that began a hubbub that ended in a riot, and the riot in the apprehension and shutting up in a public cage of the two innocent pilgrims.  Lord Hate-good was the judge on the bench of Vanity in the day of their trial, and the three witnesses who appeared in the witness-box against the two prisoners were Envy, Superstition, and Pickthank.  The twelve jurymen who sat on their case were Mr. Blindman, Mr. No-good, Mr. Malice, Mr. Love-lust, Mr. Live-loose, Mr. Heady, Mr. High-mind, Mr. Enmity, Mr. Liar, Mr. Cruelty, Mr. Hate-light, and Mr. Implacable,—­Mr. Blindman to be the foreman.  And it was before these men that Faithful was brought forth to his trial in order to his condemnation.  And very soon after his trial Faithful came to his end.  ’Now I saw that there stood behind the multitude a chariot and a couple of horses waiting for Faithful, who (so soon as his adversaries had despatched him) was taken up into it, and straightway was carried up through the clouds, with sound of trumpet, the nearest way to the Celestial gate.’

Now, I cannot tell you how it was, I cannot account for it to myself, but it is nevertheless absolutely true that as I was reading my author last week and was meditating my present exposition, it came somehow into my mind, and I could not get it out of my mind, that there is a great and a close similarity between John Bunyan’s Vanity Fair and a general election.  And, all I could do to keep the whole thing out of my mind, one similarity after another would leap up into my mind and would not be put out of it.  I protest that I did not go out to seek for such similarities, but the more I frowned on them the thicker they came.  And then the further question arose as to whether I should write them down or no; and then much more, as to whether I should set them out before my people or no.  As you will easily believe, I was immediately in a real strait as to what I should do.  I saw on the one side what would be sure to be said by ill-natured people and people of a hasty judgment.  And I saw with much more anxiety what would be felt even when they restrained themselves from saying it by timid and cautious and scrupulous people.  I had the full fear of all such judges before my eyes; but, somehow, something kept this before my eyes also, that, as Evangelist met the two pilgrims just as they were entering the fair, so, for anything I knew to the contrary, it might be of God, that I also, in my own way, should warn my people of the real and special danger that their souls will be in for the next fortnight.  And as I thought of it a procession of people passed before me all bearing to this day the stains and scars they had taken on their hearts and their lives and their characters at former general elections.  And, like Evangelist, I felt a divine desire taking possession of me to do all I could to pull my people out of gunshot of the devil at this election.  And, then, when I read again how both the pilgrims thanked Evangelist