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diff --git a/1885.txt b/1885.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..52410bc --- /dev/null +++ b/1885.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7003 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Bunyan Characters, by Alexander Whyte + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Bunyan Characters + First Series + + +Author: Alexander Whyte + +Release Date: April 13, 2005 [eBook #1885] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUNYAN CHARACTERS*** + + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1893 Oliphant Anderson and Ferrier edition by David +Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +BUNYAN CHARACTERS: FIRST SERIES +BEING LECTURES DELIVERED IN ST. GEORGE'S FREE CHURCH EDINBURGH +BY ALEXANDER WHYTE, D.D. + + +INTRODUCTORY + + + 'The express image' [Gr. 'the character'].--Heb. 1. 3. + +The word 'character' occurs only once in the New Testament, and that is +in the passage in the prologue of the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the +original word is translated 'express image' in our version. Our Lord is +the Express Image of the Invisible Father. No man hath seen God at any +time. The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath +declared Him. The Father hath sealed His divine image upon His Son, so +that he that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father. The Son is thus the +Father's character stamped upon and set forth in human nature. The Word +was made flesh. This is the highest and best use to which our so +expressive word 'character' has ever been put, and the use to which it is +put when we speak of Bunyan's Characters partakes of the same high sense +and usage. For it is of the outstanding good or evil in a man that we +think when we speak of his character. It is really either of his +likeness or unlikeness to Jesus Christ we speak, and then, through Him, +his likeness or unlikeness to God Himself. And thus it is that the +adjective 'moral' usually accompanies our word 'character'--moral or +immoral. A man's character does not have its seat or source in his body; +character is not a physical thing: not even in his mind; it is not an +intellectual thing. Character comes up out of the will and out of the +heart. There are more good minds, as we say, in the world than there are +good hearts. There are more clever people than good people; +character,--high, spotless, saintly character,--is a far rarer thing in +this world than talent or even genius. Character is an infinitely better +thing than either of these, and it is of corresponding rarity. And yet +so true is it that the world loves its own, that all men worship talent, +and even bodily strength and bodily beauty, while only one here and one +there either understands or values or pursues moral character, though it +is the strength and the beauty and the sweetness of the soul. + +We naturally turn to Bishop Butler when we think of moral character. +Butler is an author who has drawn no characters of his own. Butler's +genius was not creative like Shakespeare's or Bunyan's. Butler had not +that splendid imagination which those two masters in character-painting +possessed, but he had very great gifts of his own, and he has done us +very great service by means of his gifts. Bishop Butler has helped many +men in the intelligent formation of their character, and what higher +praise could be given to any author? Butler will lie on our table all +winter beside Bunyan; the bishop beside the tinker, the philosopher +beside the poet, the moralist beside the evangelical minister. + +In seeking a solid bottom for our subject, then, we naturally turn to +Butler. Bunyan will people the house for us once it is built, but Butler +lays bare for us the naked rock on which men like Bunyan build and +beautify and people the dwelling-place of God and man. What exactly is +this thing, character, we hear so much about? we ask the sagacious +bishop. And how shall we understand our own character so as to form it +well till it stands firm and endures? 'Character,' answers Butler, in +his bald, dry, deep way, 'by character is meant that temper, taste, +disposition, whole frame of mind from whence we act in one way rather +than another . . . those principles from which a man acts, when they +become fixed and habitual in him we call his character . . . And +consequently there is a far greater variety in men's characters than +there is in the features of their faces.' Open Bunyan now, with Butler's +keywords in your mind, and see the various tempers, tastes, dispositions, +frames of mind from which his various characters act, and which, at +bottom, really make them the characters, good or bad, which they are. See +the principles which Bunyan has with such inimitable felicity embodied +and exhibited in their names, the principles within them from which they +have acted till they have become a habit and then a character, that +character which they themselves are and will remain. See the variety of +John Bunyan's characters, a richer and a more endless variety than are +the features of their faces. Christian and Christiana, Obstinate and +Pliable, Mr. Fearing and Mr. Feeblemind, Temporary and Talkative, Mr. By- +ends and Mr. Facing-both-ways, Simple, Sloth, Presumption, that brisk lad +Ignorance, and the genuine Mr. Brisk himself. And then Captain Boasting, +Mr. High-mind, Mr. Wet-Eyes, and so on, through a less known (but equally +well worth knowing) company of municipal and military characters in the +_Holy War_. + +We shall see, as we proceed, how this and that character in Bunyan was +formed and deformed. But let us ask in this introductory lecture if we +can find out any law or principle upon which all our own characters, good +or bad, are formed. Do our characters come to be what they are by +chance, or have we anything to do in the formation of our own characters, +and if so, in what way? And here, again, Butler steps forward at our +call with his key to our own and to all Bunyan's characters in his hand, +and in three familiar and fruitful words he answers our question and +gives us food for thought and solemn reflection for a lifetime. There +are but three steps, says Butler, from earth to heaven, or, if you will, +from earth to hell--acts, habits, character. All Butler's prophetic +burden is bound up in these three great words--acts, habits, character. +Remember and ponder these three words, and you will in due time become a +moral philosopher. Ponder and practise them, and you will become what is +infinitely better--a moral man. For acts, often repeated, gradually +become habits, and habits, long enough continued, settle and harden and +solidify into character. And thus it is that the severe and laconic +bishop has so often made us shudder as he demonstrated it to us that we +are all with our own hands shaping our character not only for this world, +but much more for the world to come, by every act we perform, by every +word we speak, almost by every breath we draw. Butler is one of the most +terrible authors in the world. He stands on our nearest shelf with Dante +on one side of him and Pascal on the other. He is indeed terrible, but +it is with a terror that purifies the heart and keeps the life in the +hour of temptation. Paul sometimes arms himself with the same terror; +only he composes in another style than that of Butler, and, with all his +vivid intensity, he calls it the terror of the Lord. Paul and Bunyan are +of the same school of moralists and stylists; Butler went to school to +the Stoics, to Aristotle, and to Plato. + +Our Lord Himself came to be the express image He was and is by living and +acting under this same universal law of human life--acts, habits, +character. He was made perfect on this same principle. He learned +obedience both by the things that He did, and the things that He +suffered. Butler says in one deep place, that benevolence and justice +and veracity are the basis of all good character in God and in man, and +thus also in the God-man. And those three foundation stones of our +Lord's character settled deeper and grew stronger to bear and to suffer +as He went on practising acts and speaking words of justice, goodness, +and truth. And so of all the other elements of His moral character. Our +Lord left Gethsemane a much more submissive and a much more surrendered +man than He entered it. His forgiveness of injuries, and thus His +splendid benevolence, had not yet come to its climax and crown till He +said on the cross, 'Father, forgive them'. And, as He was, so are we in +this world. This world's evil and ill-desert made it but the better +arena and theatre for the development and the display of His moral +character; and the same instruments that fashioned Him into the perfect +and express image He was and is, are still, happily, in full operation. +Take that divinest and noblest of all instruments for the carving out and +refining of moral character, the will of God. How our Lord made His own +unselfish and unsinful will to bow to silence and to praise before the +holy will of His Father, till that gave the finishing touch to His always +sanctified will and heart! And, happily, that awful and blessed +instrument for the formation of moral character is still active and +available to those whose ambition rises to moral character, and who are +aiming at heaven in all they do and all they suffer upon the earth. +Gethsemane has gone out till it has covered all the earth. Its cup, if +not in all the depth and strength of its first mixture, still in quite +sufficient bitterness, is put many times in life into every man's hand. +There is not a day, there is not an hour of the day, that the disciple of +the submissive and all-surrendered Son has not the opportunity to say +with his Master, If it be possible, let this cup pass: nevertheless, not +as I will, but as Thou wilt. + +It is not in the great tragedies of life only that character is tested +and strengthened and consolidated. No man who is not himself under God's +moral and spiritual instruments could believe how often in the quietest, +clearest, and least tempestuous day he has the chance and the call to +say, Yea, Lord, Thy will be done. And, then, when the confessedly tragic +days and nights come, when all men admit that this is Gethsemane indeed, +the practised soul is able, with a calmness and a peace that confound and +offend the bystanders, to say, to act so that he does not need to say, +Not my will, but Thine. And so of all the other forms and features of +moral character; so of humility and meekness, so of purity and +temperance, so of magnanimity and munificence, so of all self-suppression +and self-extinction, and all corresponding exalting and magnifying and +benefiting of other men. Whatever other passing uses this present world, +so full of trial and temptation and suffering, may have, this surely is +the supreme and final use of it--to be a furnace, a graving-house, a +refining place for human character. Literally all things in this life +and in this world--I challenge you to point out a single exception--work +together for this supreme and only good, the purification, the refining, +the testing, and the approval of human character. Not only so, but we +are all in the very heat of the furnace, and under the very graving iron +and in the very refining fire that our prefigured and predestinated +character needs. Your life and its trials would not suit the necessities +of my moral character, and you would lose your soul beyond redemption if +you exchanged lots with me. You do not put a pearl under the potter's +wheel; you do not cast clay into a refining fire. Abraham's character +was not like David's, nor David's like Christ's, nor Christ's like +Paul's. As Butler says, there is 'a providential disposition of things' +around every one of us, and it is as exactly suited to the flaws and +excrescences, the faults and corruptions of our character as if +Providence had had no other life to make a disposition of things for but +one, and that one our own. Have you discovered that in your life, or any +measure of that? Have you acknowledged to God that you have at last +discovered the true key of your life? Have you given Him the +satisfaction to know that He is not making His providential dispositions +around a stock or a stone, but that He has one under His hand who +understands His hand, and responds to it, and rises up to meet and salute +it? + +And we cease to wonder so much at the care God takes of human character, +and the cost He lays out upon it, when we think that it is the only work +of His hands that shall last for ever. It is fit, surely, that the +ephemeral should minister to the eternal, and time to eternity, and all +else in this world to the only thing in this world that shall endure and +survive this world. All else we possess and pursue shall fade and +perish, our moral character shall alone survive. Riches, honours, +possessions, pleasures of all kinds: death, with one stroke of his +desolating hand, shall one day strip us bare to a winding-sheet and a +coffin of all the things we are so mad to possess. But the last enemy, +with all his malice and all his resistless power, cannot touch our moral +character--unless it be in some way utterly mysterious to us that he is +made under God to refine and perfect it. The Express Image carried up to +His Father's House, not only the divine life He had brought hither with +Him when He came to obey and submit and suffer among us; He carried back +more than He brought, for He carried back a human heart, a human life, a +human character, which was and is a new wonder in heaven. He carried up +to heaven all the love to God and angels and men He had learned and +practised on earth, with all the earthly fruits of it. He carried back +His humility, His meekness, His humanity, His approachableness, and His +sympathy. And we see to our salvation some of the uses to which those +parts of His moral character are at this moment being put in His Father's +House; and what we see not now of all the ends and uses and employments +of our Lord's glorified humanity we shall, mayhap, see hereafter. And we +also shall carry our moral character to heaven; it is the only thing we +have worth carrying so far. But, then, moral character is well worth +achieving here and then carrying there, for it is nothing else and +nothing less than the divine nature itself; it is the divine nature +incarnate, incorporate, and made manifest in man. And it is, therefore, +immortal with the immortality of God, and blessed for ever with the +blessedness of God. + + + + +EVANGELIST + + + 'Do the work of an evangelist.'--Paul to Timothy. + +On the 1st of June 1648 a very bitter fight was fought at Maidstone, in +Kent, between the Parliamentary forces under Fairfax and the Royalists. +Till Cromwell rose to all his military and administrative greatness, +Fairfax was generalissimo of the Puritan army, and that able soldier +never executed a more brilliant exploit than he did that memorable night +at Maidstone. In one night the Royalist insurrection was stamped out and +extinguished in its own blood. Hundreds of dead bodies filled the +streets of the town, hundreds of the enemy were taken prisoners, while +hundreds more, who were hiding in the hop-fields and forests around the +town, fell into Fairfax's hands next morning. + +Among the prisoners so taken was a Royalist major who had had a deep hand +in the Maidstone insurrection, named John Gifford, a man who was destined +in the time to come to run a remarkable career. Only, to-day, the day +after the battle, he has no prospect before him but the gallows. On the +night before his execution, by the courtesy of Fairfax, Gifford's sister +was permitted to visit her brother in his prison. The soldiers were +overcome with weariness and sleep after the engagement, and Gifford's +sister so managed it that her brother got past the sentries and escaped +out of the town. He lay hid for some days in the ditches and thickets +around the town till he was able to escape to London, and thence to the +shelter of some friends of his at Bedford. Gifford had studied medicine +before he entered the army, and as soon as he thought it safe he began to +practise his old art in the town of Bedford. Gifford had been a +dissolute man as a soldier, and he became, if possible, a still more +scandalously dissolute man as a civilian. Gifford's life in Bedford was +a public disgrace, and his hatred and persecution of the Puritans in that +town made his very name an infamy and a fear. He reduced himself to +beggary with gambling and drink, but, when near suicide, he came under +the power of the truth, till we see him clothed with rags and with a +great burden on his back, crying out, 'What must I do to be saved?' 'But +at last'--I quote from the session records of his future church at +Bedford--'God did so plentifully discover to him the forgiveness of sins +for the sake of Christ, that all his life after he lost not the light of +God's countenance, no, not for an hour, save only about two days before +he died.' Gifford's conversion had been so conspicuous and notorious +that both town and country soon heard of it: and instead of being ashamed +of it, and seeking to hide it, Gifford at once, and openly, threw in his +lot with the extremest Puritans in the Puritan town of Bedford. Nor +could Gifford's talents be hid; till from one thing to another, we find +the former Royalist and dissolute Cavalier actually the parish minister +of Bedford in Cromwell's so evangelical but otherwise so elastic +establishment. + +At this point we open John Bunyan's _Grace Abounding to the Chief of +Sinners_, and we read this classical passage:--'Upon a day the good +providence of God did cast me to Bedford to work in my calling: and in +one of the streets of that town I came where there were three or four +poor women sitting at the door in the sun and talking about the things of +God. But I may say I heard, but I understood not, for they were far +above and out of my reach . . . About this time I began to break my mind +to those poor people in Bedford, and to tell them of my condition, which, +when they had heard, they told Mr. Gifford of me, who himself also took +occasion to talk with me, and was willing to be well persuaded of me +though I think on too little grounds. But he invited me to his house, +where I should hear him confer with others about the dealings of God with +their souls, from all which I still received more conviction, and from +that time began to see something of the vanity and inner wretchedness of +my own heart, for as yet I knew no great matter therein . . . At that +time also I sat under the ministry of holy Mr. Gifford, whose doctrine, +by the grace of God, was much for my stability.' And so on in that +inimitable narrative. + +The first minister whose words were truly blessed of God for our +awakening and conversion has always a place of his own in our hearts. We +all have some minister, some revivalist, some faithful friend, or some +good book in a warm place in our heart. It may be a great city preacher; +it may be a humble American or Irish revivalist; it may be _The Pilgrim's +Progress_, or _The Cardiphonia_, or the _Serious Call_--whoever or +whatever it was that first arrested and awakened and turned us into the +way of life, they all our days stand in a place by themselves in our +grateful heart. And John Gifford has been immortalised by John Bunyan, +both in his _Grace Abounding_ and in his _Pilgrim's Progress_. In his +_Grace Abounding_, as we have just seen, and in _The Pilgrim_, Gifford +has his portrait painted in holy oil on the wall of the Interpreter's +house, and again in eloquent pen and ink in the person of Evangelist. + +John Gifford had himself made a narrow escape out of the City of +Destruction, and John Bunyan had, by Gifford's assistance, made the same +escape also. The scene, therefore, both within that city and outside the +gate of it, was so fixed in Bunyan's mind and memory that no part of his +memorable book is more memorably put than just its opening page. Bunyan +himself is the man in rags, and Gifford is the evangelist who comes to +console and to conduct him. Bunyan's portraits are all taken from the +life. Brilliant and well-furnished as Bunyan's imagination was, Bedford +was still better furnished with all kinds of men and women, and with all +kinds of saints and sinners. And thus, instead of drawing upon his +imagination in writing his books, Bunyan drew from life. And thus it is +that we see first John Gifford, and then John Bunyan himself at the gate +of the city; and then, over the page, Gifford becomes the evangelist who +is sent by the four poor women to speak to the awakened tinker. + +'Wherefore dost thou so cry?' asks Evangelist. 'Because,' replied the +man, 'I am condemned to die.' 'But why are you so unwilling to die, +since this life is so full of evils?' And I suppose we must all hear +Evangelist putting the same pungent question to ourselves every day, at +whatever point of the celestial journey we at present are. Yes; why are +we all so unwilling to die? Why do we number our days to put off our +death to the last possible period? Why do we so refuse to think of the +only thing we are sure soon to come to? We are absolutely sure of +nothing else in the future but death. We may not see to-morrow, but we +shall certainly see the day of our death. And yet we have all our plans +laid for to-morrow, and only one here and one there has any plan laid for +the day of his death. And can it be for the same reason that made the +man in rags unwilling to die? Is it because of the burden on our back? +Is it because we are not fit to go to judgment? And yet the trumpet may +sound summoning us hence before the midnight clock strikes. If this be +thy condition, why standest thou still? Dost thou see yonder shining +light? Keep that light in thine eye. Go up straight to it, knock at the +gate, and it shall be told thee there what thou shalt do next. Burdened +sinner, son of man in rags and terror: What has burdened thee so? What +has torn thy garments into such shameful rags? What is it in thy burden +that makes it so heavy? And how long has it lain so heavy upon thee? 'I +cannot run,' said the man, 'because of the burden on my back.' And it +has been noticed of you that you do not laugh, or run, or dress, or +dance, or walk, or eat, or drink as once you did. All men see that there +is some burden on your back; some sore burden on your heart and your +mind. Do you see yonder wicket gate? Do you see yonder shining light? +There is no light in all the horizon for you but yonder light over the +gate. Keep it in your eye; make straight, and make at once for it, and +He who keeps the gate and keeps the light burning over it, He will tell +you what to do with your burden. He told John Gifford, and He told John +Bunyan, till both their burdens rolled off their backs, and they saw them +no more. What would you not give to-night to be released like them? Do +you not see yonder shining light? + +Having set Christian fairly on the way to the wicket gate, Evangelist +leaves him in order to seek out and assist some other seeker. But +yesterday he had set Faithful's face to the celestial city, and he is off +now to look for another pilgrim. We know some of Christian's adventures +and episodes after Evangelist left him, but we do not take up these at +present. We pass on to the next time that Evangelist finds Christian, +and he finds him in a sorry plight. He has listened to bad advice. He +has gone off the right road, he has lost sight of the gate, and all the +thunders and lightnings of Sinai are rolling and flashing out against +him. What doest thou here of all men in the world? asked Evangelist, +with a severe and dreadful countenance. Did I not direct thee to His +gate, and why art thou here? Christian told him that a fair-spoken man +had met him, and had persuaded him to take an easier and shorter way of +getting rid of his burden. Read the whole place for yourselves. The end +of it was that Evangelist set Christian right again, and gave him two +counsels which would be his salvation if he attended to them: Strive to +enter in at the strait gate, and, Take up thy cross daily. He would need +more counsel afterwards than that; but, meantime, that was enough. Let +Christian follow that, and he would before long be rid of his burden. + +In the introductory lecture Bishop Butler has been commended and praised +as a moralist, and certainly not one word beyond his deserts; but an +evangelical preacher cannot send any man with the burden of a bad past +upon him to Butler for advice and direction about that. While lecturing +on and praising the sound philosophical and ethical spirit of the great +bishop, Dr. Chalmers complains that he so much lacks the _sal +evangelicum_, the strength and the health and the sweetness of the +doctrines of grace. Legality and Civility and Morality are all good and +necessary in their own places; but he is a cheat who would send a guilt- +burdened and sick-at-heart sinner to any or all of them. The wicket gate +first, and then He who keeps that gate will tell us what to do, and where +next to go; but any other way out of the City of Destruction but by the +wicket gate is sure to land us where it landed Evangelist's quaking and +sweating charge. When Bishop Butler lay on his deathbed he called for +his chaplain, and said, 'Though I have endeavoured to avoid sin, and to +please God to the utmost of my power, yet from the consciousness of my +perpetual infirmities I am still afraid to die.' 'My lord,' said his +happily evangelical chaplain, 'have you forgotten that Jesus Christ is a +Saviour?' 'True,' said the dying philosopher, 'but how shall I know that +He is a Saviour for me?' 'My lord, it is written, "Him that cometh to +Me, I will in no wise cast out."' 'True,' said Butler, 'and I am +surprised that though I have read that Scripture a thousand times, I +never felt its virtue till this moment, and now I die in peace.' + +The third and the last time on which the pilgrims meet with their old +friend and helper, Evangelist, is when they are just at the gates of the +town of Vanity. They have come through many wonderful experiences since +last they saw and spoke with him. They have had the gate opened to them +by Goodwill. They have been received and entertained in the +Interpreter's House, and in the House Beautiful. The burden has fallen +off their backs at the cross, and they have had their rags removed and +have received change of raiment. They have climbed the Hill Difficulty, +and they have fought their way through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. +More than the half of their adventures and sufferings are past; but they +are not yet out of gunshot of the devil, and the bones of many a +promising pilgrim lie whitening the way between this and the city. Many +of our young communicants have made a fair and a promising start for +salvation. They have got over the initial difficulties that lay in their +way to the Lord's table, and we have entered their names with honest +pride in our communion roll. But a year or two passes over, and the +critical season arrives when our young communicant 'comes out,' as the +word is. Up till now she has been a child, a little maid, a Bible-class +student, a young communicant, a Sabbath-school teacher. But she is now a +young lady, and she comes out into the world. We soon see that she has +so come out, as we begin to miss her from places and from employments her +presence used to brighten; and, very unwillingly, we overhear men and +women with her name on their lips in a way that makes us fear for her +soul, till many, oh, in a single ministry, how many, who promised well at +the gate and ran safely past many snares, at last sell all--body and soul +and Saviour--in Vanity Fair. + +Well, Evangelist remains Evangelist still. Only, without losing any of +his sweetness and freeness and fulness of promise, he adds to that some +solemn warnings and counsels suitable now, as never before, to these two +pilgrims. If one may say so, he would add now such moral treatises as +Butler's _Sermons_ and _Serious Call_ to such evangelical books as _Grace +Abounding_ and _A Jerusalem Sinner Saved_. + +To-morrow the two pilgrims will come out of the wilderness and will be +plunged into a city where they will be offered all kinds of +merchandise,--houses, lands, places, honours, preferments, titles, +pleasures, delights, wives, children, bodies, souls, and what not. An +altogether new world from anything they have yet come through, and a +world where many who once began well have gone no further. Such counsels +as these, then, Evangelist gave Christian and Faithful as they left the +lonely wilderness behind them and came out towards the gate of the +seductive city--'Let the Kingdom of Heaven be always before your eyes, +and believe steadfastly concerning things that are invisible.' Visible, +tangible, sweet, and desirable things will immediately be offered to +them, and unless they have a faith in their hearts that is the substance +of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen, it will soon be +all over with them and their pilgrimage. 'Let no man take your crown,' +he said also, as he foresaw at how many booths and counters, houses, +lands, places, preferments, wives, husbands, and what not, would be +offered them and pressed upon them in exchange for their heavenly crown. +'Above all, look well to your own hearts,' he said. Canon Venables +laments over the teaching that Bunyan received from John Gifford. 'Its +principle,' he says, 'was constant introspection and scrupulous weighing +of every word and deed, and even of every thought, instead of leading the +mind off from self to the Saviour.' The canon seems to think that it was +specially unfortunate for Bunyan to be told to keep his heart and to +weigh well every thought of it; but I must point out to you that +Evangelist puts as above all other things the most important for the +pilgrims the looking well to their own hearts; and our plain-spoken +author has used a very severe word about any minister who should whisper +anything to any pilgrim that could be construed or misunderstood into +putting Christ in the place of thought and word and deed, and the +scrupulous weighing of every one of them. 'Let nothing that is on this +side the other world get within you; and above all, look well to your own +hearts, and to the lusts thereof.' + +'Set your faces like a flint,' Evangelist proceeds. How little like all +that you hear in the counsels of the pulpit to young women coming out and +to young men entering into business life. I am convinced that if we +ministers were more direct and plain-spoken to such persons at such +times; if we, like Bunyan, told them plainly what kind of a world it is +they are coming out to buy and sell in, and what its merchandise and its +prices are; if our people would let us so preach to their sons and +daughters, I feel sure far fewer young communicants would make shipwreck, +and far fewer grey heads would go down with sorrow to the grave. 'Be not +afraid,' said Robert Hall in his charge to a young minister, 'of devoting +whole sermons to particular parts of moral conduct and religious duty. It +is impossible to give right views of them unless you dissect characters +and describe particular virtues and vices. The works of the flesh and +the fruits of the Spirit must be distinctly pointed out. To preach +against sin in general without descending to particulars may lead many to +complain of the evil of their hearts, while at the same time they are +awfully inattentive to the evil of their conduct.' Take Evangelist's +noble counsels at the gate of Vanity Fair, and then take John Bunyan's +masterly description of the Fair itself, with all that is bought and sold +in it, and you will have a lesson in evangelical preaching that the +evangelical pulpit needed in Bunyan's day, in Robert Hall's day, and not +less in our own. + +'My sons, you have heard the truth of the gospel, that you must through +many tribulations enter the Kingdom of God. When, therefore, you are +come to the Fair and shall find fulfilled what I have here related, then +remember your friend; quit yourselves like men, and commit the keeping of +your souls to your God in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator.' + + + + +OBSTINATE + + + 'Be ye not as the mule.'--David. + +Little Obstinate was born and brought up in the City of Destruction. His +father was old Spare-the-Rod, and his mother's name was Spoil-the-Child. +Little Obstinate was the only child of his parents; he was born when they +were no longer young, and they doted on their only child, and gave him +his own way in everything. Everything he asked for he got, and if he did +not immediately get it you would have heard his screams and his kicks +three doors off. His parents were not in themselves bad people, but, if +Solomon speaks true, they hated their child, for they gave him all his +own way in everything, and nothing would ever make them say no to him, or +lift up the rod when he said no to them. When the Scriptures, in their +pedagogical parts, speak so often about the rod, they do not necessarily +mean a rod of iron or even of wood. There are other ways of teaching an +obstinate child than the way that Gideon took with the men of Succoth +when he taught them with the thorns of the wilderness and with the briars +thereof. George Offor, John Bunyan's somewhat quaint editor, gives the +readers of his edition this personal testimony:--'After bringing up a +very large family, who are a blessing to their parents, I have yet to +learn what part of the human body was created to be beaten.' At the same +time the rod must mean something in the word of God; it certainly means +something in God's hand when His obstinate children are under it, and it +ought to mean something in a godly parent's hand also. Little +Obstinate's two parents were far from ungodly people, though they lived +in such a city; but they were daily destroying their only son by letting +him always have his own way, and by never saying no to his greed, and his +lies, and his anger, and his noisy and disorderly ways. Eli in the Old +Testament was not a bad man, but he destroyed both the ark of the Lord +and himself and his sons also, because his sons made themselves vile, and +he restrained them not. God's children are never so soft, and sweet, and +good, and happy as just after He restrains them, and has again laid the +rod of correction upon them. They then kiss both the rod and Him who +appointed it. And earthly fathers learn their craft from God. The +meekness, the sweetness, the docility, and the love of a chastised child +has gone to all our hearts in a way we can never forget. There is +something sometimes almost past description or belief in the way a +chastised child clings to and kisses the hand that chastised it. But +poor old Spare-the-Rod never had experiences like that. And young +Obstinate, having been born like Job's wild ass's colt, grew up to be a +man like David's unbitted and unbridled mule, till in after life he +became the author of all the evil and mischief that is associated in our +minds with his evil name. + +In old Spare-the-Rod's child also this true proverb was fulfilled, that +the child is the father of the man. For all that little Obstinate had +been in the nursery, in the schoolroom, and in the playground--all that, +only in an aggravated way--he was as a youth and as a grown-up man. For +one thing, Obstinate all his days was a densely ignorant man. He had not +got into the way of learning his lessons when he was a child; he had not +been made to learn his lessons when he was a child; and the dislike and +contempt he had for his books as a boy accompanied him through an +ignorant and a narrow-minded life. It was reason enough to this so +unreasonable man not to buy and read a book that you had asked him to buy +and read it. And so many of the books about him were either written, or +printed, or published, or sold, or read, or praised by people he did not +like, that there was little left for this unhappy man to read, even if +otherwise he would have read it. And thus, as his mulish obstinacy kept +him so ignorant, so his ignorance in turn increased his obstinacy. And +then when he came, as life went on, to have anything to do with other +men's affairs, either in public or in private life, either in the church, +or in the nation, or in the city, or in the family, this unhappy man +could only be a drag on all kinds of progress, and in obstacle to every +good work. Use and wont, a very good rule on occasion, was a rigid and a +universal rule with Obstinate. And to be told that the wont in this case +and in that had ceased to be the useful, only made him rail at you as +only an ignorant and an obstinate man can rail. He could only rail; he +had not knowledge enough, or good temper enough, or good manners enough +to reason out a matter; he was too hot-tempered for an argument, and he +hated those who had an acquaintance with the subject in hand, and a self- +command in connection with it that he had not. 'The obstinate man's +understanding is like Pharaoh's heart, and it is proof against all sorts +of arguments whatsoever.' Like the demented king of Egypt, the obstinate +man has glimpses sometimes both of his bounden duty and of his true +interest, but the sinew of iron that is in his neck will not let him +perform the one or pursue the other. 'Nothing,' says a penetrating +writer, 'is more like firm conviction than simple obstinacy. Plots and +parties in the state, and heresies and divisions in the church alike +proceed from it.' Let any honest man take that sentence and carry it +like a candle down into his own heart and back into his own life, and +then with the insight and honesty there learned carry the same candle +back through some of the plots and parties, the heresies and schisms of +the past as well as of the present day, and he will have learned a lesson +that will surely help to cure himself, at any rate, of his own remaining +obstinacy. All our firm convictions, as we too easily and too fondly +call them, must continually be examined and searched out in the light of +more reading of the best authors, in the light of more experience of +ourselves and of the world we live in, and in that best of all light, +that increasing purity, simplicity, and sincerity of heart alone can +kindle. And in not a few instances we shall to a certainty find that +what has hitherto been clothing itself with the honourable name and +character of a conviction was all the time only an ignorant prejudice, a +distaste or a dislike, a too great fondness for ourselves and for our own +opinion and our own interest. Many of our firmest convictions, as we now +call them, when we shall have let light enough fall upon them, we shall +be compelled and enabled to confess to be at bottom mere mulishness and +pride of heart. The mulish, obstinate, and proud man never says, I don't +know. He never asks anything to be explained to him. He never admits +that he has got any new light. He never admits having spoken or acted +wrongly. He never takes back what he has said. He was never heard to +say, You are right in that line of action, and I have all along been +wrong. Had he ever said that, the day he said it would have been a white- +stone day both for his mind and his heart. Only, the spoiled son of +Spare-the-Rod never said that, or anything like that. + +But, most unfortunately, it is in the very best things of life that the +true mulishness of the obstinate man most comes out. He shows worst in +his home life and in the matters of religion. When our Obstinate was in +love he was as sweet as honey and as soft as butter. His old friends +that he used so to trample upon scarcely recognised him. They had +sometimes seen men converted, but they had never seen such an immediate +and such a complete conversion as this. He actually invited correction, +and reproof, and advice, and assistance, who had often struck at you with +his hands and his feet when you even hinted at such a thing to him. The +best upbringing, the best books, the best preaching, the best and most +obedient life, taken all together, had not done for other men what a +woman's smile and the touch of her hand had in a moment done for this +once so obstinate man. He would read anything now, and especially the +best books. He would hear and enjoy any preacher now, and especially the +best and most earnest in preaching. His old likes and dislikes, +prejudices and prepossessions, self-opinionativeness and +self-assertiveness all miraculously melted off him, and he became in a +day an open-minded, intelligent, good-mannered, devout-minded gentleman. +He who was once such a mule to everybody was now led about by a child in +a silken bridle. All old things had passed away, and all things had +become new. For a time; for a time. But time passes, and there passes +away with it all the humility, meekness, pliability, softness, and +sweetness of the obstinate man. Till when long enough time has elapsed +you find him all the obstinate and mulish man he ever was. It is not +that he has ceased to love his wife and his children. It is not that. +But there is this in all genuine and inbred obstinacy, that after a time +it often comes out worst beside those we love best. A man will be +affable, accessible, entertaining, the best of company, and the soul of +it abroad, and, then, instantly he turns the latch-key in his own door he +will relapse into silence, and sink back into utter boorishness and +bearishness, mulishness and doggedness. He swallows his evening meal at +the foot of the table in silence, and then he sits all night at the +fireside with a cloud out of nothing on his brow. His sunshine, his +smile, and his universal urbanity is all gone now; he is discourteous to +nobody but to his own wife. Nothing pleases him; he finds nothing at +home to his mind. The furniture, the hours, the habits of the house are +all disposed so as to please him; but he was never yet heard to say to +wife, or child, or servant that he was pleased. He never says that a +meal is to his taste or a seat set so as to shelter and repose him. The +obstinate man makes his house a very prison and treadmill to himself and +to all those who are condemned to suffer with him. And all the time it +is not that he does not love and honour his household; but by an evil law +of the obstinate heart its worst obstinacy and mulishness comes out among +those it loves best. + +But, my brethren, worse than all that, we have all what good Bishop Hall +calls 'a stone of obstination' in our hearts against God. With all his +own depth and clearness and plain-spokenness, Paul tells us that our +hearts are by nature enmity against God. Were we proud and obstinate and +malicious against men only it would be bad enough, and it would be +difficult enough to cure, but our case is dreadful beyond all description +or belief when our obstinacy strikes out against God. We know as well as +we know anything, that in doing this and in not doing that we are going +every day right in the teeth both of God's law and God's grace; and yet +in the sheer obstinacy and perversity of our heart we still go on in what +we know quite well to be the suicide of our souls. We are told by our +minister to do this and not to do that; to begin to do this at this new +year and to break off from doing that; but, partly through obstinacy +towards him, reinforced by a deeper and subtler and deadlier obstinacy +against God, and against all the deepest and most godly of the things of +God, we neither do the one nor cease from doing the other. There is a +sullenness in some men's minds, a gloom and a bitter air that rises up +from the unploughed, undrained, unweeded, uncultivated fens of their +hearts that chills and blasts all the feeble beginnings of a better life. +The natural and constitutional obstinacy of the obstinate heart is +exasperated when it comes to deal with the things of God. For it is then +reinforced with all the guilt and all the fear, all the suspicion and all +the aversion of the corrupt and self-condemned heart. There is an +obdurateness of obstinacy against all the men, and the books, and the +doctrines, and the precepts, and the practices that are in any way +connected with spiritual religion that does not come out even in the +obstinate man's family life. + +John Bunyan's Obstinate, both by his conduct as well as by the etymology +of his name, not only stands in the way of his own salvation, but he does +all he can to stand in the way of other men setting out to salvation +also. Obstinate set out after Christian to fetch him back by force, and +if it had not been that he met his match in Christian, _The Pilgrim's +Progress_ would never have been written. 'That can by no means be,' said +Christian to his pursuer, and he is first called Christian when he shows +that one man can be as obstinate in good as another man can be in evil. +'I never now can go back to my former life.' And then the two obstinate +men parted company for ever, Christian in holy obstinacy being determined +to have eternal life at any cost, and Obstinate as determined against it. +The opening pages of _The Pilgrim's Progress_ set the two men very +graphically and very impressively before us. + +As to the cure of obstinacy, the rod in a firm, watchful, wise, and +loving hand will cure it. And in later life a long enough and close +enough succession of humble, yielding, docile, submissive, +self-chastening and thanksgiving acts will cure it. Reading and obeying +the best books on the subjugation and the regulation of the heart will +cure it. Descending with Dante to where the obstinate, and the +embittered, and the gloomy, and the sullen have made their beds in hell +will cure it. And much and most agonising prayer will above all cure it. + + 'O Lord, if thus so obstinate I, + Choose Thou, before my spirit die, + A piercing pain, a killing sin, + And to my proud heart run them in. + + + + +PLIABLE + + + 'He hath not root in himself.'--Our Lord. + +With one stroke of His pencil our Lord gives us this Flaxman-like outline +of one of his well-known hearers. And then John Bunyan takes up that so +expressive profile, and puts flesh and blood into it, till it becomes the +well-known Pliable of _The Pilgrim's Progress_. We call the text a +parable, but our Lord's parables are all portraits--portraits and groups +of portraits, rather than ordinary parables. Our Lord knew this man +quite well who had no root in himself. Our Lord had crowds of such men +always running after Him, and He threw off this rapid portrait from +hundreds of men and women who caused discredit to fall on His name and +His work, and burdened His heart continually. And John Bunyan, with all +his genius, could never have given us such speaking likenesses as that of +Pliable and Temporary and Talkative, unless he had had scores of them in +his own congregation. + +Our Lord's short preliminary description of Pliable goes, like all His +descriptions, to the very bottom of the whole matter. Our Lord in this +passage is like one of those masterly artists who begin their portrait- +painting with the study of anatomy. All the great artists in this walk +build up their best portraits from the inside of their subjects. He hath +not root in himself, says our Lord, and we need no more than that to be +told us to foresee how all his outside religion will end. 'Without self- +knowledge,' says one of the greatest students of the human heart that +ever lived, 'you have no real root in yourselves. Real self-knowledge is +the root of all real religious knowledge. It is a deceit and a mischief +to think that the Christian doctrines can either be understood or aright +accepted by any outward means. It is just in proportion as we search our +own hearts and understand our own nature that we shall ever feel what a +blessing the removal of sin will be; redemption, pardon, sanctification, +are all otherwise mere words without meaning or power to us. God speaks +to us first in our own hearts.' Happily for us our Lord has annotated +His own text and has told us that an honest heart is the alone root of +all true religion. Honest, that is, with itself, and with God and man +about itself. As David says in his so honest psalm, 'Behold, Thou +desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part Thou shalt +make me to know wisdom.' And, indeed, all the preachers and writers in +Scripture, and all Scriptural preachers and writers outside of Scripture, +are at one in this: that all true wisdom begins at home, and that it all +begins at the heart. And they all teach us that he is the wisest of men +who has the worst opinion of his own heart, as he is the foolishest of +men who does not know his own heart to be the worst heart that ever any +man was cursed with in this world. 