also on whom his last thoughts turned.  Isaac had been born to Abraham by a special and extraordinary and supernatural interposition of the grace and the power of God; and Mr. Ready-to-halt had always looked on himself as a second Abraham in that respect.  A second Abraham, and more.  True, his son was not yet a pilgrim; perhaps he was too young to be so called; but Greatheart will take back the old man’s crutches—­Greatheart was both man-of-war and beast-of-burden to the pilgrims and their wives and children—­and will in spare hours teach young Ready-to-halt the use of the crutch, till the son can use with the same effect as his father his father’s instrument.  Is your child a child of promise?  Is he to you a product of nature, or of grace?  Did you receive him and his brothers and sisters from God after you were as good as dead?  Did you ever steal in when his nurse was at supper and say over his young cradle, He hath not dealt with me after my sins, nor rewarded me according to my iniquities?  Is it in your will laid up with Christ in God about your crutches and your son what Mr. Ready-to-halt dictated on his deathbed?  And does God know that there is no wish in your old heart a hundred times so warm for your son as is this wish,—­that he may prove better at handling God’s promises than you have been?  Then, happy son, who has old Mr. Ready-to-halt for his father!

6.  “He whom thou hast loved and followed, though upon crutches, expects thee at His table the next day after Easter.”  Take comfort, cripples!  Had it been said that the King so expects Greatheart, or Standfast, or Valiant-for-truth, that would have been after the manner of the kings of this world.  But to insist on having Mr. Ready-to-halt beside Him by such and such a day; to send such a post to a pilgrim who has not a single sound bone in all his body; to a sinner without a single trustworthy grace in all his heart; to a poor and simple believer who has nothing in his hand but one of God’s own promises—­Who is a king like unto our King?  Surely King David was never a better type of Christ than when he said to Mephibosheth, lame in both his feet from his nurse’s arms:  “Fear not, Mephibosheth, for I will surely show thee kindness, and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually.”  And Mephibosheth shall always be our spokesman when he bows himself and says in return:  “What is thy servant, that thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am?”

VALIANT-FOR-TRUTH

   “—­They are not valiant for the truth.”—­Jeremiah

   “—­Ye should contend earnestly for the faith.”—­Jude.