was upon us, have we completely cast behind our back?  What about secret prayer?  At what times, for what things, and for what people do we in secret pray?  What about secret sin?  What is its name, and what does it deserve, and what fruit are we already reaping out of it?  What is our besetting sin, and what steps do we take, as God knows, to crucify it?  Do we love money too much?  Do we love praise too much?  Do we love eating and drinking too much?  Does envy make our heart a very hell?  Let us name the man we envy, and let us keep our Communion eye upon him.  Let us mix his name with all the psalms and prayers and sermons of this Communion season.  Or is it diabolical ill-will?  Or is it a wicked tongue against an unsuspecting friend?  Let us examine ourselves as Paul did, as Prywell did, and as God would have us do it, and we shall discover things in ourselves so bad that if I were to put words on them to-night, you would stop your ears in horror and flee out of the church.  Let a man see himself at least as others see him; and then he will be led on from that to see himself as God sees him; and then he will judge himself so severely as that he shall not need to be judged at the Judgment Day, and will condemn himself so sufficiently as that he shall not be condemned with a condemned world at the last.

CHAPTER XVI—­YOUNG CAPTAIN SELF-DENIAL

   ’If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his
   cross daily and follow Me.’—­Our Lord.

’Now the siege was long, and many a fierce attempt did the enemy make upon the town, and many a shrewd brush did some of the townsmen meet with from the enemy, especially Captain Self-denial, to whose care both Ear-gate and Eye-gate had been intrusted.  This Captain Self-denial was a young man, but stout, and a townsman in Mansoul.  This young captain, therefore, being a hardy man, and a man of great courage to boot, and willing to venture himself for the good of the town, he would now and then sally out upon the enemy; but you must think this could not easily be done, but he must meet with some sharp brushes himself, and, indeed, he carried several of such marks on his face, yea, and some on some other parts of his body.’  Thus, Bunyan.  I shall now go on to-night to offer you some annotations and some reflections on this short but excellent history of young Captain Self-denial.

1.  Well, to begin with, this Captain Self-denial was still a young man.  ’And, now, it comes into my mind, said Goodman Gains after supper, I will tell you a story well worth the hearing, as I think.  There were two men once upon a time that went on pilgrimage; the one began when he was young and the other began when he was old.  The young man had strong corruptions to grapple with, whereas the old man’s corruptions were decayed with the decays of nature.  The young man trod his steps as even