'Here is wisdom': not to know the +number of the beast, but to know his mark, and to read it written so +indelibly in our own heart. + +And where this first and best of all wisdom is not, there, in our Lord's +words, there is no deepness of earth, no root, and no fruit. And any +religion that most men have is of this outside, shallow, rootless +description. This was all the religion that poor Pliable ever had. This +poor creature had a certain slight root of something that looked like +religion for a short season, but even that slight root was all outside of +himself. His root, what he had of a root, was all in Christian's +companionship and impassioned appeals, and then in those impressive +passages of Scripture that Christian read to him. At your first +attention to these things you would think that no possible root could be +better planted than in the Bible and in earnest preaching. But even the +Bible, and, much more, the best preaching, is all really outside of a man +till true religion once gets its piercing roots down into himself. We +have perhaps all heard of men, and men of no small eminence, who were +brought up to believe the teaching of the Bible and the pulpit, but who, +when some of their inherited and external ideas about some things +connected with the Bible began to be shaken, straightway felt as if all +the grounds of their faith were shaken, and all the roots of their faith +pulled up. But where that happened, all that was because such men's +religion was all rooted outside of themselves; in the best things outside +of themselves, indeed, but because, in our Lord's words, their religion +was rooted in something outside of themselves and not inside, they were +by and by offended, and threw off their faith. There is another well- +known class of men all whose religion is rooted in their church, and in +their church not as a member of the body of Christ, but as a social +institution set up in this world. They believe in their church. They +worship their church. They suffer and make sacrifices for their church. +They are proud of the size and the income of their church; her past +contendings and sufferings, and present dangers, all endear their church +to their heart. But if tribulation and persecution arise, that is to +say, if anything arises to vex or thwart or disappoint them with their +church, they incontinently pull up their roots and their religion with +it, and transplant both to any other church that for the time better +pleases them, or to no church at all. Others, again, have all their +religiosity rooted in their family life. Their religion is all made up +of domestic sentiment. They love their earthly home with that supreme +satisfaction and that all-absorbing affection that truly religious men +entertain for their heavenly home. And thus it is that when anything +happens to disturb or break up their earthly home their rootless +religiosity goes with it. Other men's religion, again, and all their +interest in it, is rooted in their shop; you can make them anything or +nothing in religion, according as you do or do not do business in their +shop. Companionship, also, accounts for the fluctuations of many men's, +and almost all women's, religious lives. If they happen to fall in with +godly lovers and friends, they are sincerely godly with them; but if +their companions are indifferent or hostile to true religion, they +gradually fall into the same temper and attitude. We sometimes see +students destined for the Christian ministry also with all their religion +so without root in themselves that a session in an unsympathetic class, a +sceptical book, sometimes just a sneer or a scoff, will wither all the +promise of their coming service. And so on through the whole of human +life. He that hath not the root of the matter in himself dureth for a +while, but by and by, for one reason or another, he is sure to be +offended. + +So much, then,--not enough, nor good enough--for our Lord's swift stroke +at the heart of His hearers. But let us now pass on to Pliable, as he so +soon and so completely discovers himself to us under John Bunyan's so +skilful hand. Look well at our author's speaking portrait of a +well-known man in Bedford who had no root in himself, and who, as a +consequence, was pliable to any influence, good or bad, that happened to +come across him. 'Don't revile,' are the first words that come from +Pliable's lips, and they are not unpromising words. Pliable is hurt with +Obstinate's coarse abuse of the Christian life, till he is downright +ashamed to be seen in his company. Pliable, at least, is a gentleman +compared with Obstinate, and his gentlemanly feelings and his good +manners make him at once take sides with Christian. Obstinate's foul +tongue has almost made Pliable a Christian. And this finely-conceived +scene on the plain outside the city gate is enacted over again every day +among ourselves. Where men are in dead earnest about religion it always +arouses the bad passions of bad men; and where earnest preachers and +devoted workers are assailed with violence or with bad language, there is +always enough love of fair play in the bystanders to compel them to take +sides, for the time at least, with those who suffer for the truth. And +we are sometimes too apt to count all that love of common fairness, and +that hatred of foul play, as a sure sign of some sympathy with the hated +truth itself. When an onlooker says 'Don't revile,' we are too ready to +set down that expression of civility as at least the first beginning of +true religion. But the religion of Jesus Christ cuts far deeper into the +heart of man than to the dividing asunder of justice and injustice, +civility and incivility, ribaldry and good manners. And it is always +found in the long-run that the cross of Christ and its crucifixion of the +human heart goes quite as hard with the gentlemanly-mannered man, the +civil and urbane man, as it does with the man of bad behaviour and of +brutish manners. 'Civil men,' says Thomas Goodwin, 'are this world's +saints.' And poor Pliable was one of them. 'My heart really inclines to +go with my neighbour,' said Pliable next. 'Yes,' he said, 'I begin to +come to a point. I really think I will go along with this good man. Yes, +I will cast in my lot with him. Come, good neighbour, let us be going.' + +The apocalyptic side of some men's imaginations is very easily worked +upon. No kind of book sells better among those of our people who have no +root in themselves than just picture-books about heaven. Our +missionaries make use of lantern-slides to bring home the scenes in the +Gospels to the dull minds of their village hearers, and with good +success. And at home a magic-lantern filled with the splendours of the +New Jerusalem would carry multitudes of rootless hearts quite captive for +a time. 'Well said; and what else? This is excellent; and what else?' +Christian could not tell Pliable fast enough about the glories of heaven. +'There we shall be with seraphim and cherubim, creatures that will dazzle +your eyes to look on them. There also you shall meet with thousands and +ten thousands who have gone before us to that place. Elders with golden +crowns, and holy virgins with golden harps, and all clothed with +immortality as with a garment.' 'The hearing of all this,' cried +Pliable, 'is enough to ravish one's heart.' 'An overly faith,' says old +Thomas Shepard, 'is easily wrought.' + +As if the text itself was not graphic enough, Bunyan's racy, humorous, +pathetic style overflows the text and enriches the very margins of his +pages, as every possessor of a good edition of _The Pilgrim_ knows. +'Christian and Obstinate pull for Pliable's soul' is the eloquent summary +set down on the side of the sufficiently eloquent page. As the picture +of a man's soul being pulled for rises before my mind, I can think of no +better companion picture to that of Pliable than that of poor, hard-beset +Brodie of Brodie, as he lets us see the pull for his soul in the honest +pages of his inward diary. Under the head of 'Pliable' in my Bunyan note- +book I find a crowd of references to Brodie; and if only to illustrate +our author's marginal note, I shall transcribe one or two of them. 'The +writer of this diary desires to be cast down under the facileness and +plausibleness of his nature, by which he labours to please men more than +God, and whence it comes that the wicked speak good of him . . . The Lord +pity the proneness of his heart to comply with the men who have the power +. . . Lord, he is unsound and double in his heart, politically crafty, +selfish, not savouring nor discerning the things of God . . . Let not +self-love, wit, craft, and timorousness corrupt his mind, but indue him +with fortitude, patience, steadfastness, tenderness, mortification . . . +Shall I expose myself and my family to danger at this time? A grain of +sound faith would solve all my questions.' 'Die Dom. I stayed at home, +partly to decline the ill-will and rage of men and to decline +observation.' Or, take another Sabbath-day entry: 'Die Dom. I stayed at +home, because of the time, and the observation, and the Earl of Moray . . +. Came to Cuttiehillock. I am neither cold nor hot. I am not rightly +principled as to the time. I suspect that it is not all conscience that +makes me conform, but wit, and to avoid suffering; Lord, deliver me from +all this unsoundness of heart.' And after this miserable fashion do +heaven and earth, duty and self-interest, the covenant and the crown pull +for Lord Brodie's soul through 422 quarto pages. Brodie's diary is one +of the most humiliating, heart-searching, and heart-instructing books I +ever read. Let all public men tempted and afflicted with a facile, +pliable, time-serving heart have honest Brodie at their elbow. + +'Glad I am, my good companion,' said Pliable, after the passage about the +cherubim and the seraphim, and the golden crowns and the golden harps, +'it ravishes my very heart to hear all this. Come on, let us mend our +pace.' This is delightful, this is perfect. How often have we ourselves +heard these very words of challenge and reproof from the pliable +frequenters of emotional meetings, and from the emotional members of an +emotional but rootless ministry. Come on, let us mend our pace! 'I am +sorry to say,' replied the man with the burden on his back, 'that I +cannot go so fast as I would.' 'Christian,' says Mr. Kerr Bain, 'has +more to carry than Pliable has, as, indeed, he would still have if he +were carrying nothing but himself; and he does have about him, besides, a +few sobering thoughts as to the length and labour and some of the +unforeseen chances of the way.' And as Dean Paget says in his profound +and powerful sermon on 'The Disasters of Shallowness': 'Yes, but there is +something else first; something else without which that inexpensive +brightness, that easy hopefulness, is apt to be a frail resourceless +growth, withering away when the sun is up and the hot winds of trial are +sweeping over it. We must open our hearts to our religion; we must have +the inward soil broken up, freely and deeply its roots must penetrate our +inner being. We must take to ourselves in silence and in sincerity its +words of judgment with its words of hope, its sternness with its +encouragement, its denunciations with its promises, its requirements, +with its offers, its absolute intolerance of sin with its inconceivable +and divine long-suffering towards sinners.' But preaching like this +would have frightened away poor Pliable. He would not have understood +it, and what he did understand of it he would have hated with all his +shallow heart. + +'Where are we now?' called Pliable to his companion, as they both went +over head and ears into the Slough of Despond. 'Truly,' said Christian, +'I do not know.'--No work of man is perfect, not even the all-but-perfect +_Pilgrim's Progress_. Christian was bound to fall sooner or later into a +slough filled with his own despondency about himself, his past guilt, his +present sinfulness, and his anxious future. But Pliable had not +knowledge enough of himself to make him ever despond. He was always +ready and able to mend his pace. He had no burden on his back, and +therefore no doubt in his heart. But Christian had enough of both for +any ten men, and it was Christian's overflowing despondency and doubt at +this point of the road that suddenly filled his own slough, and, I +suppose, overflowed into a slough for Pliable also. Had Pliable only had +a genuine and original slough of his own to so sink and be bedaubed in, +he would have got out of it at the right side of it, and been a tender- +stepping pilgrim all his days.--'Is this the happiness you have told me +all this while of? May I get out of this with my life, you may possess +the brave country alone for me.' And with that he gave a desperate +struggle or two, and got out of the mire on that side of the slough which +was next his own house; so he went away, and Christian saw him no more. +'The side of the slough which was next his own house.' Let us close with +that. Let us go home thinking about that. And in this trial of faith +and patience, and in that, in this temptation to sin, and in that, in +this actual transgression, and in that, let us always ask ourselves which +is the side of the slough that is farthest away from our own house, and +let us still struggle to that side of the slough, and it will all be well +with us at the last. + + + + +HELP + + + 'I was brought low, and He helped me.'--David. + +The Slough of Despond is one of John Bunyan's masterpieces. In his +description of the slough, Bunyan touches his highest water-mark for +humour, and pathos, and power, and beauty of language. If we did not +have the English Bible in our own hands we would have to ask, as Lord +Jeffrey asked Lord Macaulay, where the brazier of Bedford got his +inimitable style. Bunyan confesses to us that he got all his Latin from +the prescription papers of his doctors, and we know that he got all his +perfect English from his English Bible. And then he got his humour and +his pathos out of his own deep and tender heart. The God of all grace +gave a great gift to the English-speaking world and to the Church of +Christ in all lands when He created and converted John Bunyan, and put it +into his head and his heart to compose _The Pilgrim's Progress_. His +heart-affecting page on the slough has been wetted with the tears of +thousands of its readers, and their tears have been mingled with smiles +as they read their own sin and misery, and the never-to-be-forgotten time +and place where their sin and misery first found them out, all told so +recognisably, so pathetically, and so amusingly almost to laughableness +in the passage upon the slough. We see the ocean of scum and filth +pouring down into the slough through the subterranean sewers of the City +of Destruction and of the Town of Stupidity, which lies four degrees +beyond the City of Destruction, and from many other of the houses and +haunts of men. We see His Majesty's sappers and miners at their wits' +end how to cope with the deluges of pollution that pour into this slough +that they have been ordained to drain and dry up. For ages and ages the +royal surveyors have been laying out all their skill on this slough. More +cartloads than you could count of the best material for filling up a +slough have been shot into it, and yet you would never know that so much +as a single labourer had emptied his barrow here. True, excellent +stepping-stones have been laid across the slough by skilful engineers, +but they are always so slippery with the scum and slime of the slough, +that it is only now and then that a traveller can keep his feet upon +them. Altogether, our author's picture of the Slough of Despond is such +a picture that no one who has seen it can ever forget it. But better +than reading the best description of the slough is to see certain well- +known pilgrims trying to cross it. Mr. Fearing at the Slough of Despond +was a tale often told at the tavern suppers of that country. Never +pilgrim attempted the perilous journey with such a chicken-heart in his +bosom as this Mr. Fearing. He lay above a month on the bank of the +slough, and would not even attempt the steps. Some kind Pilgrims, though +they had enough to do to keep the steps themselves, offered him a hand; +but no. And after they were safely over it made them almost weep to hear +the man still roaring in his horror at the other side. Some bade him go +home if he would not take the steps, but he said that he would rather +make his grave in the slough than go back one hairsbreadth. Till, one +sunshiny morning,--no one knew how, and he never knew how himself--the +steps were so high and dry, and the scum and slime were so low, that this +hare-hearted man made a venture, and so got over. But, then, as an +unkind friend of his said, this pitiful pilgrim had a slough of despond +in his own mind which he carried always and everywhere about with him, +and made him the proverb of despondency that he was and is. Only, that +sunshiny morning he got over both the slough inside of him and outside of +him, and was heard by Help and his family singing this song on the hither +side of the slough: 'He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of +the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.' + +Our pilgrim did not have such a good crossing as Mr. Fearing. Whether it +was that the discharge from the city was deeper and fouler, or that the +day was darker, or what, we are not told, but both Christian and Pliable +were in a moment out of sight in the slough. They both wallowed, says +their plain-spoken historian, in the slough, only the one of the two who +had the burden on his back at every wallow went deeper into the mire; +when his neighbour, who had no such burden, instead of coming to his +assistance, got out of the slough at the same side as he had entered it, +and made with all his might for his own house. But the man called +Christian made what way he could, and still tumbled on to the side of the +slough that was farthest from his own house, till a man called Help gave +him his hand and set him upon sound ground. Christiana, again, and Mercy +and the boys found the slough in a far worse condition than it had ever +been found before. And the reason was not that the country that drained +into the slough was worse, but that those who had the mending of the +slough and the keeping in repair of the steps had so bungled their work +that they had marred the way instead of mending it. At the same time, by +the tact and good sense of Mercy, the whole party got over, Mercy +remarking to the mother of the boys, that if she had as good ground to +hope for a loving reception at the gate as Christiana had, no slough of +despond would discourage her, she said. To which the older woman made +the characteristic reply: 'You know your sore and I know mine, and we +shall both have enough evil to face before we come to our journey's end.' + +Now, I do not for a moment suppose that there is any one here who can +need to be told what the Slough of Despond in reality is. Indeed, its +very name sufficiently declares it. But if any one should still be at a +loss to understand this terrible experience of all the pilgrims, the +explanation offered by the good man who gave Christian his hand may here +be repeated. 'This miry slough,' he said, 'is such a place as cannot be +mended. This slough is the descent whither the scum and filth that +attends conviction of sin doth continually run, and therefore it is +called by the name of Despond, for still as the sinner is awakened about +his lost condition there ariseth in his soul many fears and doubts and +discouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together, and settle in +this place, and this is the reason of the badness of the ground.' That +is the parable, with its interpretation; but there is a passage in _Grace +Abounding_ which is no parable, and which may even better than this so +pictorial slough describe some men's condition here. 'My original and +inward pollution,' says Bunyan himself in his autobiography, 'that, that +was my plague and my affliction; that, I say, at a dreadful rate was +always putting itself forth within me; that I had the guilt of to +amazement; by reason of that I was more loathsome in my own eyes than a +toad; and I thought I was so in God's eyes also. Sin and corruption +would bubble up out of my heart as naturally as water bubbles up out of a +fountain. I thought now that every one had a better heart than I had. I +could have changed heart with anybody. I thought none but the devil +himself could equalise me for inward wickedness and pollution of mind. I +fell, therefore, at the sight of my own vileness, deeply into despair, +for I concluded that this condition in which I was in could not stand +with a life of grace. Sure, thought I, I am forsaken of God; sure I am +given up to the devil, and to a reprobate mind.' + + 'Let no man, then, count me a fable maker, + Nor made my name and credit a partaker + Of their derision: what is here in view, + Of mine own knowledge I dare say is true.' + +Sometimes, as with Christian at the slough, a man's way in life is all +slashed up into sudden ditches and pitfalls out of the sins of his youth. +His sins, by God's grace, find him out, and under their arrest and +overthrow he begins to seek his way to a better life and a better world; +and then both the burden and the slough have their explanation and +fulfilment in his own life every day. But it is even more dreadful than +a slough in a man's way to have a slough in his mind, as both Bunyan +himself and Mr. Fearing, his exquisite creation, had. After the awful- +enough slough, filled with the guilt and fear of actual sin, had been +bridged and crossed and left behind, a still worse slough of inward +corruption and pollution rose up in John Bunyan's soul and threatened to +engulf him altogether. So terrible to Bunyan was this experience, that +he has not thought it possible to make a parable of it, and so put it +into the _Pilgrim_; he has kept it rather for the plain, direct, +unpictured, personal testimony of the _Grace Abounding_. I do not know +another passage anywhere to compare with the eighty-fourth paragraph of +_Grace Abounding_ for hope and encouragement to a great inward sinner +under a great inward sanctification. I commend that powerful passage to +the appropriation of any man here who may have stuck fast in the Slough +of Despond to-day, and who could not on that account come to the Lord's +Table. Let him still struggle out at the side of the slough farthest +from his own house, and to-night, who can tell, Help may come and give +that man his hand. When the Slough of Despond is drained, and its bottom +laid bare, what a find of all kinds of precious treasures shall be laid +bare! Will you be able to lay claim to any of it when the long-lost +treasure-trove is distributed by command of the King to its rightful +owners? + +'What are you doing there?' the man whose name was Help demanded of +Christian, as he still wallowed and plunged to the hither side of the +slough, 'and why did you not look for the steps?' And so saying he set +Christian's feet upon sound ground again, and showed him the nearest way +to the gate. Help is one of the King's officers who are planted all +along the way to the Celestial City, in order to assist and counsel all +pilgrims. Evangelist was one of those officers; this Help is another; +Goodwill will be another, unless, indeed, he is more than a mere officer; +Interpreter will be another, and Greatheart, and so on. All these are +preachers and pastors and evangelists who correspond to all those names +and all their offices. Only some unhappy preachers are better at pushing +poor pilgrims into the slough, and pushing them down to the bottom of it, +than they are at helping a sinking pilgrim out; while some other more +happy preachers and pastors have their manses built at the hither side of +the slough and do nothing else all their days but help pilgrims out of +their slough and direct them to the gate. And then there are multitudes +of so-called ministers who eat the King's bread who can neither push a +proud sinner into the slough nor help a prostrate sinner out of it; no, +nor point him the way when he has himself wallowed out. And then, there +are men called ministers, too, who also eat the King's bread, whose voice +you never hear in connection with such matters, unless it be to revile +both the pilgrims and their helpers, and all who run with fear and +trembling up the heavenly road. But our pilgrim was happy enough to meet +with a minister to whom he could look back all his remaining pilgrimage +and say: 'He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry +clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he +hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God.' + +Now, as might have been expected, there is a great deal said about all +kinds of help in the Bible. After the help of God, of which the Bible +and especially the more experimental Psalms are full, this fine name is +then applied to many Scriptural persons, and on many Scriptural +occasions. The first woman whom God Almighty made bore from her Maker to +her husband this noble name. Her Father, so to speak, gave her away +under this noble name. And of all the sweet and noble names that a woman +bears, there is none so rich, so sweet, so lasting, and so fruitful as +just her first Divine name of a helpmeet. And how favoured of God is +that man to be accounted whose life still continues to draw meet help out +of his wife's fulness of help, till all her and his days together he is +able to say, I have of God a helpmeet indeed! For in how many sloughs do +many men lie till this daughter of Help gives them her hand, and out of +how many more sloughs are they all their days by her delivered and kept! +Sweet, maidenly, and most sensible Mercy was a great help to widow +Christiana at the slough, and to her and her sons all the way up to the +river--a very present help in many a need to her future mother-in-law and +her pilgrim sons. Let every young man seek his future wife of God, and +let him seek her of her Divine Father under that fine, homely, divine +name. For God, who knoweth what we have need of before we ask Him, likes +nothing better than to make a helpmeet for those who so ask Him, and +still to bring the woman to the man under that so spouse-like name. + + 'What next I bring shall please thee, be assured, + Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self, + Thy wish exactly to thy heart's desire.' + +And then when the apostle is making an enumeration of the various offices +and agencies in the New Testament church of his day, after apostles and +teachers and gifts of healing, he says, 'helps,'--assistants, that is, +succourers, especially of the sick and the aged and the poor. And we do +not read that either election or ordination was needed to make any given +member of the apostolic church a helper. But we do read of helpers being +found by the apostle among all classes and conditions of that rich and +living church; both sexes, all ages, and all descriptions of church +members bore this fine apostolic name. 'Salute Urbane, our helper in +Christ . . . Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ.' And both +Paul and John and all the apostles were forward to confess in their +epistles how much they owed of their apostolic success, as well as of +their personal comfort and joy, to the helpers, both men and women, their +Lord had blessed them with. + +Now, the most part of us here to-night have been at the Lord's Table to- +day. We kept our feet firm on the steps as we skirted or crossed the +slough that self-examination always fills and defiles for us before every +new communion. And before our Lord let us rise from His Table this +morning. He again said to us: 'Ye call Me Master and Lord, and ye say +well, for so I am. If I then have given you My hand, and have helped +you, ye ought also to help one another.' Who, then, any more will +withhold such help as it is in his power to give to a sinking brother? +And you do not need to go far afield seeking the slough of desponding, +despairing, drowning men. This whole world is full of such sloughs. +There is scarce sound ground enough in this world on which to build a +slough-watcher's tower. And after it is built, the very tower itself is +soon stained and blinded with the scudding slime. Where are your eyes, +and full of what? Do you not see sloughs full of sinking men at your +very door; ay, and inside of your best built and best kept house? Your +very next neighbour; nay, your own flesh and blood, if they have nothing +else of Greatheart's most troublesome pilgrim about them, have at least +this, that they carry about a slough with them in their own mind and in +their own heart. Have you only henceforth a heart and a hand to help, +and see if hundreds of sinking hearts do not cry out your name, and +hundreds of slimy hands grasp at your stretched-out arm. Sloughs of all +kinds of vice, open and secret; sloughs of poverty, sloughs of youthful +ignorance, temptation, and transgression; sloughs of inward gloom, family +disquiet and dispute; lonely grief; all manner of sloughs, deep and miry, +where no man would suspect them. And how good, how like Christ Himself, +and how well-pleasing to Him to lay down steps for such sliding feet, and +to lift out another and another human soul upon sound and solid ground. +'Know ye what I have done to you? For I have given you an example, that +ye should do as I have done to you. If ye know these things, happy are +ye if ye do them.' + + + + +MR. WORLDLY-WISEMAN + + + 'Wise in this world.'--Paul. + +Mr. Worldly-Wiseman has a long history behind him on which we cannot now +enter at any length. As a child, the little worldling, it was observed, +took much after his secular father, but much more after his scheming +mother. He was already a self-seeking, self-satisfied youth; and when he +became a man and began business for himself, no man's business flourished +like his. 'Nothing of news,' says his biographer in another place, +'nothing of doctrine, nothing of alteration or talk of alteration could +at any time be set on foot in the town but be sure Mr. Worldly-Wiseman +would be at the head or tail of it. But, to be sure, he would always +decline those he deemed to be the weakest, and stood always with those, +in his way of thinking, that he supposed were the strongest side.' He +was a man, it was often remarked, of but one book also. Sunday and +Saturday he was to be found deep in _The Architect of Fortune_; _or_, +_Advancement in Life_, a book written by its author so as to 'come home +to all men's business and bosoms.' He drove over scrupulously once a +Sunday to the State church, of which he was one of the most determined +pillars. He had set his mind on being Lord Mayor of the town before +long, and he was determined that his eldest son should be called Sir +Worldly-Wiseman after him, and he chose his church accordingly. Another +of his biographers in this connection wrote of him thus: 'Our Lord Mayor +parted his religion betwixt his conscience and his purse, and he went to +church not to serve God, but to please the king. The face of the law +made him wear the mask of the Gospel, which he used not as a means to +save his soul, but his charges.' Such, in a short word, was this +'sottish man' who crossed over the field to meet with our pilgrim when he +was walking solitary by himself after his escape from the slough. + +'How now, good fellow? Whither away after this burdened manner?' What a +contrast those two men were to one another in the midst of that plain +that day! Our pilgrim was full of the most laborious going; sighs and +groans rose out of his heart at every step; and then his burden on his +back, and his filthy, slimy rags all made him a picture such that it was +to any man's credit and praise that he should stop to speak to him. And +then, when our pilgrim looked up, he saw a gentleman standing beside him +to whom he was ashamed to speak. For the gentleman had no burden on his +back, and he did not go over the plain laboriously. There was not a spot +or a speck, a rent or a wrinkle on all his fine raiment. He could not +have been better appointed if he had just stepped out of the gate at the +head of the way; they can wear no cleaner garments than his in the +Celestial City itself. 'How now, good fellow? Whither away after this +burdened manner?' 'A burdened manner, indeed, as ever I think poor +creature had. And whereas you ask me whither away, I tell you, sir, I am +going to yonder wicket gate before me; for there, as I am informed, I +shall be put into a way to be rid of my heavy burden.' 'Hast thou a wife +and children?' Yes; he is ashamed to say that he has. But he confesses +that he cannot to-day take the pleasure in them that he used to do. Since +his sin so came upon him, he is sometimes as if he had neither wife nor +child nor a house over his head. John Bunyan was of Samuel Rutherford's +terrible experience,--that our sins and our sinfulness poison all our +best enjoyments. We do not hear much of Rutherford's wife and children, +and that, no doubt, for the sufficient reason that he gives us in his so +open-minded letter. But Bunyan laments over his blind child with a +lament worthy to stand beside the lament of David over Absalom, and again +over Saul and Jonathan at Mount Gilboa. At the same time, John Bunyan +often felt sore and sad at heart that he could not love and give all his +heart to his wife and children as they deserved to be loved and to have +all his heart. He often felt guilty as he looked on them and knew in +himself that they did not have in him such a father as, God knew, he +wished he was, or ever in this world could hope to be. 'Yes,' he said, +'but I cannot take the pleasure in them that I would. I am sometimes as +if I had none. My sin sometimes drives me like a man bereft of his +reason and clean demented.' 'Who bid thee go this way to be rid of thy +burden? I beshrew him for his counsel. There is not a more troublesome +and dangerous way in the world than this is to which he hath directed +thee. And besides, though I used to have some of the same burden when I +was young, not since I settled in that town,' pointing to the town of +Carnal-Policy over the plain, 'have I been at any time troubled in that +way.' And then he went on to describe and denounce the way to the +Celestial City, and he did it like a man who had been all over it, and +had come back again. His alarming description of the upward way reads to +us like a page out of Job, or Jeremiah, or David, or Paul. 'Hear me,' he +says, 'for I am older than thou. Thou art like to meet with in the way +which thou goest wearisomeness, painfulness, hunger, perils, nakedness, +sword, lions, dragons, darkness, and in a word, death, and what not.' You +would think that you were reading the eighth of the Romans at the thirty- +fifth verse; only Mr. Worldly-Wiseman does not go on to finish the +chapter. He does not go on to add, 'I am persuaded that neither death, +nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, +nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall +be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ our +Lord.' No; Worldly-Wiseman never reads the Romans, and he never hears a +sermon on that chapter when he goes to church. + +Mr. Worldly-Wiseman became positively eloquent and impressive and all but +convincing as he went so graphically and cumulatively over all the +sorrows that attended on the way to which this pilgrim was now setting +his face. But, staggering as it all was, the man in rags and slime only +smiled a sad and sobbing smile in answer, and said: 'Why, sir, this +burden upon my back is far more terrible to me than all the things which +you have mentioned; nay, methinks I care not what I meet with in the way, +so be I can also meet with deliverance from my burden.' This is what our +Lord calls a pilgrim having the root of the matter in himself. This poor +soul had by this time so much wearisomeness, painfulness, hunger, perils, +nakedness, sword, lions, dragons, darkness, death, and what not in +himself, that all these threatened things outside of himself were but so +many bugbears and hobgoblins wherewith to terrify children; they were but +things to be laughed at by every man who is in ernest in the way. 'I +care not what else I meet with if only I also meet with deliverance.' +There speaks the true pilgrim. There speaks the man who drew down the +Son of God to the cross for that man's deliverance. There speaks the +man, who, mire, and rags, and burdens and all, will yet be found in the +heaven of heavens where the chief of sinners shall see their Deliverer +face to face, and shall at last and for ever be like Him. Peter examined +Dante in heaven on faith, James examined him on hope, and John took him +through his catechism on love, and the seer came out of the tent with a +laurel crown on his brow. I do not know who the examiner on sin will be, +but, speaking for myself on this matter, I would rather take my degree in +that subject than in all the other subjects set for a sinner's +examination on earth or in heaven. For to know myself, and especially, +as the wise man says, to know the plague of my own heart, is the true and +the only key to all other true knowledge: God and man; the Redeemer and +the devil; heaven and hell; faith, hope, and charity; unbelief, despair, +and malignity, and all things of that kind else, all knowledge will come +to that man who knows himself, and to that man alone, and to that man in +the exact measure in which he does really know himself. Listen again to +this slough-stained, sin-burdened, sighing and sobbing pilgrim, who, in +spite of all these things--nay, in virtue of all these things--is as sure +of heaven and of the far end of heaven as if he were already enthroned +there. 'Wearisomeness,' he protests, 'painfulness, hunger, perils, +nakedness, sword, lions, dragons, darkness, death, and what not--why, +sir, this burden on my back is far more terrible to me than all these +things which you have mentioned; nay, methinks I care not what I meet +with in the way, so be I can also meet with deliverance from my burden.' +O God! let this same mind be found in me and in all the men and women for +whose souls I shall have to answer at the day of judgment, and I shall be +content and safe before Thee. + +That strong outburst from this so forfoughten man for a moment quite +overawed Worldly-Wiseman. He could not reply to an earnestness like +this. He did not understand it, and could not account for it. The only +thing he ever was in such earnestness as that about was his success in +business and his title that he and his wife were scheming for. But +still, though silenced by this unaccountable outburst of our pilgrim, +Worldly-Wiseman's enmity against the upward way, and especially against +all the men and all the books that made pilgrims take to that way, was +not silenced. 'How camest thou by thy burden at first?' By reading this +Book in my hand.' Worldly-Wiseman did not fall foul of the Book indeed, +but he fell all the more foul of those who meddled with matters they had +not a head for. 'Leave these high and deep things for the ministers who +are paid to understand and explain them, and attend to matters more +within thy scope.' And then he went on to tell of a far better way to +get rid of the burden that meddlesome men brought on themselves by +reading that book too much--a far better and swifter way than attempting +the wicket-gate. 'Thou wilt never be settled in thy mind till thou art +rid of that burden, nor canst thou enjoy the blessings of wife and child +as long as that burden lies so heavy upon thee.' That was so true that +it made the pilgrim look up. A gentleman who can speak in that true +style must know more than he says about such burdens as this of mine; +and, after all, he may be able, who knows, to give me some good advice in +my great straits. 'Pray, sir, open this secret to me, for I sorely stand +in need of good counsel.' Let him here who has no such burden as this +poor pilgrim had cast the first stone at Christian; I cannot. If one who +looked like a gentleman came to me to-night and told me how I would on +the spot get to a peace of conscience never to be lost again, and how I +would get a heart to-night that would never any more plague and pollute +me, I would be mightily tempted to forget what all my former teachers had +told me and try this new Gospel. And especially if the gentleman said +that the remedy was just at hand. 'Pray, sir,' said the breathless and +spiritless man, 'wilt thou, then, open this secret to me?' + +The wit and the humour and the satire of the rest of the scene must be +fully enjoyed over the great book itself. The village named Morality, +hard by the hill; that judicious man Legality, who dwells in the first +house you come at after you have turned the hill; Civility, the pretty +young man that Legality hath to his son; the hospitality of the village; +the low rents and the cheap provisions, and all the charities and +amenities of the place,--all together make up such a picture as you +cannot get anywhere out of John Bunyan. And then the pilgrim's stark +folly in entering into Worldly-Wiseman's secret; his horror as the hill +began to thunder and lighten and threaten to fall upon him; the sudden +descent of Evangelist; and then the plain-spoken words that passed +between the preacher and the pilgrim,--don't say again that the poorest +of the Puritans were without letters, or that they had not their own +esoteric writings full of fun and frolic; don't say that again till you +are a pilgrim yourself, and have our John Bunyan for one of your classics +by heart. + +We are near an end, but before you depart, stand still a little, as +Evangelist said to Christian, that I may show you the words of God. And +first, watch yourselves well, for you all have a large piece of this +worldly-wise man in yourselves. You all take something of some ancestor, +remote or immediate, who was wise only for this world. Yes, to be sure, +for you still decline as they did, and desert as they did, those you deem +to be the weakest, and stand with those that you suppose to be the +strongest side. _The Architect of Fortune_ is perhaps too strong meat +for your stomach; but still, if you ever light upon its powerful pages, +you will surely blush in secret to see yourself turned so completely +inside out. You may not have chosen your church wholly with an eye to +your shop; but you must admit that you see as good and better men than +you are doing that every day. And it is a sure sign to you that you do +not yet know the plague of your own heart, unless you know yourself to be +a man more set upon the position and the praise that this world gives +than you yet are on the position and the praise that come from God only. +Set a watch on your own worldly heart. Watch and pray, lest you also +enter into all Worldly-Wiseman's temptation. This is one of the words of +God to you. + +Another word of God is this. The way of the cross, said severe +Evangelist, is odious to every worldly-wise man; while, all the time, it +is the only way there is, and there never will be any other way to +eternal life. The only way to life is the way of the cross. There are +two crosses, indeed, on the way to the Celestial City; there is, first, +the Cross of Christ, once for you, and then there is your cross daily for +Christ, and it takes both crosses to secure and to assure any man that he +is on the right road, and that he will come at last to the right end. +'The Christian's great conquest over the world,' says William Law, 'is +all contained in the mystery of Christ upon the cross. And true +Christianity is nothing else but an entire and absolute conformity to +that spirit which Christ showed in the mysterious sacrifice of Himself +upon the cross. Every man is only so far a Christian as he partakes of +this same spirit of Christ--the same suffering spirit, the same sacrifice +of himself, the same renunciation of the world, the same humility and +meekness, the same patient bearing of injuries, reproaches, and +contempts, the same dying to all the greatness, honours, and happiness of +this world that Christ showed on the cross. We also are to suffer, to be +crucified, to die, to rise with Christ, or else His crucifixion, His +death, and His resurrection will profit us nothing. 'This is the second +word of God unto thee. And the third thing to-night is this, that though +thy sin be very great, though thou hast a past life round thy neck enough +to sink thee for ever out of the sight of God and all good men; a youth +of sensuality now long and closely cloaked over with an after life of +worldly prosperity, worldly decency, and worldly religion, all which only +makes thee that whited sepulchre that Christ has in His eye when He +speaks of thee with such a severe and dreadful countenance; yet if thou +confess thyself to be all the whited sepulchre He sees thee to be, and +yet knock at His gate in all thy rags and slime, He will immediately lay +aside that severe countenance and will show thee all His goodwill. +Notwithstanding all that thou hast done, and all thou still art, He will +not deny His own words, or do otherwise than at once fulfil them all to +thee. Ask, then, and it shall be given thee; seek, and thou shalt find; +knock, and it shall be opened unto thee. And with a great goodwill, He +will say to those that stand by Him, Take away the filthy garments from +him. And to thee He will say, Behold, I have caused all thine iniquity +to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. + + + + +GOODWILL, THE GATEKEEPER + + + 'Goodwill.'--Luke 2. 14. + +'So in process of time Christian got up to the gate. Now there was +written over the gate, _Knock_, _and it shall be opened unto you_. He +knocked, therefore, more than once or twice, saying, May I now enter +here? when at last there came a grave person to the gate, named Goodwill, +who asked him who was there?' The gravity of the gatekeeper was the +first thing that struck the pilgrim. And it was the same thing that so +struck some of the men who saw most of our Lord that they handed down to +their children the true tradition that He was often seen in tears, but +that no one had ever seen or heard Him laugh. The prophecy in the +prophet concerning our Lord was fulfilled to the letter. He was indeed a +man of sorrows, and He early and all His life long had a close +acquaintance with grief. Our Lord had come into this world on a very sad +errand. We are so stupefied and besotted with sin, that we have no +conception how sad an errand our Lord had been sent on, and how sad a +task He soon discovered it to be. To be a man without sin, a man hating +sin, and hating nothing else but sin, and yet to have to spend all His +days in a world lying in sin, and in the end to have all that world of +sin laid upon Him till He was Himself made sin,--how sad a task was that! +Great, no doubt, as was the joy that was set before our Lord, and sure as +He was of one day entering on that joy, yet the daily sight of so much +sin in all men around Him, and the cross and the shame that lay right +before Him, made Him, in spite of the future joy, all the Man of Sorrow +Isaiah had said He would be, and made light-mindedness and laughter +impossible to our Lord,--as it is, indeed, to all men among ourselves who +have anything of His mind about this present world and the sin of this +world, they also are men of sorrow, and of His sorrow. They, too, are +acquainted with grief. Their tears, like His, will never be wiped off in +this world. They will not laugh with all their heart till they laugh +where He now laughs. Then it will be said of them, too, that they began +to be merry. 'What was the matter with you that you did laugh in your +sleep last night? asked Christiana of Mercy in the morning. I suppose +you were in a dream. So I was, said Mercy, but are you sure that I +laughed? Yes, you laughed heartily; but, prithee, Mercy, tell me thy +dream. Well, I dreamed that I was in a solitary place and all alone, and +was there bemoaning the hardness of my heart, when methought I saw one +coming with wings towards me. So he came directly to me, and said, +Mercy, what aileth thee? Now, when he heard my complaint, he said, Peace +be to thee. He also wiped mine eyes with his handkerchief, and clad me +in silver and gold; he put a chain about my neck also, and earrings in +mine ears, and a beautiful crown upon my head. So he went up. I +followed him till we came to a golden gate; and I thought I saw your +husband there. But did I laugh? Laugh! ay, and well you might, to see +yourself so well.' + +But to return and begin again. Goodwill, who opened the gate, was, as we +saw, a person of a very grave and commanding aspect; so much so, that in +his sudden joy our pilgrim was a good deal overawed as he looked on the +countenance of the man who stood in the gate, and it was some time +afterwards before he understood why he wore such a grave and almost sad +aspect. But afterwards, as he went up the way, and sometimes returned in +thought to the wicket-gate, he came to see very good reason why the +keeper of that gate looked as he did look. The site and situation of the +gate, for one thing, was of itself enough to banish all light-mindedness +from the man who was stationed there. For the gatehouse stood just above +the Slough of Despond, and that itself filled the air of the place with a +dampness and a depression that could be felt. And then out of the +downward windows of the gate, the watcher's eye always fell on the City +of Destruction in the distance, and on her sister cities sitting like her +daughters round about her. And that also made mirth and hilarity +impossible at that gate. And then the kind of characters who came +knocking all hours of the day and the night at that gate. Goodwill never +saw a happy face or heard a cheerful voice from one year's end to the +other. And when any one so far forgot himself as to put on an untimely +confidence and self-satisfaction, the gatekeeper would soon put him +through such questions as quickly sobered him if he had anything at all +of the root of the matter in him. Terror, horror, despair, remorse, +chased men and women up to that gate. They would often fall before his +threshold more dead than alive. And then, after the gate was opened and +the pilgrims pulled in, the gate had only opened on a path of such +painfulness, toil, and terrible risk, that at whatever window Goodwill +looked out, he always saw enough to make him and keep him a grave, if not +a sad, man. It was, as he sometimes said, his meat and his drink to keep +the gate open for pilgrims; but the class of men who came calling +themselves pilgrims; the condition they came in; the past, that in spite +of all both he and they could do, still came in through his gate after +them, and went up all the way with them; their ignorance of the way, on +which he could only start them; the multitudes who started, and the +handfuls who held on; the many who for a time ran well, but afterwards +left their bones to bleach by the wayside; and all the impossible-to-be- +told troubles, dangers, sorrows, shipwrecks that certainly lay before the +most steadfast and single-hearted pilgrim--all that was more than enough +to give the man at the gate his grave and anxious aspect. + +Not that his great gravity, with all the causes of it, ever made him a +melancholy, a morose, a despairing, or even a desponding man. Far from +that. The man of sorrows Himself sometimes rejoiced in spirit. Not +sometimes only, but often He lifted up His heart and thanked His Father +for the work His Father had given Him to do, and for the success that had +been granted to Him in the doing of it. And as often as He looked +forward to the time when he should finish His work and receive His +discharge, and return to His Father's house, at the thought of that He +straightway forgot all His present sorrows. And somewhat so was it with +Goodwill at his gate. No man could be but at bottom happy, and even +joyful, who had a post like his to occupy, a gate like his to keep, and, +altogether, a work like his to do. No man with his name and his nature +can ever in any circumstances be really unhappy. 