The first time that we see Mercy she is standing one sunshine morning knocking along with another at Christiana’s door.  And all that we afterwards hear of Mercy might be described as, A morning call and all that came of it; or, How a godly matron led on a poor maid to fall in love with her own salvation.  John Bunyan, her biographer, in all his devotion to Mercy, does not make it at all clear to us why such a sweet and good girl as Mercy was could be on such intimate terms with Mrs. Timorous and all her so questionable circle.  Could it be that Mercy’s mother was one of that unhappy set?  And had this dear little woman-child been brought up so as to know no better than to figure in their assemblies, and go out on their morning rounds with Mrs. Light-mind and Mrs. Know-nothing?  Or, was poor Mercy an orphan with no one to watch over her, and had her sweet face, her handsome figure, and her winning manners made her one of the attractions of old Madam Wanton’s midnight routs?  However it came about, there was Mercy out on a series of morning calls with a woman twice her age, but a woman whose many years had taught her neither womanliness nor wisdom.  “If you come in God’s name, come in,” a voice from the inside answered the knocking of Mrs. Timorous and Mercy, her companion, at Christiana’s door.  In all their rounds that morning the two women had not been met with another salutation like that; and that strange salutation so disconcerted and so confounded them that they did not know whether to lift the latch and go in, or to run away and leave those to go in who could take their delight in such outlandish language.