This morning we come to our second reading in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Those of you who are reading along with me should now have read “The Second Stage” of the journey. If you haven’t been reading along but would like to, it’s easy to do; just find a copy of the book and get reading!
Discussion
Every week I like to just say something about what we’ve read. This week I’ll cheat a little bit and rely on Charles Spurgeon to say it for me. It comes from his sermon “Christ Crucified” and it talks about one weakness in this book (that Spurgeon read over and over again).
…let me tell you a little story about Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. I am a great lover of John Bunyan, but I do not believe him infallible; and the other day I met with a story about him which I think a very good one.
There was a young, man, in Edinburgh, who wished to be a missionary. He was a wise young man; so he thought, “If I am to be a missionary, there is no need for me to transport myself far away from home; I may as well be a missionary in Edinburgh.”
Well, this young man started, and determined to speak to the first person he met. He met one of those old fishwives; those of us who have seen them can never forget them, they are extraordinary women indeed. So, stepping up to her, he said, “Here you are, coming along with your burden on your back; let me ask you if you have got another burden, a spiritual burden.”
“What!” she asked; “do you mean that burden in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress? Because, if you do, young man, I got rid of that many years ago, probably before you were born. But I went a better way to work than the pilgrim did. The evangelist that John Bunyan talks about was one of your parsons that do not preach the gospel; for he said, ‘Keep that light in thine eye, and run to the wicket-gate.’ Why—man alive!—that was not the place for him to run to. He should have said, ‘Do you see that cross? Run there at once!’ But, instead of that, he sent the poor pilgrim to the wicket-gate first; and much good he got by going there! He got tumbling into the slough, and was like to have been killed by it.”
“But did not you,” the young man asked, “go through any Slough of Despond?”
“Yes, I did; but I found it a great deal easier going through with my burden off than with it on my back.”
The old woman was quite right. John Bunyan put the getting rid of the burden too far off from the commencement of the pilgrimage. If he meant to show what usually happens, he was right; but if he meant to show what ought to have happened, he was wrong.
We must not say to the sinner, “Now, sinner, if thou wilt be saved, go to the baptismal pool; go to the wicket-gate; go to the church; do this or that.”
No, the cross should be right in front of the wicket-gate; and we should say to the sinner, “Throw thyself down there, and thou art safe; but thou are not safe till thou canst cast off thy burden, and lie at the foot of the cross, and find peace in Jesus.”
Spurgeon addresses the confusion I was feeling. If a man comes to me with a great burden I point him to the cross, not to a wicket gate!
Next Week
For next Thursday please read (or listen to) stage three. You may want to consult the CCEL version if the version you are reading has a different chapter breakdown. What Bunyan teaches through Interpreter and the other characters is sound; it just comes too early.
Your Turn
The purpose of this program is to read these books together. If you have something to say, whether a comment or criticism or question, feel free to use the comment section for that purpose.