'Happiness is the bloom +that always lies on a life of true goodness,' and this gatehouse was full +of the happiness that follows on and always dwells with true goodness. +Goodwill cannot have more happiness till he shuts in his last pilgrim +into the Celestial City, and then himself enters in after him as a +shepherd after a lost sheep. + +The happy, heavenly, divine disposition of the gatekeeper was such, that +it overflowed from the pilgrim who stood beside him and descended upon +his wife and children who remained behind him in the doomed city. So +full of love was the gatekeeper's heart, that it ran out upon Obstinate +and Pliable also. His heart was so large and so hospitable, that he was +not satisfied with one pilgrim received and assisted that day. How is +it, he asked, that you have come here alone? Did any of your neighbours +know of your coming? And why did he who came so far not come through? +Alas, poor man, said Goodwill, is the celestial glory of so little esteem +with him that he counteth it not worth running the hazards of a few +difficulties to obtain it? Our pilgrim got a lifelong lesson in goodwill +to all men at that gate that day. The gatekeeper showed such deep and +patient and genuine interest in all the pilgrim's past history, and in +all his family and personal affairs, that Christian all his days could +never show impatience, or haste, or lack of interest in the most long- +winded and egotistical pilgrim he ever met. He always remembered, when +he was becoming impatient, how much of his precious time and of his +loving attention his old friend Goodwill had given to him. Our pilgrim +got tired of talking about himself long before Goodwill had ceased to ask +questions and to listen to the answers. So much was Christian taken with +the courtesy and the kindness of Goodwill, that had it not been for his +crushing burden, he would have offered to remain in Goodwill's house to +run his errands, to light his fires, and to sweep his floors. So much +was he taken captive with Goodwill's extraordinary kindness and unwearied +attention. And since he could not remain at the gate, but must go on to +the city of all goodwill itself, our pilgrim set himself all his days to +copy this gatekeeper when he met with any fellow-pilgrim who had any +story that he wished to tell. And many were the lonely and forgotten +souls that Christian cheered and helped on, not by his gold or his +silver, nor by anything else, but just by his open ear. To listen with +patience and with attention to a fellow-pilgrim's wrongs and sorrows, and +even his smallest interests, said this Christian to himself, is just what +Goodwill so winningly did to me. + +With all his goodwill the grave gatekeeper could not say that the way to +the Celestial City was other than a narrow, a stringent, and a +heart-searching way. 'Come,' he said, 'and I will tell thee the way thou +must go.' There are many wide ways to hell, and many there be who crowd +them, but there is only one way to heaven, and you will sometimes think +you must have gone off it, there are so few companions; sometimes there +will be only one footprint, with here and there a stream of blood, and +always as you proceed, it becomes more and more narrow, till it strips a +man bare, and sometimes threatens to close upon him and crush him to the +earth altogether. Our Lord in as many words tells us all that. Strive, +He says, strive every day. For many shall seek to enter into the way of +salvation, but because they do not early enough, and long enough, and +painfully enough strive, they come short, and are shut out. Have you, +then, anything in your religious life that Christ will at last accept as +the striving He intended and demanded? Does your religion cause you any +real effort--Christ calls it _agony_? Have you ever had, do you ever +have, anything that He would so describe? What cross do you every day +take up? In what thing do you every day deny yourself? Name it. Put +your finger on it. Write it in cipher on the margin of your Bible. Would +the most liberal judgment be able to say of you that you have any fear +and trembling in the work of your salvation? If not, I am afraid there +must be some mistake somewhere. There must be great guilt somewhere. At +your parents' door, or at your minister's, or, if their hands are clean, +then at your own. Christ has made it plain to a proverb, and John Bunyan +has made it a nursery and a schoolboy story, that the way to heaven is +steep and narrow and lonely and perilous. And that, remember, not a few +of the first miles of the way, but all the way, and even through the dark +valley itself. 'Almost all that is said in the New Testament of men's +watching, giving earnest heed to themselves, running the race that is set +before them, striving and agonising, fighting, putting on the whole +armour of God, pressing forward, reaching forth, crying to God day and +night; I say, almost all that we have in the New Testament on these +subjects is spoken and directed to the saints. Where those things are +applied to sinners seeking salvation once, they are spoken of the saints' +prosecution of their salvation ten times' (Jonathan Edwards). If you +have a life at all like that, you will be sorely tempted to think that +such suffering and struggle, increasing rather than diminishing as life +goes on, is a sign that you are so bad as not to be a true Christian at +all. You will be tempted to think and say so. But all the time the +truth is, that he who has not that labouring, striving, agonising, +fearing, and trembling in himself, knows nothing at all about the +religion of Christ and the way to heaven; and if he thinks he does, then +that but proves him a hypocrite, a self-deceived, self-satisfied +hypocrite; there is not an ounce of a true Christian in him. Says Samuel +Rutherford on this matter: 'Christ commandeth His hearers to a strict and +narrow way, in mortifying heart-lusts, in loving our enemy, in feeding +him when he is hungry, in suffering for Christ's sake and the gospel's, +in bearing His cross, in denying ourselves, in becoming humble as +children, in being to all men and at all times meek and lowly in heart.' +Let any man lay all that intelligently and imaginatively alongside of his +own daily life. Let him name some such heart-lust. Let him name also +some enemy, and ask himself what it is to love that man, and to feed him +in his hunger; what it is in which he is called to suffer for Christ's +sake and the gospel's, in his reputation, in his property, in his +business, in his feelings. Let him put his finger on something in which +he is every day to deny himself, and to be humble and teachable, and to +keep himself out of sight like a little child; and if that man does not +find out how narrow and heart-searching the way to heaven is, he will be +the first who has so found his way thither. No, no; be not deceived. +Deceive not yourself, and let no man deceive you. God is not mocked, +neither are His true saints. 'Would to God I were back in my pulpit but +for one Sabbath,' said a dying minister in Aberdeen. 'What would you +do?' asked a brother minister at his bedside. 'I would preach to the +people the difficulty of salvation,' he said. All which things are told, +not for purposes of debate or defiance, but to comfort and instruct God's +true people who are finding salvation far more difficult than anybody had +ever told them it would be. Comfort My people, saith your God. Speak +comfortably to My people. Come, said Goodwill, and I will teach thee +about the way thou must go. Look before thee, dost thou see that narrow +way? That is the way thou must go. And then thou mayest always +distinguish the right way from the wrong. The wrong is crooked and wide, +and the right is straight as a rule can make it,--straight and narrow. + +Goodwill said all that in order to direct and to comfort the pilgrim; but +that was not all that this good man said with that end. For, when +Christian asked him if he could not help him off with his burden that was +upon his back, he told him: 'As to thy burden, be content to bear it +until thou comest to the place of deliverance, for there it will fall +from thy back of itself.' Get you into the straight and narrow way, says +Goodwill, with his much experience of the ways and fortunes of true +pilgrims; get you sure into the right way, and leave your burden to God. +He appoints the place of deliverance, and it lies before thee. The place +of thy deliverance cannot be behind thee, and it is not in my house, else +thy burden would have been already off. But it is before thee. Be +earnest, therefore, in the way. Look not behind thee. Go not into any +crooked way; and one day, before you know, and when you are not pulling +at it, your burden will fall off of itself. Be content to bear it till +then, says bold and honest Goodwill, speaking so true to pilgrim +experience. Yes; be content, O ye people of God, crying with this +pilgrim for release from your burden of guilt, and no less those of you +who are calling with Paul for release from the still more bitter and +crushing burden made up of combined guilt and corruption. Be content +till the place and the time of deliverance; nay, even under your burden +and your bonds be glad, as Paul was, and go up the narrow way, still +chanting to yourself, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is +only becoming that a great sinner should tarry the Lord's leisure; all +the more that the greatest sinner may be sure the Lord will come, and +will not tarry. The time is long, but the thing is sure. + +And now two lessons from Goodwill's gate:-- + +1. The gate was shut when Christian came up to it, and no one was +visible anywhere about it. The only thing visible was the writing over +the gate which told all pilgrims to knock. Now, when we come up to the +same gate we are disappointed and discouraged that the gatekeeper is not +standing already upon his doorstep and his arms round our neck. We knelt +to-day in secret prayer, and there was only our bed or our chair visible +before us. There was no human being, much less to all appearance any +Divine Presence, in the place. And we prayed a short, indeed, but a not +unearnest prayer, and then we rose up and came away disappointed because +no one appeared. But look at him who is now inheriting the promises. He +knocked, says his history, more than once or twice. That is to say, he +did not content himself with praying one or two seconds and then giving +over, but he continued in prayer till the gatekeeper came. And as he +knocked, he said, so loud and so impatient that all those in the +gatehouse could hear him, + + 'May I now enter here? Will he within + Open to sorry me, though I have been + A wandering rebel? Then shall I + Not fail to sing his lasting praise on high.' + +2. 'We make no objections against any,' said Goodwill; 'notwithstanding +all that they have done before they come hither, they are in no wise cast +out.' He told me all things that ever I did, said the woman of Samaria, +telling her neighbours about our Lord's conversation with her. And, +somehow, there was something in the gatekeeper's words that called back +to Christian, if not all the things he had ever done, yet from among them +the worst things he had ever done. They all rose up black as hell before +his eyes as the gatekeeper did not name them at all, but only said +'notwithstanding all that thou hast done.' Christian never felt his past +life so black, or his burden so heavy, or his heart so broken, as when +Goodwill just said that one word 'notwithstanding.' 'We make no +objections against any; notwithstanding all that they have done before +they come hither, they are in no wise cast out.' + + + + +THE INTERPRETER + + + 'An interpreter, one among a thousand.'--Elihu. + +We come to-night to the Interpreter's House. And since every minister of +the gospel is an interpreter, and every evangelical church is an +interpreter's house, let us gather up some of the precious lessons to +ministers and to people with which this passage of the _Pilgrim's +Progress_ so much abounds. + +1. In the first place, then, I observe that the House of the Interpreter +stands just beyond the Wicket Gate. In the whole topography of the +_Pilgrim's Progress_ there lies many a deep lesson. The church that Mr. +Worldly-Wiseman supported, and on the communion roll of which he was so +determined to have our pilgrim's so unprepared name, stood far down on +the other side of Goodwill's gate. It was a fine building, and it had an +eloquent man for its minister, and the whole service was an attraction +and an enjoyment to all the people of the place; but our Interpreter was +never asked to show any of his significant things there; and, indeed, +neither minister nor people would have understood him had he ever done +so. And had any of the parishioners from below the gate ever by any +chance stumbled into the Interpreter's house, his most significant rooms +would have had no significance to them. Both he and his house would have +been a mystery and an offence to Worldly-Wiseman, his minister, and his +fellow-worshippers. John Bunyan has the clear warrant both of Jesus +Christ and the Apostle Paul for the place on which he has planted the +Interpreter's house. 'It is given to you,' said our Lord to His +disciples, 'to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them +it is not given.' And Paul tells us that 'the natural man receiveth not +the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: +neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' And, +accordingly, no reader of the _Pilgrim's Progress_ will really understand +what he sees in the Interpreter's House, unless he is already a man of a +spiritual mind. Intelligent children enjoy the pictures and the people +that are set before them in this illustrated house, but they must become +the children of God, and must be well on in the life of God, before they +will be able to say that the house next the gate has been a profitable +and a helpful house to them. All that is displayed here--all the +furniture and all the vessels, all the ornaments and all the employments +and all the people of the Interpreter's House--is fitted and intended to +be profitable as well as interesting to pilgrims only. No man has any +real interest in the things of this house, or will take any abiding +profit out of it, till he is fairly started on the upward road. In his +former life, and while still on the other side of the gate, our pilgrim +had no interest in such things as he is now to see and hear; and if he +had seen and heard them in his former life, he would not, with all the +Interpreter's explanation, have understood them. As here among ourselves +to-night, they who will understand and delight in the things they hear in +this house to-night are those only who have really begun to live a +religious life. The realities of true religion are now the most real +things in life--to them; they love divine things now; and since they +began to love divine things, you cannot entertain them better than by +exhibiting and explaining divine things to them. There is no house in +all the earth, after the gate itself, that is more dear to the true +pilgrim heart than just the Interpreter's House. 'I was glad when it was +said to me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Peace be within thy +walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.' + +2. And besides being built on the very best spot in all the land for its +owner's purposes, every several room in that great house was furnished +and fitted up for the entertainment and instruction of pilgrims. Every +inch of that capacious and many-chambered house was given up to the +delectation of pilgrims. The public rooms were thrown open for their +convenience and use at all hours of the day and night, and the private +rooms were kept retired and secluded for such as sought retirement and +seclusion. There were dark rooms also with iron cages in them, till +Christian and his companions came out of those terrible places, bringing +with them an everlasting caution to watchfulness and a sober mind. There +were rooms also given up to vile and sordid uses. One room there was +full of straws and sticks and dust, with an old man who did nothing else +day nor night but wade about among the straws and sticks and dust, and +rake it all into little heaps, and then sit watching lest any one should +overturn them. And then, strange to tell it, and not easy to get to the +full significance of it, the bravest room in all the house had absolutely +nothing in it but a huge, ugly, poisonous spider hanging to the wall with +her hands. 'Is there but one spider in all this spacious room?' asked +the Interpreter. And the water stood in Christiana's eyes; she had come +by this time thus far on her journey also. She was a woman of a quick +apprehension, and the water stood in her eyes at the Interpreter's +question, and she said: 'Yes, Lord, there is here more than one. Yea, +and spiders whose venom is far more destructive than that which is in +her.' The Interpreter then looked pleasantly on her, and said: 'Thou +hast said the truth.' This made Mercy blush, and the boys to cover their +faces, for they all began now to understand the riddle. 'This is to show +you,' said the Interpreter, 'that however full of the venom of sin you +may be, yet you may, by the hand of faith, lay hold of, and dwell in the +best room that belongs to the King's House above.' Then they all seemed +to be glad, but the water stood in their eyes. A wall also stood apart +on the grounds of the house with an always dying fire on one side of it, +while a man on the other side of the wall continually fed the fire +through hidden openings in the wall. A whole palace stood also on the +grounds, the inspection of which so kindled our pilgrim's heart, that he +refused to stay here any longer, or to see any more sights--so much had +he already seen of the evil of sin and of the blessedness of salvation. +Not that he had seen as yet the half of what that house held for the +instruction of pilgrims. Only, time would fail us to visit the hen and +her chickens; the butcher killing a sheep and pulling her skin over her +ears, and she lying still under his hands and taking her death patiently; +also the garden with the flowers all diverse in stature, and quality, and +colour, and smell, and virtue, and some better than some, and all where +the gardener had set them, there they stand, and quarrel not with one +another. The robin-red-breast also, so pretty of note and colour and +carriage, but instead of bread and crumbs, and such like harmless matter, +with a great spider in his mouth. A tree also, whose inside was rotten, +and yet it grew and had leaves. So they went on their way and sang: + + 'This place hath been our second stage, + Here have we heard and seen + Those good things that from age to age + To others hid have been. + The butcher, garden, and the field, + The robin and his bait, + Also the rotten tree, doth yield + Me argument of weight; + To move me for to watch and pray, + To strive to be sincere, + To take my cross up day by day, + And serve the Lord with few.' + +The significant rooms of that divine house instruct us also that all the +lessons requisite for our salvation are not to be found in any one +scripture or in any one sermon, but that all that is required by any +pilgrim or any company of pilgrims should all be found in every +minister's ministry as he leads his flock on from one Sabbath-day to +another, rightly dividing the word of truth. Our ministers should have +something in their successive sermons for everybody. Something for the +children, something for the slow-witted and the dull of understanding, +and something specially suited for those who are of a quick apprehension; +something at one time to make the people smile, at another time to make +them blush, and at another time to make the water stand in their eyes. + +3. And, then, the Interpreter's life was as full of work as his house +was of entertainment and instruction. Not only so, but his life, it was +well known, had been quite as full of work before he had a house to work +for as ever it had been since. The Interpreter did nothing else but +continually preside over his house and all that was in it and around it, +and it was all gone over and seen to with his own eyes and hands every +day. He had been present at the laying of every stone and beam of that +solid and spacious house of his. There was not a pin nor a loop of its +furniture, there was not a picture on its walls, nor a bird nor a beast +in its woods and gardens, that he did not know all about and could not +hold discourse about. And then, after he had taken you all over his +house, with its significant rooms and woods and gardens, he was full all +supper-time of all wise saws and witty proverbs. 'One leak will sink a +ship,' he said that night, 'and one sin will destroy a sinner.' And all +their days the pilgrims remembered that word from the Interpreter's lips, +and they often said it to themselves as they thought of their own +besetting sin. Now, if it is indeed so, that every gospel minister is an +interpreter, and every evangelical church an interpreter's house, what an +important passage this is for all those who are proposing and preparing +to be ministers. Let them reflect upon it: what a house this is that the +Interpreter dwells in; how early and how long ago he began to lay out his +grounds and to build his house upon them; how complete in all its parts +it is, and how he still watches and labours to have it more complete. +Understandest thou what thou here readest? it is asked of all ministers, +young and old, as they turn over John Bunyan's pungent pages. And every +new room, every new bird, and beast, and herb, and flower makes us blush +for shame as we contrast our own insignificant and ill-furnished house +with the noble house of the Interpreter. Let all our students who have +not yet fatally destroyed themselves and lost their opportunity lay the +Interpreter's House well to heart. Let them be students not in idle name +only, as so many are, but in intense reality, as so few are. Let them +read everything that bears upon the Bible, and let them read nothing that +does not. They have not the time nor the permission. Let them be +content to be men of one book. Let them give themselves wholly to the +interpretation of divine truth as its riddles are set in nature and in +man, in scripture, in providence, and in spiritual experience. Let them +store their memories at college with all sacred truth, and with all +secular truth that can be made sacred. And if their memories are weak +and treacherous, let them be quiet under God's will in that, and all the +more labour to make up in other ways for that defect, so that they may +have always something to say to the purpose when their future people come +up to church hungry for instruction and comfort and encouragement. Let +them look around and see the sin that sinks the ship of so many +ministers; and let them begin while yet their ship is in the yard and see +that she is fitted up and furnished, stored and stocked, so that she +shall in spite of sure storms and sunken rocks deliver her freight in the +appointed haven. When they are lying in bed of a Sabbath morning, let +them forecast the day when they shall have to give a strict account of +their eight years of golden opportunity among the churches, and the +classes, and the societies, and the libraries of our university seats. +Let them be able to name some great book, ay, more than one great book, +they mastered, for every year of their priceless and irredeemable student +life. Let them all their days have old treasure-houses that they filled +full with scholarship and with literature and with all that will minister +to a congregation's many desires and necessities, collected and kept +ready from their student days. 'Meditate upon these things; give thyself +wholly up to them, that thy profiting may appear unto all.' + +4. And then with a sly stroke at us old ministers, our significant +author points out to us how much better furnished the Interpreter's House +was by the time Christiana and the boys visited it compared with that +early time when Christian was entertained in it. Our pilgrim got far +more in the Interpreter's House of delight and instruction than he could +carry out of it, but that did not tempt the Interpreter to sit down and +content himself with taking all his future pilgrims into the same room, +and showing them the same pictures, and repeating to them the same +explanations. No, for he reflected that each coming pilgrim would need +some new significant room to himself, and therefore, as soon as he got +one pilgrim off his hands, he straightway set about building and +furnishing new rooms, putting up new pictures, and replenishing his woods +and his waters with new beasts and birds and fishes. I am ashamed, he +said, that I had so little to show when I first opened my gates to +receive pilgrims, and I do not know why they came to me as they did. I +was only a beginner in these things when my first visitor came to my +gates. Let every long-settled, middle-aged, and even grey-headed +minister read the life of the Interpreter at this point and take courage +and have hope. Let it teach us all to break some new ground in the field +of divine truth with every new year. Let it teach us all to be students +all our days. Let us buy, somehow, the poorest and the oldest of us, +some new and first-rate book every year. Let us not indeed shut up +altogether our old rooms if they ever had anything significant in them, +but let us add now a new wing to our spiritual house, now a new picture +to its walls, and now a new herb to its gardens. 'Resolved,' wrote +Jonathan Edwards, 'that as old men have seldom any advantage of new +discoveries, because these are beside a way of thinking they have been +long used to; resolved, therefore, if ever I live to years, that I will +be impartial to hear the reasons of all pretended discoveries, and +receive them, if rational, how long soever I have been used to another +way of thinking.' + +5. The fickle, frivolous, volatile character of so many divinity +students is excellently hit off by Bunyan in our pilgrim's impatience to +be out of the Interpreter's House. No sooner had he seen one or two of +the significant rooms than this easily satisfied student was as eager to +get out of that house as he had been to get in. Twice over the wise and +learned Interpreter had to beg and beseech this ignorant and impulsive +pilgrim to stop and get another lesson in the religious life before he +left the great school-house. All our professors of divinity and all our +ministers understand the parable at this point only too well. Their +students are eager to get into their classes; like our pilgrim, they have +heard the fame of this and that teacher, and there is not standing-room +in the class for the first weeks of the session. But before Christmas +there is room enough for strangers, and long before the session closes, +half the students are counting the weeks and plotting to petition the +Assembly against the length and labour of the curriculum. Was there ever +a class that was as full and attentive at the end of the session as it +was at the beginning? Never since our poor human nature was so stricken +with laziness and shallowness and self-sufficiency. But what is the +chaff to the wheat? It is the wheat that deserves and repays the +husbandman's love and labour. When Plato looked up from his desk in the +Academy, after reading and expounding one of his greatest Dialogues, he +found only one student left in the class-room, but then, that student was +Aristotle. 'Now let me go,' said Christian. 'Nay, stay,' said the +Interpreter, 'till I have showed thee a little more.' 'Sir, is it not +time for me to go?' 'Do tarry till I show thee just one thing more.' + +6. 'Here have I seen things rare and profitable, + +. . . Then let me be + +Thankful, O good Interpreter, to thee.' + +Sydney Smith, with his usual sagacity, says that the last vice of the +pulpit is to be uninteresting. Now, the Interpreter's House had this +prime virtue in it, that it was all interesting. Do not our children beg +of us on Sabbath nights to let them see the Interpreter's show once more; +it is so inexhaustibly and unfailingly interesting? It is only stupid +men and women who ever weary of it. But, 'profitable' was the one and +universal word with which all the pilgrims left the Interpreter's House. +'Rare and pleasant,' they said, and sometimes 'dreadful;' but it was +always 'profitable.' Now, how seldom do we hear our people at the church +door step down into the street saying, 'profitable'? If they said that +oftener their ministers would study profit more than they do. The people +say 'able,' or 'not at all able'; 'eloquent,' or 'stammering and +stumbling'; 'excellent' in style and manner and accent, or the opposite +of all that; and their ministers, to please the people and to earn their +approval, labour after these approved things. But if the people only +said that the prayers and the preaching were profitable and helpful, even +when they too seldom are, then our preachers would set the profit of the +people far more before them both in selecting and treating and delivering +their Sabbath-day subjects. A lady on one occasion said to her minister, +'Sir, your preaching does my soul good.' And her minister never forgot +the grave and loving look with which that was said. Not only did he +never forget it, but often when selecting his subject, and treating it, +and delivering it, the question would rise in his heart and conscience, +Will that do my friend's soul any good? 'Rare and profitable,' said the +pilgrim as he left the gate; and hearing that sent the Interpreter back +with new spirit and new invention to fill his house of still more +significant, rare, and profitable things than ever before. 'Meditate on +these things,' said Paul to Timothy his son in the gospel, 'that thy +profiting may appear unto all.' 'Thou art a minister of the word,' wrote +the learned William Perkins beside his name on all his books, 'mind thy +business.' + + + + +PASSION + + + 'A man subject to like passions as we are.'--James 5. 17. + +That was a very significant room in the Interpreter's House where our +pilgrim saw Passion and Patience sitting each one in his chair. Passion +was a young lad who seemed to our pilgrim to be much discontented. He +was never satisfied. He would have all his good things now. His +governor would have him wait for his best things till the beginning of +next year; but no, he will have them all now. And then, when he had got +all his good things, he soon lavished and wasted them all till he had +nothing left but rags. Then said Christian to the Interpreter, 'Expound +this matter more fully to me.' So he said, 'Those two lads are figures; +Passion, of the men of this world; and Patience of the men of that which +is to come.' 'Then I perceive,' said Christian, ''tis not best to covet +things that are now, but to wait for things to come.' 'You say truth,' +replied the Interpreter, 'for the things that are seen are temporal, but +the things that are not seen are eternal.' + +Now from the texts that I have taken out of James and out of this so +significant room in the Interpreter's House, let me try to tell you +something profitable, if so it may be, about passion; the nature of it, +the place it holds, and the part it performs both in human nature and in +the life and the character of a Christian man. + +The name of Passion has already told us his nature, his past life, and +his present character. The whole nomenclature of _The Pilgrim's +Progress_ and of _The Holy War_ is composed on the divine, original, and +natural principle of embodying the nature of a man in his name. God +takes His own names to Himself on that principle. The Creator gave Adam +his name also on that same principle; and then Adam gave their names to +all cattle, to the fowls of the air, and to every beast of the field on +the same principle on which he had got his own name. And so it was at +first with all the Bible names of men and of nations of men. Their name +contained their nature. And John Bunyan was such a student of the Bible, +and of no other book but the Bible, that all his best books are all full, +like the Bible, of the most descriptive and suggestive names. As soon as +Bunyan tells us the name of some new acquaintance or fellow-traveller, we +already know him, so exactly is his nature put into his name. And thus +it is that when we stop for a moment at the door of this little +significant room in the Interpreter's House and ask ourselves the meaning +of the name Passion, we see at once where we are and what we have here +before us. For a 'passion' is just some excitement or agitation of the +mind caused by some outward thing acting on the mind. The inward world +of the mind and heart of man, and this outward world down into which God +has placed man, instantly and continually respond to one another. And +what are called, with so much correctness and propriety, our passions, +are just those inward responses, excitements, and agitations that the +outward world causes in the inward world when those two worlds meet +together. 'Passion' and 'perturbation' are the old classical names that +the ancient philosophers and moralists gave to what they felt in +themselves as their minds and their hearts were affected by the world of +men and things around them. And they used to illustrate their teaching +on the subject of the passions by the figure of a storm at sea. They +said that it was because God had made the sea sensitive and responsive to +the winds that blew over it that a storm at sea ever arose. The storm +did not arise and the ships were not wrecked by anything from within the +sea itself; it was the outward world of the winds striking against the +quiet and inward world of the waters that roused the storms and sank the +ships. And with that illustration well printed in the minds and +imaginations of their scholars the old moralists felt their work among +their scholars was already all but done. For, so full of adaptation and +appeal is the whole outward world to the mind and heart of man, and so +sensitive and instantly responsive is the mind and heart of man to all +the approaches of the outward world, that the mind and heart of man are +constantly full of all kinds of passions, both bad and good. And, then, +this is our present life of probation and opportunity, that all our +passions are placed within us and are committed and entrusted to us as so +many first elements and so much unformed material out of which we are +summoned to build up our life and to shape and complete our character. +The springs of all our actions are in our passions. All our activities +in life, trace them all up to their source, and they will all be found to +run up into the wellhead of our passions. All our virtues are cut as +with a chisel out of our passions, and all our vices are just the +disorders and rebellions of our passions. Our several passions, as they +lie still asleep in our hearts, have as yet no moral character; they are +only the raw material so to speak, of moral character. Our passions are +the life and the riches and the ornaments of human nature, and it is only +because human nature in its present estate is so corrupt and disordered +and degraded, that the otherwise so honourable name of passion has such a +sinister sound to us. And the full regeneration and restitution of human +nature will be accomplished when every several passion is in its right +place, and when reason and conscience and the Spirit of God shall inspire +and rule and regulate all that is within us. + + 'On life's vast ocean diversely we sail, + Reason the card, but passion is the gale.' + +And not Elijah only, as James says, and not Paul and Barnabas only, as +they themselves said, were men of like passions with ourselves, but our +Lord Himself was a man of like passions with us also. He took to Himself +a true body, full of all the appetites of the body, and a reasonable +soul, full of all the affections, passions, and emotions of the soul. +Only, in Him reason and conscience and the law and the Spirit of God were +the card and the compass according to which He steered His life. We have +all our ruling passion, and our Lord also had His. As His disciples saw +His ruling passion kindled in His heart and coming out in His life, they +remembered that it was written of Him in an old Messianic psalm: 'The +zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up.' They were all eaten up of their +ruling passions also. One of ambition, one of emulation, one of avarice, +and so on,--each several disciple was eaten up of his own besetting sin. +But they all saw that it was not so with their Master. He was eaten up +always and wholly of the zeal of His Father's house, and of absolute +surrender and devotion to His Father's service, till His ruling passion +was seen to be as strong in His death as it had been in His life. The +Laird of Brodie's Diary has repeatedly been of great use to us in these +inward matters, and his words on this subject are well worth repeating. +'We poor creatures,' he says, 'are commanded by our affections and +passions. They are not at our command. But the Holy One doth exercise +all His attributes at His own will; they are at His command; they are not +passions nor perturbations in His mind, though they transport us. When I +would hate, I cannot. When I would love, I cannot. When I would grieve, +I cannot. When I would desire, I cannot. But it is the better for us +that all is as He wills it to be.' + +And now, to come still closer home, let us look for a moment or two at +some of our own ruling and tyrannising passions. And let us look first +at self-love--that master-passion in every human heart. Let us give self- +love the first place in the inventory and catalogue of our passions, +because it has the largest place in all our hearts and lives. Nay, not +only has self-love the largest place of any of the passions of our +hearts, but it is out of self-love that all our other evil passions +spring. It is out of this parent passion that all the poisonous brood of +our other evil passions are born. The whole fall and ruin and misery of +our present human nature lies in this, that in every human being self- +love has taken, in addition to its own place, the place of the love of +God and of the love of man also. We naturally now love nothing and no +one but ourselves. And as long as self-love is in the ascendant in our +hearts, all the passions that are awakened in us by our self-love will be +selfish with its selfishness, inhumane with its inhumanity, and ungodly +with its ungodliness. And it is to kill and extirpate our so passionate +self-love that is the end and aim of all God's dealings with us in this +world. All that God is doing with us and for us in providence and in +grace, in the world and in the church,--it is all to cure us of this +deadly disease of self-love. We may never have had that told us before, +and we may not like it, and we may not believe it; but there can be no +better proof of the truth of what is now said than just this, that we do +not like it and will not have it. Self-love will not let us listen to +the truth about ourselves; it puts us in a passion both against the truth +and against him who tells the truth, as the history of the truth +abundantly testifies. Yes, your indignant protest is quite true. Self- +love has her divine rights,--no doubt she has. But you are not commanded +to attend to them. Your self-love will look after herself. She will +manage to have her full share of what is right and proper for any passion +to possess even after she cries out that she is trampled upon and +despoiled. My brethren, till you begin to crucify yourselves and to +pluck up your self-love by the roots, you will never know what a cruel +and hopeless task the Christian life is--I do not say the Christian +profession. Nor, on the other hand, will you ever discover what a noble +task it is--what a divine task and how divinely assisted and divinely +recompensed. You will not know what a kennel of hell-hounds your own +heart is till you have long sought to enter it and cleanse it out. And +after you have done your utmost, and your best, death will hurry you away +from your but half-accomplished task. Only, in that case you will be +able to die in the hope that what is impossible with man is possible with +God, as promised by Him, and that He will not leave your soul in hell, +but will perfect that good thing which alone concerneth you, even your +everlasting deliverance from all sinful self-love. + +And if self-love is the fruitful mother of all our passions, then +sensuality is surely her eldest son. Indeed, so shallow are we, and so +shallow are our words, that when we speak of sinful passion most men +instantly think of sensuality. There are so many seductive things that +appeal to our appetites, and our appetites are so easily awakened, and +are so imperious when they are awakened, that when passion is spoken +about, few men think of the soul, all men think instantly of the body. +And no wonder. For, stupid and besotted as we are, we must all at some +time of our life have felt the bondage and degradation of the senses. +Passion in the Interpreter's House had soon nothing left but rags. And +in this house to-night there are many men whose consciences and hearts +and characters are all in such rags from sensual sin, that when the +Scriptures speak of uncleanness, or rags, or corruption, their thoughts +flee at once to sensual sin and its conscience-rending results. Cease +from sensuality, said Cicero, for if once you give your minds up to +sensuality, you will never be able to think of anything else. + +Ambition, emulation, and envy are the leading members of a whole prolific +family of satanic passions in the human heart. Indeed, these passions, +taken along with their kindred passions of hatred and ill-will, are, in +our Lord's words, the very lusts of the devil himself. The Jews hated +our Lord the more for what He said about these detestable passions, but +His own disciples love Him only the more that He so well knows the evil +affections of their hearts, and so well describes and denounces them. +Anybody can denounce sensual sin, and everybody will understand and +approve. But spiritual sin,--ambition and emulation and envy and ill- +will--these things are more easy to denounce than they are to detect and +describe, and more easy to detect and describe than they are to cast out. +These sins seem rather to multiply and to strike a deeper root when you +begin to cast them out. What an utterly and abominably evil passion is +envy which is awakened not by bad things but by the best things! That +another man's talents, attainments, praises, rewards should kindle it, +and that the blame, the depreciation, the hurt that another man suffers +should satisfy it,--what a piece of very hell must that be in the human +heart! What more do we need than just a little envy in our hearts to +make us prostrate penitents before God and man all our days? What more +doctrine, argument, proof, authority, persuasion should a sane man need +beyond a little envy in his heart at his best friend to make him an +evangelical believer and an evangelical preacher? How, in the name of +wonder, is it that men can be so ignorant of the plague of their own +hearts as to remain indifferent, and, much more, hostile, to the gospel +of love and holiness? Pride, also,--what a hateful and intolerable +passion is that! How stone-blind to his own state must that sinner be +whose heart is filled with pride, and how impossible it is for that man +to make any real progress in any kind of truth or goodness! And +resentment,--what a deep-seated, long-lived, and suicidal passion is +that! How it hunts down him it hates, and how surely it shuts the door +of salvation against him who harbours it! Forgive us our debts, the +resentful man says in his prayer, as we forgive our debtors. And +detraction,--how some men's ink-horns are filled with detraction for ink, +and how it drops from their tongue like poison! At their every word a +reputation dies. Life and all its opportunities of doing good and having +good done to us is laid like a bag of treasure at our feet, but, like the +prodigal son in the Interpreter's House, with all those passions raging +in our own hearts at other men, and in other men's hearts at us, we have +soon nothing left us but rags. God be thanked for every man here who +sees and feels that he has nothing left him but rags; and, still more, +thanks for all those who see and feel how, by their bad passions, sensual +and spiritual, they have left on other people nothing but rags. + +Now, from all this let us lay it to heart that our sanctification and +salvation lie in our mastery over all these and over many other passions +that have not even been named. He is an accepted saint of God, who, +taking his and other people's rags to God's mercy every day, every day +also in God's strength grapples with, bridles, and tames his own wild and +ungodly passions. Be not deceived, my friends; he alone is a saint of +God who is a sanctified man; and his passions,--as they are the spring of +his actions, so they are the sphere and seat of his sanctification. Be +not deceived; that man, and no other manner of man, is, or ever will be, +a partaker of God's salvation. You often hear me recommending those +students who have first to subdue their own passions and then the +passions of those who hear them to study Jonathan Edwards' ethical and +spiritual writings. Well, just at this present point, to show you how +well that great man practised what he preached, let me read to you a few +lines from his biographer: 'Few men,' says Henry Rogers, 'ever attained a +more complete mastery over their passions than Jonathan Edwards did. This +was partly owing to the ascendency of his intellect; partly, and in a +still greater degree, to the elevation of his piety. For the subjugation +of his passions he was no doubt very greatly indebted to the prodigious +superiority of his reason. Such was the commanding attitude his reason +assumed, and such the tremendous power with which it controlled the whole +man, that any insurrection among his senses was hopeless; they had their +tenure only by doing fealty and homage to his intellect. Those other and +more dangerous enemies, because more subtle and more spiritual, such as +pride, vanity, wrath, and envy, which lurk in the inmost recesses of our +nature, and some of which have such affinities for a genius like that of +Edwards, yield not to such exorcism. Such more powerful kind of demons +go not forth but by prayer and fasting; to their complete mortification, +therefore, Edwards brought incessant watchfulness and devotion; and +seldom, assuredly, have they been more nearly expelled from the bosom of +a depraved intelligence.' We shall be in the best company, both +intellectually and spiritually, if we work out our own salvation among +the sinful passions of our depraved hearts. And then, as life goes on, +and we continue in well-doing, we shall be able to measure and register +our growth in grace best by watching the effect of outward temptations +upon our still sinful and but half-sanctified hearts. And among much to +be humbled for, and much to make us fear and tremble for the issue, we +shall, from time to time, have a good conscience and a holy and humble +joy that this passion and that is at last showing some signs of +crucifixion and mortification. And thus that death to sin shall +gradually set in which shall issue at last in an everlasting life unto +holiness. + +'Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from +all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new +heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you . . . +Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe +thee with change of raiment. In that day there shall be a fountain +opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for +sin and for uncleanness . . . Bring forth the best robe and put it upon +him, for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is +found . . . What are these that are arrayed in white robes, and whence +came they? These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have +washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' + + + + +PATIENCE + + + 'In your patience possess ye your souls.' (Revised Version: 'In your + patience ye shall win your souls.')--Our Lord. + +'I saw moreover in my dream that the Interpreter took the pilgrim by the +hand, and had him into a little room, where sate two little children, +each one in his chair. The name of the eldest was Passion and of the +other Patience. Passion seemed to be much discontent, but Patience was +very quiet. Then Christian asked, What is the reason of the discontent +of Passion? The interpreter answered, The governor of them would have +him stay for his best things till the beginning of the next year; but he +will have all now. But Patience is willing to wait.' + +Passion and Patience, like Esau and Jacob, are twin-brothers. And their +names, like their natures, spring up from the same root. 