天路历程 The Pilgrim's Progress | 八、美丽宫殿（2）

八、美丽宫殿(2)

Then Prudence thought good to ask him a few questions, and desired his answer to them.

于是贤慧认为应该问他几句话，要他作答。

PRUD. Do you not think sometimes of the country from whence you came?

贤慧说：你有时候会不会想起你的家乡？

CHR. Yes, but with much shame and detestation: "Truly, if I had been mindful of that country from whence I came out, I might have had opportunity to have returned; but now I desire a better country, that is, an heavenly."

基督徒说：我会想起的；不过是带着惭愧和憎厌的心情——“我若想念我所离开的家乡，我并非没有再转回去的机会。但是我所羡慕的乃是一个更美的家乡，那就是在天上的（3）。”

PRUD. Do you not yet bear away with you some of the things that then you were conversant withal?

贤慧说：你有没有带走一些你那时候爱好的东西？

CHR. Yes, but greatly against my will; especially my inward and carnal cogitations, with which all my countrymen, as well as myself, were delighted; but now all those things are my grief; and might I but choose mine own things, I would choose never to think of those things more; but when I would be doing of that which is best, that which is worst is with me.

基督徒说：有，不过，并不是我愿意那样做；尤其是我内心那些肉欲方面的意念，所有我的乡亲，连我自己，都欢喜这种思想；可是现在这些念头却成了我的痛苦；我宁可再也不想起这些事；可是我愿意为善的时候，便有恶与我同在（4）。

PRUD. Do you not find sometimes, as if those things were vanquished, which at other times are your perplexity?

贤慧说：有时侯你有没有觉得好像你已经克服了那些念头，可是有的时候它们又把你迷惑住了？

CHR. Yes, but that is seldom; but they are to me golden hours in which such things happen to me.

基督徒说：确有这种情况，不过也不常有；那种时候对我是太宝贝了。

PRUD. Can you remember by what means you find your annoyances, at times, as if they were vanquished?

贤慧说：你记不记得你有时候怎样才会觉得好像那些烦恼都克服了？

CHR. Yes, when I think what I saw at the cross, that will do it; and when I look upon my broidered coat, that will do it; also when I look into the roll that I carry in my bosom, that will do it; and when my thoughts wax warm about whither I am going, that will do it.

基督徒说：记得的，当我想到在十字架上看见了什么，就会使我有那样的感觉；望着我绣花的外衣的时候，我就有那样的感觉；看到怀里带着的那本小册子的时候，也会使我有那样的感觉；当我想到我要去的地方想得很兴奋的时候，那种感觉也会涌上我的心头。

PRUD. And what is it that makes you so desirous to go to Mount Zion?

贤慧问：什么使你这么热切地要到锡安山去呢？

CHR. Why, there I hope to see him alive that did hang dead on the cross; and there I hope to be rid of all those things that to this day are in me an annoyance to me; there, they say, there is no death; and there I shall dwell with such company as I like best. For, to tell you truth, I love him, because I was by him eased of my burden; and I am weary of my inward sickness. I would fain be where I shall die no more, and with the company that shall continually cry, "Holy, Holy, Holy!"

基督徒说：唔，我希望看到那个挂在十字架上已经死了的人在那儿活着；我希望在那儿可以摆脱所有那些到今天还纠缠着我的东西；他们说那个地方没有死亡（5）；在那儿我可以跟我最喜欢的人住在一起。因为，说真的，我爱他，因为他卸去我的负担；我灵魂的疾病使我厌烦极了。我很高兴到那个不再受到死亡的威胁的地方去，跟那帮不断地喊着“圣哉，圣哉，圣哉！”的人生活在一起。

Then said Charityto Christian, Have you a family? Are you a married man?

于是仁爱对基督徒说，你有没有家眷？你结了婚没有？

CHR.I have a wife and four small children.

基督徒说：我有一个妻子和四个小孩。

CHAR. And why did you not bring them along with you?

仁爱说：那么你为什么没有把他们带来？

CHR. Then Christian wept, and said, Oh, how willingly would I have done it! but they were all of them utterly averse to my going on pilgrimage.

这时候基督徒哭了起来，说，哦，我多么想把他们带来呀！可是他们都竭力反对我走这条路。

CHAR. But you should have talked to them, and have endeavoured to have shown them the danger of being behind.

仁爱说：不过你应当说服他们，设法向他们指出如果他们不跟你走，要遭到怎样的危险。

CHR. So I did; and told them also of what God had shown to me of the destruction of our city; "but I seemed to them as one that mocked", and they believed me not.

