John Bunyan and the Wayfaring Life

. John Bunyan and the Wayfaring Life - Part 2

'Do you see yonder wicket Gate?' Evangelist pointing Christian in Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress to the way of salvation

John Bunyan and the Wayfaring Life
Part 2

Immediately after the Cross, Bunyan has the Pilgrim meeting up with three men, whom he calls - Simple, Sloth, and Presumption. What is set before us on the pages of the Pilgrim's Progress in relation to the three men speaks volumes with regards to Bunyan's own heart and mind in the issues of the Gospel. The three men are described as lying at the bottom of the hill - "a little out of the way...fast asleep, with fetters (chains) upon their heels." "Christian, then, seeing them lie in this case," we're told, "went to them, if per adventure he might awake them, and cried - 'You are like men that sleep on the top of a mast....Awake, therefore, and come away; Be willing also, and I will help you off with your irons." You see, very simply, that having been evangelised, Christian has now become and evangelist ! And that was Bunyan, through and through, all the days of his life.

In one of his "smaller" works called "The Jerusalem Sinner Saved" - you get something of his heart and mind, in the title, and in the first few opening words that he writes. The book is based on our Lord's Commission to the disciples in Luke's gospel, where He tells them that "repentance and remission of sins" is to be preached among all nations - "beginning at Jerusalem." Beginning at the very spot, and with the very people who put Him to death. And it's that, that Bunyan is referring to in his title: - "The Jerusalem Sinner Saved", or, as he puts it in a sub-title - "Good news for the vilest of men". And then, his opening few words, in the preface - "I have been vile myself," he says, "but have obtained mercy; and I would have my companions in sin partake of mercy too: and, therefore, I have writ this little book."

Let me just say, that the Pilgrim's efforts to evangelise those three men wasn't very "successful", as we would say today, and Christian had to leave them there: "Yet," we're told, "was he troubled to think that men in that danger should so little esteem the kindness of him that so freely offered to help them..." He had come into the stern realities of the Christian life, and there were many more of these to follow as he made his way along the Pilgrim Path.

Just after he left the three men - Simple, Sloth, and Presumption - He met up with two other travellers of dubious pedigree; one was called "Formalist", and the other was called "Hypocrisy". They were two men who had decided to make their way to the Celestial City without going through the Wicket Gate, or coming by the Way of the Cross; but they were soon to be shown up in their true colours. The Formalist is the man who loves religious things, and the performing of religious things for their own sake. The Hypocrite, of course, is the "play-actor", and even though he is a spiritual pauper, he can play the part of a spiritual king, and deceive many in the process. Eventually, the three of them came to the foot of the hill called "Difficulty", and that was to prove the parting of the ways. There were two paths which led "round" the hill; one was called "Danger", and the other was called "Destruction". Formalist took the one, and Hypocrisy took the other; only the Christian was prepared to climb the hill, and press-on on his way to the Celestial City.

"The Hill, though high, I covet to ascend,The difficulty, will not me offend."

There was a "spring of water" at the bottom of the Hill, we're told; and there Pilgrim was able to refresh himself before he began the ascent. There was also a "pleasant arbour" - a resting place - about halfway from the top of the hill, where the Pilgrim could stop and take his rest before continuing up and over the Hill. And, says Bunyan, these two things had been placed there by "The Lord of the Hill". There are no difficulties that we have to face and overcome in the Christian life, that the "Lord of the Hill" hasn't made provision for. He is the Lord of the "Hill" as well as the Lord of the "Plain". Unfortunately, the poor old Pilgrim spent too much time in the arbour of east, and came to know the consequences of that ; but be that as it may, he had faced the Hill, and had overcome the Hill - for the "Lord of the Hill" was with him.

The next major stopping place that Christian comes to is the House Beautiful. It had been built by the "Lord of the Hill", and was occupied by three godly women - Prudence, Piety and Charity. Each of them talk with Pilgrim in turn, and in the conversation between him and Charity, you have some tremendous words concerning that area of our life that has to do with our loved-ones - especially those who are still outside of Christ; who have never yet professed Christ, as the Lord and Saviour of their soul.

