Page:The pilgrim's progress by John Bunyan every child can read (1909).djvu/327

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HONEST TELLS OF MR. SELF-WILL
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I have ever been more afraid of the lake, and the loss of a place in Paradise, than I have been of the loss of other things. Oh, thought I, may I have the happiness to have a habitation there, it is enough, though I part with all the world to win it!

Matt. Then said Matthew, "Fear was one thing that made me think that I was far from having that within me which makes me sure of being saved. But if it were so with such a good man as he, why may it not also go well with me?"

James. "No fears, no grace," said James, "Though there is not always grace where there is the fear of hell, yet, to be sure, there is no grace where there is no fear of God."

Great. Well said, James; thou hast hit the mark. For the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; and, to be sure, they that want the beginning have neither middle nor end. But we will here conclude our discourse of Mr. Fearing, after we have sent after him this farewell:

"Well, Master Fearing, thou didst fear
Thy God, and wast afraid
Of doing anything while here
That would have thee betrayed.

"And didst thou fear the lake and pit?
Would others did so too!
For, as for them that want thy wit,
They do themselves undo."

Now I saw that they still went on in their talk; for, after Mr. Great-heart had made an end with