'Patience,' +says Crabb in his _English Synonyms_, 'comes from the active participle +to suffer; while passion comes from the passive participle of the same +verb; and hence the difference between the two names. Patience signifies +suffering from an active principle, a determination to suffer; while +passion signifies what is suffered from want of power to prevent the +suffering. Patience, therefore, is always taken in a good sense, and +Passion always in a bad sense.' So far this excellent etymologist. This +is, therefore, another case of blessing and cursing proceeding out of the +same mouth, and of the same fountain sending forth at the same place both +sweet water and bitter. + +Our Lord tells us in this striking text that our very souls by reason of +sin are not our own. He tells us that we have lost hold of our souls +before we have as yet come to know that we have souls. We only discover +that we have souls after we have lost them. And our Lord,--our best, +indeed our only, authority in the things of the soul,--here tells us that +it is only by patience that we shall ever win back our lost souls. More, +far more, is needed to the winning back of a lost soul than its owner's +patience, and our Lord knew that to His cost. But that is not His point +with us to-night. His sole point with each one of us to-night is our +personal part in the conquest and redemption of our sin-enslaved souls. +He who has redeemed our souls with His own blood tells us with all +plainness of speech, that His blood will be shed in vain, as far as we +are concerned, unless we add to His atoning death our own patient life. +Every human life, as our Lord looks at it, and would have us look at it, +is a vast field of battle in which a soul is lost or won; little as we +think of it or will believe it, in His sight every trial, temptation, +provocation, insult, injury, and all kinds and all degrees of pain and +suffering, are all so many divinely appointed opportunities afforded us +for the reconquest and recovery of our souls. Sometimes faith is +summoned into the battle-field, sometimes hope, sometimes self-denial, +sometimes prayer, sometimes one grace and sometimes another; but as with +the sound of a trumpet the Captain of our salvation here summons Patience +to the forefront of the fight. + +1. To begin with, how much impatience we are all from time to time +guilty of in our family life. Among the very foundations of our family +life how much impatience the husband often exhibits toward the wife, and +the wife toward her husband. Patience is the very last grace they look +forward to having any need of when they are still dreaming about their +married life; but, in too many cases, they have not well entered on that +life, when they find that they need no grace of God so much as just +patience, if the yoke of their new life is not to gall them beyond +endurance. However many good qualities of mind and heart and character +any husband or wife may have, no human being is perfect, and most of us +are very far from being perfect. When therefore, we are closely and +indissolubly joined to another life and another will, it is no wonder +that sometimes the ill-fitting yoke eats into a lifelong sore. We have +all many defects in our manners, in our habits, and in our constitutional +ways of thinking and speaking and acting,--defects that tempt those who +live nearest us to fall into annoyances with us that sometimes deepen +into dislike, and even positive disgust, till it has been seen, in some +extreme cases, that home-life has become a very prison-house, in which +the impatient prisoner chafes and jibs and strikes out as he does nowhere +else. Now, when any unhappy man or woman wakens up to discover how +different life is now to be from what it once promised to become, let +them know that all their past blindness, and precipitancy, and all the +painful results of all that, may yet be made to work together for good. +In your patience with one another, says our Lord, you will make a +conquest of your adverse lot, and of your souls to the bargain. Say to +yourselves, therefore, that perfection, faultlessness, and absolute +satisfaction are not to be found in this world. And say also that since +you have not brought perfection to your side of the house any more than +your partner has to his side, you are not so foolish as to expect +perfection in return for such imperfection. You have your own share of +what causes fireside silence, aversion, disappointment, and dislike; and, +with God's help, say that you will patiently submit to what may not now +be mended. And then, the sterner the battle the nobler will the victory +be; and the lonelier the fight, the more honour to him who flinches not +from it. In your patience possess ye your souls. + +What a beautiful, instructive, and even impressive sight it is to see a +nurse patiently cherishing her children! How she has her eye and her +heart at all their times upon them, till she never has any need to lay +her hand upon them! Passion has no place in her little household, +because patience fills all its own place and the place of passion too. +What a genius she displays in her talks to her children! How she cheats +their little hours of temptation, and tides them over the rough places +that her eye sees lying like sunken rocks before her little ship! How +skilfully she stills and heals their impulsive little passions by her +sudden and absorbing surprise at some miracle in a picture-book, or some +astonishing sight under her window! She has a thousand occupations also +for her children, and each of them with a touch of enterprise and +adventure and benevolence in it. She is so full of patience herself, +that the little gusts of passion are soon over in her presence, and the +sunshine is soon back brighter than ever in her little paradise. And, +over and above her children rising up and calling her blessed, what +wounds she escapes in her own heart and memory by keeping her patient +hands from ever wounding her children! What peace she keeps in the +house, just by having peace always within herself! Paul can find no +better figure wherewith to set forth God's marvellous patience with +Israel during her fretful childhood in the wilderness, than just that of +such a nurse among her provoking children. And we see the deep hold that +same touching and instructive sight had taken of the apostle's heart as +he returns to it again to the Thessalonians: 'We were gentle among you, +even as a nurse cherisheth her children. So, being affectionately +desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the +gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto +us.' What a school of divine patience is every man's own family at home +if he only were teachable, observant, and obedient! + +2. Clever, quick-witted, and, themselves, much-gifted men, are terribly +intolerant of slow and stupid men, as they call them. But the +many-talented man makes a great mistake here, and falls into a great sin. +In his fulness of all kinds of intellectual gifts, he quite forgets from +Whom he has his many gifts, and why it is that his despised neighbour has +so few gifts. If you have ten or twenty talents, and I have only two, +who is to be praised and who is to be blamed for that allotment? Your +cleverness has misled you and has hitherto done you far more evil than +good. You bear yourself among ordinary men, among less men than +yourself, as if you had added all these cubits to your own stature. You +ride over us as if you had already given in your account, and had heard +it said, Take the one talent from them and give it to this my +ten-talented servant. You seem to have set it down to your side of the +great account, that you had such a good start in talent, and that your +fine mind had so many tutors and governors all devoting themselves to +your advancement. And you conduct yourself to us as if the Righteous +Judge had cast us away from His presence, because we were not found among +the wise and mighty of this world. The truth is, that the whole world is +on a wholly wrong tack in its praise and in its blame. We praise the man +of great gifts, and we blame the man of small gifts, completely forgetful +that in so doing we give men the praise that belongs to God, and lay on +men the blame, which, if there is any blame in the matter, ought to be +laid elsewhere. Learn and lay to heart, my richly-gifted brethren, to be +patient with all men, but especially to be patient with all stupid, slow- +witted, ungifted, God-impoverished men. Do not add your insults and your +ill-usage to the low estate of those on whom, in the meantime, God's hand +lies so cold and so straitened. For who maketh thee to differ from +another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou +didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? +Call that to mind the next time you are tempted to cry out that you have +no patience with your slow-witted servant. + +3. 'Is patient with the bad' is one of the tributes of praise that is +paid in the fine paraphrase to that heart that is full of the same love +that is in God. A patient love to the unjust and the evil is one of the +attributes and manifestations of the divine nature, as that nature is +seen both in God and in all genuinely godly men. And, indeed, in no +other thing is the divine nature so surely seen in any man as just in his +love to and his patience with bad men. He schools and exercises himself +every day to be patient and good to other men as God has been to him. He +remembers when tempted to resentment how God did not resent his evil, +but, while he was yet an enemy to God and to godliness, reconciled him to +Himself by the death of His Son. And ever since the godly man saw that, +he has tried to reconcile his worst enemies to himself by the death of +his impatience and passion toward them, and has more pitied than blamed +them, even when their evil was done against himself. Let God judge, and +if it must be, condemn that bad man. But I am too bad myself to cast a +stone at the worst and most injurious of men. If we so much pity +ourselves for our sinful lot, if we have so much compassion on ourselves +because of our inherited and unavoidable estate of sin and misery, why do +we not share our pity and our compassion with those miserable men who are +in an even worse estate than our own? At any rate, I must not judge them +lest I be judged. I must take care when I say, Forgive me my trespasses, +as I forgive them that trespass against me. Not to seven times must I +grudgingly forgive, but ungrudgingly to seventy times seven. For with +what judgment I judge, I shall be judged; and with what measure I mete, +it shall be measured to me again. + + 'Love harbours no suspicious thought, + Is patient to the bad: + Grieved when she hears of sins and crimes, + And in the truth is glad.' + +4. And then, most difficult and most dangerous, but most necessary of +all patience, we must learn how to be patient with ourselves. Every day +we hear of miserable men rushing upon death because they can no longer +endure themselves and the things they have brought on themselves. And +there are moral suicides who cast off the faith and the hope and the +endurance of a Christian man because they are so evil and have lived such +an evil life. We speak of patience with bad men, but there is no man so +bad, there is no man among all our enemies who has at all hurt us like +that man who is within ourselves. And to bear patiently what we have +brought upon ourselves,--to endure the inward shame, the self-reproof, +the self-contempt bitterer to drink than blood, the lifelong injuries, +impoverishment, and disgrace,--to bear all these patiently and +uncomplainingly,--to acquiesce humbly in the discovery that all this was +always in our hearts, and still is in our hearts--what humility, what +patience, what compassion and pity for ourselves must all that call +forth! The wise nurse is patient with her passionate, greedy, untidy, +disobedient child. She does not cast it out of doors, she does not run +and leave it, she does not kill it because all these things have been and +still are in its sad little heart. Her power for good with such a child +lies just in her pity, in her compassion, and in her patience with her +child. And the child that is in all of us is to be treated in the same +patient, hopeful, believing, forgiving, divine way. We should all be +with ourselves as God is with us. He knoweth our frame. He remembereth +that we are dust. He shows all patience toward us. He does not look for +great things from us. He does not break the bruised reed, nor quench the +smoking flax. He shall not fail nor be discouraged till He have set +judgment in the earth. And so shall not we. + +5. And, then,--it is a sufficiently startling thing to say, but--we must +learn to be patient with God also. All our patience, and all the +exercises of it, if we think aright about it, all run up in the long-run +into patience with God. But there are some exercises of patience that +have to do directly and immediately with God and with God alone. When +any man's heart has become fully alive to God and to the things of God; +when he begins to see and feel that he lives and moves and has his being +in God; then everything that in any way affects him is looked on by him +as come to him from God. Absolutely, all things. The very weather that +everybody is so atheistic about, the climate, the soil he labours, the +rain, the winter's cold and the summer's heat,--true piety sees all these +things as God's things, and sees God's immediate will in the disposition +and dispensation of them all. He feels the untameableness of his tongue +in the indecent talk that goes on everlastingly about the weather. All +these things may be without God to other men, as they once were to him +also, but you will find that the truly and the intelligently devout man +no longer allows himself in such unbecoming speech. For, though he +cannot trace God's hand in all the changes of the seasons, in heat and +cold, in sunshine and snow, yet he is as sure that God's wisdom and will +are there as that Scripture is true and the Scripture-taught heart. +'Great is our Lord, and His understanding is infinite. Who covereth the +heavens with clouds, and prepareth rain for the earth, and maketh the +grass to grow upon the mountains. He giveth snow like wool; He +scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes; He casteth forth His ice like +morsels. Who can stand before his cold?' Here is the patience and the +faith of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and +the faith of Jesus Christ. + +And, then, when through rain or frost or fire, when out of any terror by +night or arrow that flieth by day, any calamity comes on the man who is +thus pointed and practised in his patience, he is able with Job to say, +'This is the Lord. What, shall we receive good at the hand of God and +not also receive evil?' By far the best thing I have ever read on this +subject, and I have read it a thousand times since I first read it as a +student, is Dr. Thomas Goodwin's _Patience and its Perfect Work_. That +noble treatise had its origin in the great fire of London in 1666. The +learned President of Magdalen College lost the half of his library, five +hundred pounds worth of the best books, in that terrible fire. And his +son tells us he had often heard his father say that in the loss of his +not-to-be-replaced books, God had struck him in a very sensible place. To +lose his Augustine, and his Calvin, and his Musculus, and his Zanchius, +and his Amesius, and his Suarez, and his Estius was a sore stroke to such +a man. I loved my books too well, said the great preacher, and God +rebuked me by this affliction. Let the students here read Goodwin's +costly treatise, and they will be the better prepared to meet such +calamities as the burning of their manse and their library, as also to +counsel and comfort their people when they shall lose their shops or +their stockyards by fire. + + 'Blind unbelief is sure to err, + And scan His work in vain; + God is His own interpreter, + And He will make it plain.' + +And, then, in a multitude of New Testament scriptures, we are summoned to +great exercise of patience with the God of our salvation, because it is +His purpose and plan that we shall have to wait long for our salvation. +God has not seen it good to carry us to heaven on the day of our +conversion. He does not glorify us on the same day that He justifies us. +We are appointed to salvation indeed, but it is also appointed us to wait +long for it. This is not our rest. We are called to be pilgrims and +strangers for a season with God upon the earth. We are told to endure to +the end. It is to be through faith and patience that we, with our +fathers, shall at last inherit the promises. Holiness is not a Jonah's +gourd. It does not come up in a night, and it does not perish in a +night. Holiness is the Divine nature, and it takes a lifetime to make us +partakers of it. But, then, if the time is long the thing is sure. Let +us, then, with a holy and a submissive patience wait for it. + +'I saw moreover in my dream that Passion seemed to be much discontent, +but Patience was very quiet. Then Christian asked, What is the reason of +the discontent of Passion? The Interpreter answered, The governor of +them would have him stay for his best things till the beginning of the +next year; but he will have them all now. But Patience is willing to +wait.' + + + + +SIMPLE, SLOTH, AND PRESUMPTION + + + 'Ye did run well, who did hinder you?'--Paul. + +It startles us not a little to come suddenly upon three pilgrims fast +asleep with fetters on their heels on the upward side of the +Interpreter's House, and even on the upward side of the cross and the +sepulchre. We would have looked for those three miserable men somewhere +in the City of Destruction or in the Town of Stupidity, or, at best, +somewhere still outside of the wicket-gate. But John Bunyan did not lay +down his _Pilgrim's Progress_ on any abstract theory, or on any easy and +pleasant presupposition, of the Christian life. He constructed his so +lifelike book out of his own experiences as a Christian man, as well as +out of all he had learned as a Christian minister. And in nothing is +Bunyan's power of observation, deep insight, and firm hold of fact better +seen than just in the way he names and places the various people of the +pilgrimage. Long after he had been at the Cross of Christ himself, and +had seen with his own eyes all the significant rooms in the Interpreter's +House, Bunyan had often to confess that the fetters of evil habit, unholy +affection, and a hard heart were still firmly riveted on his own heels. +And his pastoral work had led him to see only too well that he was not +alone in the temptations and the dangers and the still-abiding bondage to +sin that had so surprised himself after he was so far on in the Christian +life. It was the greatest sorrow of his heart, he tells us in a powerful +passage in his _Grace Abounding_, that so many of his spiritual children +broke down and came short in the arduous and perilous way in which he had +so hopefully started them. 'If any of those who were awakened by my +ministry did after that fall back, as sometimes too many did, I can truly +say that their loss hath been more to me than if one of my own children, +begotten of my body, had been going to its grave. I think, verily, I may +speak it without an offence to the Lord, nothing hath gone so near me as +that, unless it was the fear of the salvation of my own soul. I have +counted as if I had goodly buildings and lordships in those places where +my children were born; my heart has been so wrapped up in this excellent +work that I counted myself more blessed and honoured of God by this than +if He had made me the emperor of the Christian world, or the lord of all +the glory of the earth without it.' And I have no doubt that we have +here the three things that above everything else bereft Bunyan of so many +of his spiritual children personified and then laid down by the heels in +Simple, Sloth, and Presumption. + + + + +SIMPLE + + +Let us shake up Simple first and ask him what it was that laid him so +soon and in such a plight and in such company in this bottom. It was not +that which from his name we might at first think it was. It was not the +weakness of his intellects, nor his youth, nor his inexperience. There +is danger enough, no doubt, in all these things if they are not carefully +attended to, but none of all these things in themselves, nor all of them +taken together, will lay any pilgrim by the heels. There must be more +than mere and pure simplicity. No blame attaches to a simple mind, much +less to an artless and an open heart. We do not blame such a man even +when we pity him. We take him, if he will let us, under our care, or we +put him under better care, but we do not anticipate any immediate ill to +him so long as he remains simple in mind, untainted in heart, and willing +to learn. But, then, unless he is better watched over than any young man +or young woman can well be in this world, that simplicity and +child-likeness and inexperience of his may soon become a fatal snare to +him. There is so much that is not simple and sincere in this world; +there is so much falsehood and duplicity; there are so many men abroad +whose endeavour is to waylay, mislead, entrap, and corrupt the simple- +minded and the inexperienced, that it is next to impossible that any +youth or maiden shall long remain in this world both simple and safe +also. My son, says the Wise Man, keep my words, and lay up my +commandments with thee. For at the window of my house I looked through +my casement, and beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the +youths, a young man void of understanding;--and so on,--till a dart +strike through his liver, and he goeth as an ox to the slaughter. And +so, too often in our own land, the maiden in her simplicity also opens +her ear to the promises and vows and oaths of the flatterer, till she +loses both her simplicity and her soul, and lies buried in that same +bottom beside Sloth and Presumption. + +It is not so much his small mind and his weak understanding that is the +fatal danger of their possessor, it is his imbecile way of treating his +small mind. In our experience of him we cannot get him, all we can do, +to read an instructive book. We cannot get him to attend our young men's +class with all the baits and traps we can set for him. Where does he +spend his Sabbath-day and week-day evenings? We cannot find out until we +hear some distressing thing about him, that, ten to one, he would have +escaped had he been a reader of good books, or a student with us, say, of +Dante and Bunyan and Rutherford, and a companion of those young men and +young women who talk about and follow such intellectual tastes and +pursuits. Now, if you are such a young man or young woman as that, or +such an old man or old woman, you will not be able to understand what in +the world Bunyan can mean by saying that he saw you in his dream fast +asleep in a bottom with irons on your heels. No; for to understand the +_Pilgrim's Progress_, beyond a nursery and five-year-old understanding of +it, you must have worked and studied and suffered your way out of your +mental and spiritual imbecility. You must have for years attended to +what is taught from the pulpit and the desk, and, alongside of that, you +must have made a sobering and solemnising application of it all to your +own heart. And then you would have seen and felt that the heels of your +mind and of your heart are only too firmly fettered with the irons of +ignorance and inexperience and self-complacency. But as it is, if you +would tell the truth, you would say to us what Simple said to Christian, +I see no danger. The next time that John Bunyan passed that bottom, the +chains had been taken off the heels of this sleeping fool and had been +put round his neck. + + + + +SLOTH + + +Sloth had a far better head than Simple had; but what of that when he +made no better use of it? There are many able men who lie all their days +in a sad bottom with the irons of indolence and inefficiency on their +heels. We often envy them their abilities, and say about them, What +might they not have done for themselves and for us had they only worked +hard? Just as we are surprised to see other men away above us on the +mountain top, not because they have better abilities than we have, but +because they tore the fetters of sloth out of their soft flesh and set +themselves down doggedly to their work. And the same sloth that starves +and fetters the mind at the same time casts the conscience and the heart +into a deep sleep. I often wonder as I go on working among you, if you +ever attach any meaning or make any application to yourselves of all +those commands and counsels of which the Scriptures are full,--to be up +and doing, to watch and pray, to watch and be sober, to fight the good +fight of faith, to hold the fort, to rise early, and even by night, and +to endure unto death, and never for one moment to be found off your +guard. Do you attach any real meaning to these examples of the +psalmists, to these continual commands and examples of Christ, and to +these urgent counsels of his apostles? Do you? Against whom and against +what do you thus campaign and fight? For fear of whom or of what do you +thus watch? What fort do you hold? What occupies your thoughts in night- +watches, and what inspires and compels your early prayers? It is your +stupefying life of spiritual sloth that makes it impossible for you to +answer these simple and superficial questions. Sloth is not the word for +it. Let them give the right word to insanity like that who sleep and +soak in sinful sloth no longer. + +We have all enemies in our own souls that never sleep, whatever we may +do. There are no irons on their heels. They never procrastinate. They +never say to their master, A little more slumber. Now, could you name +any hateful enemy entrenched in your own heart, of which you have of +yourself said far more than that? And, if so, what have you done, what +are you at this moment doing, to cast that enemy out? Have you any +armour on, any weapons of offence and precision, against that enemy? And +what success and what defeat have you had in unearthing and casting out +that enemy? What fort do you hold? On what virtue, on what grace are +you posted by your Lord to keep for yourself and for Him? And with what +cost of meat and drink and sleep and amusement do you lose it or keep it +for Him? Alexander used to leave his tent at midnight and go round the +camp, and spear to his post the sentinel he found sleeping. + +There is nothing we are all so slothful in as secret, particular, +importunate prayer. We have an almighty instrument in our hand in secret +and exact prayer if we would only importunately and perseveringly employ +it. But there is an utterly unaccountable restraint of secret and +particularising prayer in all of us. There is a soaking, stupefying +sloth, that so fills our hearts that we forget and neglect the immense +concession and privilege we have afforded us in secret prayer. Our sloth +and stupidity in prayer is surely the last proof of our fall and of the +misery of our fallen state. Our sloth with a gold mine open at our feet; +a little more sleep on the top of a mast with a gulf under us that hath +no bottom,--no language of this life can adequately describe the +besottedness of that man who lies with irons on his heels between Simple +and Presumption. + + + + +PRESUMPTION + + +The greatest theologian of the Roman Catholic Church has made an +induction and classification of sins that has often been borrowed by our +Protestant and Puritan divines. His classification is made, as will be +seen, on an ascending scale of guilt and aggravation. In the world of +sin, he says, there are, first, sins of ignorance; next, there are sins +of infirmity; and then, at the top, there are sins of presumption. And +this, it will be remembered, was the Psalmist's inventory and estimate of +sins also. His last and his most earnest prayer was, that he might be +kept back from all presumptuous sin. Now you know quite well, without +any explanation, what presumption is. Don't presume, you say, with +rising and scarce controlled anger. Don't presume too far. Take care, +you say, with your heart beating so high that you can scarcely command +it, take care lest you go too far. And the word of God feels and speaks +about presumptuous sin very much as you do yourself. Now, what gave this +third man who lay in fetters a little beyond the cross the name of +Presumption was just this, that he had been at the cross with his past +sin, and had left the cross to commit the same sin at the first +opportunity. Presumption presumed upon his pardon. He presumed upon the +abounding grace of God. He presumed upon the blood of Christ. He was so +high on the Atonement, that he held that the gospel was not sufficiently +preached to him, unless not past sin only and present, but also all +future sin was atoned for on the tree before it was committed. There is +a reprobate in Dante, who, all the time he was repenting, had his eye on +his next opportunity. Now, our Presumption was like that. He presumed +on his youth, on his temptations, on his opportunities, and especially on +his future reformation and the permanence and the freeness of the gospel +offer. When he was in the Interpreter's House he did not hear what the +Interpreter was saying, the blood was roaring so through his veins. His +eyes were so full of other images that he did not see the man in the iron +cage, nor the spider on the wall, nor the fire fed secretly. He had no +more intention of keeping always to the way that was as straight as a +rule could make it, than he had of cutting off both his hands and +plucking out both his eyes. When the three shining ones stripped him of +his rags and clothed him with change of raiment, he had no more intention +of keeping his garments clean than he had of flying straight up to heaven +on the spot. Now, let each man name to himself what that is in which he +intentionally, deliberately, and by foresight and forethought sins. Have +you named it? Well, it was for that that this reprobate was laid by the +heels on the immediately hither side of the cross and the sepulchre. Not +that the iron might not have been taken off his heels again on certain +conditions, even after it was on; but, even so, he would never have been +the same man again that he was before his presumptuous sin. You will +easily know a man who has committed much presumptuous sin,--that is to +say, if you have any eye for a sinner. I think I would find him out if I +heard him pray once, or preach once, or even select a psalm for public or +for family worship; even if I heard him say grace at a dinner-table, or +reprove his son, or scold his servant. Presumptuous sin has so much of +the venom and essence of sin in it that, forgiven or unforgiven, even a +little of it never leaves the sinner as it found him. Even if his +fetters are knocked off, there is always a piece of the poisonous iron +left in his flesh; there is always a fang of his fetters left in the +broken bone. The presumptuous saint will always be detected by the way +he halts on his heels all his after days. Keep back Thy servant, O God, +from presumptuous sin. Let him be innocent of the great transgression. + +Dr. Thomas Goodwin says somewhere that the worm that dieth not only comes +to its sharpest sting and to its deadliest venom when it is hatched up +under gospel light. The very light of nature itself greatly aggravates +some of our sins. The light of our early education greatly aggravates +others of our sins. But nothing wounds our conscience and then +exasperates the wound like a past experience of the same sin, and, +especially, an experience of the grace of God in forgiving that sin. Had +we found young Presumption in his irons before his conversion, we would +have been afraid enough at the sight. Had we found him laid by the heels +after his first uncleanness, it would have made us shudder for ourselves. +But we are horrified and speechless as we see him apprehended and laid in +irons on the very night of his first communion, and with the wine +scarcely dry on his unclean lips. Augustine postponed his baptism till +he should have his fill of sin, and till he should no longer return to +sin like a dog to his vomit. Now, next Sabbath is our communion day in +this congregation. Let us therefore this week examine ourselves. And if +we must sin as long as we are in this world, let it henceforth be the sin +of ignorance and of infirmity. + +So the three reprobates lay down to sleep again, and Christian as he left +that bottom went on in the narrow way singing: + + 'O to grace how great a debtor + Daily I'm constrained to be + Let that grace, Lord, like a fetter, + Bind my wandering heart to Thee.' + + + + +THE THREE SHINING ONES AT THE CROSS + + + 'Salvation shall God appoint for walls.'--Isaiah. + +John Bunyan's autobiography, _Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners_, +is the best of all our commentaries on _The Pilgrim's Progress_, and +again to-night I shall have to fall back on that incomparable book. 'Now, +I saw in my dream that the highway up which Christian was to go was +fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall is called Salvation. Up +this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great +difficulty, because of the load on his back.' In the corresponding +paragraph in _Grace Abounding_, our author says, speaking about himself: +'But forasmuch as the passage was wonderful narrow, even so narrow that I +could not but with great difficulty enter in thereat, it showed me that +none could enter into life but those that were in downright earnest, and +unless also they left this wicked world behind them; for here was only +room for body and soul, but not for body and soul and sin.' 'He ran thus +till he came to a place somewhat ascending, and upon that place stood a +cross, and a little below in the bottom a sepulchre. So I saw in my +dream, that just as Christian came up with this cross, his burden loosed +from off his shoulders and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, +and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where +it fell in, and I saw it no more.' Turning again to the _Grace +Abounding_, we read in the 115th paragraph: 'I remember that one day as I +was travelling into the country and musing on the wickedness and +blasphemy of my heart, and considering of the enmity that was in me to +God, that scripture came into my mind, He hath made peace by the blood of +His Cross. By which I was made to see both again and again and again +that day that God and my soul were friends by that blood: yea, I saw that +the justice of God and my sinful soul could embrace and kiss each other +through that blood. That was a good day to me; I hope I shall not forget +it. I thought I could have spoken of His love and of His mercy to me +that day to the very crows that sat upon the ploughed lands before me had +they been capable to have understood me. Wherefore I said in my soul +with much gladness, Well, I would I had a pen and ink here and I would +write this down before I go any farther, for surely I will not forget +this forty years hence.' + +From all this we learn that the way to the Celestial City lies within +high and close fencing walls. There is not room for many pilgrims to +walk abreast in that way; indeed, there is seldom room for two. There +are some parts of the way where two or even three pilgrims can for a time +walk and converse together, but for the most part the path is +distressingly lonely. The way is so fenced up also that a pilgrim cannot +so much as look either to the right hand or the left. Indeed, it is one +of the laws of that road that no man is to attempt to look except +straight on before him. But then there is this compensation for the +solitude and stringency of the way that the wall that so encloses it is +Salvation. And Salvation is such a wall that it is companionship and +prospect enough of itself. Dante saw a long reach of this same wall +running round the bottom of the mount that cleanses him who climbs it,--a +long stretch of such sculptured beauty, that it arrested him and +instructed him and delighted him beyond his power sufficiently to praise +it. And thus, that being so, burdened and bowed down to the earth as our +pilgrim was, he was on the sure way, sooner or later, to deliverance. +Somewhere and sometime and somehow on that steep and high fenced way +deliverance was sure to come. And, then, as to the burdened man himself. +His name was once Graceless, but his name is Graceless no longer. No +graceless man runs long between these close and cramping-up walls; and, +especially, no graceless man has that burden long on his back. That is +not Graceless any longer who is leaving the Interpreter's House for the +fenced way; that is Christian, and as long as he remains Christian, the +closeness of the fence and the weight of his burden are a small matter. +But long-looked-for comes at last. And so, still carrying his burden and +keeping close within the fenced-up way, our pilgrim came at last to a +cross. And a perfect miracle immediately took place in that somewhat +ascending ground. For scarcely had Christian set his eyes on the cross, +when, without his pulling at it, or pushing it, or even at that moment +thinking of it, ere ever he was aware, he saw his burden begin to tumble, +and so it continued to do till it fell fairly out of his sight into an +open sepulchre. + +The application of all that is surely self-evident. For our way in a +holy life is always closely fenced up. It is far oftener a lonely way +than otherwise. And the steepness, sternness, and loneliness of our way +are all aggravated by the remembrance of our past sins and follies. They +still, and more and more, lie upon our hearts a heart-crushing burden. +But if we, like Christian, know how to keep our back to our former house +and our face to heaven, sooner or later we too shall surely come to the +cross. And then, either suddenly, or after a long agony, our burden also +shall be taken off our back and shut down into Christ's sepulchre. And I +saw it no more, says the dreamer. He does not say that its owner saw it +no more. He was too wise and too true a dreamer to say that. + +It will be remembered that the first time we saw this man, with whose +progress to the Celestial City we are at present occupied, he was +standing in a certain place clothed with rags and with a burden on his +back. After a long journey with him, we have just seen his burden taken +off his back, and it is only after his burden is off and a Shining One +has said to him, Thy sins be forgiven, that a second Shining One comes +and strips him of his rags and clothes him with change of raiment. Now, +why, it may be asked, has Christian had to carry his burden so long, and +why is he still kept so ragged and so miserable and he so far on in the +pilgrim's path? Surely, it will be said, John Bunyan was dreaming indeed +when he kept a truly converted man, a confessedly true and sincere +Christian, so long in bonds and in rags. Well, as to his rags: filthy +rags are only once spoken of in the Bible, and it is the prophet Isaiah, +whose experience and whose language John Bunyan had so entirely by heart, +who puts them on. And that evangelist among the prophets not only calls +his own and Israel's sins filthy rags, but Isaiah is very bold, and calls +their very righteousnesses by that opprobrious name. Had that bold +prophet said that all his and all his people's _un_righteousnesses were +filthy rags, all Israel would have subscribed to that. There was no man +so brutish as not to admit that. But as long as they had any sense of +truth and any self-respect, multitudes of Isaiah's first hearers and +readers would resent what he so rudely said of their righteousnesses. On +the other hand, the prophet's terrible discovery and comparison, just +like our dreamer's dramatic distribution of Christian experience, was, to +a certainty, an immense consolation to many men in Israel in his day. +They gathered round Isaiah because, but for him and his evangelical +ministry, they would have been alone in their despair. To them Isaiah's +ministry was a house of refuge, and the prophet himself a veritable tower +of strength. They felt they were not alone so long as Isaiah dwelt in +the same city with them. And thus, whatever he might be to others, he +was God's very prophet to them as his daily prayers in the temple both +cast them down and lifted them up. 'Oh that Thou wouldst rend the +heavens and come down . . . But we are all as an unclean thing, and all +our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and our iniquities like the wind +have taken us away.' Thousands in Israel found in these terrible words a +door of hope, a sense of fellowship, and a call to trust and +thanksgiving. And tens of thousands have found the same help and +consolation out of what have seemed to others the very darkest and most +perplexing pages of the _Pilgrim's Progress_ and the _Grace Abounding_. +'It made me greatly ashamed,' says Hopeful, 'of the vileness of my former +life, and confounded me with the sense of mine own ignorance, for there +never came into mine heart before now that showed me so by contrast the +beauty of the Lord Jesus. My own vileness and nakedness made me love a +holy life. Yea, I thought that had I now a thousand gallons of blood in +my body, I could spill it all for the sake of the Lord Jesus.' And if +you, my brother, far on in the way of Salvation, still think sometimes +that, after all, you must be a reprobate because of your filthy rags, +read what David Brainerd wrote with his half-dead hand on the last page +of his seraphic journal: 'How sweet it is to love God and to have a heart +all for God! Yes; but a voice answered me, You are not all for God, you +are not an angel. To which my whole soul replied, I as sincerely desire +to love and glorify God as any angel in heaven. But you are filthy, and +not fit for heaven. When hereupon there instantly appeared above me and +spread over me the blessed robes of Christ's righteousness which I could +not but exult and triumph in. And then I knew that I should be as active +as an angel in heaven, and should then be for ever stripped of my filthy +garments and clothed with spotless raiment.' Let me die the death of +David Brainerd, and let my latter end be like his! + +The third Shining One then came forward and set a mark on the forehead of +this happy man. And it was a most ancient and a most honourable mark. +For it was the same redeeming mark that was set by Moses upon the +foreheads of the children of Israel when the Lord took them into covenant +with Himself at the Passover in the wilderness. It was the same +distinguishing mark also that the man with the slaughter-weapon in his +hand first set upon the foreheads of the men who sighed and cried for the +abominations that were done in the midst of Jerusalem. And it was the +same glorious mark that John saw in the foreheads of the hundred and +forty and four thousand who stood upon Mount Zion and sang a song that no +man knew but those men who had been redeemed from the earth by the blood +of the Lamb. The mark was set for propriety and for ornament and for +beauty. It was set upon his forehead so that all who looked on him ever +after might thus know to what company and what country he belonged, and +that this was not his rest, but that he had been called and chosen to a +heavenly inheritance. And, besides, it was no sooner set upon his +forehead than it greatly added to his dignity and his comeliness. He had +now the gravity and beauty of an angel; nay, the beauty in his measure +and the gravity of Goodwill at the gate himself. And, then, as if that +were not enough, the third Shining One also gave him a roll with a seal +upon it, which he was bidden look on as he ran, and which he was to give +in when he arrived at the Celestial Gate. Now, what was that sealed roll +but just the inward memory and record of all this pilgrim's experiences +of the grace of God from the day he set out on pilgrimage down to that +day when he stood unburdened of his guilt, unclothed of his rags, and +clothed upon with change of raiment? The roll contained his own secret +life, all sealed and shone in upon by the light of God's countenance. The +secret of the Lord with this pilgrim was written within that roll, a +secret that no man could read but he himself alone. It was the same roll +that this same Shining One gave to Abraham, the first pilgrim and the +father of all true pilgrims, after Melchizedek, the priest of the Most +High God, had brought forth bread and wine and had blessed that great +believer. 'Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great +reward.' And, again, after Abram had lost his roll, like our pilgrim in +the arbour, when he recovered it he read thus in it: 'I am the Almighty +God: walk before Me, and be thou perfect. And I will make My covenant +between Me and thee.' And Abram fell on his face for joy. It was the +same roll out of which the Psalmist proposed to read a passage to all +those in his day who feared God. 'Come and hear, all ye that fear God, +and I will declare what He hath done for my soul.' It was the same roll +also that God sent to Israel in his sore captivity. 'Fear not, O Israel, +for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name, thou art Mine. +When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.' The high +priest Joshua also had the same roll put into his hand, and that not only +for his own comfort, but to make him the comforter of God's afflicted +people. For after the Lord had plucked Joshua as a brand out of the +fire, and had made his iniquity to pass from him, and had clothed him +with change of raiment, and had set a fair mitre on his head, the Lord +gave to Joshua a sealed roll, the contents of which may be read to this +day in the book of the prophet Zechariah. Nay, more: 'Will you have me +to speak plainly?' says great Goodwin on this matter. 'Then, though our +Lord had the assurance of faith that He was the Son of God, for He knew +it out of the Scriptures by reading all the prophets, yet, to have it +sealed to Him with joy unspeakable and glorious,--this was deferred to +the time of His baptism. He was then anointed with the oil of assurance +and gladness in a more peculiar and transcendent manner.' 'In His +baptism,' says Bengel, 'our Lord was magnificently enlightened. He was +previously the Son of God, and yet the power of the Divine testimony to +His Sonship at His baptism long affected Him in a lively manner.' And we +see our Lord reading His roll to assure and sustain His heart when all +outward acceptance and sustenance failed Him. 'There is One who beareth +witness of Me, and His witness is true. I receive not witness from men. +I have a greater witness than even that of John. For the Father Himself +that hath sent Me, He beareth witness of Me.' No wonder that our heavy- +laden pilgrim of yesterday gave three leaps for joy and went on singing +with such a roll as that in his bosom. For, at that supreme moment he +had that inward illumination and assurance sealed on his heart that had +so gladdened and sustained so many prophets and psalmists and apostles +and saints before his day. And though, like Abraham and all the other +saints who ever had that noble roll put into their keeping, except Jesus +Christ, he often lost it, yet as often as he again recovered it, it +brought back again with it all his first joy and gladness. + +But, as was said at the beginning, the _Grace Abounding_ is the best of +all our commentaries on _The Pilgrim's Progress_. As thus here also: +'Now had I an evidence, as I thought, of my salvation from heaven, with +many golden seals thereon, all hanging in my sight. Now could I remember +this manifestation and that other discovery of grace with comfort, and +should often long and desire that the last day were come, that I might be +for ever inflamed with the sight and joy of Him and communion with Him +whose head was crowned with thorns, whose face was spit on, and body +broken, and soul made an offering for my sins. For whereas, before, I +lay continually trembling at the mouth of hell, now, methought, I was got +so far therefrom that I could not, when I looked back, scarce discern it. +And oh! thought I, that I were fourscore years old now, that I might die +quickly, that my soul might be gone to rest.' + +Then Christian gave three leaps for joy and went on singing: + + 'Thus far did I come laden with my sin, + Nor could ought ease the grief that I was in + Till I came hither: . . . + Blest Cross! blest Sepulchre! blest rather be + The Man that there was put to shame for me.' + + + + +FORMALIST AND HYPOCRISY + + + 'A form of godliness.'--Paul. + +We all began our religious life by being formalists. And we were not +altogether to blame for that. Our parents were first to blame for that, +and then our teachers, and then our ministers. They made us say our +psalm and our catechism to them, and if we only said our sacred lesson +without stumbling, we were straightway rewarded with their highest +praise. They seldom took the trouble to make us understand the things we +said to them. They were more than content with our correct repetition of +the words. We were never taught either to read or repeat with our eyes +on the object. And we had come to our manhood before we knew how to seek +for the visual image that lies at the root of all our words. And thus +the ill-taught schoolboy became in us the father of the confirmed +formalist. The mischief of this neglect still spreads through the whole +of our life, but it is absolutely disastrous in our religious life. Look +at the religious formalist at family worship with his household gathered +round him all in his own image. He would not on any account let his +family break up any night without the habitual duty. He has a severe +method in his religious duties that nothing is ever allowed to disarrange +or in any way to interfere with. As the hour strikes, the big Bible is +brought out. He opens where he left off last night, he reads the +regulation chapter, he leads the singing in the regulation psalm, and +then, as from a book, he repeats his regulation prayer. But he never +says a word to show that he either sees or feels what he reads, and his +household break up without an idea in their heads or an affection in +their hearts. He comes to church and goes through public worship in the +same wooden way, and he sits through the Lord's Table in the same formal +and ceremonious manner. He has eyes of glass and hands of wood, and a +heart without either blood or motion in it. His mind and his heart were +destroyed in his youth, and all his religion is a religion of rites and +ceremonies without sense or substance. 