Derek Thomas

And they are allowed finally to get some sleep.

And when they awake, they go straight away to the city, and on their way they meet these two shining ones who accompany them.

Christian and Hopeful ask these men to travel with them, and they're willing to go, and they state that their goal must be obtained by their own faith.

They escort them, but it's their own faith that will get them to the celestial city.

Bunyan is again emphasizing justification by faith alone, in Christ alone, and not through the help of any other intermediary.

And they go on until they're within sight of the gate, and before them is a river.

And there's no bridge over it, and the river appears to be deep, and the pilgrims are astounded.

And they're told, you must go through or you can't arrive at the gate.

Pilgrims ask if there's another way, but they're told that only two men have entered the city without going through the river, nor shall there be until the last trumpet shall sound.

Those two men, of course, are Enoch and Elijah.

who didn't experience death.

The river, of course, is an allegory here, is allegorically a representation of death.

And then these pilgrims, especially Christian, begin to despair, and they ask if the river is always the same depth, and they're told, no, it isn't.

But they're denied any further help in the matter.

Christian begins to enter into the water, and he begins to sink, and he cries out to Hopeful.

"'I'm sinking,' he says, "'in deep waters.

The breakers go over my head.

All the waves go over me.'"

Quoting from a psalm.

And Hopeful responds, "'Be of good cheer, my brother.