Still down we go, down afar--the further we go the worse the plight; at
the first view I saw a horrid prison wherein a great many men were
uttering blasphemous groans beneath the scourges of the devils: "Who are
all these?" asked I; "This," answered the Angel, "this is the abode of
Woe-that-I-had-not." "Woe that I had not been cleansed of all manner of
sin in good time," quoth one. "Woe is me that I had not believed and
repented before my coming here," quoth another. Next to the cell of Too-
late-a-repentance, and of Pleading-after-judgment, was the prison of the
Procrastinators, who were always promising to mend their ways, but who
never fulfilled the promise. "When this trouble is past," saith one, "I
will turn over a new leaf." "When this hinderance goes by, I'll be
another man yet," said another. But when that comes about, they are no
nearer; some other obstacle ever and anon occurs to preventing their
starting towards the gate of holiness; and if sometimes a start is made,
it takes but little to turn them back again. Next to these was the
prison of Presumption, full of those who, whenever they were urged of old
to be rid of their Wantonness, or drunkenness, or avarice, would say:
"God is merciful, and better than His word; He will never damn his own
creature upon a cause so trivial.
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