'Because I knew no better,' says +Bunyan, 'I fell in very eagerly with the religion of the times: to wit, +to go to church twice a day, and that, too, with the foremost. And there +should I sing and say as others did. Withal, I was so overrun with the +spirit of superstition that I adored, and that with great devotion, even +all things, both the high place, priest, clerk, vestment, service, and +what else belonged to the church: counting all things holy that were +therein contained. But all this time I was not sensible of the danger +and evil of sin. I was kept from considering that sin would damn me, +what religion soever I followed, unless I was found in Christ. Nay, I +never thought of Christ, nor whether there was one or no.' + +A formalist is not yet a hypocrite exactly, but he is ready now and well +on the way at any moment to become a hypocrite. As soon now as some +temptation shall come to him to make appear another and a better man than +he really is: when in some way it becomes his advantage to seem to other +people to be a spiritual man: when he thinks he sees his way to some +profit or praise by saying things and doing things that are not true and +natural to him,--then he will pass on from being a bare and simple +formalist, and will henceforth become a hypocrite. He has never had any +real possession or experience of spiritual things amid all his formal +observances of religious duties, and he has little or no difficulty, +therefore, in adding another formality or two to his former life of +unreality. And thus the transition is easily made from a comparatively +innocent and unconscious formalist to a conscious and studied hypocrite. +'An hypocrite,' says Samuel Rutherford, 'is he who on the stage +represents a king when he is none, a beggar, an old man, a husband, when +he is really no such thing. To the Hebrews, they were _faciales_, face- +men; _colorati_, dyed men, red men, birds of many colours. You may paint +a man, you may paint a rose, you may paint a fire burning, but you cannot +paint a soul, or the smell of a rose, or the heat of a fire. And it is +hard to counterfeit spiritual graces, such as love to Christ, sincere +intending of the glory of God, and such like spiritual things.' Yes, +indeed; it is hard to put on and to go through with a truly spiritual +grace even to the best and most spiritually-minded of men; and as for the +true hypocrite, he never honestly attempts it. If he ever did honestly +and resolutely attempt it, he would at once in that pass out of the ranks +of the hypocrites altogether and pass over into a very different +category. Bunyan lets us see how a formalist and a hypocrite and a +Christian all respectively do when they come to a real difficulty. The +three pilgrims were all walking in the same path, and with their faces +for the time in the same direction. They had not held much conference +together since their first conversation, and as time goes on, Christian +has no more talk but with himself, and that sometimes sighingly, and +sometimes more comfortably. When, all at once, the three men come on the +hill Difficulty. A severe act of self-denial has to be done at this +point of their pilgrimage. A proud heart has to be humbled to the dust. +A second, a third, a tenth place has to be taken in the praise of men. An +outbreak of anger and wrath has to be kept under for hours and days. A +great injury, a scandalous case of ingratitude, has to be forgiven and +forgotten; in short, as Rutherford says, an +impossible-to-be-counterfeited spiritual grace has to be put into its +severest and sorest exercise; and the result was--what we know. Our +pilgrim went and drank of the spring that always runs at the bottom of +the hill Difficulty, and thus refreshed himself against that hill; while +Formalist took the one low road, and Hypocrisy the other, which led him +into a wide field full of dark mountains, where he stumbled and fell and +rose no more. When, after his visit to the spring, Christian began to go +up the hill, saying: + + 'This hill, though high, I covet to ascend; + The difficulty will not me offend; + For I perceive the way to life lies here; + Come, pluck up heart; let's neither faint nor fear; + Better, though difficult, the right way to go, + Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe.' + +Now, all this brings us to the last step in the evolution of a perfect +hypocrite out of a simple formalist. The perfect and finished hypocrite +is not your commonplace and vulgar scoundrel of the playwright and the +penny-novelist type; the finest hypocrite is a character their art cannot +touch. 'The worst of hypocrites,' Rutherford goes on to say, 'is he who +whitens himself till he deceives himself. It is strange that a man hath +such power over himself. But a man's heart may deceive his heart, and he +may persuade himself that he is godly and righteous when he knows nothing +about it.' 'Preaching in a certain place,' says Boston, 'after supper +the mistress of the house told me how I had terrified God's people. This +was by my doctrine of self-love, self-righteousness, self-ends, and such +like. She restricted hypocrites to that sort that do all things to be +seen of men, and harped much on this--how can one be a hypocrite who +hates hypocrisy in other people? how can one be a hypocrite and not know +it? All this led me to see the need of such doctrine.' And if only to +show you that this is not the dismal doctrine of antediluvian +Presbyterians only, Canon Mozley says: 'The Pharisee did not know that he +was a Pharisee; if he had known it he would not have been a Pharisee. He +does not know that he is a hypocrite. The vulgar hypocrite knows that he +is a hypocrite because he deceives others, but the true Scripture +hypocrite deceives himself.' And the most subtle teacher of our century, +or of any century, has said: 'What is a hypocrite? We are apt to +understand by a hypocrite one who makes a profession of religion for +secret ends without practising what he professes; who is malevolent, +covetous, or profligate, while he assumes an outward sanctity in his +words and conduct, and who does so deliberately, deceiving others, and +not at all self-deceived. But this is not what our Saviour seems to have +meant by a hypocrite; nor were the Pharisees such. The Pharisees +deceived themselves as well as others. Indeed, it is not in human nature +to deceive others for any long time without in a measure deceiving +ourselves also. When they began, each in his turn, to deceive the +people, they were not at the moment self-deceived. But by degrees they +forgot that outward ceremonies avail nothing without inward purity. They +did not know themselves, and they unawares deceived themselves as well as +the people.' What a terrible light, as of the last day itself, does all +that cast upon the formalisms and the hypocrisies of which our own +religious life is full! And what a terrible light it casts on those +miserable men who are complete and finished in their self-deception! For +the complete and finished hypocrite is not he who thinks that he is +better than all other men; that is hopeless enough; but the paragon of +hypocrisy is he who does not know that he is worse than all other men. +And in his stone-blindness to himself, and consequently to all reality +and inwardness and spirituality in religion, you see him intensely +interested in, and day and night occupied with, the outside things of +religion, till nothing short of a miracle will open his eyes. See him in +the ministry, for instance, sweating at his sermons and in his visiting, +till you would almost think that he is the minister of whom Paul +prophesied, who should spend and be spent for the salvation of men's +souls. But all the time, such is the hypocrisy that haunts the +ministerial calling, he is really and at bottom animated with ambition +for the praise of men only, and for the increase of his congregation. See +him, again, now assailing or now defending a church's secular privileges, +and he knowing no more, all the time, what a church has been set up for +on earth than the man in the moon. What a penalty his defence is and his +support to a church of Christ, and what an incubus his membership must +be! Or, see him, again, making long speeches and many prayers for the +extension of the kingdom of Christ, and all the time spending ten times +more on wine or whisky or tobacco, or on books or pictures or foreign +travel, than he gives to the cause of home or foreign missions. And so +on, all through our hypocritical and self-blinded life. Through such +stages, and to such a finish, does the formalist pass from his +thoughtless and neglected youth to his hardened, blinded, self-seeking +life, spent in the ostensible service of the church of Christ. If the +light that is in such men be darkness, how great is that darkness! We +may all well shudder as we hear our Lord saying to ministers and members +and church defenders and church supporters, like ourselves: 'Now ye say, +We see; therefore your sin remaineth.' + +Now, the first step to the cure of all such hypocrisy, and to the +salvation of our souls, is to know that we are hypocrites, and to know +also what that is in which we are most hypocritical. Well, there are two +absolutely infallible tests of a true hypocrite,--tests warranted to +unmask, expose, and condemn the most finished, refined, and even +evangelical hypocrite in this house to-night, or in all the world. By +far and away the best and swiftest is prayer. True prayer, that is. For +here again our inexpugnable hypocrisy comes in and leads us down to +perdition even in our prayers. There is nothing our Lord more bitterly +and more contemptuously assails the Pharisees for than just the length, +the loudness, the number, and the publicity of their prayers. The truth +is, public prayer, for the most part, is no true prayer at all. It is at +best an open homage paid to secret prayer. We make such shipwrecks of +devotion in public prayer, that if we have a shred of true religion about +us, we are glad to get home and to shut our door. We preach in our +public prayers. We make speeches on public men and on public events in +our public prayers. We see the reporters all the time in our public +prayers. We do everything but pray in our public prayers. And to get +away alone,--what an escape that is from the temptations and defeats of +public prayer! No; public prayer is no test whatever of a hypocrite. A +hypocrite revels in public prayer. It is secret prayer that finds him +out. And even secret prayer will sometimes deceive us. We are crushed +down on our secret knees sometimes, by sheer shame and the strength of +conscience. Fear of exposure, fear of death and hell, will sometimes +make us shut our door. A flood of passing feeling will sometimes make us +pray for a season in secret. Job had all that before him when he said, +'Will the hypocrite delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call +upon God?' No, he will not. And it is just here that the hypocrite and +the true Christian best discover themselves both to God and to +themselves. The true Christian will, as Job again says, pray in secret +till God slays him. He will pray in his dreams; he will pray till death; +he will pray after he is dead. Are you in earnest, then, not to be any +more a hypocrite and to know the infallible marks of such? Ask the key +of your closet door. Ask the chair at your bedside. Ask the watchman +what you were doing and why your light was in so long. Ask the birds of +the air and the beasts of the field and the crows on the ploughed lands +after your solitary walk. + +Almost a better test of true and false religion than even secret prayer, +but a test that is far more difficult to handle, is our opinion of +ourselves. In His last analysis of the truly justified man and the truly +reprobate, our Lord made the deepest test to be their opinion of +themselves. 'God, I thank Thee that I am not as this publican,' said the +hypocrite. 'God be merciful to me a sinner,' said the true penitent. And +then this fine principle comes in here--not only to speed the sure +sanctification of a true Christian, but also, if he has skill and courage +to use it, for his assurance and comfort,--that the saintlier he becomes +and the riper for glory, the more he will beat his breast over what yet +abides within his breast. Yes; a man's secret opinion of himself is +almost a better test of his true spiritual state than even secret prayer. +But, then, these two are not competing and exclusive tests; they always +go together and are never found apart. And at the mouth of these two +witnesses every true hypocrite shall be condemned and every true +Christian justified. + +Dr. Pusey says somewhere that the perfect hypocrite is the man who has +the truth of God in his mind, but is without the love of God in his +heart. 'Truth without love,' says that saintly scholar, 'makes a +finished Pharisee.' Now we Scottish and Free Church people believe we +have the truth, if any people on the face of the earth have it; and if we +have not love mixed with it, you see where and what we are. We are +called to display a banner because of the truth, but let love always be +our flag-staff. Let us be jealous for the truth, but let it be a godly, +that is to say, a loving jealousy. When we contend for purity of +doctrine and for purity of worship, when we protest against popery and +priestcraft, when we resist rationalism and infidelity, when we do battle +now for national religion, as we call it, and now for the freedom of the +church, let us do it all in love to all men, else we had better not do it +at all. If we cannot do it with clean and all-men-loving hearts, let us +leave all debate and contention to stronger and better men than we are. +The truth will never be advanced or guarded by us, nor will the Lord of +truth and love accept our service or bless our souls, till we put on the +divine nature, and have our hearts and our mouths still more full of love +than our minds and our mouths are full of truth. Let us watch ourselves, +lest with all our so-called love of truth we be found reprobates at last +because we loved the truth for some selfish or party end, and hated and +despised our brother, and believed all evil and disbelieved all good +concerning our brother. Truth without love makes a hypocrite, says Dr. +Pusey; and evangelical truth without evangelical love makes an +evangelical hypocrite, says Thomas Shepard. Only where the whole truth +is united to a heart full of love have we the perfect New Testament +Christian. + + + + +TIMOROUS AND MISTRUST + + + 'There is a lion in the way.'--The Slothful Man. + + 'I must venture.'--Christian. + +'I at any rate must venture,' said Christian to Timorous and Mistrust. +'Whatever you may do I must venture, even if the lions you speak of +should pull me to pieces. I, for one, shall never go back. To go back +is nothing but death; to go forward is fear of death and everlasting life +beyond it. I will yet go forward.' So Mistrust and Timorous ran down +the hill, and Christian went on his way. George Offor says, in his notes +on this passage, that civil despotism and ecclesiastical tyranny so +terrified many young converts in John Bunyan's day, that multitudes +turned back like Mistrust and Timorous; while at the same time, many like +Bunyan himself went forward and for a time fell into the lion's mouth. +Civil despotism and ecclesiastical tyranny do not stand in our way as +they stood in Bunyan's way--at least, not in the same shape: but every +age has its own lions, and every Christian man has his own lions that +neither civil despots nor ecclesiastical tyrants know anything about. + +Now, who or what is the lion in your way? Who or what is it that fills +you with such timorousness and mistrust, that you are almost turning back +from the way to life altogether? The fiercest of all our lions is our +own sin. When a man's own sin not only finds him out and comes roaring +after him, but when it dashes past him and gets into the woods and +thickets before him, and stands pawing and foaming on the side of his +way, that is a trial of faith and love and trust indeed. Sometimes a +man's past sins will fill all his future life with sleepless +apprehensions. He is never sure at what turn in his upward way he may +not suddenly run against some of them standing ready to rush out upon +him. And it needs no little quiet trust and humble-minded resignation to +carry a man through this slough and that bottom, up this hill and down +that valley, all the time with his life in his hand; and yet at every +turn, at every rumour that there are lions in the way, to say, Come lion, +come lamb, come death, come life, I must venture, I will yet go forward. +As Job also, that wonderful saint of God, said, 'Hold your peace, let me +alone that I may speak, and let come on me what will. Wherefore do I +take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in my hand? Though He slay me, +yet will I trust in Him. He also shall be my salvation; for an hypocrite +shall not come before Him.' + +One false step, one stumble in life, one error in judgment, one outbreak +of an unbridled temperament, one small sin, if it is even so much as a +sin, of ignorance or of infirmity, will sometimes not only greatly injure +us at the time, but, in some cases, will fill all our future life with +trials and difficulties and dangers. Many of us shall have all our days +to face a future of defeat, humiliation, impoverishment, and many +hardships, that has not come on us on account of any presumptuous +transgression of God's law so much as simply out of some combination of +unfortunate circumstances in which we may have only done our duty, but +have not done it in the most serpent-like way. And when we are made to +suffer unjustly or disproportionately all our days for our error of +judgment or our want of the wisdom of this world, or what not, we are +sorely tempted to be bitter and proud and resentful and unforgiving, and +to go back from duty and endurance and danger altogether. But we must +not. We must rather say to ourselves, Now and here, if not in the past, +I must play the man, and, by God's help, the wise man. I must pluck +safety henceforth out of the heart of the nettle danger. Yes, I made a +mistake. I did what I would not do now, and I must not be too proud to +say so. I acted, I see now, precipitately, inconsiderately, imprudently. +And I must not gloom and rebel and run away from the cross and the lion. +I must not insist or expect that the always wise and prudent man's reward +is to come to me. The lion in my way is a lion of my own rearing; and I +must not turn my back on him, even if he should be let loose to leap on +me and rend me. I must pass under his paw and through his teeth, if need +be, to a life with him and beyond him of humility and duty and +quiet-hearted submission to his God and mine. + +Then, again, our salvation itself sometimes, our true sanctification, +puts on a lion's skin and not unsuccessfully imitates an angry lion's +roar. Some saving grace that up till now we have been fatally lacking in +lies under the very lip of that lion we see standing straight in our way. +God in His wisdom so orders our salvation, that we must work out the best +part of it with fear and trembling. Right before us, just beside us, +standing over us with his heavy paw upon us, is a lion, from under whose +paw and from between whose teeth we must pluck and put on that grace in +which our salvation lies. Repentance and reformation lie in the way of +that lion; resignation also and humility; the crucifixion of our own +will; the sacrifice of our own heart; in short, everything that is still +lacking but is indispensable to our salvation lies through that den of +lions. One man here is homeless and loveless; another is childless; +another has a home and children, and much envies the man who has neither; +one has talents there is no scope for; another has the scope, but not the +sufficient talent; another must now spend all his remaining life in a +place where he sees that anger and envy and jealousy and malevolence will +be his roaring lions daily seeking to devour his soul. There is not a +Christian man or woman in this house whose salvation, worth being called +a salvation, does not lie through such a lion's thicket as that. Our +Lord Himself was a roaring lion to John the Baptist. For the Baptist's +salvation lay not in his powerful preaching, but in his being laid aside +from all preaching; not in his crowds increasing, but in his Successor's +crowds increasing and his decreasing. The Baptist was the greatest born +of woman in that day, not because he was a thundering preacher--any +ordinary mother in Israel might have been his mother in that: but to +decrease sweetly and to steal down quietly to perfect humility and self- +oblivion,--that salvation was reserved for the son of Elisabeth alone. I +would not like to say Who that is champing and pawing for your blood +right in your present way. Reverence will not let me say Who it is. +Only, you venture on Him. + +'Yes, I shall venture!' said Christian to the two terrified and +retreating men. Now, every true venture is made against risk and +uncertainty, against anxiety and danger and fear. And it is just this +that constitutes the nobleness and blessedness of faith. Faith sells all +for Christ. Faith risks all for eternal life. Faith faces all for +salvation. When it is at the worst, faith still says, Very well; even if +there is no Celestial City anywhere in the world, it is better to die +still seeking it than to live on in the City of Destruction. Even if +there is no Jesus Christ,--I have read about Him and heard about Him and +pictured Him to myself, till, say what you will, I shall die kissing and +embracing that Divine Image I have in my heart. Even if there is neither +mercy-seat nor intercession in heaven, I shall henceforth pray without +ceasing. Far far better for me all the rest of my sinful life to be +clothed with sackcloth and ashes, even if there is no fountain opened in +Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness, and no change of raiment. Christian +protested that, as for him, lions and all, he had no choice left. And no +more have we. He must away somewhere, anywhere, from his past life. And +so must we. If all the lions that ever drank blood are to collect upon +his way, let them do so; they shall not all make him turn back. Why +should they? What is a whole forest full of lions to a heart and a life +full of sin? Lions are like lambs compared with sin. 'Good morning! I +for one must venture. I shall yet go forward.' So Mistrust and Timorous +ran down the hill, and Christian went on his way. + +So I saw in my dream that he made haste and went forward, that if +possible he might get lodging in the house called Beautiful that stood by +the highway side. Now, before he had gone far he entered into a very +narrow passage which was about a furlong off from the porter's lodge, and +looking very narrowly before him as he went, he espied two lions in the +way. Then was he afraid, and thought also to go back, for he thought +that nothing but death was before him. But the porter at the lodge, +whose name was Watchful, perceiving that Christian made a halt, as if he +would go back, cried unto him, saying, 'Is thy strength so small? Fear +not the lions, for they are chained, and are only placed there for the +trial of faith where it is, and for the discovery of those who have none. +Keep the midst of the path and no hurt shall come to thee.' Yes, that is +all we have to do. Whatever our past life may have been, whatever our +past sins, past errors of judgment, past mistakes and mishaps, whatever +of punishment or chastisement or correction or instruction or +sanctification and growth in grace may be under those lions' skins and +between their teeth for us, all we have got to do at present is to leave +the lions to Him who set them there, and to go on, up to them and past +them, keeping always to the midst of the path. The lions may roar at us +till they have roared us deaf and blind, but we are far safer in the +midst of that path than we would be in our own bed. Only let us keep in +the midst of the path. When their breath is hot and full of blood on our +cheek; when they paw up the blinding earth; when we feel as if their +teeth had closed round our heart,--still, all the more, let us keep in +the midst of the path. We must sometimes walk on a razor-edge of fear +and straightforwardness; that is the only way left for us now. But, +then, we have the Divine assurance that on that perilous edge no hurt +shall come to us. 'Temptations,' says our author in another place, 'when +we meet them at first, are as the lion that roared upon Samson; but if we +overcome them, the next time we see them we shall find a nest of honey in +them.' O God, for grace and sense and imagination to see and understand +and apply all that to our own daily life! O to be able to take all that +home to-night and see it all there; lions and runaways, venturesome +souls, narrow paths, palaces of beauty, everlasting life and all! Open +Thou our eyes that we may see the wonderful things that await us in our +own house at home! + + 'Things out of hope are compassed oft with venturing.' + +So they are; and so they were that day with our terrified pilgrim. He +made a venture at the supreme moment of his danger, and things that were +quite out of all hope but an hour before were then compassed and ever +after possessed by him. Make the same venture, then, yourselves +to-night. Naught venture, naught have. Your lost soul is not much to +venture, but it is all that Christ at this moment asks of you--that you +leave your lost soul in His hand, and then go straight on from this +moment in the middle of the path: the path, that is, as your case may be, +of purity, humility, submission, resignation, and self-denial. Keep your +mind and your heart, your eyes and your feet, in the very middle of that +path, and you shall have compassed the House Beautiful before you know. +The lions shall soon be behind you, and the grave and graceful damsels of +the House--Discretion and Prudence and Piety and Charity--shall all be +waiting upon you. + + + + +PRUDENCE {1} + + + 'Let a man examine himself.'--Paul. + +Let a man examine himself, says the apostle to the Corinthians, and so +let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. And thus it was, that +before the pilgrim was invited to sit down at the supper table in the +House Beautiful, quite a number of most pointed and penetrating questions +were put to him by those who had charge of that house and its supper +table. And thus the time was excellently improved till the table was +spread, while the short delay and the successive exercises whetted to an +extraordinary sharpness the pilgrim's hunger for the supper. Piety and +Charity, who had joint charge of the house from the Master of the house, +held each a characteristic conversation with Christian, but it was left +to Prudence to hold the most particular discourse with him until supper +was ready, and it is to that so particular discourse that I much wish to +turn your attention to-night. + +With great tenderness, but at the same time with the greatest possible +gravity, Prudence asked the pilgrim whether he did not still think +sometimes of the country from whence he had come out. Yes, he replied; +how could I help thinking continually of that unhappy country and of my +sad and miserable life in it; but, believe me,--or, rather, you cannot +believe me,--with what shame and detestation I always think of my past +life. My face burns as I now speak of my past life to you, and as I +think what my old companions know and must often say about me. I detest, +as you cannot possibly understand, every remembrance of my past life, and +I hate and never can forgive myself, who, with mine own hands, so filled +all my past life with shame and self-contempt. Gently stopping the +remorseful pilgrim's self-accusations about his past life, Prudence asked +him if he had not still with him, and, indeed, within him, some of the +very things that had so destroyed both him and all his past life. 'Yes,' +he honestly and humbly said. 'Yes, but greatly against my will: +especially my inward and sinful cogitations.' At this Prudence looked on +him with all her deep and soft eyes, for it was to this that she had been +leading the conversation up all the time. Prudence had a great look of +satisfaction, mingled with love and pity, at the way the pilgrim said +'especially my inward and sinful cogitations.' Those who stood by and +observed Prudence wondered at her delight in the sad discourse on which +the pilgrim now entered. But she had her own reasons for her delight in +this particular kind of discourse, and it was seldom that she lighted on +a pilgrim who both understood her questions and responded to them as did +this man now sitting beside her. Now, my brethren, all parable apart, is +that your religious experience? Are you full of shame and detestation at +your inward cogitations? Are you tormented, enslaved, and downright +cursed with your own evil thoughts? I do not ask whether or no you have +such thoughts always within you. I do not ask, because I know. But I +ask, because I would like to make sure that you know what, and the true +nature of what, goes on incessantly in your mind and in your heart. Do +you, or do you not, spit out your most inward thoughts ten times a day +like poison? If you do, you are a truly religious man, and if you do +not, you do not yet know the very ABC of true religion, and your dog has +a better errand at the Lord's table than you have. And if your minister +lets you sit down at the Lord's table without holding from time to time +some particular discourse with you about your sinful thoughts, he is +deceiving and misleading you, besides laying up for himself an awakening +at last to shame and everlasting contempt. What a mill-stone his +communion roll will be round such a minister's neck! And how his +congregation will gnash their teeth at him when they see to what his +miserable ministry has brought them! + +Let a man examine himself, said Paul. What about your inward and sinful +cogitations? asked Prudence. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge +within thee? demanded the bold prophet. Now, my brethren, what have you +to say to that particular accusation? Do you know what vain thoughts are? +Are you at all aware what multitudes of such thoughts lodge within you? +Do they drive you every day to your knees, and do you blush with shame +when you are alone before God at the fountain of folly that fills your +mind and your heart continually? The Apostle speaks of vain hopes that +make us ashamed that we ever entertained them. You have been often so +ashamed, and yet do not such hopes still too easily arise in your heart? +What castles of idiotic folly you still build! Were a sane man or a +modest woman even to dream such dreams of folly overnight, they would +blush and hide their heads all day at the thought. Out of a word, out of +a look, out of what was neither a word nor a look intended for you, what +a world of vanity will you build out of it! The question of Prudence is +not whether or no you are still a born fool at heart, she does not put +unnecessary questions: hers to you is the more pertinent and particular +question, whether, since you left your former life and became a +Christian, you feel every day increasing shame and detestation at +yourself, on account of the vanity of your inward cogitations. My +brethren, can you satisfy her who is set by her Master to hold particular +discourse with all true Christians before supper? Can you say with the +Psalmist,--could you tell Prudence where the Psalmist says,--I hate vain +thoughts, but Thy law do I love? And can you silence her by telling her +that her Master alone knows with what shame you think that He has such a +fool as you are among His people? + +Anger, also, sudden and even long-entertained anger, was one of the 'many +failings' of which Christian was so conscious to himself. His outbursts +of anger at home, he bitterly felt, might well be one of the causes why +his wife and children did not accompany him on his pilgrimage. And +though he knew his failing in this respect, and was very wary of it, yet +he often failed even when he was most wary. Now, while anger is largely +a result of our blood and temperament, yet few of us are so well-balanced +and equable in our temperament and so pure and cool in our blood, as +altogether to escape frequent outbursts of anger. The most happily +constituted and the best governed of us have too much cause to be ashamed +and penitent both before God and our neighbours for our outbursts of +angry passion. But Prudence is so particular in her discourse before +supper, that she goes far deeper into our anger than our wives and our +children, our servants and our neighbours, can go. She not only asks if +we stamp out the rising anger of our heart as we would stamp out sparks +of fire in a house full of gunpowder; but she insists on being told what +we think of ourselves when the house of our heart is still so full of +such fire and such gunpowder. Any man, to call a man, would be humbled +in his own eyes and in his walk before his house at home after an +explosion of anger among them; but he who would satisfy Prudence and sit +beside her at supper, must not only never let his anger kindle, but the +simple secret heat of it, that fire of hell that is hid from all men but +himself in the flint of his own hard and proud heart,--what, asks +Prudence, do you think of that, and of yourself on account of that? Does +that keep you not only watchful and prayerful, but, what is the best +ground in you of all true watchfulness and prayerfulness, full of secret +shame, self-fear, and self-detestation? One forenoon table would easily +hold all our communicants if Prudence had the distribution of the tokens. + +And, then, we who are true pilgrims, are of all men the most miserable, +on account of that 'failing,' that rankling sting in our hearts, when any +of our friends has more of this world's possessions, honours, and praises +than we have, that pain at our neighbour's pleasure, that sickness at his +health, that hunger for what we see him eat, that thirst for what we see +him drink, that imprisonment of our spirits when we see him set at +liberty, that depression at his exaltation, that sorrow at his joy, and +joy at his sorrow, that evil heart that would have all things to itself. +Yes, said Christian, I am only too conversant with all these sinful +cogitations, but they are all greatly against my will, and might I but +choose mine own thoughts, do you suppose that I would ever think these +things any more? 'The cause is in my will,' said Caesar, on a great +occasion. But the true Christian, unhappily, cannot say that. If he +could say that, he would soon say also that the snare is broken and that +his soul has escaped. And then the cause of all his evil cogitations, +his vain thoughts, his angry feelings, his envious feelings, his +ineradicable covetousness, his hell-rooted and heaven-towering pride, and +his whole evil heart of unbelief would soon be at an end. 'I cannot be +free of sin,' said Thomas Boston, 'but God knows that He would be welcome +to make havoc of my lusts to-night and to make me henceforth a holy man. +I know no lust that I would not be content to part with. My will bound +hand and foot I desire to lay at His feet.' Yes: such is the mystery and +depth of sin in the hearts of all God's saints, that far deeper than +their will, far back behind their will, the whole substance and very core +of their hearts is wholly corrupt and enslaved to sin. And thus it is +that while their renewed and delivered will works out, so far, their +salvation in their walk and conversation among men, the helplessness of +their will in the cleansing and the keeping of their hearts is to the end +the sorrow and the mystery of their sanctification. To will was present +with Paul, and with Bunyan, and with Boston; but their heart--they could +not with all their keeping keep their heart. No man can; no man who has +at all tried it can. 'Might I but choose mine own thoughts, I would +choose never to think of these things more: but when I would be doing of +that which is best, that which is worst is with me.' We can choose +almost all things. Our will and choice have almost all things at their +disposal. We can choose our God. We can choose life or death. We can +choose heaven or hell. We can choose our church, our minister, our +books, our companions, our words, our works, and, to some extent, our +inward thoughts, but only to some extent. We can encourage this or that +thought; we can entertain it and dwell upon it; or we can detect it, +detest it, and cast it out. But that secret place in our heart where our +thoughts hide and harbour, and out of which they spring so suddenly upon +the mind and the heart, the imagination and the conscience,--of that +secretest of all secret places, God alone is able to say, I search the +heart. 'As for secret thoughts,' says our author, speaking of his own +former religious life, 'I took no notice of them, neither did I +understand what Satan's temptations were, nor how they were to be +withstood and resisted.' But now all these things are his deepest grief, +as they are ours,--as many of us as have been truly turned in our deepest +hearts to God. + +'But,' replied Prudence, 'do you not find sometimes as if those things +were vanquished which at other times are your perplexity?' 'Yes, but +that is but seldom; but they are to me golden hours in which such things +happen to me.' 'Can you remember by what means you find your annoyances +at times as if they were vanquished?' 'Yes, when I think what I saw at +the cross, that will do it; and when I look upon my broidered coat, that +will do it; also, when I look into the roll that I carry in my bosom, +that will do it; and when my thoughts wax warm about whither I am going, +that will do it.' Yes; and these same things have many a time done it to +ourselves also. We also, my brethren--let me tell you your own +undeniable experience--we also have such golden hours sometimes, when we +feel as if we should never again have such an evil heart within us. The +Cross of Christ to us also has done it. It is of such golden hours that +Isaac Watts sings in his noble hymn: + + 'When I survey the wondrous Cross;' + +and as often as we sing that hymn with our eyes upon the object, that +will for a time vanquish our worst cogitations. Also, when we read the +roll that we too carry in our bosom--that is to say, when we go back into +our past life till we see it and feel it all, and till we can think and +speak of nothing else but the sin that abounded in it and the grace that +much more abounded, that has a thousand times given us also golden hours, +even rest from our own evil hearts. And we also have often made our +hearts too hot for sin to show itself, when we read our hearts deep into +such books as _The Paradiso_, _The Pilgrim's Progress_, _The Saint's +Rest_, _The Serious Call_, _The Religious Affections_, and such like. +These books have often vanquished our annoyances, and given us golden +hours on the earth. Yes, but that is but seldom. + +'Now, what is it,' asked Prudence, as she wound up this so particular +colloquy, 'that makes you so desirous to go to Mount Zion?' + +'Why,' replied the pilgrim, and the water stood in his eyes, 'why, there +I hope to see Him alive that did hang dead on the cross; and there I hope +to be rid of all those things that to this day are an annoyance to me; +there they say is no death, and there shall I dwell with such company as +I love best. For, to tell you truth, I love Him, because by Him I was +eased of my burden, and I am weary of my inward sickness; and I would +fain be where I shall die no more, and for ever with that company that +shall continually cry, Holy, holy, holy.' + + + + +CHARITY + + + 'I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.'--David. + +There can be nobody here to-night so stark stupid as to suppose that the +pilgrim had run away from home and left his wife and children to the work- +house. There have been wiseacres who have found severe fault with John +Bunyan because he made his Puritan pilgrim such a bad husband and such an +unnatural father. But nobody possessed of a spark of common sense, not +to say religion or literature, would ever commit himself to such an utter +imbecility as that. John Bunyan's pilgrim, whatever he may have been +before he became a pilgrim, all the time he was a pilgrim, was the most +faithful, affectionate, and solicitous husband in all the country round +about, and the tenderest, the most watchful, and the wisest of fathers. +This pilgrim stayed all the more at home that he went so far away from +home; he accomplished his whole wonderful pilgrimage beside his own forge +and at his own fireside; and he entered the Celestial City amid trumpets +and bells and harps and psalms, while all the time sleeping in his own +humble bed. The House Beautiful, therefore, to which we have now come in +his company, is not some remote and romantic mansion away up among the +mountains a great many days' journey distant from this poor man's +everyday home. The House Beautiful was nothing else,--what else better, +what else so good could it be?--than just this Christian man's first +communion Sabbath and his first communion table (first, that is, after +his true conversion from sin to God and his confessed entrance into a new +life), while the country from whence he had come out, and concerning +which both Piety and Prudence catechised him so closely, was just his +former life of open ungodliness and all his evil walk and conversation +while he was as yet living without God and without hope in the world. The +country on which he confessed that he now looked back with so much shame +and detestation was not England or Bedfordshire, but the wicked life he +had lived in that land and in that shire. And when Charity asked him as +to whether he was a married man and had a family, she knew quite well +that he was, only she made a pretence of asking him those domestic +questions in order thereby to start the touching conversation. + +Beginning, then, at home, as she always began, Charity said to Christian, +'Have you a family? Are you a married man?' 'I have a wife and four +small children,' answered Christian. 'And why did you not bring them +with you?' Then Christian wept and said, 'Oh, how willingly would I have +done so, but they were all of them utterly averse to my going on +pilgrimage.' 'But you should have talked to them and have shown them +their danger.' 'So I did,' he replied, 'but I seemed to them as one that +mocked.' Now, this of talking, and, especially, of talking about +religious things to children, is one of the most difficult things in the +world,--that is, to do it well. Some people have the happy knack of +talking to their own and to other people's children so as always to +interest and impress them. But such happy people are few. Most people +talk at their children whenever they begin to talk to them, and thus, +without knowing it, they nauseate their children with their conversation +altogether. To respect a little child, to stand in some awe of a little +child, to choose your topics, your opportunities, your neighbourhood, +your moods and his as well as all your words, and always to speak your +sincerest, simplest, most straightforward and absolutely wisest is +indispensable with a child. Take your mannerisms, your condescensions, +your affectations, your moralisings, and all your insincerities to your +debauched equals, but bring your truest and your best to your child. +Unless you do so, you will be sure to lay yourself open to a look that +will suddenly go through you, and that will swiftly convey to you that +your child sees through you and despises you and your conversation too. +'You should not only have talked to your children of their danger,' said +Charity, 'but you should have shown them their danger.' Yes, Charity; +but a man must himself see his own and his children's danger too, before +he can show it to them, as well as see it clearly at the time he is +trying to show it to them. And how many fathers, do you suppose, have +the eyes to see such danger, and how then can they shew such danger to +their children, of all people? Once get fathers to see dangers or +anything else aright, and then you will not need to tell them how they +are to instruct and impress their children. Nature herself will then +tell them how to talk to their children, and when Nature teaches, all our +children will immediately and unweariedly listen. + +But, especially, said Charity, as your boys grew up--I think you said +that you had four boys and no girls?--well, then, all the more, as they +grew up, you should have taken occasion to talk to them about yourself. +Did your little boy never petition you for a story about yourself; and as +he grew up did you never confide to him what you have never confided to +his mother? Something, as I was saying, that made you sad when you were +a boy and a rising man, with a sadness your son can still see in you as +you talk to him. In conversations like that a boy finds out what a +friend he has in his father, and his father from that day has his best +friend in his son. And then as Matthew grew up and began to out-grow his +brothers and to form friendships out of doors, did you study to talk at +the proper time to him, and on subjects on which you never venture to +talk about to any other boy or man? You men, Charity went on to say, +live in a world of your own, and though we women are well out of it, yet +we cannot be wholly ignorant that it is there. And, we may well be +wrong, but we cannot but think that fathers, if not mothers, might safely +tell their men-children at least more than they do tell them of the sure +dangers that lie straight in their way, of the sorrow that men and women +bring on one another, and of what is the destruction of so many cities. +We may well be wrong, for we are only women, but I have told you what we +all think who keep this house and hear the reports and repentances of +pilgrims, both Piety and Prudence and I myself. And I, for one, largely +agree with the three women. It is easier said than done. But the simple +saying of it may perhaps lead some fathers and mothers to think about it, +and to ask whether or no it is desirable and advisable to do it, which of +them is to attempt it, on what occasion, and to what extent. Christian +by this time had the Slough of Despond with all its history and all that +it contained to tell his eldest son about; he had the wicket gate also +just above the slough, the hill Difficulty, the Interpreter's House, the +place somewhat ascending with a cross standing upon it, and a little +below, in the bottom, a sepulchre, not to speak of her who assaulted +Faithful, whose name was Wanton, and who at one time was like to have +done even that trusty pilgrim a lifelong mischief. Christian rather +boasted to Charity of his wariness, especially in the matter of his +children's amusements, but Charity seemed to think that he had carried +his wariness into other matters besides amusements, without the best +possible results there either. I have sometimes thought with her that +among our multitude of congresses and conferences of all kinds of people +and upon all manner of subjects, room and membership might have been +found for a conference of fathers and mothers. Fathers to give and take +counsel about how to talk to their sons, and mothers to their daughters. +I am much of Charity's mind, that, if more were done at home, and done +with some frankness, for our sons and daughters, there would be fewer +fathers and mothers found sitting at the Lord's table alone. 'You should +have talked to them,' said Charity, with some severity in her tones, +'and, especially, you should have told them of your own sorrow.' + +And then, coming still closer up to Christian, Charity asked him whether +he prayed, both before and after he so spoke to his children, that God +would bless what he said to them. Charity believeth all things, hopeth +all things, but when she saw this man about to sit down all alone at the +supper table, it took Charity all her might to believe that he had both +spoken to his children and at the same time prayed to God for them as he +ought to have done. Our old ministers used to lay this vow on all +fathers and mothers at the time of baptism, that they were to pray both +with and for their children. Now, that is a fine formula; it is a most +comprehensive, and, indeed, exhaustive formula. Both with and for. And +especially with. With, at such and such times, on such and such +occasions, and in such and such places. At those times, say, when your +boy has told a lie, or struck his little brother, or stolen something, or +destroyed something. To pray with him at such times, and to pray with +him properly, and, if you feel able to do it, and are led to do it, to +tell him something after the prayer about yourself, and your own not-yet- +forgotten boyhood, and your father; it makes a fine time to mix talk and +prayer together in that way. Charity is not easily provoked, but the +longer she lives and keeps the table in the House Beautiful the more she +is provoked to think that there is far too little prayer among pilgrims; +far too little of all kinds of prayer, but especially prayer with and for +their children. But hard as it was to tell all the truth at that moment +about Christian's past walk in his house at home, yet he was able with +the simple truth to say that he had indeed prayed both with and for his +children, and that, as they knew and could not but remember, not seldom. +Yes, he said, I did sometimes so pray with my boys, and that too, as you +may believe, with much affection, for you must think that my four boys +were all very dear to me. And it is my firm belief that all that good +man's boys will come right yet: Matthew and Joseph and James and Samuel +and all. 'With much affection.' I like that. I have unbounded faith in +those prayers, both for and with, in which there is much affection. It +is want of affection, and want of imagination, that shipwrecks so many of +our prayers. But this man's prayers had both these elements of sure +success in them, and they must come at last to harbour. At that one word +'with much affection,' this man's closet door flies open and I see the +old pilgrim first alone, and then with his arms round his eldest son's +neck, and both father and son weeping together till they are ashamed to +appear at supper till they have washed their faces and got their most +smiling and everyday looks put on again. You just wait and see if +Matthew and all the four boys down to the last do not escape into the +Celestial City before the gate is shut. And when it is asked, Who are +these and whence came they? listen to their song and you will hear those +four happy children saying that their father, when they were yet boys, +both talked with them and prayed for and with them with so much affection +that therefore they are before the throne. + +Why, then, with such a father and with such makable boys, why was this +household brought so near everlasting shipwreck? It was the mother that +did it. In one word, it was the wife and the mother that did it. It was +the mistress of the house who wrought the mischief here. She was a poor +woman, she was a poor man's wife, and one would have thought that she had +little enough temptation to harm upon this present world. But there it +was, she did hang upon it as much as if she had been the mother of the +finest daughters and the most promising boys in all the town. Things +like this were from time to time reported to her by her neighbours. One +fine lady had been heard to say that she would never have for her +tradesman any man who frequented conventicles, who was not content with +the religion of his betters, and who must needs scorn the parish church +and do despite to the saints' days. Another gossip asked her what she +expected to make of her great family of boys when it was well known that +all the gentry in the neighbourhood but two or three had sworn that they +would never have a hulking Puritan to brush their boots or run their +errands. And it almost made her husband burn his book and swear that he +would never be seen at another prayer-meeting when his wife so often said +to him that he should never have had children, that he should never have +made her his wife, and that he was not like this when they were first man +and wife. And in her bitterness she would name this wife or that maid, +and would say, You should have married her. She would have gone to the +meeting-house with you as often as you wished. Her sons are far enough +from good service to please you. 