基督徒说：我是这样做了；并且也告诉了他们上帝已经把我们这个城市要遭到毁灭的事启示我；可是他们当我开玩笑（6），不信我的话。

CHAR. And did you pray to God that he would bless your counsel to them?

仁爱说：你有没有向上帝祈祷，请求他祝福你向他们所作的忠告？

CHR. Yes, and that with much affection: for you must think that my wife and poor children were very dear unto me.

基督徒说：有，而且非常热情地祷告；因为你一定想象得到我是多么爱我的妻子和我那几个可怜的孩子。

CHAR. But did you tell them of your own sorrow, and fear of destruction? for I suppose that destruction was visible enough to you.

仁爱说：你有没有把你内心的痛苦和对毁灭的恐惧告诉他们？因为我想，在你看来，那场毁灭是够实在的事。

CHR. Yes, over, and over, and over. They might also see my fears in my countenance, in my tears, and also in my trembling under the apprehension of the judgement that did hang over our heads; but all was not sufficient to prevail with them to come with me.

基督徒说：有，我对他们讲了又讲，不知讲了多少遍了。他们也可以从我的脸色、我流的眼泪以及由于害怕那即将临到我们头上的审判而引起的战栗，看出我的恐惧；可是这一切都不足以打动他们的心，使他们跟我一道走。

CHAR. But what could they say for themselves, why they came not?

仁爱说：但是他们有什么理由不肯来呢？

CHR. Why, my wife was afraid of losing this world, and my children were given to the foolish delights of youth: so what by one thing, and what by another, they left me to wander in this manner alone.

基督徒说：唔，我的妻子怕失去这个世界，我的孩子们都耽迷在年轻人那种无聊的欢乐中；所以，又是这个原因，又是那个原因，结果他们就让我独个儿这样流浪着。

CHAR. But did you not, with your vain life, damp all that you by words used by way of persuasion to bring them away with you?

仁爱说：你有没有，由于你空虚的生活，削弱了你用话语劝他们跟你同走的力量？

CHR. Indeed, I cannot commend my life; for I am conscious to myself of many failings therein; I know also that a man by his conversation may soon overthrow what by argument or persuasion he doth labour to fasten upon others for their good. Yet this I can say, I was very wary of giving them occasion, by any unseemly action, to make them averse to going on pilgrimage. Yea, for this very thing they would tell me I was too precise, and that I denied myself of things, for their sakes, in which they saw no evil. Nay, I think I may say, that if what they saw in me did hinder them, it was my great tenderness in sinning against God, or of doing any wrong to my neighbour.

基督徒说：的确我的生活没有什么值得嘉许的地方，因为我自己也知道有许多缺点。我也晓得，一个人一心为了人家的好处，竭力用辩论或劝告要使他们相信的话，很容易受到他自己行为的摧毁。不过我可以说，我非常小心，不让自己作出任何不适当的举动，使他们有理由反对走天路。而且也就因为这样，他们说我太认真了，说我为他们牺牲了许多东西，在他们看来，那些东西并没有什么害处。不仅这样，我想我还可以说，要是有什么事情叫他们看见了会不愿意走天路，那就是我在得罪了上帝或对不住邻居时所感到的极大痛苦。

CHAR. Indeed Cain hated his brother, "because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous" ; and if thy wife and children have been offended with thee for this, they thereby show themselves to be implacable to good, and "thou hast delivered thy soul from their blood".

仁爱说：不错，该隐恨他的兄弟，就因为他自己的行为是恶的，他兄弟的行为是善的（7）；要是你的妻子和儿女因此跟你生气，那就表示他们不肯为善；你却救自己脱离了罪恶（8）。

Now I saw in my dream, that thus they sat talking together until supper was ready. So when they had made ready, they sat down to meat. Now the table was furnished "with fat things, and with wine that was well refined": and all their talk at the table was about the Lord of the hill; as, namely, about what he had done, and wherefore he did what he did, and why he had builded that house. And by what they said, I perceived that he had been a great warrior, and had fought with and slain "him that had the Power of death", but not without great danger to himself, which made me love him the more.