"Then said Charity to Christian, 'Have you a family? Are you a married man?" CHRISTIAN: "I have a wife and four small children." CHARITY: "And why did you not bring them along with you?" "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.'" CHARITY: "But you should have talked to them, and endeavoured to have shown them the danger of staying behind." CHRISTIAN: "So I did; and told them also of what God had shown me about the destruction of our city; but I seemed to them as one that mocked, and they believed me not." CHARITY: "And did you pray to God that he would bless your counsel the them?" CHRISTIAN: "Yes, and with much affection; for you must know that my wife and poor children were very dear to me...." etc. What an outstanding conversation that is between the Pilgrim and that godly woman in that house; and especially at that point, perhaps, where she asks him if he had prayed for his unbelieving wife and children. He had talked to them, and warned them; now, says Charity; did you pray for them? "Did you pray to God that he would bless your counsel to them?" One of the places where our trust in the Lord, and our belief in the out- workings of the providence of our Lord, is most put to the test, is when we pray for our loved-ones and the Lord doesn't seem to be answering our prayers. The Lord does eventually answer Christian's prayers, of course; and that's what the Second part of the Pilgrim's Progress is all about - as his wife and children set off on pilgrimages, as well. But, that was not until he himself had been "taken over the river", as Bunyan puts it, and had taken up his abode in the Celestial City for evermore.

Also in the House Beautiful, there is another priceless piece of questioning and answering between the Christian and one of the other sisters - Prudence. "Can you remember," she asks, "by what means you find your annoyances, at times, as it were vanquished?" And what she is asking Pilgrim is this: she is asking him how he deals with those things that would press in upon him from day to day and would cast him down, or put him off from this pathway that he had chosen to travel. That's what she's asking him. "Can you remember by what means you find your annoyances, at times, as it were vanquished?" And listen to the Pilgrim's reply: - "Yes," he says, "when I think of what I saw at the cross, that will do it; and when I look upon my broidered coat, that will do it; and when my thoughts wax warm about where I am going, that will do it." His "broidered coat", was the righteousness of Christ that had been draped around his shoulders at the cross and the "roll that was in his bosom", was the assurance of this soul's salvation, which was given to him at the cross, as well. And so, he is saying to Prudence - "Here is how I vanquish my annoyances: "When I think of what I saw at the cross, that will do it.."(etc) When we think of what we have, and how we have it, that will greatly assist us in our carrying-on from day to day.

One of the great characters of the Pilgrim's Progress, is a man whom Bunyan calls "Faithful". He is set over against Pliable - one of the ones, who turned back at the Slough of Despond; - and when Christian first comes across him, he is hurrying on to the Celestial city, and won't even stop to let Christian catch up with him. Eventually he does, of course, and Faithful begins to tell him about some of the people who had confronted him, and had endeavoured to put him off the Pilgrim Pathway. He tells him about "Adam the first": - the old Adam; "a very aged man", he calls him. He had "three daughter", he tells Christian, - "The Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eyes, and the Pride of Life; and he said that I should marry them if I would. Then I asked him how long he would have me live with him, and he told me, As long as he lived himself!" And how did it all turn out? Christian asks him. "Why, at first," he says, "I was almost inclined to go with the man, for I thought he spoke very fair; but looking on his forehead, as I talked with him, I saw there written - "Put off the old man with his deeds.'" (Faithful's behaviour, you see, was finally determined by what the Word of God said; for that's what Faith is all about.)

Somebody else who tried to put him off the Pilgrim Path was Discontent; but the one that he had the most difficulty with, was a character called Shame. Both of them came out against him when he was having to travel through the "Valley of Humility" - when he needed every ounce of the faithfulness to take him on in the journey. "Discontent" he was able to put-off, he tells Christian, "after a little argumentation...but, this bold-faced Shame would never be done."

CHRISTIAN: - "What did he say to you?" FAITHFUL: - "What? Why he objected against religion itself. He said it was a pitiful, low, sneaking business for a man to mind religion. He said that a tender conscience was an unmanly thing...He objected also, that but a few of the mighty, rich, or wise were ever of my opinion...He, moreover, (spoke about) the base and low estate and condition of those who were chiefly the pilgrims of the times in which they lived," And so on. CHRISTIAN: - "And what did you say to him?" FAITHFUL: - "I could not tell what to say at first; Yes, he put me so to it, that my blood came up in my face; even this Shame fetched it up, and had almost beat me quite off." (You remember how Paul wrote to Timothy during those hard days that had come upon the churches, when he was imprisoned in Rome for the last time? "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner," and so on.) "My blood came up in my face." Shame had the ability to make Faithful blush as he derided the things of the Lord before him; and again, it is only as Faithful turns to the Word, that he is able to deal with Shame in the way that he does: "Shame, depart!" he says, "thou art an enemy to my salvation. Shall I entertain thee against my Sovereign Lord? how then shall I look Him in the face at His coming?" You remember the words of the Saviour? "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the Holy Angels." (Mk 8:38) It was that fact that had burned itself into Faithful's heart and mind, and had enabled him to tell Shame to depart from him.