'My wife,' he softly said, 'was afraid +of losing the world. And then, after that, my growing sons were soon +given over, all I could do, to the foolish delights of youth, so that, +what by one thing and what by another, they left me to wander in this +manner alone.' And I suppose there is scarcely a household among +ourselves where there have not been serious and damaging +misunderstandings between old-fashioned fathers and their young people +about what the old people called the 'foolish delights' of their sons and +daughters. And in thinking this matter over, I have often been struck +with how Job did when his sons and his daughters were bent upon feasting +and dancing in their eldest brother's house. The old man did not lay an +interdict upon the entertainment. He did not take part in it, but +neither did he absolutely forbid it. If it must be it must be, said the +wise patriarch. And since I do not know whom they may meet there, or +what they may be tempted to do, I will sanctify them all. I will not go +up into my bed till I have prayed for all my seven sons and three +daughters, each one of them by their names; and till they come home +safely I will rise every morning and offer burnt-offerings according to +the number of them all. And do you think that those burnt-offerings and +accompanying intercessions would go for nothing when the great wind came +from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the banqueting-house? +If you cannot banish the love of foolish delights out the hearts of your +sons and daughters, then do not quarrel with them over such things; a +family quarrel in a Christian man's house is surely far worse than a +feast or a dance. Only, if they must feast and dance and such like, be +you all the more diligent in your exercises at home on their behalf till +they are back again, where, after all, they like best to be, in their +good, kind, liberal, and loving father's house. + +Have you a family? Are you a married man? Or, if not, do you hope one +day to be? Then attend betimes to what Charity says to Christian in the +House Beautiful, and not less to what he says back again to her. + + + + +SHAME + + + 'Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me, and of My words, of him shall the + Son of Man be ashamed, when He shall come in His own glory, and in His + Father's, and of the holy angels.'--Our Lord. + +Shame has not got the attention that it deserves either from our moral +philosophers or from our practical and experimental divines. And yet it +would well repay both classes of students to attend far more to shame. +For, what really is shame? Shame is an original instinct planted in our +souls by our Maker, and intended by Him to act as a powerful and pungent +check to our doing of any act that is mean or dishonourable in the eyes +of our fellow-men. Shame is a kind of social conscience. Shame is a +secondary sense of sin. In shame, our imagination becomes a kind of +moral sense. Shame sets up in our bosom a not undivine tribunal, which +judges us and sentences us in the absence or the silence of nobler and +more awful sanctions and sentences. But then, as things now are with us, +like all the rest of the machinery of the soul, shame has gone sadly +astray both in its objects and in its operations, till it demands a long, +a severe, and a very noble discipline over himself before any man can +keep shame in its proper place and directed in upon its proper objects. +In the present disorder of our souls, we are all acutely ashamed of many +things that are not the proper objects of shame at all; while, on the +other hand, we feel no shame at all at multitudes of things that are +really most blameworthy, dishonourable, and contemptible. We are ashamed +of things in our lot and in our circumstances that, if we only knew it, +are our opportunity and our honour; we are ashamed of things that are the +clear will and the immediate dispensation of Almighty God. And, then, we +feel no shame at all at the most dishonourable things, and that simply +because the men around us are too coarse in their morals and too dull in +their sensibilities to see any shame in such things. And thus it comes +about that, in the very best of men, their still perverted sense of shame +remains in them a constant snare and a source of temptation. A man of a +fine nature feels keenly the temptation to shrink from those paths of +truth and duty that expose him to the cruel judgments and the coarse and +scandalising attacks of public and private enemies. It was in the Valley +of Humiliation that Shame set upon Faithful, and it is a real humiliation +to any man of anything of this pilgrim's fine character and feeling to be +attacked, scoffed at, and held up to blame and opprobrium. And the finer +and the more affectionate any man's heart and character are, the more he +feels and shrinks from the coarse treatment this world gives to those +whom it has its own reasons to hate and assail. They had the stocks and +the pillory and the shears in Bunyan's rude and uncivilised day, by means +of which many of the best men of that day were exposed to the insults and +brutalities of the mob. The newspapers would be the pillory of our day, +were it not that, on the whole, the newspaper press is conducted with +such scrupulous fairness and with a love of truth and justice such that +no man need shrink from the path of duty through fear of insult and +injury. + +But it is time to come to the encounter between Shame and Faithful in the +Valley of Humiliation. Shame, properly speaking, is not one of our +Bunyan gallery of portraits at all. Shame, at best, is but a kind of +secondary character in this dramatic book. We do not meet with Shame +directly; we only hear about him through the report of Faithful. That +first-class pilgrim was almost overcome of Shame, so hot was their +encounter; and it is the extraordinarily feeling, graphic, and realistic +account of their encounter that Faithful gives us that has led me to take +up Shame for our reproof and correction to-night. + +Religion altogether, but especially all personal religion, said Shame to +Faithful, is an unmanly business. There is a certain touch of smallness +and pitifulness, he said, in all religion, but especially in experimental +religion. It brings a man into junctures and into companionships, and it +puts offices and endurances upon one such as try a man if he has any +greatness of spirit about him at all. This life on which you are +entering, said Shame, will cost you many a blush before you are done with +it. You will lay yourself open to many a scoff. The Puritan religion, +and all the ways of that religious fraternity, are peculiarly open to the +shafts of ridicule. Now, all that was quite true. There was no denying +the truth of what Shame said. And Faithful felt the truth of it all, and +felt it most keenly, as he confessed to Christian. The blood came into +my face as the fellow spake, and what he said for a time almost beat me +out of the upward way altogether. But in this dilemma also all true +Christians can fall back, as Faithful fell back, upon the example of +their Master. In this as in every other experience of temptation and +endurance, our Lord is the forerunner and the example of His people. Our +Lord was in all points tempted like as we are, and among all His other +temptations He was tempted to be ashamed of His work on earth and of the +life and the death His work led Him into. He must have often felt +ashamed at the treatment He received during His life of humiliation, as +it is well called; and He must often have felt ashamed of His disciples: +but all that is blotted out by the crowning shame of the cross. We hang +our worst criminals rather than behead or shoot them, in order to heap up +the utmost possible shame and disgrace upon them, as well as to execute +justice upon them. And what the hangman's rope is in our day, all that +the cross was in our Lord's day. And, then, as if the cross itself was +not shame enough, all the circumstances connected with His cross were +planned and carried out so as to heap the utmost possible shame and +humiliation upon His head. Our prison warders have to watch the +murderers in their cells night and day, lest they should take their own +life in order to escape the hangman's rope; but our Lord, keenly as He +felt His coming shame, said to His horrified disciples, Behold, we go up +to Jerusalem, when the Son of Man shall be mocked, and spitefully +entreated, and spitted on; and they shall scourge Him and put Him to +death. Do you ever think of your Lord in His shame? How they made a +fool of Him, as we say. How they took off His own clothes and put on Him +now a red cloak and now a white; how they put a sword of lath in His +hand, and a crown of thorns on His head; how they bowed the knee before +Him, and asked royal favours from Him; and then how they spat in His +face, and struck Him on the cheek, while the whole house rang with shouts +of laughter. And, then, the last indignity of man, how they stripped Him +naked and lashed His naked and bleeding body to a whipping-post. And how +they wagged their heads and put out their tongues at Him when He was on +the tree, and invited Him to come down and preach to them now, and they +would all become His disciples. Did not Shame say the simple truth when +he warned Faithful that religion had always and from the beginning made +its followers the ridicule of their times? + +If you are really going to be a religious man, Shame went on, you will +have to carry about with you a very tender conscience, and a more unmanly +and miserable thing than a tender conscience I cannot conceive. A tender +conscience will cost you something, let me tell you, to keep it. If +nothing else, a tender conscience will all your life long expose you to +the mockery and the contempt of all the brave spirits of the time. That +also is true. At any rate, a tender conscience will undoubtedly compel +its possessor to face the brave spirits of the time. There is a good +story told to this present point about Sir Robert Peel, a Prime Minister +of our Queen. When a young man, Peel was one of the guests at a select +dinner-party in the West-end of London. And after the ladies had left +the table the conversation of the gentlemen took a turn such that it +could not have taken as long as the ladies were present. Peel took no +share in the stories or the merriment that went on, and, at last, he rose +up and ordered his carriage, and, with a burning face, left the room. +When he was challenged as to why he had broken up the pleasant party so +soon, he could only reply that his conscience would not let him stay any +longer. No doubt Peel felt the mocking laughter that he left behind him, +but, as Shame said to Faithful, the tenderness of the young statesman's +conscience compelled him to do as he did. But we are not all Peels. And +there are plenty of workshops and offices and dinner-tables in our own +city, where young men who would walk up to the cannon's mouth without +flinching have not had Peel's courage to protest against indecency or to +confess that they belonged to an evangelical church. If a church is only +sufficiently unevangelical there is no trial of conscience or of courage +in confessing that you belong to it. But as Shame so ably and honestly +said, that type of religion that creates a tender conscience in its +followers, and sets them to watch their words and their ways, and makes +them tie themselves up from all hectoring liberty--to choose that +religion, and to cleave to it to the end, will make a young man the +ridicule still of all the brave spirits round about him. Ambitious young +men get promotion and reward every day among us for desertions and +apostasies in religion, for which, if they had been guilty of the like in +war, they would have been shot. 'And so you are a Free Churchman, I am +told.' That was all that was said. But the sharp youth understood +without any more words, and he made his choice accordingly; till it is +becoming a positive surprise to find the rising members of certain +professions in certain churches. The Quakers have a proverb in England +that a family carriage never drives for two generations past the parish +church door. Of which state of matters Shame showed himself a shrewd +prophet two hundred years ago when he said that but few of the rich and +the mighty and the wise remained long of Faithful's Puritan opinion +unless they were first persuaded to be fools, and to be of a voluntary +fondness to venture the loss of all. + +And I will tell you two other things, said sharp-sighted and plain-spoken +Shame, that your present religion will compel you to do if you adhere to +it. It will compel you from time to time to ask your neighbour's +forgiveness even for petty faults, and it will insist with you that you +make restitution when you have done the weak and the friendless any hurt +or any wrong. And every manly mind will tell you that life is not worth +having on such humbling terms as those are. Whatever may be thought +about Shame in other respects, it cannot be denied that he had a sharp +eye for the facts of life, and a shrewd tongue in setting those facts +forth. He has hit the blot exactly in the matter of our first duty to +our neighbour; he has put his finger on one of the matters where so many +of us, through a false shame, come short. It costs us a tremendous +struggle with our pride to go to our neighbour and to ask his forgiveness +for a fault, petty fault or other. Did you ever do it? When did you do +it last, to whom, and for what? One Sabbath morning, now many years ago, +I had occasion to urge this elementary evangelical duty on my people +here, and I did it as plainly as I could. Next day one of my young men, +who is now a devoted and honoured elder, came to me and told me that he +had done that morning what his conscience yesterday told him in the +church to do. He had gone to a neighbour's place of business, had asked +for an interview, and had begged his neighbour's pardon. I am sure +neither of those two men have forgotten that moment, and the thought of +it has often since nerved me to speak plainly about some of their most +unwelcome duties to my people. Shame, no doubt, pulled back my noble +friend's hand when it was on the office bell, but, like Faithful in the +text, he shook him out of his company and went in. I spoke of the +remarkable justice of the newspaper press in the opening of these +remarks. And it so happens that, as I lay down my pen to rest my hand +after writing this sentence and lift a London evening paper, I read this +editorial note, set within the well-known brackets at the end of an +indignant and expostulatory letter: ['Our correspondent's complaint is +just. The paragraph imputing bad motives should not have been +admitted.'] I have no doubt that editor felt some shame as he handed +that apologetic note to the printer. But not to speak of any other +recognition and recompense, he has the recompense of the recognition of +all honourable-minded men who have read that honourable admission and +apology. + +Shame was quite right in his scoff about restitution also. For +restitution rings like a trumpet tone through the whole of the law of +Moses, and then the New Testament republishes that law if only in the +exquisite story of Zaccheus. And, indeed, take it altogether, I do not +know where to find in the same space a finer vindication of Puritan +pulpit ethics than just in this taunting and terrifying attack on +Faithful. There is no better test of true religion both as it is +preached and practised than just to ask for and to grant forgiveness, and +to offer and accept restitution. Now, does your public and private life +defend and adorn your minister's pulpit in these two so practical +matters? Could your minister point to you as a proof of the ethics of +evangelical teaching? Can any one in this city speak up in defence of +your church and thus protest: 'Say what you like about that church and +its ministers, all I can say is, that its members know how to make an +apology; as, also, how to pay back with interest what they at one time +damaged or defrauded'? Can any old creditor's widow or orphan stand up +for our doctrine and defend our discipline pointing to you? If you go on +to be a Puritan, said Shame to Faithful, you will have to ask your +neighbour's forgiveness even for petty faults, and you will have to make +restitution with usury where you have taken anything from any one, and +how will you like that? + +And what did you say to all this, my brother? Say? I could not tell +what to say at the first. I felt my blood coming up into my face at some +of the things that Shame said and threatened. But, at last, I began to +consider that that which is highly esteemed among men is often had in +abomination with God. And I said to myself again, Shame tells me what +men do and what men think, but he has told me nothing about what He +thinks with Whom I shall soon have alone to do. Therefore, thought I, +what God thinks and says is wisest and best, let all the men of the world +say what they will. Let all false shame, then, depart from my heart, for +how else shall I look upon my Lord, and how shall He look upon me at His +coming? + + + + +TALKATIVE + + + 'A man full of talk.'--Zophar. + + 'Let thy words be few.'--The Preacher. + + 'The soul of religion is the practick part.'--Christian. + +Since we all have a tongue, and since so much of our time is taken up +with talk, a simple catalogue of the sins of the tongue is enough to +terrify us. The sins of the tongue take up a much larger space in the +Bible than we would believe till we have begun to suffer from other men's +tongues and especially from our own. The Bible speaks a great deal more +and a great deal plainer about the sins of the tongue than any of our +pulpits dare to do. In the Psalms alone you would think that the +psalmists scarcely suffer from anything else worth speaking about but the +evil tongues of their friends and of their enemies. The Book of Proverbs +also is full of the same lashing scourge. And James the Just, in a +passage of terrible truth and power, tells us that we are already as good +as perfect men if we can bridle our tongue; and that, on the other hand, +if we do not bridle our tongue, all our seeming to be religious is a sham +and a self-deception,--that man's religion is vain. + +With many men and many women great talkativeness is a matter of simple +temperament and mental constitution. And a talkative habit would be a +childlike and an innocent habit if the heart of talker and the hearts of +those to whom he talks so much were only full of truth and love. But our +hearts and our neighbours' hearts being what they are, in the multitude +of words there wanteth not sin. So much of our talk is about our absent +neighbours, and there are so many misunderstandings, prejudices, +ambitions, competitions, oppositions, and all kinds of cross-interests +between us and our absent neighbours, that we cannot long talk about them +till our hearts have run our tongues into all manner of trespass. Bishop +Butler discourses on the great dangers that beset a talkative temperament +with almost more than all his usual sagacity, seriousness, and depth. And +those who care to see how the greatest of our modern moralists deals with +their besetting sin should lose no time in possessing and mastering +Butler's great discourse. It is a truly golden discourse, and it ought +to be read at least once a month by all the men and all the women who +have tongues in their heads. Bishop Butler points out to his offending +readers, in a way they can never forget, the certain mischief they do to +themselves and to other people just by talking too much. But there are +far worse sins that our tongues fall into than the bad enough sins that +spring out of impertinent and unrestrained loquacity. There are many +times when our talk, long or short, is already simple and downright evil. +It is ten to one, it is a hundred to one, that you do not know and would +not believe how much you fall every day and in every conversation into +one or other of the sins of the tongue. If you would only begin to see +and accept this, that every time you speak or hear about your absent +neighbour what you would not like him to speak or hear about you, you are +in that a talebearer, a slanderer, a backbiter, or a liar,--when you +begin to see and admit that about yourself, you will not wonder at what +the Bible says with such bitter indignation about the diabolical sins of +the tongue. If you would just begin to-night to watch yourselves--on the +way home from church, at home after the day is over, to-morrow morning +when the letters and the papers are opened, and so on,--how +instinctively, incessantly, irrepressibly you speak about the absent in a +way you would be astounded and horrified to be told they were at that +moment speaking about you, then you would soon be wiser than all your +teachers in the sins and in the government of the tongue. And you would +seven times every day pluck out your tongue before God till He gives it +back to you clean and kind in that land where all men shall love their +neighbours, present and absent, as themselves. + +Take detraction for an example, one of the commonest, and, surely, one of +the most detestable of the sins of the tongue. And the etymology here, +as in this whole region, is most instructive and most impressive. In +detraction you _draw away_ something from your neighbour that is most +precious and most dear to him. In detraction you are a thief, and a +thief of the falsest and wickedest kind. For your neighbour's purse is +trash, while his good name is far more precious to him than all his gold. +Some one praises your neighbour in your hearing, his talents, his +performances, his character, his motives, or something else that belongs +to your neighbour. Some one does that in your hearing who either does +not know you, or who wishes to torture and expose you, and you fall +straight into the snare thus set for you, and begin at once to belittle, +depreciate, detract from, and run down your neighbour, who has been too +much praised for your peace of mind and your self-control. You insinuate +something to his disadvantage and dishonour. You quote some authority +you have heard to his hurt. And so on past all our power to picture you. +For detraction has a thousand devices taught to it by the master of all +such devices, wherewith to drag down and defile the great and the good. +But with all you can say or do, you cannot for many days get out of your +mind the heart-poisoning praise you heard spoken of your envied +neighbour. Never praise any potter's pots in the hearing of another +potter, said the author of the _Nicomachean Ethics_. Aristotle said +potter's pots, but he really all the time was thinking of a philosopher's +books; only he said potter's pots to draw off his readers' attention from +himself. Now, always remember that ancient and wise advice. Take care +how you praise a potter's pots, a philosopher's books, a woman's beauty, +a speaker's speech, a preacher's sermon to another potter, philosopher, +woman, speaker, or preacher; unless, indeed, you maliciously wish +secretly to torture them, or publicly to expose them, or, if their +sanctification is begun, to sanctify them to their most inward and +spiritual sanctification. + +Backbiting, again, would seem at first sight to be a sin of the teeth +rather than of the tongue, only, no sharpest tooth can tear you when your +back is turned like your neighbour's evil tongue. Pascal has many +dreadful things about the corruption and misery of man, but he has +nothing that strikes its terrible barb deeper into all our consciences +than this, that if all our friends only knew what we have said about them +behind their back, we would not have four friends in all the world. +Neither we would. I know I would not have one. How many would you have? +And who would they be? You cannot name them. I defy you to name them. +They do not exist. The tongue can no man tame. + +'Giving of characters' also takes up a large part of our everyday +conversation. We cannot well help characterising, describing, and +estimating one another. But, as far as possible, when we see the +conversation again approaching that dangerous subject, we should call to +mind our past remorse; we should suppose our absent neighbour present; we +should imagine him in our place and ourselves in his place, and so turn +the rising talk into another channel. For, the truth is, few of us are +able to do justice to our neighbour when we begin to discuss and describe +him. Generosity in our talk is far easier for us than justice. It was +this incessant giving of characters that our Lord had in His eye when He +said in His Sermon on the Mount, Judge not. But our Lord might as well +never have uttered that warning word for all the attention we give it. +For we go on judging one another and sentencing one another as if we were +entirely and in all things blameless ourselves, and as if God had set us +up in our blamelessness in His seat of judgment over all our fellows. How +seldom do we hear any one say in a public debate or in a private +conversation, I don't know; or, It is no matter of mine; or, I feel that +I am not in possession of all the facts; or, It may be so, but I must not +judge. We never hear such things as these said. No one pays the least +attention to the Preacher on the Mount. And if any one says to us, I +must not judge, we never forgive him, because his humility and his +obedience so condemn all our ill-formed, prejudiced, rash, and +ill-natured judgments of our neighbour. Since, therefore, so Butler sums +up, it is so hard for us to enter on our neighbour's character without +offending the law of Christ, we should learn to decline that kind of +conversation altogether, and determine to get over that strong +inclination most of us have, to be continually talking about the +concerns, the behaviour, and the deserts of our neighbours. + +Now, it was all those vices of the tongue in full outbreak in the day of +James the Just that made that apostle, half in sorrow, half in anger, +demand of all his readers that they should henceforth begin to bridle +their tongues. And, like all that most practical apostle's counsels, +that is a most impressive and memorable commandment. For, it is well +known that all sane men who either ride on or drive unruly horses, take +good care to bridle their horses well before they bring them out of their +stable door. And then they keep their bridle-hand firm closed on the +bridle-rein till their horses are back in the stable again. Especially +and particularly they keep a close eye and a firm hand on their horse's +bridle on all steep inclines and at all sharp angles and sudden turns in +the road; when sudden trains are passing and when stray dogs are barking. +If the rider or the driver of a horse did not look at nothing else but +the bridle of his horse, both he and his horse under him would soon be in +the ditch,--as so many of us are at the present moment because we have an +untamed tongue in our mouth on which we have not yet begun to put the +bridle of truth and justice and brotherly love. Indeed, such woe and +misery has an untamed tongue wrought in other churches and in other and +more serious ages than ours, that special religious brotherhoods have +been banded together just on the special and strict engagement that they +would above all things put a bridle on their tongues. 'What are the +chief cares of a young convert?' asked such a convert at an aged +Carthusian. 'I said I will take heed to my ways that I trespass not with +my tongue,' replied the saintly father. 'Say no more for the present,' +interrupted the youthful beginner; 'I will go home and practise that, and +will come again when I have performed it.' + +Now, whatever faults that tall man had who took up so much of Faithful's +time and attention, he was a saint compared with the men and the women +who have just passed before us. Talkative, as John Bunyan so scornfully +names that tall man, though he undoubtedly takes up too much time and too +much space in Bunyan's book, was not a busybody in other men's matters at +any rate. Nobody could call him a detractor or a backbiter or a +talebearer or a liar. Christian knew him well, and had known him long, +but Christian was not afraid to leave him alone with Faithful. We all +know men we feel it unsafe to leave long alone with our friends. We feel +sure that they will be talking about us, and that to our hurt, as soon as +our backs are about. But to give that tall man his due, he was not given +with all his talk to tale-bearing or scandal or detraction. Had he been +guilty of any of these things, Faithful would soon have found him out, +and would have left him to go to the Celestial City by himself. But, +after talking for half a day with Talkative, instead of finding out +anything wrong in the tall man's talk, Faithful was so taken and so +struck with it, that he stepped across to Christian and said, 'What a +brave companion we have got! Surely this man will make a most excellent +pilgrim!' 'So I once thought too,' said Christian, 'till I went to live +beside him, and have to do with him in the business of daily life.' Yes, +it is near neighbourhood and the business of everyday life that try a +talking man. If you go to a meeting for prayer, and hear some men +praying and speaking on religious subjects, you would say to yourself, +What a good man that is, and how happy must his wife and children and +servants and neighbours be with such an example always before them, and +with such an intercessor for them always with God! But if you were to go +home with that so devotional man, and try to do business with him, and +were compelled to cross him and go against him, you would find out why +Christian smiled so when Faithful was so full of Talkative's praises. + +But of all the religiously-loquacious men of our day, your ministers are +the chief. For your ministers must talk in public, and that often and at +great length, whether they are truly religious men at home or no. It is +their calling to talk to you unceasingly about religious matters. You +chose them to be your ministers because they could talk well. You would +not put up with a minister who could not talk well on religious things. +You estimate them by their talk. You praise and pay them by their talk. +And if they are to live, talk incessantly to you about religion they +must, and they do. If any other man among us is not a religious man, +well, then, he can at least hold his tongue. There is no necessity laid +on him to speak in public about things that he does not practise at home. +But we hard-bested ministers must go on speaking continually about the +most solemn things. And if we are not extraordinarily watchful over +ourselves, and extraordinarily and increasingly conscientious, if we are +not steadily growing in inwardness and insight and depth and real +spirituality of mind and life ourselves, we cannot escape,--our calling +in life will not let us escape,--becoming as sounding brass. There is an +awful sentence in Butler that should be written in letters of fire in +every minister's conscience, to the effect that continually going over +religion in talk and making fine pictures of it in the pulpit, creates a +professional insensibility to personal religion that is the everlasting +ruin of multitudes of eloquent ministers. That is true. We ministers +all feel that to be true. Our miserable experience tells us that is only +too true of ourselves. What a flood of demoralising talk has been poured +out from the pulpits of this one city to-day!--demoralising to preachers +and to hearers both, because not intended to be put in practice. How few +of those who have talked and heard talk all this day about divine truth +and human duty, have made the least beginning or the least resolve to +live as they have spoken and heard! And, yet, all will in words again +admit that the soul of religion is the practick part, and that the tongue +without the heart and the life is but death and corruption. + +Let us, then, this very night begin to do something practical after all +this talk about talk. And let us all begin to do something in the direct +line of our present talk. What a noble congregation of evangelical +Carthusians that would make us if we all put a bridle on our tongue to- +night before we left this house. For we all have neighbours, friends, +enemies, against whom we every day sin with our unbridled tongue. We all +have acquaintances we are ashamed to meet, we have been so unkind and so +unjust to them with our tongue. We hang down our head when they shake +our hand. Yes, we know the men quite well of whom Pascal speaks. We +know many men who would never speak to us again if they only knew how, +and how often, we have spoken about them behind their back. Well, let us +sin against them, and against ourselves, and against our Master's command +and example no more. Let this night and this lecture on Talkative and +his kindred see the last of our sin against our ill-used neighbour. Let +us promise God and our own consciences to-night, that we shall all this +week put on a bridle about that man, and about that subject, and in that +place, and in that company. Let us say, God helping me, I shall for all +this week not speak about that man at all, anything either good or bad, +nor on that subject, nor will I let the conversation turn into that +channel at all if I can help it. And God will surely help us, till, +after weeks and years of such prayer and such practice, we shall by slow +degrees, and after many defeats, be able to say with the Psalmist, 'I +will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my +mouth with a bridle. I will be dumb with silence. I will hold my peace +even from good.' + + + + +JUDGE HATE-GOOD + + + 'Hear, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel . . . + who hate the good and love the evil.'--Micah. + +The portrait of Judge Hate-good in _The Pilgrim's Progress_ is but a poor +replica, as our artists say, of the portrait of Judge Jeffreys in our +English history books. I am sure you have often read, with astonishment +at Bunyan's literary power, his wonderful account of the trial of +Faithful, when, as Bunyan says, he was brought forth to his trial in +order to his condemnation. We have the whole ecclesiastical +jurisprudence of Charles and James Stuart put before us in that single +satirical sentence. But, powerful as Bunyan's whole picture of Judge +Hate-good's court is, it is a tame and a poor picture compared with what +all the historians tell us of the injustice and cruelty of the court of +Judge Jeffreys. Macaulay's portrait of the Lord Chief Justice of England +for ferocity and fiendishness beats out of sight Bunyan's picture of that +judge who keeps Satan's own seal in Bunyan's Book. Jeffreys was bred for +his future work at the bar of the Old Bailey, a bar already proverbial +for the licence of its tongue and for the coarseness of its cases. +Jeffreys served his apprenticeship for the service that our two last +Stuarts had in reserve for him so well, that he soon became, so his +beggared biographer describes him, the most consummate bully that ever +disgraced an English bench. The boldest impudence when he was a young +advocate, and the most brutal ferocity when he was an old judge, sat +equally secure on the brazen forehead of George Jeffreys. The real and +undoubted ability and scholarship of Jeffreys only made his wickedness +the more awful, and his whole career the greater curse both to those +whose tool he was, and to those whose blood he drank daily. Jeffreys +drank brandy and sang lewd songs all night, and he drank blood and cursed +and swore on the bench all day. Just imagine the state of our English +courts when a judge could thus assail a poor wretch of a woman after +passing a cruel sentence upon her. 'Hangman,' shouted the ermined brute, +'Hangman, pay particular attention to this lady. Scourge her soundly, +man. Scourge her till the blood runs. It is the Christmas season; a +cold season for madam to strip in. See, therefore, man, that you warm +her shoulders thoroughly.' And you all know who Richard Baxter was. You +have all read his seraphic book, _The Saints' Rest_. Well, besides being +the Richard Baxter so well known to our saintly fathers and mothers, he +was also, and he was emphatically, the peace-maker of the Puritan party. +Baxter's political principles were of the most temperate and +conciliatory, and indeed, almost royalist kind. He was a man of strong +passions, indeed, but all the strength and heat of his passions ran out +into his hatred of sin and his love of holiness, and an unsparing and +consuming care for the souls of his people. Very Faithful himself stood +before the bar of Judge Jeffreys in the person of Richard Baxter. It +took all the barefaced falsehood and scandalous injustice of the crown +prosecutors to draw out the sham indictment that was read out in court +against inoffensive Richard Baxter. But what was lacking in the charge +of the crown was soon made up by the abominable scurrility of the judge. +'You are a schismatical knave,' roared out Jeffreys, as soon as Baxter +was brought into court. 'You are an old hypocritical villain.' And +then, clasping his hands and turning up his eyes, he sang through his +nose: 'O Lord, we are Thy peculiar people: we are Thy dear and only +people.' 'You old blockhead,' he again roared out, 'I will have you +whipped through the city at the tail of the cart. By the grace of God I +will look after you, Richard.' And the tiger would have been as good as +his word had not an overpowering sense of shame compelled the other +judges to protest and get Baxter's inhuman sentence commuted to fine and +imprisonment. And so on, and so on. But it was Jeffreys' 'Western +Circuit,' as it was called, that filled up the cup of his infamy--an +infamy, say the historians, that will last as long as the language and +the history of England last. The only parallel to it is the infamy of a +royal house and a royal court that could welcome home and promote to +honour such a detestable miscreant as Jeffreys was. But the slaughter in +Somerset was only over in order that a similar slaughter in London might +begin. Let those who have a stomach for more blood and tears follow out +the hell upon earth that James Stuart and George Jeffreys together let +loose on the best life of England in their now fast-shortening day. Was +Judge Jeffreys, some of you will ask me, born and bred in hell? Was the +devil his father, and original sin his mother? Or, was he not the very +devil himself come to earth for a season in English flesh? No, my +brethren, not so. Judge Jeffreys was one of ourselves. Little George +Jeffreys was born and brought up in a happy English home. He was +baptised and confirmed in an English church. He took honours in an +English university. He ate dinners, was called to the bar, conducted +cases, and took silk in an English court of justice. And in the ripeness +of his years and of his services, he wore the honourable ermine and sat +upon the envied wool-sack of an English sovereign. It would have been +far less awful and far less alarming to think of, had Judge Jeffreys +been, as you supposed, a pure devil let loose on the Church of Christ and +the awakening liberty of England. But some innocent soul will ask me +next whether there has ever been any other monster on the face of the +earth like Judge Jeffreys; and whether by any possibility there are any +such monsters anywhere in our own day. Yes, truth compels me to reply. +Yes, there are, plenty, too many. Only their environment, nowadays, as +our naturalists say, does not permit them to grow to such strength and +dimensions as those of James Stuart, and George Jeffreys, his favourite +judge. At the same time, be not deceived by your own deceitful heart, +nor by any other deceiver's smooth speeches. Judge Jeffreys is in +yourself, only circumstances have not yet let him fully show himself in +you. Still, if you look close enough and deep enough into your own +hearts, you will see the same wicked light glancing sometimes there that +used so to terrify Judge Jeffreys' prisoners when they saw it in his +wicked eyes. If you lay your ear close enough to your own heart, you +will sometimes hear something of that same hiss with which that human +serpent sentenced to torture and to death the men and the women who would +not submit to his command. The same savage laughter also will sometimes +all but escape your lips as you think of how your enemy has been made to +suffer in body and in estate. O yes, the very same hell-broth that ran +for blood in Judge Jeffreys' heart is in all our hearts also; and those +who have the least of its poison left in their hearts will be the +foremost to confess its presence, and to hate and condemn and bewail +themselves on account of its terrible dregs. + +HATE-GOOD is an awful enough name for any human being to bear. Those who +really know what goodness is, and then, what hatred is,--they will feel +how awful a thing it is for any man to hate goodness. But there is +something among us sinful men far more awful than even that, and that is +to hate God. The carnal mind, writes the apostle Paul to the Romans--and +it is surely the most terrible sentence that often terrible enough +apostle ever wrote--the carnal mind is enmity against God. And Dr. John +Owen annotating on that sentence is equally terrible. The carnal mind, +he says, has 'chosen a great enemy indeed.' And having mentioned John +Owen, will you let me once more beseech all students of divinity, that +is, all students, amongst other things, of the desperate depravity of the +human heart, to read John Owen's sixth volume till they have it by +heart,--by a broken, believing heart. Owen _On Indwelling Sin_ is one of +the greatest works of the great Puritan period. It is a really great, +and as we nowadays say, a truly scientific work to the bargain. But all +that by the way. Yes, this carnal heart that is still left in every one +of us has chosen a great enemy, and it would need both strong and +faithful allies in order to fight him. The hatred that His Son also met +with when He was in this world is one of the most hateful pages of this +hateful world's hateful history. He knew His own heart towards His +enemies, and thus He was able to say to the Searcher of Hearts with His +dying breath, They hated Me without a cause. Truly our hatred is hottest +when it is most unjust. + +'Look to yourselves,' wrote the apostle John to the elect lady and her +children. Yes; let us all look sharply and suspiciously to ourselves in +this matter now in hand, and we shall not need John Owen nor anybody else +to discover to us the hatred and the hatefulness of our own hearts. Look +to yourselves, and the work of the law will soon be fulfilled in you. +_Homo homini lupus_, taught an old philosopher who had studied moral +philosophy not in books so much as in his own heart. 'Is no man +naturally good?' asked innocent Lady Macleod of Dunvegan Castle at her +guest, Dr. Samuel Johnson. 'No, madam, no more than a wolf.' That is +quite past all question with all those who either in natural morals or in +revealed religion look to and know and characterise themselves. We have +all an inborn propensity to dislike one another, and a very small +provocation will suddenly blow that banked-up furnace into a flame. It +is ever present with me, says self-examining Paul, and hence its so +sudden and so destructive outbreaks. So the written or the printed name +of our enemy, his image in our mind, his passing step, his figure out of +the window; his wife, his child, his carriage, his cart in the street, +anything, everything will stir up our heart at the man we do not like. +And the whole of our so honest Bible, our present text, and the +illustrations of our text in Judge Jeffreys' and Judge Hate-good's +courts, all go to show that the better a man is the more sometimes will +we hate him. Good men, better men than we are, men who in public life +and in private life pursue great and good ends, of necessity cross and go +counter to us in our pursuit of small, selfish, evil ends, and of +necessity we hate them. For, cross a selfish sinner sufficiently and you +have a very devil--as many good men, if they knew it, have in us. Again, +good men who come into contact with us cannot help seeing our bad lives, +our tempers, our selfishness, our public and private vices; and we see +that they see us, and we cannot love those whose averted eye so goes to +our conscience. And not only in the hatred of good men, but if you know +of God how to watch yourselves, you will find yourselves out every day +also in the hatred of good movements, good causes, good institutions, and +good works. There are doctors who would far rather hear of their rival's +patient expiring in his hands than hear their rival's success trumpeted +through all the town. There are ministers, also, who would rather that +the masses of the city and the country sank yet deeper into improvidence +and drink and neglect of ordinances than that they were rescued by any +other church than their own. They hate to hear of the successes of +another church. There are party politicians who would rather that the +ship of the state ran on the rocks both in her home and her foreign +policy than that the opposite party should steer her amid a nation's +cheers into harbour. And so of good news. I will stake the divine truth +of this evening's Scriptures, and of their historical and imaginative +illustrations, on the feelings, if you know how to observe, detect, +characterise, and confess them,--the feelings, I say, that will rise in +your heart to-morrow morning when you read what is good news to other +men, even to good men, and to the families and family interests of good +men. It does not matter one atom into what profession, office, +occupation, interest you track the corrupt heart of man, as sure as a +substance casts a shadow, so sure will you find your own selfish heart +hating goodness when the goodness does not serve or flatter you. + +Now, though they will never be many, yet there must be some men among us, +one here and another there, who have so looked at and found out +themselves. I can well believe that some men here came up to this house +to-night trembling in their heart all the way. They felt the very +advertisement go through them like a knife: they felt that they were +summoned up hither almost by name as to judgment. For they feel every +day, though they have never told their feelings to any, that they have +this horrible heart deep-seated within them to love evil and to hate +good. They gnash their teeth at themselves as they catch themselves +rejoicing in iniquity. They feel their hearts expanding, and they know +that their faces shine, when you tell them evil tidings. They sicken and +lose heart and sit solitary when you carry to them a good report. They +feel as John Bunyan felt, that no one but the devil can equal them in +pollution of heart. And their wonder sometimes is that the Searcher of +Hearts does not drive them down where devils dwell and hate God and man +and one another. They look around them when the penitential psalm is +being sung, and they smile bitterly to themselves. O people of God, they +say, you do not know what you are saying. Leave that psalm to me. I can +sing it. I can tell to God what He knows about sin, and about sin in the +heart. Stand away back from me, that man says, for I am a leper. The +chief of sinners is beside you. A whited sepulchre stands open beside +you.--Stop now, O hating and hateful man, and let me speak for a single +moment before we separate. Before you say any more about yourself, and +before you leave the house of God, lift up your broken heart and with all +your might bless God that He has opened your eyes and taught you how to +look at yourself and how to hate yourself. There are hundreds of honest +Christian men and women in this house at this moment to whom God has not +done as, in His free grace, He has done to you. For He has not only +begun a good work in you, but He has begun that special and peculiar work +which, when it goes on to perfection, makes a great and an eminent saint +of God. To know your own heart as you evidently know it, and to hate it +as you say you hate it, and to hunger after a clean heart as, with every +breath, you hunger,--all that, if you would only believe it, sets you, or +will yet set you, high up among the people of God. Be comforted; it is +your bounden duty to be comforted. God deserves it at your hands that +you be more than comforted amid such unmistakable signs of His eminent +grace to you. And be patient under your exceptional sanctification. Rome +was not built in a day. You cannot reverse the awful law of your +sanctification. You cannot be saved by Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit +without seeing yourself, and you cannot see yourself without hating +yourself, and you cannot begin to hate yourself without all your hatred +henceforth turning against yourself. You are deep in the red-hot bosom +of the refiner's fire. And when you are once sufficiently tried by the +Divine Refiner of Souls, He will in His own good time and way bring you +out as gold. Be patient, therefore, till the coming of the Lord. And +say continually amid all your increasing knowledge of yourself, and amid +all your increasing hatred of yourself, 'As for me, I will behold Thy +face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy +likeness.' + + + + +FAITHFUL IN VANITY FAIR {2} + + + 'Be thou faithful.'--Rev. 2. 