Bunyan Characters-2 [88]
Bubble has come between; and say what you have done to be a peacemaker there. Set down what you would say to a man and his wife so as to put them on their guard against Madam Bubble ever coming in between them. And, last and best of all, point out to yourself at what times and in what ways this wicked witch tries to make variance between God's Holy Spirit striving within you and your own evil heart still strong within you. When you are weary and sleepy and hungry as a howlet, and, Madam Bubble and her three daughters make a ring round you, what do you do? Do you ever take to your knees? Really and honestly, do you? When you find yourself out looking with holy fear on a rich and lofty relation, and with insufferable contempt on a poor and intrusive relation, by what name do you call yourself? Write it down. And when she would fain put variance between you and those who do not think well of you, what steps do you take to foil her? Where and how do you get strength at that supreme moment to think of others as you would have them think of you? "Oh," said Standfast, "what a mercy it is that I did resist her! for to what might she not have drawn me?"
GAIUS
"Gaius, mine host."--Paul.
Goodman Gaius was the head of a hostel that stood on the side of the highway well on to the Celestial City. The hostess of the hostel was no more, and the old hostel-keeper did all her once well-done work and his own proper work into the bargain. Every day he inspected the whole house with his own eyes, down even to the kitchen and the scullery. The good woman had left our host an only daughter; but, "Keep her as much out of sight as is possible," she said, and so fell asleep. And Gaius remembered his wife's last testament every day, till none of the hostel customers knew that there was so much as a young hostess in all the house. "Yes, gentlemen," replied the old innkeeper. "Yes, come in. It is late, but I take you for true men, for you must know that my house is kept open only for such." So he took the large pilgrim party to their several apartments with his own eyes, and then set about a supper for those so late arrivals. Stamping with his foot, he brought up the cook with the euphonious and eupeptic name, and that quick-witted domestic soon had a supper on the table that would have made a full man's mouth water. "The sight of all this," said Matthew, as the under-cook laid the cloth and the trenchers, and set the salt and the bread in order--"the sight of this cloth and of this forerunner of a supper begetteth in me a greater appetite to my food than I thought I had before." So supper came up; and first a heave-shoulder and a wave-breast were set on the table before them, in order to show that they must begin their meal with prayer and praise to God. These two dishes were very fresh and good, and all the travellers did eat heartily well thereof. The next was a bottle of wine red as blood. So Gaius said to them, "Drink freely; this is the juice of the true vine that makes glad the heart of God and man." And they did drink and were very merry. The next was a dish of milk well crumbed. At the sight of which Gaius said, "Let the boys have that, that they may grow thereby." And so on, dish after dish, till the nuts came with the recitations and the riddles and the saws and the stories over the nuts. Thus the happy party sat talking till the break of day.
1. Now, it is natural to remark that the first thing about a host is his hospitality. And that, too, whether our host is but the head of a hostel like Goodman Gaius, or the head of a well- appointed private house like Gaius's neighbour, Mr. Mnason. The first and the last thing about a host is his hospitality. "Say little and do much" is the example and the injunction to all our housekeepers that Rabban Shammai draws out of the eighteenth of Genesis. "Be like your father Abraham," he says, "on the plains of Mamre, who only promised bread and water, but straightway set Sarah to knead three measures of her finest meal, while he ran to the herd and fetched
GAIUS
"Gaius, mine host."--Paul.
Goodman Gaius was the head of a hostel that stood on the side of the highway well on to the Celestial City. The hostess of the hostel was no more, and the old hostel-keeper did all her once well-done work and his own proper work into the bargain. Every day he inspected the whole house with his own eyes, down even to the kitchen and the scullery. The good woman had left our host an only daughter; but, "Keep her as much out of sight as is possible," she said, and so fell asleep. And Gaius remembered his wife's last testament every day, till none of the hostel customers knew that there was so much as a young hostess in all the house. "Yes, gentlemen," replied the old innkeeper. "Yes, come in. It is late, but I take you for true men, for you must know that my house is kept open only for such." So he took the large pilgrim party to their several apartments with his own eyes, and then set about a supper for those so late arrivals. Stamping with his foot, he brought up the cook with the euphonious and eupeptic name, and that quick-witted domestic soon had a supper on the table that would have made a full man's mouth water. "The sight of all this," said Matthew, as the under-cook laid the cloth and the trenchers, and set the salt and the bread in order--"the sight of this cloth and of this forerunner of a supper begetteth in me a greater appetite to my food than I thought I had before." So supper came up; and first a heave-shoulder and a wave-breast were set on the table before them, in order to show that they must begin their meal with prayer and praise to God. These two dishes were very fresh and good, and all the travellers did eat heartily well thereof. The next was a bottle of wine red as blood. So Gaius said to them, "Drink freely; this is the juice of the true vine that makes glad the heart of God and man." And they did drink and were very merry. The next was a dish of milk well crumbed. At the sight of which Gaius said, "Let the boys have that, that they may grow thereby." And so on, dish after dish, till the nuts came with the recitations and the riddles and the saws and the stories over the nuts. Thus the happy party sat talking till the break of day.
1. Now, it is natural to remark that the first thing about a host is his hospitality. And that, too, whether our host is but the head of a hostel like Goodman Gaius, or the head of a well- appointed private house like Gaius's neighbour, Mr. Mnason. The first and the last thing about a host is his hospitality. "Say little and do much" is the example and the injunction to all our housekeepers that Rabban Shammai draws out of the eighteenth of Genesis. "Be like your father Abraham," he says, "on the plains of Mamre, who only promised bread and water, but straightway set Sarah to knead three measures of her finest meal, while he ran to the herd and fetched