Part 3 (1/2)

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In the second part of the _Pilgriress_, Bunyan tells us how Christiana and her children came to the Interpreter's House, and were taken by the nificant Rooms In one of these there was _a man that could look no way but doards, with a muck-rake in his hand; there stood also one over his head, with a celestial crown in his hand, and proffered him that crown for his ard, but raked to himself the straws, the small sticks, and dust of the floor_

The late Sir Noel Paton has taken this as the subject of one of his ures in it are of life-size That of the man with the muck-rake himself first arrests your eye, and chiefly draws your attention He is an old rey beard His face is a handsoht have e, if only he had ravity which youbut an eager gleam and a senseless sht He wears on his head an old broad-riold chain and a peacock's feather At his belt he has several bags full of gold, and also a dagger hich he is ready to defend his possessions One of the bags has burst, and the coins are dropping on the ground On his back he carries a wallet, crammed with old law-papers and straw He kneels on one knee, and his whole body is bent doard With his left hand he grasps the handle of a rake which has three long prongs He is using the rake to draards him a lot of varied stuff that is littered about in front of him--more straw and papers, a broken necklace of beads, and a heart-shaped brooch, besides coins and feathers, and other such things A large black beetle creeps near his feet A little further in front of him more rubbish lies in a heap--a book of fashi+ons, a fan, still more straw, some artificial roses and withered leaves, an old la's crown, all battered and bent and blood-stained There is a toad crouching under the fan A out of its mouth beautifully coloured bubbles, airy and unsubstantial

You can see one of the as it touches a stone It is on these bubbles that the eager, delighted gaze of the oldout his thin and tre fetter of gold When you have looked at the picture for a little while, you see that he is in a prison cell

A faint light gliratedat the back, where steps come down into the cell by the side of a pillar Beside the old lass sides are shaped like church s, but the fla out

The straw on the floor is bursting into red flames and wreaths of s burned up

Behind the ht, yet bending down in pity It is the Figure of Christ He stands motionless, with a look of sorrowful patience on His face One of His hands is laid on the old ht crown It is a crown of thorns, the saht stars They turn it into a crown of glory, and shed a radiance over all the picture You can see that the Saviour's hands have been pierced, and that the thorns have left bleeding round, hovering on many-tinted pinions, and with hands clasped in prayer, is an angel--the guardian angel of the old el has a face of unspeakable sadness, and eyes in which you can al tears, ready to fall

These are soenius and the exquisite skill of the painter have put into the picture for our eyes to see What did he mean our in to answer that question by re you of what John Banyan meant by the man in his story

_Then said Christiana_ (to the Interpreter), _I persuadeof this; for this is a figure of a ood Sir?_

_Thou hast said the right, said he; and his muck-rake doth show his carnal ive heed to rake up straws and sticks, and the dust of the floor, than to do what he says that calls to him from above, with the celestial crown in his hand, it is to show that Heaven is but as a fable to sos substantial Nohereas it was also shewed thee that the man could look no way but doards, it is to let thee know, that earthly things, when they are with power upon men's minds, quite carry their hearts away from God_

_Then said Christiana, O deliverin saying that the story and the picture set before us two kinds of life--a poor and worthless one which lorious one from which many people turn away

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The man with the muck-rake represents _The worldly life_--the life of selfishness, of grasping and striving after the good things of this earth alone