[00:09.20]Reading
[00:10.84]ESCAPE FROM DOUBTING CASTLE
[00:14.21]Once, in a dream, a boy called Chris Ever Everyman took the advice of a wise man to go on a journey.
[00:23.46]The wise man pointed his finger across the land and told him to go through the gate at the end of the fields to enter the City of Happiness.
[00:35.00]Chris said he could not see the gate,
[00:38.48]to which the other replied that the gate was where the bright sunshine shone in a golden mist.
[00:45.14]So Chris set out on this journey.
[00:48.48]He had not traveled far from home when he came to a pond filled with mud and dirt,
[00:55.30]and as he was not careful, he fell in.
[00:58.64]The name of this pond was Depression.
[01:02.30]He moved around in it for a time,
[01:04.73]and became covered with dirt.
[01:07.00]Though he was able to move towards the bank,
[01:10.66]he was unable to climb out.
[01:12.88]Luckily a man came by whose name was Help.
[01:17.04]He gave him his hand and pulled him out.
[01:20.56]Chris thanked him and went to on his way.
[01:23.30]He had not gone far when he entered a very narrow passage between two mountains.
[01:29.97]He stopped and was afraid to go on, as on each side,
[01:34.72]he saw two lions.
[01:36.81]A shepherd told Chris not to fear the lions and to keep to the middle of the path.
[01:43.08]When Chris saw that the lions were tied to the rocks with chains,
[01:48.04]he realized that this was to test his courage.
[01:51.49]Though trembling with fear, he walked on.
[01:55.41]The lions roared and pulled on their chains,
[01:59.48]but they were so short that the lions could not attack and harm Chris.
[02:04.34]In the evening, Chris made himself a small shelter and fell asleep.
[02:10.27]Now, not far from the place where he lay there was a castle,
[02:14.97]called Doubting Castle.
[02:16.62]The King of the castle was Giant Despair.
[02:20.28]When he saw Chris,
[02:22.63]he shook him and asked what he was doing.
[02:25.55]Chris said that he had lost the way,
[02:28.09]Chris said that he had lost the way,
[02:29.16]but Giant despair did not listen.
[02:31.61]He drove Chris to the castle and put him in a very dark prison,
[02:37.68]together with a man called Hope.
[02:40.24]For four days they were kept in this prison, without ford or water.
[02:45.80]The next day Giant Despair beat them without mercy.
[02:50.84]He told them that the only end to their hardship would be to choose their own death.
[02:57.40]To this Hope answered that although their situation was terrible,
[03:02.86]no man should murder, nor take his own life.
[03:06.41]The whole night Chris and Hope talked of escape.
[03:11.06]Hope reminded Chris of the courage he had shown in the first part of his journey,
[03:16.62]and the hardship he had gone through.
[03:19.08]They sat together and prayed.
[03:21.72]A little before dawn Chris suddenly,
[03:21.83]as if talking to himself,
[03:23.76]said what a fool he was to lie in that smelly prison while holding the key to freedom in his heart.
[03:22.76]Hope asked him what he was talking about,
[03:26.00]to which Chris answered that the key in his heart,
[03:30.15]called Promise, could open any lock in Doubting Castle.
[03:34.67]Hope said that that was good news and told him to take it out and try.
[03:40.21]In less than tem minutes Chris opened the great prison door and the heavy iron gate,
[03:48.15]although that was not easy
[03:50.47]When they saw that Giant Despair was not following them, they were happy and snag this song:
[03:57.61]Out of the way we went and found
[04:01.08]What it was to walk on forbidden ground
[04:04.42]Let him who comes after us remember this thing:
[04:08.55]To stay away from that Giant King
[04:11.82]Whose name is Despair, and whose castle’s called Doubting |