So he took him by the hand once more, and led him to a room dark as pitch, where there sat a man in a steel cage. Now the man to look on was most sad; and he gave sighs as if he would break his heart.
The man said, "I once did seem to be what I was not fair in mine own eyes, and in the eyes of those that knew me. I was once, as I thought, fair for the Celestial City, and went so far as to have joy at the thoughts that I should get there."
Chr.—"Well, but what art thou now?"
Man.—"I am now a man lost to hope."
Chr.—"But how didst thou get in this state?"
Man.—"I did sin in face of the light of the World, and the grace of God. I made the Spirit grieve, and he is gone."
Then said Christian, "Is there no hope, but you must be kept in the steel cage of gloom?"
Man.—"None at all."
Chr.—"But canst thou not now grieve and turn?"
Man.—"God hath not let me; his Word gives me no aid to faith; yea, he hath shut me up in this steel cage; nor can all the men in the world let me out."