The pilgrims had now left the House of the Interpreter. Christiana walked with her four sons, and Mercy kept close beside them. They had learned much within those walls, but the King's Highway still stretched before them, and none of them knew what the next day's journey would bring.

Having departed from the Delectable Mountains, Christian and Hopeful continue onward with renewed encouragement from the Shepherds — but the closer they draw to the Celestial City, the more subtle the dangers become. The enemies ahead are no longer roaring lions or violent persecutors. Now the danger comes through deception, weariness, spiritual sleep, and gradual drifting. Bunyan reminds us that some of the greatest dangers in the Christian life appear pleasant rather tha