10. + +The breadth of John Bunyan's mind, the largeness of his heart, and the +tolerance of his temper all come excellently out in his fine portrait of +Faithful. New beginners in personal religion, when they first take up +_The Pilgrim's Progress_ in earnest, always try to find out something in +themselves that shall somewhat correspond to the recorded experience of +Christian, the chief pilgrim. And they are afraid that all is not right +with them unless they, like him, have had, to begin with, a heavy burden +on their back. They look for something in their religious life that +shall answer to the Slough of Despond also, to the Hill Difficulty, to +the House Beautiful, and, especially and indispensably, to the place +somewhat ascending with a cross upon it and an open sepulchre beneath it. +And because they cannot always find all these things in themselves in the +exact order and in the full power in which they are told of Christian in +Bunyan's book, they begin to have doubts about themselves as to whether +they are true pilgrims at all. But here is Faithful, with whom Christian +held such sweet and confidential discourse, and yet he had come through +not a single one of all these things. The two pilgrims had come from the +same City of Destruction indeed, and they had met at the gate of Vanity +and passed through Vanity Fair together, but, till they embraced one +another again in the Celestial City, that was absolutely all the +experience they had in common. Faithful had never had any such burden on +his back as that was which had for so long crushed Christian to the +earth. And the all but complete absence of such a burden may have helped +to let Faithful get over the Slough of Despond dry shod. He had the good +lot to escape Sinai also and the Hill Difficulty, and his passing by the +House Beautiful and not making the acquaintance of Discretion and +Prudence and Charity may have had something to do with the fact that one +named Wanton had like to have done him such a mischief. His remarkable +experiences, however, with Adam the First, with Moses, and then with the +Man with holes in His hands, all that makes up a page in Faithful's +autobiography we could ill have spared. His encounter with Shame also, +and soon afterwards with Talkative, are classical passages in his so +individual history. Altogether, it would be almost impossible for us to +imagine two pilgrims talking so heartily together, and yet so completely +unlike one another. A very important lesson surely as to how we should +abstain from measuring other men by ourselves, as well as ourselves by +other men; an excellent lesson also as to how we should learn to allow +for all possible varieties among good men, both in their opinions, their +experiences, and their attainments. True Puritan as the author of _The +Pilgrim's Progress_ is, he is no Procrustes. He does not cut down all +his pilgrims to one size, nor does he clip them all into one pattern. +They are all thinking men, but they are not all men of one way of +thinking. John Bunyan is as fresh as Nature herself, and as free and +full as Holy Scripture herself in the variety, in the individuality, and +even in the idiosyncrasy of his spiritual portrait gallery. + +Vanity Fair is one of John Bunyan's universally-admitted masterpieces. +The very name of the fair is one of his happiest strokes. Thackeray's +famous book owes half its popularity to the happy name he borrowed from +John Bunyan. Thackeray's author's heart must have leaped in his bosom +when Vanity Fair struck him as a title for his great satire. 'Then I saw +in my dream that when they were got out of the wilderness they presently +saw a town before them, and the name of that town is Vanity, and at that +town there is a fair kept called Vanity Fair. The fair is kept all the +year long, and it beareth the name of Vanity Fair, because the town where +it is kept is lighter than Vanity. And, also, because all that is sold +there is vanity. As is the saying of the wise, All that cometh is +vanity. The fair is no new erected business, but a thing of ancient +standing: I will show you the original of it. About five thousand years +ago there were pilgrims walking to the Celestial City, as these two +honest persons now are, and Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion, with their +companions, perceiving that by the path that the pilgrims made, that +their way to the city lay through this town of Vanity, they contrived +there to set up a fair: a fair wherein should be sold all sorts of +vanity, and that it should last all the year long. Therefore at this +fair are all such merchandise sold as houses, lands, trades, places, +honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, pleasures, and +delights of all sorts, as wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, +lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, precious stones, and what not. +And, moreover, at this fair at all times there is to be seen juggling, +cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves, and rogues, and that of every +kind.' And then our author goes on to tell us the names of the various +streets and rows where such and such wares are vended. And from that +again he goes on to tell how the Prince of princes Himself went at one +time through this same fair, and that upon a fair day too, and how the +lord of the fair himself came and took Him from street to street to try +to get Him induced to cheapen and buy some of the vain merchandise. But +as it turned out He had no mind to the merchandise in question, and He +therefore passed through the town without laying out so much as one +farthing upon its vanities. The fair, therefore, you will see, is of +long standing and a very great fair. Now, our two pilgrims had heard of +all that, they remembered also what Evangelist had told them about the +fair, and so they buttoned up their pockets and pushed through the booths +in the hope of getting out at the upper gate before any one had time to +speak to them. But that was not possible, for they were soon set upon by +the men of the fair, who cried after them: 'Hail, strangers, look here, +what will you buy?' 'We buy the truth only,' said Faithful, 'and we do +not see any of that article of merchandise set out on any of your +stalls.' And from that began a hubbub that ended in a riot, and the riot +in the apprehension and shutting up in a public cage of the two innocent +pilgrims. Lord Hate-good was the judge on the bench of Vanity in the day +of their trial, and the three witnesses who appeared in the witness-box +against the two prisoners were Envy, Superstition, and Pickthank. The +twelve jurymen who sat on their case were Mr. Blindman, Mr. No-good, Mr. +Malice, Mr. Love-lust, Mr. Live-loose, Mr. Heady, Mr. High-mind, Mr. +Enmity, Mr. Liar, Mr. Cruelty, Mr. Hate-light, and Mr. Implacable,--Mr. +Blindman to be the foreman. And it was before these men that Faithful +was brought forth to his trial in order to his condemnation. And very +soon after his trial Faithful came to his end. 'Now I saw that there +stood behind the multitude a chariot and a couple of horses waiting for +Faithful, who (so soon as his adversaries had despatched him) was taken +up into it, and straightway was carried up through the clouds, with sound +of trumpet, the nearest way to the Celestial gate.' + +Now, I cannot tell you how it was, I cannot account for it to myself, but +it is nevertheless absolutely true that as I was reading my author last +week and was meditating my present exposition, it came somehow into my +mind, and I could not get it out of my mind, that there is a great and a +close similarity between John Bunyan's Vanity Fair and a general +election. And, all I could do to keep the whole thing out of my mind, +one similarity after another would leap up into my mind and would not be +put out of it. I protest that I did not go out to seek for such +similarities, but the more I frowned on them the thicker they came. And +then the further question arose as to whether I should write them down or +no; and then much more, as to whether I should set them out before my +people or no. As you will easily believe, I was immediately in a real +strait as to what I should do. I saw on the one side what would be sure +to be said by ill-natured people and people of a hasty judgment. And I +saw with much more anxiety what would be felt even when they restrained +themselves from saying it by timid and cautious and scrupulous people. I +had the full fear of all such judges before my eyes; but, somehow, +something kept this before my eyes also, that, as Evangelist met the two +pilgrims just as they were entering the fair, so, for anything I knew to +the contrary, it might be of God, that I also, in my own way, should warn +my people of the real and special danger that their souls will be in for +the next fortnight. And as I thought of it a procession of people passed +before me all bearing to this day the stains and scars they had taken on +their hearts and their lives and their characters at former general +elections. And, like Evangelist, I felt a divine desire taking +possession of me to do all I could to pull my people out of gunshot of +the devil at this election. And, then, when I read again how both the +pilgrims thanked Evangelist for his exhortation, and told him withal that +they would have him speak further to them about the dangers of the way, I +said at last to myself, that the thanks of one true Christian saved in +anything and in any measure from the gun of the devil are far more to be +attended to by a minister than the blame and the neglect of a hundred who +do not know their hour of temptation and will not be told it. And so I +took my pen and set down some similarities between Vanity Fair and the +approaching election, with some lessons to those who are not altogether +beyond being taught. + +Well, then, in the first place, the only way to the Celestial City ran +through Vanity Fair; by no possibility could the advancing pilgrims +escape the temptations and the dangers of the fatal fair. He that will +go to the Celestial City and yet not go through Vanity Fair must needs go +out of the world. And so it is with the temptations and trials of the +next ten days. We cannot get past them. They are laid down right across +our way. And to many men now in this house the next ten days will be a +time of simply terrible temptation. If I had been quite sure that all my +people saw that and felt that, I would not have introduced here to-night +what some of them, judging too hastily, will certainly call this so +secular and unseemly subject. But I am so afraid that many not untrue, +and in other things most earnest men amongst us, do not yet know +sufficiently the weakness and the evil of their own hearts, that I wish +much, if they will allow me, to put them on their guard. ''Tis hard,' +said Contrite, who was a householder and had a vote in the town of +Vanity, ''tis hard keeping our hearts and our spirits in any good order +when we are in a cumbered condition. And you may be sure that we are +full of hurry at fair-time. He that lives in such a place as this is, +and that has to do with such as we have to do with, has need of an item +to caution him to take heed every hour of the day.' Now, if all my +people, and all this day's communicants, were only contrite enough, I +would leave them to the hurry of the approaching election with much more +comfort. But as it is, I wish to give them such an item as I am able to +caution them for the next ten days. Let them know, then, that their way +for the next fortnight lies, I will not say through a fair of jugglings +and cheatings, carried on by apes and knaves, but, to speak without +figure, their way certainly lies through what will be to many of them a +season of the greatest temptation to the very worst of all possible +sins--to anger and bitterness and ill-will; to no end of evil-thinking +and evil-speaking; to the breaking up of lifelong friendships; and to +widespread and lasting damage to the cause of Christ, which is the cause +of truth and love, meekness and a heavenly mind. Now, amid all that, as +Evangelist said to the two pilgrims, look well to your own hearts. Let +none of all these evil things enter your heart from the outside, and let +none of all these evil things come out of your hearts from the inside. +Set your faces like a flint from the beginning against all evil-speaking +and evil-thinking. Let your own election to the kingdom of heaven be +always before you, and walk worthy of it; and amid all the hurry of +things seen and temporal, believe steadfastly concerning the things that +are eternal, and walk worthy of them. + +'We buy the truth and we sell it not again for anything,' was the reply +of the two pilgrims to every stall-keeper as they passed up the fair, and +this it was that made them to be so hated and hunted down by the men of +the fair. And, in like manner, there is nothing more difficult to get +hold of at an election time than just the very truth. All the truth on +any question is not very likely to be found put forward in the programme +of any man or any party, and, even if it were, a general election is not +the best time for you to find it out. 'I design the search after truth +to be the one business of my life,' wrote the future Bishop Butler at the +age of twenty-one. And whether you are to be a member of Parliament or a +silent voter for a member of Parliament, you, too, must love truth and +search for her as for hid treasure from your youth up. You must search +for all kinds of truth,--historical, political, scientific, and +religious,--with much reading, much observation, and much reflection. And +those who have searched longest and dug deepest will always be found to +be the most temperate, patient, and forbearing with those who have not +yet found the truth. I do not know who first said it, but he was a true +disciple of Socrates and Plato who first said it. 'Plato,' he said, 'is +my friend, and Socrates is my friend, but the truth is much more my +friend.' There is a thrill of enthusiasm, admiration and hope that goes +through the whole country and comes down out of history as often as we +hear or read of some public man parting with all his own past, as well as +with all his leaders and patrons and allies and colleagues in the +present, and taking his solitary way out after the truth. Many may call +that man Quixotic, visionary, unpractical, imprudent, and he may be all +that and more, but to follow conscience and the love of truth even when +they are for the time leading him wrong is noble, and is every way far +better both for himself and for the cause he serves, than if he were +always found following his leaders loyally and even walking in the way of +righteousness with the love of self and the love of party at bottom +ruling his heart. How healthful and how refreshing at an election time +it is to hear a speech replete with the love of the truth, full knowledge +of the subject, and with the dignity, the good temper, the respect for +opponents, and the love of fair play that full knowledge of the whole +subject is so well fitted to bring with it! And next to hearing such a +speaker is the pleasure of meeting such a hearer or such a reader at such +a time. Now, I want such readers and such hearers, if not such speakers, +to be found all the next fortnight among my office-bearers and my people. +Be sure you say to some of your political opponents something like +this:--'I do not profess to read all the speeches that fill the papers at +present. I do not read all the utterances made even on my own side, and +much less all the utterances made on your side. But there is one of your +speakers I always read, and I almost always find him instructive and +impressive, a gentleman, if not a Christian. He is fair, temperate, +frank, bold, and independent; and, to my mind at least, he always throws +light on these so perplexing questions.' Now, if you have the +intelligence and the integrity and the fair-mindedness to say something +like that to a member of the opposite party you have poured oil on the +waters of party; nay, you are in that a wily politician, for you have +almost, just in saying that, won over your friend to your own side. So +noble is the love of truth, and so potent is the high-principled pursuit +and the fearless proclamation of the truth. + +A general election is a trying time to all kinds of public men, but it is +perhaps most trying of all to Christian ministers. Unless they are to +disfranchise themselves and are to detach and shut themselves in from all +interest in public affairs altogether, an election time is to our +ministers, beyond any other class of citizens perhaps, a peculiarly +trying time. How they are to escape the Scylla of cowardice and the +contempt of all free and true men on the one hand, and the Charybdis of +pride and self-will and scorn of other men's opinions and wishes on the +other, is no easy dilemma to our ministers. Some happily constituted and +happily circumstanced ministers manage to get through life, and even +through political life, without taking or giving a wound in all their +way. They are so wise and so watchful; they are so inoffensive, +unprovoking, and conciliatory; and even where they are not always all +that, they have around them sometimes a people who are so patient and +tolerant and full of the old-fashioned respect for their minister that +they do not attempt to interfere with him. Then, again, some ministers +preach so well, and perform all their pastoral work so well, that they +make it unsafe and impossible for the most censorious and intolerant of +their people to find fault with them. But all our ministers are not like +that. And all our congregations are not like that. And those of our +ministers who are not like that must just be left to bear that which +their past unwisdom or misfortune has brought upon them. Only, if they +have profited by their past mistakes or misfortunes, a means of grace, +and an opportunity of better playing the man is again at their doors. I +am sure you will all join with me in the prayer that all our ministers, +as well as all their people, may come well out of the approaching +election. + +There is yet one other class of public men, if I may call them so, many +of whom come almost worse out of an election time than even our +ministers, and that class is composed of those, who, to continue the +language of Vanity Fair, keep the cages of the fair. I wish I had to- +night, what I have not, the ear of the conductors of our public journals. +For, what an omnipotence in God's providence to this generation for good +or evil is theirs! If they would only all consider well at election +times, and at all times, who they put into their cages and for what +reason; if they would only all ask what can that man's motives be for +throwing such dirt at his neighbour; if they would only all set aside all +the letters they will get during the next fortnight that are avowedly +composed on the old principle of calumniating boldly in the certainty +that some of it will stick, what a service they would do to the cause of +love and truth and justice, which is, surely, after all, their own cause +also! The very best papers sin sadly in this respect when their +conductors are full for the time of party passion. And it is +inexpressibly sad when a reader sees great journals to which he owes a +lifelong debt of gratitude absolutely poisoned under his very eyes with +the malignant spirit of untruthful partisanship. But so long as our +public cages are so kept, let those who are exposed in them resolve to +imitate Christian and Faithful, who behaved themselves amid all their ill- +usage yet more wisely, and received all the ignominy and shame that was +cast upon them with so much meekness and patience that it actually won to +their side several of the men of the fair. + +My brethren, this is the last time this season that I shall be able to +speak to you from this pulpit; and, perhaps, the last time altogether. +But, if it so turns out, I shall not repent that the last time I spoke to +you, and that, too, immediately after the communion table, the burden of +my message was the burden of my Master's message after the first +communion table. 'If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. A +new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. By this shall +all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another. +Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be My +disciples. These things have I spoken unto you that in Me ye might have +peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I +have overcome the world. Know ye what I have done unto you? Ye call Me +Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am.' + + + + +BY-ENDS + + + 'Ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat + of the loaves.'--Our Lord. + +In no part of John Bunyan's ingenious book is his strong sense and his +sarcastic and humorous vein better displayed than just in his description +of By-ends, and in the full and particular account he gives of the +kinsfolk and affinity of By-ends. Is there another single stroke in all +sacred literature better fitted at once to teach the gayest and to make +the gravest smile than just John Bunyan's sketch of By-ends' +great-grandfather, the founder of the egoistical family of Fairspeech, +who was, to begin with, but a waterman who always looked one way and +rowed another? By-ends' wife also is a true helpmate to her husband. She +was my Lady Feigning's favourite daughter, under whose nurture and +example the young lady had early come to a quite extraordinary pitch of +good breeding; and now that she was a married woman, she and her husband +had, so their biographer tells us, two firm points of family religion in +which they were always agreed and according to which they brought up all +their children, namely, never to strive too much against wind and tide, +and always to watch when Religion was walking on the sunny side of the +street in his silver slippers, and then at once to cross over and take +his arm. But abundantly amusing and entertaining as John Bunyan is at +the expense of By-ends and his family and friends, he has far other aims +in view than the amusement and entertainment of his readers. Bunyan uses +all his great gifts of insight and sense and humour and scorn so as to +mark unmistakably the road and to guide the progress of his reader's soul +to God, his chiefest end and his everlasting portion. + +It was no small part of our Lord's life of humiliation on the earth,--much +more so than His being born in a low condition and being made under the +law,--to have to go about all His days among men, knowing in every case +and on every occasion what was in man. It was a real humiliation to our +Lord to see those watermen of the sea of Tiberias sweating at their oars +as they rowed round and round the lake after Him; and His humiliation +came still more home to Him as often as He saw His own disciples +disputing and pressing who should get closest to Him while for a short +season He walked in the sunshine; just as it was His estate of exaltation +already begun, when He could enter into Himself and see to the bottom of +His own heart, till He was able to say that it was His very meat and +drink to do His father's will, and to finish the work His Father had +given Him to do. The men of Capernaum went out after our Lord in their +boats because they had eaten of the multiplied loaves and hoped to do so +again. Zebedee's children had forsaken all and followed our Lord, +because they counted to sit the one on His right hand and the other on +His left hand in His soon-coming kingdom. The pain and the shame all +that cost our Lord, we can only remotely imagine. But as for Himself, +our Lord never once had to blush in secret at His own motives. He never +once had to hang down His head at the discovery of His own selfish aims +and by-ends. Happy man! The thought of what He should eat or what He +should drink or wherewithal He should be clothed never troubled His head. +The thought of success, as His poor-spirited disciples counted success, +the thought of honour and power and praise, never once rose in His heart. +All these things, and all things like them, had no attraction for Him; +they awoke nothing but indifference and contempt in him. But to please +His Father and to hear from time to time His Father's voice saying that +He was well pleased with His beloved Son,--that was better than life to +our Lord. To find out and follow every new day His Father's mind and +will, and to finish every night another part of His Father's appointed +work,--that was more than His necessary food to our Lord. The great +schoolmen, as they meditated on these deep matters, had a saying to the +effect that all created things take their true goodness or their true +evil from the end they aim at. And thus it was that our Lord, aiming +only at His Father's ends and never at His own, both manifested and +attained to a Divine goodness, just as the greedy crowds of Galilee and +the disputatious disciples, as long and as far as they made their belly +or their honour their end and aim, to that extent fell short of all true +goodness, all true satisfaction, and all true acceptance. + +By-ends was so called because he was full of low, mean, selfish motives, +and of nothing else. All that this wretched creature did, he did with a +single eye to himself. The best things that he did became bad things in +his self-seeking hands. His very religion stank in those men's nostrils +who knew what was in his heart. By-ends was one of our Lord's whited +sepulchres. And so deep, so pervading, and so abiding is this corrupt +taint in human nature, that long after a man has had his attention called +to it, and is far on to a clean escape from it, he still--nay, he all the +more--languishes and faints and is ready to die under it. Just hear what +two great servants of God have said on this humiliating and degrading +matter. Writing on this subject with all his wonted depth and solemnity, +Hooker says, 'Even in the good things that we do, how many defects are +there intermingled! For God in that which is done, respecteth especially +the mind and intention of the doer. Cut off, then, all those things +wherein we have regarded our own glory, those things which we do to +please men, or to satisfy our own liking, those things which we do with +any by-respect, and not sincerely and purely for the love of God, and a +small score will serve for the number of our righteous deeds. Let the +holiest and best things we do be considered. We are never better +affected to God than when we pray; yet, when we pray, how are our +affections many times distracted! How little reverence do we show to +that God unto whom we speak! How little remorse of our own miseries! How +little taste of the sweet influence of His tender mercy do we feel! The +little fruit we have in holiness, it is, God knoweth, corrupt and +unsound; we put no confidence at all in it, we challenge nothing in the +world for it, we dare not call God to a reckoning as if we had Him in our +debt-books; our continued suit to Him is, and must be, to bear with our +infirmities, and to pardon our offences.' And Thomas Shepard, a divine +of a very different school, as we say, but a saint and a scholar equal to +the best, and indeed with few to equal him, thus writes in his _Spiritual +Experiences_:--'On Sabbath morning I saw that I had a secret eye to my +own name in all that I did, for which I judged myself worthy of death. On +another Sabbath, when I came home, I saw the deep hypocrisy of my heart, +that in my ministry I sought to comfort and quicken others, that the +glory might reflect on me as well as on God. On the evening before the +sacrament I saw that mine own ends were to procure honour, pleasure, gain +to myself, and not to the Lord, and I saw how impossible it was for me to +seek the Lord for Himself, and to lay up all my honour and all my +pleasures in Him. On Sabbath-day, when the Lord had given me some +comfortable enlargements, I searched my heart and found my sin. I saw +that though I did to some extent seek Christ's glory, yet I sought it not +alone, but my own glory too. After my Wednesday sermon I saw the pride +of my heart acting thus, that presently my heart would look out and ask +whether I had done well or ill. Hereupon I saw my vileness to make men's +opinions my rule. The Lord thus gave me some glimpse of myself and a +good day that was to me.' One would think that this was By-ends himself +climbed up into the ministry. And so it was. And yet David Brainerd +could write on his deathbed about Thomas Shepard in this way. 'He valued +nothing in religion that was not done to the glory of God, and, oh! that +others would lay the stress of religion here also. His method of +examining his ends and aims and the temper of his mind both before and +after preaching, is an excellent example for all who bear the sacred +character. By this means they are like to gain a large acquaintance with +their own hearts, as it is evident he had with his.' + +But it is not those who bear the sacred character of the ministry alone +who are full of by-ends. We all are. You all are. And there is not one +all-reaching, all-exposing, and all-humbling way of salvation appointed +for ministers, and another, a more external, superficial, easy, and self- +satisfied way for their people. No. Not only must the ambitious and +disputing disciples enter into themselves and become witnesses and judges +and executioners within themselves before they can be saved or be of any +use in the salvation of others--not only they, but the fishermen of the +Lake of Tiberias, they also must open their hearts to these stabbing +words of Christ, and see how true it is that they had followed Him for +loaves and fishes, and not for His grace and His truth. And only when +they had seen and submitted to that humiliating self-discovery would +their true acquaintance with Christ and their true search after Him +begin. Come, then, all my brethren, and not ministers only, waken up to +the tremendous importance of that which you have utterly neglected, it +may be ostentatiously neglected, up to this hour,--the true nature, the +true character, of your motives and your ends. Enter into yourselves. Be +not strangers and foreigners to yourselves. Let not the day of judgment +be any surprise to you. Witness against, judge, and execute yourselves, +and that especially because of your by-aims and by-ends. Take up the +touchstone of truth and lay it upon your most secret heart. Do not be +afraid to discover how double-minded and deceitful your heart is. Hunt +your heart down. Track it to its most secret lair. Put its true name, +and continue to put its true name, upon the main motive of your life. +Extort an answer by boot and by wheel, only extort an answer from the +inner man of the heart, to the torturing question as to what is his +treasure, his hope, his deepest wish, his daily dream. Watch not against +any outward enemy, keep all your eyes and all your ears to your own +thoughts. God keeps His awful eye on your thoughts. His eye goes at +every glance to that great depth in you. Even His all-seeing eye can go +no deeper into you than to your secret thoughts. Go you as deep as God +goes, and you will be a wise man; go as deep and as often as He does, and +then you will soon come to see eye to eye with God, not only about your +own thoughts, but about His thoughts too, and about everything else. Till +you begin to watch your own thoughts, and to watch them especially in +their aims and their ends, you will have no idea what that moral and +spiritual life is that all God's saints live; that life that Christ +lived, and which He this night summons you all to enter henceforth upon. + +It is such a happy fact that it cannot be too often told, that in the +things of the soul really and truly to know and feel the disease is to +have already entered on the remedy. You will not feel, indeed, that you +have entered on the remedy; but that does not much matter so long as you +really have. And there is nothing more certain among all the certainties +of divine things than that he who feels himself to be in death and hell +with his heart so full of by-ends is all the time as far from death and +hell as any one can be who is still on this side of heaven. When a man's +whole will and desire is set on God, as is now and then the case, that +man is perilously near a sudden and an abundant entrance into that life +and that presence where his heart has for so long been. When a man is +half mad with his own heart, as Thomas Shepard for one was, that stranger +on the earth is at last within a step of that happy coast where all +wishes end. Watch that man. Take a last look at that man. He will soon +be taken out of your sight. Ere ever he is himself aware, he will be +rapt up into that life where saints and angels seek not their own will, +labour not for their own profit or promotion, listen not for their own +praises, but find their blessedness, the half of which had not here been +told them, in glorifying God and in enjoying Him for ever. + +You must all have heard the name of a book that has helped many a saint +now in glory to the examination and the keeping of his own heart. I +refer to Jeremy Taylor's _Holy Living and Dying_. Take two or three of +Taylor's excellent rules with you as you go down from God's house +to-night. 'If you would really live a holy life and die a holy death,' +says Taylor, 'learn to reflect in your every action on your secret end in +it; consider with yourself why you do it, and what you propound to +yourself for your reward. Pray importunately that all your purposes and +all your motives may be sanctified. Renew and rekindle your purest +purposes by such ejaculations as these: "Not unto us, O God, not unto us, +but to Thy name be all the praise. I am in this Thy servant; let all the +gain be Thine." In great and eminent actions let there be a special and +peculiar act of resignation or oblation made to God; and in smaller and +more frequent actions fail not to secure a pious habitual intention.' And +so on. And above all, I will add, labour and pray till you feel in your +heart that you love God with a supreme and an ever-growing love. And, +far as that may be above you as yet, impress your heart with the +assurance that such a love is possible to you also, and that you can +never be safe or happy till you attain to that love. Other men once as +far from the supreme love of God as you are have afterwards attained to +it; and so will you if you continue to set it before yourself. Think +often on God; read the best books about God; call continually upon God; +hold an intimate communion with God, till you feel that you also actually +and certainly love God. And though you begin with loving God because He +first loved you, you will, beginning with that, rise far above that till +you come to love Him for what He is in Himself as well as for what He has +done for you. 'I have done this in order to have a seat in the Academy,' +said a young man, handing the solution of a problem to an old +philosopher. 'Sir,' was the reply, 'with such dispositions you will +never earn a seat there. Science must be loved for its own sake, and not +for any advantage to be derived from it.' And much more is that true of +the highest of all the sciences, the knowledge and the love of God. Love +Him, then, till you arrive at loving Him for Himself, and then you shall +be for ever delivered from all self-love and by-ends, and shall both +glorify and enjoy God for ever. As all they now do who engaged their +hearts on earth to the service and the love and the enjoyment of God is +such psalms and prayers as these: 'Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and +there is no one on earth that I desire beside Thee. How excellent is Thy +loving-kindness, O God! The children of men shall put their trust under +the shadow of Thy wings. For with Thee is the fountain of life, and in +Thy light shall we see light. As for me, I will behold Thy face in +righteousness: I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness. Thou +wilt show me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of joy, and at +Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.' + + + + +GIANT DESPAIR + + + 'A wounded spirit who can bear?'--Solomon. + +Every schoolboy has Giant Despair by heart. The rough road after the +meadow of lilies, the stile into By-Path-Meadow, the night coming on, the +thunder and the lightning and the waters rising amain, Giant Despair's +apprehension of Christian and Hopeful, their dreadful bed in his dungeon +from Wednesday morning till Saturday night, how they were famished with +hunger and beaten with a grievous crab-tree cudgel till they were not +able to turn, with many other sufferings too many and too terrible to be +told which they endured till Saturday about midnight, when they began to +pray, and continued in prayer till almost break of day;--John Bunyan is +surely the best story-teller in all the world. And, then, over and above +that, as often as a boy reads Giant Despair and his dungeon to his father +and mother, the two hearers are like Christian and Hopeful when the +Delectable shepherds showed them what had happened to some who once went +in at By-Path stile: the two pilgrims looked one upon another with tears +gushing out, but yet said nothing to the shepherds. + +John Bunyan's own experience enters deeply into these terrible pages. In +composing these terrible pages, Bunyan writes straight and bold out of +his own heart and conscience. The black and bitter essence of a whole +black and bitter volume is crushed into these four or five bitter pages. +Last week I went over _Grace Abounding_ again, and marked the passages in +which its author describes his own experiences of doubt, diffidence, and +despair, till I gave over counting the passages, they are so many. I had +intended to illustrate the passage before us to-night out of the kindred +materials that I knew were so abundant in Bunyan's terrible +autobiography, but I had to give up that idea. It would have taken two +or three lectures to itself to tell all that Bunyan suffered all his life +long from an easily-wounded spirit. The whole book is just Giant Despair +and his dungeon, with a gleam here and there of that sunshiny weather +that threw the giant into one of his fits, in which he always lost for +the time the use of his limbs. Return often, my brethren, to that +masterpiece, _Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners_. I have read it a +hundred times, but last week it was as fresh and powerful and consoling +as ever to my sin-wounded spirit. + +Let me select some of the incidents that offer occasion for a comment or +two. + +1. And, in the first place, take notice, and lay well to heart, how +sudden, and almost instantaneous, is the fall of Christian and Hopeful +from the very gate of heaven to the very gate of hell. All the Sabbath +and the Monday and the Tuesday before that fatal Wednesday, the two +pilgrims had walked with great delight on the banks of a very pleasant +river; that river, in fact, which David the King called the river of God, +and John, the river of the water of life. They drank also of the water +of the river, which was pleasant and enlivening to their weary spirits. +On either side of the river was there a meadow curiously beautified with +lilies, and it was green all the year long. In this meadow they lay down +and slept, for here they might lie down and sleep safely. When they +awoke they gathered again of the fruits of the trees, and drank again of +the water of the river, and then lay down again to sleep. Thus they did +several days and nights. Now, could you have believed it that two such +men as our pilgrims were could be in the enjoyment of all that the first +half of the week, and then by their own doing should be in Giant +Despair's deepest dungeon before the end of the same week? And yet so it +was. And all that is written for the solemn warning of those who are at +any time in great enlargement and refreshment and joy in their spiritual +life. It is intended for all those who are at any time revelling in a +season of revival: those, for example, who are just come home from +Keswick or Dunblane, as well as for all those who at home have just made +the discovery of some great master of the spiritual life, and who are +almost beside themselves with their delight in their divine author. If +they are new beginners they will not take this warning well, nor will +even all old pilgrims lay it aright to heart; but there it is as plain as +the plainest, simplest, and most practical writer in our language could +put it. + + Behold ye how these crystal streams do glide + To comfort pilgrims by the highway side; + The meadows green, besides their fragrant smell, + Yield dainties for them: And he that can tell + What pleasant fruits, yea leaves, these trees do yield, + Will soon sell all that he may buy this field. + +Thus the two pilgrims sang: only, adds our author in a parenthesis, they +were not, as yet, at their journey's end. + +2. 'Now, I beheld in my dream that they had not journeyed far when the +river and the way for a time parted. At which the two pilgrims were not +a little sorry.' The two pilgrims could not perhaps be expected to break +forth into dancing and singing at the parting of the river and the way, +even though they had recollected at that moment what the brother of the +Lord says about our counting it all joy when we fall into divers +temptations. But it would not have been too much to expect from such +experienced pilgrims as they by this time were, that they should have +suspected and checked and commanded their sorrow. They should have said +something like this to one another: Well, it would have been very +pleasant had it been our King's will and way with us that we should have +finished the rest of our pilgrimage among the apples and the lilies and +on the soft and fragrant bank of the river; but we believe that it must +in some as yet hidden way be better for us that the river and our road +should part from one another at least for a season. Come, brother, and +let us go on till we find out our Master's deep and loving mind. But, +instead of saying that, Christian and Hopeful soon became like the +children of Israel as they journeyed from Mount Hor, their soul was much +discouraged because of the way. And always as they went on they wished +for a softer and a better way. And it was so that they very soon came to +the very thing they so much wished for. For, what is that on the left +hand of the hard road but a stile, and over the stile a meadow as soft to +the feet as the meadow of lilies itself? ''Tis just according to my +wish,' said Christian; 'here is the easiest going. Come, good Hopeful, +and let us go over.' Hopeful: 'But how if the path should lead us out of +the way?' 'That's not like,' said the other; 'look, doth it not go along +by the wayside?' So Hopeful, being persuaded by his fellow, went after +him over the stile. + +Call to mind, all you who are delivered and restored pilgrims, that same +stile that once seduced you. To keep that stile ever before you is at +once a safe and a seemly occupation of mind for any one who has made your +mistakes and come through your chastisements. Christian's eyes all his +after-days filled with tears, and he turned away his face and blushed +scarlet, as often as he suddenly came upon any opening in a wall at all +like that opening he here persuaded Hopeful to climb through. It is too +much to expect that those who are just mounting the stile, and have just +caught sight of the smooth path beyond it, will let themselves be pulled +back into the hard and narrow way by any persuasion of ours. Christian +put down Hopeful's objection till Hopeful broke out bitterly when the +thunder was roaring over his head and he was wading about among the dark +waters: 'Oh that I had kept myself in my way!' Are you a little sorry to- +night that the river and the way are parting in your life? Is your soul +discouraged in you because of the soreness of the way? And as you go do +you still wish for some better way than the strait way? And have you +just espied a stile on the left hand of your narrow and flinty path, and +on looking over it is there a pleasant meadow? And does your companion +point out to your satisfaction, and, almost to your good conscience, that +the soft road runs right along the hard road, only over the stile and +outside the fence? Then, good-bye. For it is all over with you. We +shall meet you again, please God; but when we meet you again, your mind +and memory will be full of shame and remorse and suffering enough to keep +you in songs of repentance for all the rest of your life on earth. +Farewell! + + The Pilgrims now, to gratify the flesh, + Will seek its ease; but oh! how they afresh + Do thereby plunge themselves new grieves into: + Who seek to please the flesh themselves undo. + +3. The two transgressors had not gone far on their own way when night +came on and with the night a very great darkness. But what soon added to +the horror of their condition was that they heard a man fall into a deep +pit right before them, and it sounded to them as if he was dashed to +pieces by his fall. So they called to know the matter, but there was +none to answer, only they heard a groaning. Then said Hopeful: Where are +we now? Then was his fellow silent, as mistrusting that he had led +Hopeful out of the way. Now, all that also is true to the very life, and +has been taken down by Bunyan from the very life. We have all heard men +falling and heard them groaning just a little before us after we had left +the strait road. They had just gone a little farther wrong than we had +as yet gone,--just a very little farther; in some cases, indeed, not so +far, when they fell and were dashed to pieces with their fall. It was +well for us at that dreadful moment that we heard the same voice saying +to us for our encouragement as said to the two trembling transgressors: +'Let thine heart be toward the highway, even the way that thou wentest; +turn again.' Now, what is it in which you are at this moment going off +the right road? What is that life of disobedience or self-indulgence +that you are just entering on? Keep your ears open and you will hear +hundreds of men and women falling and being dashed to pieces before you +and all around you. Are you falling of late too much under the power of +your bodily appetites? It is not one man, nor two, well known to you, +who have fallen never to rise again out of that horrible pit. Are you +well enough aware that you are being led into bad company? Or, is your +companion, who is not a bad man in anything else, leading you, in this +and in that, into what at any rate is bad for you? You will soon, unless +you cut off your companion like a right hand, be found saying with +misguided and overruled Hopeful: Oh that I had kept me to my right way! +And so on in all manner of sin and trespass. Those who have ears to hear +such things hear every day one man after another falling through lust or +pride or malice or idleness or infidelity, till there is none to answer. + +4. 'All hope abandon' was the writing that Dante read over the door of +hell. And the two prisoners all but abandoned all hope when they found +themselves in Giant Despair's dungeon. Only, Christian, the elder man, +had the most distress because their being where they now were lay mostly +at his door. All this part of the history also is written in Bunyan's +very heart's blood. 'I found it hard work,' he tells us of himself, 'to +pray to God because despair was swallowing me up. I thought I was as +with a tempest driven away from God. About this time I did light on that +dreadful story of that miserable mortal, Francis Spira, a book that was +to my troubled spirit as salt when rubbed into a fresh wound; every groan +of that man with all the rest of his actions in his dolours, as his +tears, his prayers, his gnashing of teeth, his wringing of hands, was as +knives and daggers in my soul, especially that sentence of his was +frightful to me: "Man knows the beginning of sin, but who bounds the +issues thereof?"' We never read anything like Spira's experience and +_Grace Abounding_ and Giant Despair's dungeon in the books of our day. +And why not, do you think? Is there less sin among us modern men, or did +such writers as John Bunyan overdraw and exaggerate the sinfulness of +sin? Were they wrong in holding so fast as they did hold that death and +hell are the sure wages of sin? Has divine justice become less fearful +than it used to be to those who rush against it, or is it that we are so +much better men? Is our faith stronger and more victorious over doubt +and fear? Is it that our hope is better anchored? Whatever the reason +is, there can be no question but that we walk in a liberty that our +fathers did not always walk in. Whether or no our liberty is not +recklessness and licentiousness is another matter. Whether or no it +would be a better sign of us if we were better acquainted with doubt and +dejection and diffidence, and even despair, is a question it would only +do us good to put to ourselves. When we properly attend to these matters +we shall find out that, the holier a man is, the more liable he is to the +assaults of doubt and fear and even despair. We have whole psalms of +despair, so deep was David's sense of sin, so high were his views of +God's holiness and justice, and so full of diffidence was his wounded +heart. And David's Son, when our sin was laid upon Him, felt the curse +and the horror of His state so much that His sweat was in drops of blood, +and His cry in the darkness was that His God had forsaken Him. And when +our spirits are wounded with our sins, as the spirits of all God's great +saints have always been wounded, we too shall feel ourselves more at home +with David and with Asaph, with Spira even, and with Bunyan. Despair is +not good, but it is infinitely better than indifference. 'It is a common +saying,' says South, 'and an observation in divinity, that where despair +has slain its thousands, presumption has slain its ten thousands. The +agonies of the former are indeed more terrible, but the securities of the +latter are far more fatal.' + +5. 'I will,' says Paul to Timothy, 'that men pray everywhere, lifting up +holy hands without doubting.' And, just as Paul would have it, Christian +and Hopeful began to lift up their hands even in the dungeon of Doubting +Castle. 'Well,' we read, 'on Saturday night about midnight they began to +pray, and continued in prayer till almost break of day. Now, before it +was day, good Christian, as one half amazed, broke out in this passionate +speech: "What a fool," quoth he, "am I thus to lie in a stinking dungeon +when I may as well walk at liberty; I have a key in my bosom, called +Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in all Doubting +Castle." Then said Hopeful: "That's good news, good brother; pluck it +out of thy bosom and try."' Then Christian pulled the key out of his +bosom and the bolt gave back, and Christian and Hopeful both came out, +and you may be sure they were soon out of the giant's jurisdiction. + +Now, I do not know that I can do better at this point, and in closing, +than just to tell you about some of that bunch of keys that John Bunyan +found from time to time in his own bosom, and which made all his prison +doors one after another fly open at their touch. 