tribulation so abounds in the lives of God’s people.  So much does tribulation abound in the lives of God’s people that they are actually known in heaven and described there by their experience of tribulation.  ’These are they which came out of great tribulation, and therefore are they before the throne.’  These are they with the three sharp arrows shot through and through their hearts of gold.

CHAPTER XVIII—­MR. DESIRES-AWAKE

   ’One thing have I desired.’—­David.

Mr. Desires-awake dwelt in a very mean cottage in Mansoul.  There were two very mean cottages in Mansoul, and those two cottages stood beside one another and leaned upon one another and held one another up.  Mr. Desires-awake dwelt in the one of those cottages and Mr. Wet-eyes in the other.  And those two mendicant men were wont to meet together for secret prayer, when Mr. Desires-awake would put a rope upon his head, while Mr. Wet-eyes would not be able to speak for wringing his hands in tears all the time.  Many a time did those two meanest and most despised of men deliver that city, according to the proverb of the Preacher:  Wisdom is better than strength, and the words of wisdom are to be heard in secret places, where wisdom is far better than weapons of war.  Why should I not do all for them and the best I can? said Mr. Desires-awake when the men of Mansoul came to him in their extremity.  I will even venture my life again for them at the pavilion of the Prince.  And accordingly this mean man put his rope upon his head, as was his wont, and went out to the Prince’s tent and asked the reformades if he might see their Master.  Then the Prince, coming to the place where the petitioner lay on the ground, demanded what his name was and of what esteem he was in Mansoul, and why he, of all the multitudes of Mansoul, was sent out to His Royal tent on such an errand.  Then said the man to the Prince standing over him, he said:  Oh let not my Lord be angry; and why inquirest Thou after the name of such a dead dog as I am?  Pass by, I pray Thee, and take not notice of who I am, because there is, as Thou very well knowest, so great a disproportion between Thee and me.  For my part, I am out of charity with myself; who, then, should be in love with me?  Yet live I would, and so would I that my townsmen should; and because both they and myself are guilty of great transgressions, therefore they have sent me, and I have come in their names to beg of my Lord for mercy.  Let it please Thee, therefore, to incline to mercy; but ask not who Thy servant is.  All this, and how Mr. Desires-awake and Mr. Wet-eyes sped in their petition, is to be read at length in the Holy History.  And now let us take down the key that hangs in our author’s window and go to work with it on the sweet mystery of Mr. Desires-awake.