Mercy

Some encouragement from my old blog that I ran across this morning.

"...then Interpreter asked Mercy what it was that at first did move her thus to betake herself to a pilgrim’s life. 

Mercy blushed and trembled, and for a while continued silent.

 Then said he, "Be not afraid; only believe, and speak thy mind.'

 So she began, and said, "Truly, sir, my want of experience is that which makes me covet to be in silence, and that also that fills me with fears of coming short at last. I cannot tell of visions and dreams, as my friend Christiana can; nor know I what it is to mourn for my refusing the counsel of those that were good relations."

Interpreter: "What was it, then, dear heart, that hath prevailed with thee to do as thou hast done?"

Mercy: "Why, when our friend here [Christiana] was packing up to be gone from our town, I and another went accidentally to see her. So we knocked at the door and went in. When we were within, and seeing what she was doing, we asked her what was her meaning. She said she was sent for to go to her husband; and then she up and told us how she had seen him in a dream, dwelling in a curious place, among immortals, wearing a crown, playing upon a harp, eating and drinking at his Prince’s table, and singing praises to him for bringing him thither. Now, while she was telling these things unto us....

my heart burned within me. And I said in my heart, If this be true, I will leave my father and my mother, and the land of my nativity....

and will, if I may, go along with Christiana. So I asked her further of the truth of these things, and if she would let me go with her; But yet I came away with a heavy heart; not for that I was unwilling to come away, but for that so many of my relations were left behind. And I am come with all the desire of my heart, and will go, if I may, with Christiana unto her husband and his King.

Interpreter: "Thy setting out is good, for thou hast given credit to the truth; thou art a Ruth, who did, for the love she bare to Naomi and to the Lord her God, leave father and mother, and the land of her nativity, to come out and go with a people she knew not heretofore.“The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.” Ruth 2:11,12."

Now supper was ended, and preparation was made for bed; the women were laid singly alone, and the boys by themselves. Now when Mercy was in bed, she could not sleep for joy, for that now her doubts of missing at last were removed further from her than ever they were before. So she lay blessing and praising God, who had such favor for her."

From Pilgrim's Progress (Part 2 Christina's Journey)

----------------------------------

"And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;  And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how."

  Mark 4:26-27 

"The good seed of the gospel sown in the world, and sown in the heart, doth by degrees produce wonderful effects, but without noise It willcome up; though it seem lost and buried under the clods, it will find or make its way through them. The seed cast into the ground will spring.Let but the word of Christ have the place it ought to have in a soul, and it will show itself, as the wisdom from above doth in a good conversation.The husbandman cannot describe how it comes up; it is one of the mysteries of nature; It springs and grows up, he knows not how, . He sees it has grown, but he cannot tell in what manner it grew, or what was the cause and method of its growth. Thus we know not how the Spirit by the word makes a change in the heart, any more than we can account for the blowing of the wind, which we hear the sound of, but cannot tell whence it comes, or whither it goes."

Matthew Henry