John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. He gives an account of the man with the muckrake who had spent his lifetime raking unto himself the chaff and muck of the earth. However, there was an angel standing over his head with a celestial crown in his hand, offering to exchange the crown for the muckrake. But because this man had trained himself to look in no direction but down, he disregarded the offer of the angel as he continued to rake unto himself the chaff and dust of the earth.

 

There is also an angel standing over our head with a celestial crown in his hand offering to exchange it for our muckrakes if we will just look up to God and faith and righteousness and understanding. The beast was put down on all fours and thus his vision is cast upon the ground, but man was created upright in the image of his maker hat he might look up to God.

 

We have a song in which we sing,

 

Look up, my soul, be not cast down;

Keep not thine eyes upon the ground

Break off the shackles of the earth,

Receive, my soul the spirit birth.

 

"Before Thee, Lord, I Bow My Head" Hymns, no. 231.

 

And one who did this recall the

experience by saying:

 

I raised my eye's to yonder heights

And Ionged for lifting wings

To bear me to their sunlit crests,

As on my spirit sings.

And though my feet must keep the paths

That wind along the valley's floor

Yet after every upward glance

I'm stronger than before.