我在梦里看见他们这样坐在一起直谈到吃晚饭的时候。他们准备好以后，就坐下来吃饭。桌子上尽是些佳肴美味，还有上好的酒。他们的话题始终离不了关于这座山的主人的事；谈到他做过的事情，他为什么那样做，他为什么造了这所房子。从他们的谈话里，我知道他过去是个伟大的战士，冒着很大的危险，跟那个掌握死亡的权柄的（9）有过搏斗，并且杀了他，这使我更爱他了。

For, as they said, and as I believe (said Christian), he did it with the loss of much blood; but that which put glory of grace into all he did, was, that he did it out of pure love to his country. And besides, there were some of them of the household that said they had been and spoke with him since he did die on the cross; and they have attested that they had it from his own lips, that he is such a lover of poor pilgrims, that the like is not to be found from the east to the west.

基督徒说，因为正像他们所说的，并且我也相信，他为了那场搏斗流出许多血；但是，正是因为他的动机是纯粹出自对祖国的热爱，他的所作所为才有那么崇高的荣耀。而且，这一家人当中有的在他死在十字架上以后还跟他耽在一起过，并且还谈过话；他们证实他亲口说过，从天涯到海角都找不到一个像他这样热爱可怜的天路旅客的人。

They, moreover, gave an instance of what they affirmed, and that was, he had stripped himself of his glory, that he might do this for the poor; and that they heard him say and affirm, "that he would not dwell in the mountain of Zion alone." They said, moreover, that he had made many pilgrims princes, though by nature they were beggars born, and their original had been the dunghill.

他们还为他们所讲的话举了个例子，那就是，为了拯救可怜的人类，他撇下他的荣耀（10）；他们还听他确实说过，“他不要单独住在锡安山。”他们还说，他曾经使许多天路旅客成为王子，虽然他们本来生成是叫花子，粪堆是他们出身的地方（11）。

Thus they discoursed together till late at night; and after they had committed themselves to their Lord for protection, they betook themselves to rest: the Pilgrim they laid in a large upper chamber, whose window opened towards the sun-rising: the name of the chamber was Peace; where he slept till break of day, and then he awoke and sang--

他们这样一直谈到深夜；他们把自己委托给上帝保护之后，就各自歇息去了。她们把天路旅客安置在楼上一间大房间里，那儿的窗户朝向东方，那房间叫做安乐；他在那儿睡到天亮，一觉醒来，唱道，——

"Where am I now? Is this the love and care

Of Jesus for the men that pilgrims are?

Thus to provide! that I should be forgiven!

And dwell already the next door to heaven!"

我现在在什么地方？这是否基督

对天路旅客所表现的爱心和眷顾？

这样准备好一切，使我得到赦免，

我住的地方已经和天堂毗连！

3《新约全书·希伯来书》第11章第15、16节：他们若想念所离开的家乡，还有可以回去的机会。他们却羡慕一个更美的家乡，就是在天上的。所以神被称为他们的神，并不以为耻；因为他已经给他们预备了一座城。

4《新约全书·罗马书》第7章第21节：我觉得有个律，就是我愿意为善的时候，便有恶与我同在。

5《旧约全书·以赛亚书》第25章第8节：他已经吞灭死亡直到永远。主耶和华必擦去各人脸上的眼泪，又除掉普天下他百姓的羞辱，因为这是耶和华说的。

《新约全书·启示录》第21章第4节：神要擦去他们一切的眼泪；不再有死亡，也不再有悲哀、哭号、疼痛，因为以前的事都过去了。

6《旧约全书·创世记》第19章第14节：罗得就出去，告诉娶了他女儿的女婿们，说：“你们起来离开这地方，因为耶和华要毁灭这城。”他女婿们却以为他说的是戏言。

7《新约全书·约翰一书》第3章第12节：不可像该隐；他是属那恶者，杀了他的兄弟。为什么杀了他呢？因自己的行为是恶的，兄弟的行为是善的。

8《旧约全书·以西结书》第3章第19节：倘若你警戒恶人，他仍不转离罪恶，也不离开恶行，他必死在罪孽之中，你却救自己脱离了罪。

9《新约全书·希伯来书》第2章第14、15节：儿女既同有血肉之体，他也照样亲自成了血肉之体，特要借着死败坏那掌死权的，就是魔鬼，并要释放那些一生因怕死而为奴仆的人。

10《新约全书·哥林多后书》第8章第9节：你们知道我们主耶稣基督的恩典：他本来富足，却为你们成了贫穷，叫你们因他的贫穷，可以成为富足。

11《旧约全书·撒母耳记上》第2章第8节：他从灰尘里抬举贫寒人，从粪堆中提拔穷乏人，使他们与王子同坐，得着荣耀的座位。地的柱子属于耶和华，他将世界立在其上。

《旧约全书·诗篇》第113篇第7节：他从灰尘里抬举贫寒人，从粪堆中提拔穷乏人。