'About ten o'clock one +day, as I was walking under a hedge, full of sorrow and guilt, God knows, +and bemoaning myself for my hard hap, suddenly this sentence bolted in +upon me: The blood of Christ remits all guilt. Again, when I was fleeing +from the face of God, for I did flee from His face, that is, my mind and +spirit fled before Him; for by reason of His highness I could not endure; +then would the text cry: Return unto Me; it would cry with a very great +voice: Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee. And this would make me +look over my shoulder behind me to see if I could discern that this God +of grace did follow me with a pardon in His hand. Again, the next day, +at evening, being under many fears, I went to seek the Lord, and as I +prayed, I cried, with strong cries: O Lord, I beseech Thee, show me that +Thou hast loved me with an everlasting love. I had no sooner said it +but, with sweetness, this returned upon me as an echo or sounding-again, +I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Now, I went to bed at quiet; +also, when I awaked the next morning it was fresh upon my soul and I +believed it . . . Again, as I was then before the Lord, that Scripture +fastened on my heart: O man, great is thy faith, even as if one had +clapped me on the back as I was on my knees before God . . . At another +time I remember I was again much under this question: Whether the blood +of Christ was sufficient to save my soul? In which doubt I continued +from morning till about seven or eight at night, and at last, when I was, +as it were, quite worn out with fear, these words did sound suddenly +within my heart: He is able. Methought this word _able_ was spoke so +loud unto me and gave such a justle to my fear and doubt as I never had +all my life either before that or after . . . Again, one morning, when I +was at prayer and trembling under fear, that piece of a sentence dashed +in upon me: My grace is sufficient. At this, methought: Oh, how good a +thing it is for God to send His word! . . . Again, one day as I was in a +meeting of God's people, full of sadness and terror, for my fears were +again strong upon me, and as I was thinking that my soul was never the +better, these words did with great power suddenly break in upon me: My +grace is sufficient for thee, My grace is sufficient for thee, three +times together; and, oh! methought that every word was a mighty word unto +me; as _My_, and _grace_, and _sufficient_, and _for thee_. These words +were then, and sometimes still are, far bigger words than others are. +Again, one day as I was passing in the field, and that, too, with some +dashes in my conscience, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul: Thy +righteousness is in heaven. And methought withal I saw, with the eyes of +my soul, Jesus Christ at God's right hand. I saw also, moreover, that it +was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor my +bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was +Jesus Christ Himself, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever . . . +Again, oh, what did I see in that blessed sixth of John: Him that cometh +to Me I will in nowise cast out. I should in those days often flounce +toward that promise as horses do toward sound ground that yet stick in +the mire. Oh! many a pull hath my heart had with Satan for this blessed +sixth of John . . . And, again, as I was thus in a muse, that Scripture +also came with great power upon my spirit: Not by works of righteousness +which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. Now was I +got on high: I saw my self within the arms of Grace and Mercy, and though +I was before afraid to think of a dying hour, yet now I cried: Let me +die. Now death was lovely and beautiful in my sight; for I saw that we +shall never live indeed till we be gone to the other world. Heirs of +God, methought, heirs of God! God himself is the portion of His saints. +This did sweetly revive my spirit, and help me to hope in God; which when +I had with comfort mused on a while, that word fell with great weight +upon my mind: Oh Death, where is thy sting? Oh Grave, where is thy +victory? At this I became both well in body and mind at once, for my +sickness did presently vanish, and I walked comfortably in my work for +God again.' + +Such were some of the many keys by the use of which God let John Bunyan +so often out of despair into full assurance and out of darkness into +light. Which of the promises have been of such help to you? Over what +Scriptures have you ever cried out: Oh, how good a thing it is for God to +send me His word! Which are the biggest words in all the Bible to you? +To what promise did you ever flounce as a horse flounces when he is +sticking in the mire? And has any word of God so made God your God that +even death itself, since it alone separates you from His presence, is +lovely and beautiful in your eyes? Have you a cluster of such keys in +your bosom? If you have, take them all out to-night and go over them +again with thanksgiving before you sleep. + + + + +KNOWLEDGE + + + 'I will give you pastors after Mine own heart, which shall feed you + with knowledge and understanding.' + +The Delectable Mountains rise out of the heart of Immanuel's Land. This +fine range of far-rolling hills falls away on the one side toward the +plain of Destruction, and on the other side toward the land of Beulah and +the Celestial City, and the way to the Celestial City runs like a bee- +line over these well-watered pastures. Standing on a clear day on the +highest peak of the Delectable Mountains, if you have good eyes you can +see the hill Difficulty in the far-back distance with a perpetual mist +clinging to its base and climbing up its sides, which mist the shepherds +say to you rises all the year round off the Slough of Despond, while, +beyond that again the heavy smoke of the city of Destruction and the town +of Stupidity shuts in the whole horizon. And then, when you turn your +back on all that, in favourable states of the weather you can see here +and there the shimmer of that river over which there is no bridge; and, +then again, so high above the river that it seems to be a city standing +in heaven rather than upon the earth, you will see the high towers and +shining palace roofs and broad battlements of the New Jerusalem itself. +The two travellers should have spent the past three days among the sights +of the Delectable Mountains; and they would have done so had not the +elder traveller misled the younger. But now that they were set free and +fairly on the right road again, the way they had spent the past three +days and three nights made the gardens and the orchards and the pastures +that ran round the bottom and climbed up the sides of the Delectable +Mountains delectable beyond all description to them. + +Now, there were on the tops of those mountains certain shepherds feeding +their flocks, and they stood by the highway side. The two travellers +therefore went up to the shepherds, and leaning upon their staves (as is +common with weary travellers when they stand to talk with any by the +way), they asked: Whose delectable mountains are these? and whose be the +sheep that feed upon them? These mountains, replied the shepherds, are +Immanuel's Land, and they are within sight of the city; the sheep also +are His, and He laid down His life for them. After some more talk like +this by the wayside, the shepherds, being pleased with the pilgrims, +looked very lovingly upon them and said: Welcome to the Delectable +Mountains. The shepherds then, whose names were Knowledge, Experience, +Watchful, and Sincere, took them by the hand to lead them to their tents, +and made them partake of what was ready at present. They said, moreover: +We would that you should stay with us a while to be acquainted with us, +and yet more to solace yourselves with the cheer of these Delectable +Mountains. Then the travellers told them they were content to stay; and +so they went to rest that night because it was now very late. The four +shepherds lived all summer-time in a lodge of tents well up among their +sheep, while their wives and families had their homes all the year round +in the land of Beulah. The four men formed a happy fraternity, and they +worked among and watched over their Master's sheep with one united mind. +What one of those shepherds could not so well do in the tent or in the +fold or out on the hillside, some of the others better did. And what one +of them could do to any perfection all the others by one consent left +that to him to do. You would have thought that they were made by a +perfect miracle to fit into one another, so harmoniously did they live +and work together, and such was the bond of brotherly love that held them +together. At the same time, there was one of the happy quaternity who, +from his years on the hills, and his services in times of trial and +danger, and one thing and another, fell always, and with the finest +humility too, into the foremost place, and his name, as you have already +heard, was Knowledge. Old Mr. Know-all the children in the villages +below ran after him and named him as they clustered round his staff and +hid in the great folds of his shepherd's coat. + +Now, in all this John Bunyan speaks as a child to children; but, of such +children as John Bunyan and his readers is the kingdom of heaven. My +very youngest hearer here to-night knows quite well, or, at any rate, +shrewdly suspects, that Knowledge was not a shepherd going about with his +staff among woolly sheep; nor would the simplest-minded reader of John +Bunyan's book go to seek the Delectable Mountains and Immanuel's Land in +any geographer's atlas, or on any schoolroom map. Oh, no. I do not need +to stop to tell the most guileless of my hearers that old Knowledge was +not a shepherd whose sheep were four-footed creatures, but a minister of +the gospel, whose sheep are men, women, and children. Nor are the +Delectable Mountains any range of hills and valleys of grass and herbs in +England or Scotland. The prophet Ezekiel calls them the mountains of +Israel; but by that you all know that he had in his mind something far +better than any earthly mountain. That prophet of Israel had in his mind +the church of God with its synagogues and its sacraments, with all the +grace and truth that all these things conveyed from God to the children +of Israel. As David also sang in the twenty-third Psalm: 'The Lord is my +Shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; +He leadeth me beside the still waters.' + +Knowledge, then, is a minister; but every congregation has not such a +minister set over it as Knowledge is. All our college-bred and ordained +men are not ministers like Knowledge. This excellent minister takes his +excellent name from his great talents and his great attainments. And +while all his great talents are his Master's gift to him, his great +attainments are all his own to lay out in his Master's service. To begin +with, his Master had given His highly-favoured servant a good +understanding and a good memory, and many good and suitable +opportunities. Now, a good understanding is a grand endowment for a +minister, and his ministerial office will all his days afford him +opportunity for the best understanding he can bring to it. The Christian +ministry, first and last, has had a noble roll of men of a strong +understanding. The author of the book now open before us was a man of a +strong understanding. John Bunyan had a fine imagination, with great +gifts of eloquent, tender, and most heart-winning utterance, but in his +case also all that was bottomed in a strong English understanding. Then, +again, a good memory is indispensable to a minister of knowledge. You +must be content to take a second, a third, or even a lower place still if +your Master has withheld from you a good memory. Dr. Goodwin has a +passage on this point that I have often turned up when I had again +forgotten it. 'Thou mayest have a weak memory, perhaps, yet if it can +and doth remember good things as well and better than other things, then +it is a sanctified memory, and the defilement of thy memory is healed +though the imperfection of it is not; and, though thou art to be humbled +for it as a misery, yet thou art not to be discouraged; for God doth not +hate thee for it, but pities thee; and the like holds good and may be +said as to the want of other like gifts.' You cannot be a man of a +commanding knowledge anywhere, and you must be content to take a very +subordinate and second place, even in the ministry, unless you have both +a good understanding and a good memory; but then, at the last day your +Master will not call you and your congregation to an account for what He +has not committed to your stewardship. And on that day that will be +something. But not only must ministers of knowledge have a good mind and +a good memory; they must also be the most industrious of men. Other men +may squander and kill their time as they please, but a minister had as +good kill himself at once out of the way of better men unless he is to +hoard his hours like gold and jewels. He must read only the best books, +and he must read them with the 'pain of attention.' He must read nothing +that is not the best. He has not the time. And if he is poor and remote +and has not many books, he will have Butler, and let him read Butler's +Preface to his Sermons till he has it by heart. The best books are +always few, and they must be read over and over again when other men are +reading the 'great number of books and papers of amusement that come +daily in their way, and which most perfectly fall in with their idle way +of reading and considering things.' And, then, such a minister must +store up what he reads, if not in a good memory, then in some other +pigeon-hole that he has made for himself outside of himself, since his +Master has not seen fit to furnish him with such a repository within +himself. And, then, after all that,--for a good minister is not made +yet,--understanding and memory and industry must all be sanctified by +secret prayer many times every day, and then laid out every day in the +instruction, impression, and comfort of his people. And, then, that +privileged people will be as happy in possessing that man for their +minister as the sheep of Immanuel's Land were in having Knowledge set +over them for their shepherd. They will never look up without being fed. +They will every Sabbath-day be led by green pastures and still waters. +And when they sing of the mercies of the Lord to them and to their +children, and forget not all His benefits, among the best of their +benefits they will not forget to hold up and bless their minister. + +But, then, there is, nowadays, so much sound knowledge to be gained, not +to speak of so many books and papers of mere pastime and amusement, that +it may well be asked by a young man who is to be a minister whether he is +indeed called to be like that great student who took all knowledge for +his province. Yes, indeed, he is. For, if the minister and interpreter +of nature is to lay all possible knowledge under contribution, what must +not the minister of Jesus Christ and the interpreter of Scripture and +providence and experience and the human heart be able to make the +sanctified use of? Yes, all kinds and all degrees of knowledge, to be +called knowledge, belong by right and obligation to his office who is the +minister and interpreter of Him Who made all things, Who is the Heir of +all things, and by Whom all things consist. At the same time, since the +human mind has its limits, and since human life has its limits, a +minister of all men must make up his mind to limit himself to the best +knowledge; the knowledge, that is, that chiefly concerns him,--the +knowledge of God so far as God has made Himself known, and the knowledge +of Christ. He must be a student of his Bible night and day and all his +days. If he has not the strength of understanding and memory to read his +Bible easily in the original Hebrew and Greek, let him all the more make +up for that by reading it the oftener and the deeper in English. Let him +not only read his Bible deeply for his sermons and prayers, lectures and +addresses, let him do that all day every day of the week, and then read +it all night, and every night of the week, for his own soul. Let every +minister know his Bible down to the bottom, and with his Bible his own +heart. He who so knows his Bible and with it his own heart has almost +books enough. All else is but ostentatious apparatus. When a minister +has neither understanding nor memory wherewith to feed his flock, let him +look deep enough into his Bible and into his own heart, and then begin +out of them to write and speak. And, then, for the outside knowledge of +the passing day he will read the newspapers, and though he gives up all +the morning to the newspapers, and returns to them again in the evening, +his conscience will not upbraid him if he reads as Jonathan Edwards read +the newsletters of his day,--to see how the kingdom of heaven is +prospering in the earth, and to pray for its prosperity. And, then, by +that time, and when he has got that length, all other kinds of knowledge +will have fallen into its own place, and will have taken its own proper +proportion of his time and his thought. He was a man of a great +understanding and a great memory and great industry who said that he had +taken all knowledge for his province. But he was a far wiser man who +said that knowledge is not our proper happiness. Our province, he went +on to say, is virtue and religion, life and manners: the science of +improving the temper and making the heart better. This is the field +assigned us to cultivate: how much it has lain neglected is indeed +astonishing. + +Now, my brethren, two dangers, two simply terrible dangers, arise to +every one of you out of all this matter of your ministers and their +knowledge. 1. The first danger is,--to be frank with you on this +subject,--that you are yourselves so ignorant on all the matters that a +minister has to do with, that you do not know one minister from another, +a good minister from one who is really no minister at all. Now, I will +put it to you, on what principle and for what reason did you choose your +present minister, if, indeed, you did choose him? Was it because you +were assured by people you could trust that he was a minister of +knowledge and knew his own business? Or was it that when you went to +worship with him for yourself you have not been able ever since to tear +yourself away from him, nor has any one else been able to tear you away, +though some have tried? When you first came to the city, did you give, +can you remember, some real anxiety, rising sometimes into prayer, as to +who your minister among so many ministers was to be? Or did you choose +him and your present seat in his church because of some real or supposed +worldly interest of yours you thought you could further by taking your +letter of introduction to him? Had you heard while yet at home, had your +father and mother talked of such things to you, that rich men, and men of +place and power, political men and men high in society, sat in that +church and took notice of who attended it and who did not? Do you, down +to this day, know one church from another so far as spiritual and soul- +saving knowledge is concerned? Do you know that two big buildings, +called churches, may stand in the same street, and have men, called +ministers, carrying on certain services in them from week to week, and +yet, for all the purposes for which Christ came and died and rose again +and gave ministers to His church, these two churches and their ministers +are farther asunder than the two poles? Do you understand what I am +saying? Do you understand what I have been saying all night, or are you +one of those of whom the prophet speaks in blame and in pity as being +destroyed for lack of knowledge? Well, that is your first danger, that +you are so ignorant, and as a consequence, so careless, as not to know +one minister from another. + +2. And your second danger in connection with your minister is, that you +have, and may have long had, a good minister, but that you still remain +yourself a bad man. My brethren, be you all sure of it, there is a +special and a fearful danger in having a specially good minister. Think +twice, and make up your mind well, before you call a specially good +minister, or become a communicant, or even an adherent under a specially +good minister. If two bad men go down together to the pit, and the one +has had a good minister, as, God have mercy on us, sometimes happens, and +the other has only had one who had the name of a minister, the +evangelised reprobate will lie in a deeper bed in hell, and will spend a +more remorseful eternity on it than will the other. No man among you, +minister or no minister, good minister or bad, will be able to sin with +impunity. But he who sins on and on after good preaching will be beaten +with many stripes. 'Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! +For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and +Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I +say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of +judgment than for you.' 'Thou that hast knowledge,' says a powerful old +preacher, 'canst not sin so cheap as another that is ignorant. Places of +much knowledge'--he was preaching in the university pulpit of Oxford--'and +plentiful in the means of grace are dear places for a man to sin in. To +be drunken or unclean after a powerful sermon, and after the Holy Ghost +has enlightened thee, is more than to have so sinned twenty times before. +Thou mightest have sinned ten times more and been damned less. For does +not Jesus Christ the Judge say to thee, This is thy condemnation, that so +much light has come to thee?' And, taking the then way of execution as a +sufficiently awful illustration, the old Oxford Puritan goes on to say +that to sin against light is the highest step of the ladder before +turning off. And, again, that if there are worms in hell that die not, +it is surely gospel light that breeds them. + + + + +EXPERIENCE + + + 'My heart had great experience.'--The Preacher. + + 'I will give them pastors after Mine own heart.' + +Experience, the excellent shepherd of the Delectable Mountains, had a +brother in the army, and he was an equally excellent soldier. The two +brothers--they were twin-brothers--had been brought up together till they +were grown-up men in the same town of Mansoul. All the Experience +family, indeed, had from time immemorial hailed from that populous and +important town, and their family tree ran away back beyond the oldest +extant history. The two brothers, while in all other things as like as +two twin-brothers could be, at the same time very early in life began to +exhibit very different talents and tastes and dispositions; till, when we +meet with them in their full manhood, the one is a soldier in the army +and the other a shepherd on the Delectable Mountains. The +soldier-brother is thus described in one of the military histories of his +day: 'A man of conduct and of valour, and a person prudent in matters. A +comely person, moreover, well-spoken in negotiations, and very successful +in undertakings. His colours were the white colours of Mansoul and his +scutcheon was the dead lion and the dead bear.' + +The shepherd-brother, on the other hand, is thus pictured out to us by +one who has seen him. A traveller who has visited the Delectable +Mountains, and has met and talked with the shepherds, thus describes +Experience in his excellent itinerary: 'Knowledge,' he says, 'I found to +be the sage of the company, spare in build, high of forehead, worn in +age, and his tranquil gait touched with abstractedness. While Experience +was more firmly knit in form and face, with a shrewd kindly eye and a +happy readiness in his bearing, and all his hard-earned wisdom evidently +on foot within him as a capability for work and for control.' This, +then, was the second of the four shepherds, who fed Immanuel's sheep on +the Delectable Mountains. + +But here again to-night, and in the case of Experience, just as last +Sabbath night and in the case of Knowledge, in all this John Bunyan +speaks to children,--only the children here are the children of the +kingdom of heaven. The veriest child who reads the Delectable Mountains +begins to suspect before he is done that Knowledge and Experience are not +after all two real and true shepherds going their rounds with their +staves and their wallets and their wheeling dogs. Yes, though the little +fellow cannot put his suspicions into proper words for you, all the same +he has his suspicions that he is being deceived by you and your Sabbath +book; and, ten to one, from that sceptical day he will not read much more +of John Bunyan till in after-life he takes up John Bunyan never for a +single Sabbath again to lay him down. Yes, let the truth be told at +once, Experience is simply a minister, and not a real shepherd at all; a +minister of the gospel, a preacher, and a pastor; but, then, he is a +preacher and a pastor of no ordinary kind, but of the selectest and very +best kind. + +1. Now, my brethren, to plunge at once out of the parable and into the +interpretation, I observe, in the first place, that pastors who are +indeed to be pastors after God's own heart have all to pass into their +pastorate through the school of experience. Preaching after God's own +heart, and pastoral work of the same divine pattern, cannot be taught in +any other school than the school of experience. Poets may be born and +not made, but not pastors nor preachers. Nay, do not all our best poets +first learn in their sufferings what afterwards they teach us in their +songs? At any rate, that is certainly the case with preachers and +pastors. As my own old minister once said to me in a conversation on +this very subject, 'Even God Himself cannot inspire an experience.' No. +For if He could He would surely have done so in the case of His own Son, +to Whom in the gift of the Holy Ghost He gave all that He could give and +all that His Son could receive. But an experience cannot in the very +nature of things be either bestowed on the one hand or received and +appropriated on the other. An experience in the unalterable nature of +the thing itself must be undergone. The Holy Ghost Himself after He has +been bestowed and received has to be experimented upon, and taken into +this and that need, trial, cross, and care of life. He is not sent to +spare us our experiences, but to carry us through them. And thus it is +(to keep for a moment in sight of the highest illustration we have of +this law of experience), thus it is, I say, that the apostle has it in +his Epistle to the Hebrews that though Christ Himself were a Son, yet +learned He obedience by the things that He suffered. And being by +experience made perfect He then went on to do such and such things for +us. Why, for instance, for one thing, why do you think was our Lord able +to speak with such extraordinary point, impressiveness, and assurance +about prayer; about the absolute necessity and certainty of secret, +importunate, persevering prayer having, sooner or later, in one shape or +other, and in the best possible shape, its answer? Why but because of +His own experience? Why but because His own closet, hilltop, all-night, +and up-before-the-day prayers had all been at last heard and better heard +than He had been able to ask? We can quite well read between the lines +in all our Lord's parables and in all the passages of His sermons about +prayer. The unmistakable traces of otherwise untold enterprises and +successes, agonies and victories of prayer, are to be seen in every such +sermon of His. And so, in like manner, in all that He says to His +disciples about the sweetness of submission, resignation, and +self-denial, as also about the nourishment for His soul that He got out +of every hard act of obedience,--and so on. There is running through all +our Lord's doctrinal and homiletical teaching that note of reality and of +certitude that can only come to any teaching out of the long and deep and +intense experience of the teacher. And as the Master was, so are all His +ministers. When I read, for instance, what William Law says about the +heart-searching and heart-cleansing efficacy of intercessory prayer in +the case of him who continues all his life so to pray, and carries such +prayer through all the experiences and all the relationships of life, I +do not need you to tell me where that great man of God made that great +discovery. I know that he made it in his own closet, and on his own +knees, and in his own evil heart. And so, also, when I come nearer home. +Whenever I hear a single unconventional, immediate, penetrating, +overawing petition or confession in a minister's pulpit prayer or in his +family worship, I do not need to be told out of what prayer-book he took +that. I know without his telling me that my minister has been, all +unknown to me till now, at that same school of prayer to which his Master +was put in the days of His flesh, and out of which He brought the +experiences that He afterwards put into the Friend at midnight, and the +Importunate widow, as also into the Egg and the scorpion, the Bread and +the stone, the Knocking and the opening, the Seeking and the finding. + + His children thus most dear to Him, + Their heavenly Father trains, + Through all the hard experience led + Of sorrows and of pains. + +And if His children, then ten times more the tutors and governors of His +children,--the pastors and the preachers He prepares for His people. + +2. Again, though I will not put those two collegiate shepherds against +one another, yet, in order to bring out the whole truth on this matter, I +will risk so far as to say that where we cannot have both Knowledge and +Experience, by all means let us have Experience. Yes, I declare to you +that if I were choosing a minister for myself, and could not have both +the book-knowledge and the experience of the Christian life in one and +the same man; and could not have two ministers, one with all the talents +and another with all the experiences; I would say that, much as I like an +able and learned sermon from an able and learned man, I would rather have +less learning and more experience. And, then, no wonder that such +pastors and preachers are few. For how costly must a thoroughly good +minister's experience be to him! What a quantity and what a quality of +experience is needed to take a raw, light-minded, ignorant, and +self-satisfied youth and transform him into the pastor, the tried and +trusted friend of the tempted, the sorrow-laden, and the shipwrecked +hearts and lives in his congregation! What years and years of the +selectest experiences are needed to teach the average divinity student to +know himself, to track out and run to earth his own heart, and thus to +lay open and read other men's hearts to their self-deceived owners in the +light of his own. A matter, moreover, that he gets not one word of help +toward in all his college curriculum. David was able to say in his old +age that he fed the flock of God in Israel according to the integrity of +his heart, and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands. But what +years and years of shortcoming and failure in private and in public life +lie behind that fine word 'integrity'! as also what stumbles and what +blunders behind that other fine word 'skilfulness'! But, then, how a +lightest touch of a preacher's own dear-bought experience skilfully let +fall brightens up an obscure scripture! How it sends a thrill through a +prayer! How it wings an arrow to the conscience! How it sheds abroad +balm upon the heart! Let no minister, then, lose heart when he is sent +back to the school of experience. He knows in theory that tribulation +worketh patience, and patience experience, but it is not theory, but +experience, that makes a minister after God's own heart. I sometimes +wish that I may live to see a chair of Experimental Religion set up in +all our colleges. I fear it is a dream, and that it must have been +pronounced impracticable long ago by our wisest heads. Still, all the +same, that does not prevent me from again and again indulging my dream. I +indulge my fond dream again as often as I look back on my own tremendous +mistakes in the management of my own personal and ministerial life, as +well as sometimes see some signs of the same mistakes in some other +ministers. In my dream for the Church of the future I see the programme +of lectures in the Experimental Class and the accompanying examinations. +I see the class library, and I envy the students. I am present at the +weekly book-day, and at the periodical addresses delivered to the class +by those town and country ministers who have been most skilful in their +pastorate and most successful in the conversion and in the character of +their people. And, unless I wholly deceive myself, I see, not all the +class--that will never be till the millennium--but here and there twos +and threes, and more men than that, who will throw their whole hearts +into the work of such a class till they come out of the hall in +experimental religion like Sir Proteus in the play: + + Their years but young, but their experience old, + Their heads unmellowed, but their judgment ripe. + +It is quite true, that, as my old minister shrewdly said to me, even the +Holy Ghost cannot inspire an experience. No. But a class of genuine +experimental divinity would surely help to foster and develop an +experience. And, till the class is established, any student who has the +heart for it may lay in the best of the class library for a few +shillings. Mr. Thin will tell you that there is no literature that is +such a drug in the market as the best books of Experimental Divinity. No +wonder, then, that we make such slow and short way in the skilfulness, +success, and acceptance of our preaching and our pastorate. + +3. But, at the same time, my brethren, all your ministers' experience of +personal religion will be lost upon you unless you are yourselves +attending the same school. The salvation of the soul, you must +understand, is not offered to ministers only. Ministers are not the only +men who are, to begin with, dead in trespasses and sins. The Son of God +did not die for ministers only. The Holy Ghost is not offered to +ministers only. A clean, humble, holy heart is not to be the pursuit of +ministers only. It is not to His ministers only that our Lord says, Take +up My yoke and learn of Me. The daily cross is not the opportunity of +ministers only. It is not to ministers only that tribulation worketh +patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. It was to all +who had obtained like precious faith with their ministers that Peter +issued this exhortation that they were to give all diligence to add to +their faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, +and to temperance patience,--and so on. Now, my brethren, unless all +that is on foot in yourselves, as well as in your ministers, then their +progress in Christian experience will only every new Sabbath-day separate +you and your ministers further and further away from one another. When a +minister is really making progress himself in the life of religion that +progress must come out, and ought to come out, both in his preaching and +in his prayers. And, then, two results of all that will immediately +begin to manifest themselves among his people. Some of his people will +visibly, and still more will invisibly, make corresponding progress with +their minister; while some others, alas! will fall off in interest, in +understanding, and in sympathy till at last they drop off from his +ministry altogether. That is an old law in the Church of God: 'like +people like priest,' and 'like priest like people.' And while there are +various influences at work retarding and perplexing the immediate +operation of that law, at the same time, he who has eyes to see such +things in a congregation and in a community will easily see Hosea's great +law of congregational selection in operation every day. Like people +gradually gravitate to like preachers. You will see, if you have the +eyes, congregations gradually dissolving and gradually being consolidated +again under that great law. You will see friendships and families even +breaking up and flying into pieces; and, again, new families and new +friendships being built up on that very same law. If you were to study +the session books of our city congregations in the light of that law, you +would get instruction. If you just studied who lifted their lines, and +why; and, again, what other people came and left their lines, and why, +you would get instruction. The shepherds in Israel did not need to hunt +up and herd their flocks like the shepherds in Scotland. A shepherd on +the mountains of Israel had nothing more to do than himself pass up into +the pasture lands and then begin to sing a psalm or offer a prayer, when, +in an instant, his proper sheep were all round about him. The sheep knew +their own shepherd's voice, and they fled from the voice of a stranger. +And so it is with a true preacher,--a preacher of experience, that is. +His own people know no voice like his voice. He does not need to bribe +and flatter and run after his people. He may have, he usually has, but +few people as people go in our day, and the better the preacher sometimes +the smaller the flock. It was so in our Master's case. The multitude +followed after the loaves but they fled from the feeding doctrines, till +He first tasted that dejection and that sense of defeat which so many of +His best servants are fed on in this world. Still, as our Lord did not +tune His pulpit to the taste of the loungers of Galilee, no more will a +minister worth the name do anything else but press deeper and deeper into +the depths of truth and life, till, as was the case with his Master, his +followers, though few, will be all the more worth having. The Delectable +Mountains are wide and roomy. They roll far away both before and behind. +Immanuel's Land is a large place, and there are many other shepherds +among those hills and valleys besides Knowledge and Experience and +Watchful and Sincere. And each several shepherd has, on the whole, his +own sheep. Knowledge has his; Experience has his; Watchful has his; and +Sincere has his; and all the other here unnamed shepherds have all theirs +also. For, always, like shepherd like sheep. Yes. Hosea must have been +something in Israel somewhat analogous to a session-clerk among +ourselves. 'Like priest like people' is certainly a digest of some such +experience. Let some inquisitive beginner in Hebrew this winter search +out the prophet upon that matter, consulting Mr. Hutcheson and Dr. Pusey, +and he will let me hear the result. + +4. Now, my brethren, in closing, we must all keep it clearly before our +minds, and that too every day we live, that God orders and overrules this +whole world, and, indeed, keeps it going very much just that He may by +means of it make unceasing experiment upon His people. Experiment, you +know, results in experience. There is no other way by which any man can +attain to a religious experience but by undergoing temptation, trial, +tribulation:--experiment. And it gives a divine dignity to all things, +great and small, good and bad, when we see them all taken up into God's +hand, in order that by means of them He may make for Himself an +experienced people. Human life on this earth, when viewed under this +aspect, is one vast workshop. And all the shafts and wheels and pulleys; +all the crushing hammers, and all the whirling knives; all the furnaces +and smelting-pots; all the graving tools and smoothing irons, are all so +many divinely-designed and divinely-worked instruments all directed in +upon this one result,--our being deeply experienced in the ways of God +till we are for ever fashioned into His nature and likeness. Our faith +in the unseen world and in our unseen God and Saviour is at one time put +to the experiment. At another time it is our love to Him; the reality of +it, and the strength of it. At another time it is our submission and our +resignation to His will. At another time it is our humility, or our +meekness, or our capacity for self-denial, or our will and ability to +forgive an injury, or our perseverance in still unanswered prayer; and so +on the ever-shifting but never-ceasing experiment goes. I do beseech +you, my brethren, take that true view of life home with you again this +night. This true view of life, namely, that experience in the divine +life can only come to you through your being much experimented upon. Meet +all your trials and tribulations and temptations, then, under this +assurance, that all things will work together for good to you also if you +are only rightly exercised by means of them. Nothing else but this +growing experience and this settling assurance will be able to support +you under the sudden ills of life; but this will do it. This, when you +begin by experience to see that all this life, and all the good and all +the ill of this life, are all under this splendid divine law,--that your +tribulations also are indeed working within you a patience, and your +patience an experience, and your experience a hope that maketh not +ashamed. + + + + +WATCHFUL + + + 'Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of + Israel.'--The word of the Lord to Ezekiel. + + 'They watch for your souls.'--The Apostle to the Hebrews. + +There were four shepherds who had the care of Immanuel's sheep on the +Delectable Mountains, and their names were Knowledge, Experience, +Watchful, and Sincere. Now, in that very beautiful episode of his great +allegory, John Bunyan is doing his very utmost to impress upon all his +ministerial readers how much there is that goes to the making of a good +minister, and how much every good minister has to do. Each several +minister must do all that in him lies, from the day of his ordination to +the day of his death, to be all to his people that those four shepherds +were to Immanuel's sheep. He is to labour, in season and out of season, +to be a minister of the ripest possible knowledge, the deepest and widest +possible experience, the most sleepless watchfulness, and the most +absolute and scrupulous sincerity. Now, enough has perhaps been said +already about a minister's knowledge and his experience; enough, +certainly, and more than enough for some of us to hope half to carry out; +and, therefore, I shall at once go on to take up Watchful, and to supply, +so far as I am able, the plainest possible interpretation of this part of +Bunyan's parable. + +1. Every true minister, then, watches, in the words of the apostle, for +the souls of his people. An ordinary minister's everyday work embraces +many duties and offers many opportunities, but through all his duties and +through all his opportunities there runs this high and distinctive duty +of watching for the souls of his people. A minister may be a great +scholar, he may have taken all sacred learning for his province, he may +be a profound and a scientific theologian, he may be an able church +leader, he may be a universally consulted authority on ecclesiastical +law, he may be a skilful and successful debater in church courts, he may +even be a great pulpit orator, holding thousands entranced by his +impassioned eloquence; but a true successor of the prophets of the Old +Testament and of the apostles of the New Testament he is not, unless he +watches for the souls of men. All these endowments, and all these +occupations, right and necessary as, in their own places, they all +are,--great talents, great learning, great publicity, great +popularity,--all tend, unless they are taken great care of, to lead their +possessors away from all time for, and from all sympathy with, the +watchfulness of the New Testament minister. Watching over a flock brings +to you none of the exhilaration of authority and influence, none of the +intoxication of publicity and applause. Your experiences are the quite +opposite of all these things when you are watching over your flock. Your +work among your flock is all done in distant and lonely places, on +hillsides, among woods and thickets, and in cloudy and dark days. You +spend your strength among sick and dying and wandering sheep, among +wolves and weasels, and what not, of that verminous kind. At the same +time, all good pastors are not so obscure and forgotten as all that. Some +exceptionally able and exceptionally devoted and self-forgetful men +manage to combine both extremes of a minister's duties and opportunities +in themselves. Our own Sir Henry Moncreiff was a pattern pastor. There +was no better pastor in Edinburgh in his day than dear Sir Henry was; and +yet, at the same time, everybody knows what an incomparable +ecclesiastical casuist Sir Henry was. Mr. Moody, again, is a great +preacher, preaching to tens of thousands of hearers at a time; but, at +the same time, Mr. Moody is one of the most skilful and attentive pastors +that ever took individual souls in hand and kept them over many years in +mind. But these are completely exceptional men, and what I want to say +to commonplace and limited and everyday men like myself is this, that +watching for the souls of our people, one by one, day in and day +out,--that, above everything else, that, and nothing else,--makes any man +a pastor of the apostolic type. An able man may know all about the +history, the habitat, the various species, the breeds, the diseases, and +the prices of sheep, and yet be nothing at all of a true shepherd. And +so may a minister. + +2. Pastoral visitation, combined with personal dealing, is by far the +best way of watching for souls. I well remember when I first began my +ministry in this congregation, how much I was impressed with what one of +the ablest and best of our then ministers was reported to have testified +on his deathbed. Calling back to his bedside a young minister who had +come to see him, the dying man said: 'Prepare for the pulpit; above +everything else you do, prepare for the pulpit. Let me again repeat it, +should it at any time stand with you between visiting a deathbed and +preparing for the pulpit, prepare for the pulpit.' I was immensely +impressed with that dying injunction when it was repeated to me, but I +have lived,--I do not say to put my preparation for the pulpit, such as +it is, second to my more pastoral work in my week's thoughts, but--to put +my visiting in the very front rank and beside my pulpit. 'We never were +accustomed to much visiting,' said my elders to me in their solicitude +for their young minister when he was first left alone with this whole +charge; 'only appear in your own pulpit twice on Sabbath: keep as much at +home as possible: we were never used to much visiting, and we do not look +for it.' Well, that was most kindly intended; but it was much more kind +than wise. For I have lived to learn that no congregation will continue +to prosper, or, if other more consolidated and less exacting +congregations, at any rate not this congregation, without constant +pastoral attention. And remember, I do not complain of that. Far, far +from that. For I am as sure as I am of anything connected with a +minister's life, that a minister's own soul will prosper largely in the +measure that the souls of his people prosper through his pastoral work. +No preaching, even if it were as good preaching as the apostle's itself, +can be left to make up for the neglect of pastoral visitation and +personal intercourse. 'I taught you from house to house,' says Paul +himself, when he was resigning the charge of the church of Ephesus into +the hands of the elders of Ephesus. What would we ministers not give for +a descriptive report of an afternoon's house-to-house visitation by the +Apostle Paul! Now in a workshop, now at a sickbed, now with a Greek, now +with a Jew, and, in every case, not discussing politics and cursing the +weather, not living his holidays over again and hearing of all the +approaching marriages, but testifying to all men in his own incomparably +winning and commanding way repentance toward God and faith toward the +Lord Jesus Christ. We city ministers call out and complain that we have +no time to visit our people in their own houses; but that is all +subterfuge. If the whole truth were told about the busiest of us, it is +not so much want of time as want of intention; it is want of set and +indomitable purpose to do it; it is want of method and of regularity such +as all business men must have; and it is want, above all, of laying out +every hour of every day under the Great Taskmaster's eye. Many country +ministers again,--we, miserable men that we are, are never happy or well +placed,--complain continually that their people are so few, and so +scattered, and so ignorant, and so uninteresting, and so unresponsive, +that it is not worth their toil to go up and down in remote places +seeking after them. It takes a whole day among bad roads and wet bogs to +visit a shepherd's wife and children, and two or three bothies and +pauper's hovels on the way home. 'On the morrow,' so runs many an entry +in Thomas Boston's _Memoirs_, 'I visited the sick, and spent the +afternoon in visiting others, and found gross ignorance prevailing. +Nothing but stupidity prevailed; till I saw that I had enough to do among +my handful. I had another diet of catechising on Wednesday afternoon, +and the discovery I made of the ignorance of God and of themselves made +me the more satisfied with the smallness of my charge . . . Twice a year +I catechised the parish, and once a year I visited their families. My +method of visitation was this. I made a particular application of my +doctrine in the pulpit to the family, exhorted them all to lay all these +things to heart, exhorted them also to secret prayer, supposing they kept +family worship, urged their relative duties upon them,' etc. etc. And +then at his leaving Ettrick, he writes: 'Thus I parted with a people +whose hearts were knit to me and mine to them. The last three or four +years had been much blessed, and had been made very comfortable to me, +not in respect of my own handful only, but others of the countryside +also.' Jonathan Edwards called Thomas Boston 'that truly great divine.' +I am not such a judge of divinity as Jonathan Edwards was, but I always +call Boston to myself that truly great pastor. But my lazy and deceitful +heart says to me: No praise to Boston, for he lived and did his work in +the quiet Forest of Ettrick. True, so he did. Well, then, look at the +populous and busy town of Kidderminster. And let me keep continually +before my abashed conscience that hard-working corpse Richard Baxter. +Absolutely on the same page on which that dying man enters diseases and +medicines enough to fill a doctor's diary after a whole day in an +incurable hospital, that noble soul goes on to say: 'I preached before +the wars twice each Lord's Day, but after the wars but once, and once +every Thursday, besides occasional sermons. Every Thursday evening my +neighbours that were most desirous, and had opportunity, met at my house. +Two days every week my assistant and I myself took fourteen families +between us for private catechising and conference; he going through the +parish, and the town coming to me. I first heard them recite the words +of the Catechism, and then examined them about the sense, and lastly +urged them, with all possible engaging reason and vehemency, to +answerable affection and practice. If any of them were stalled through +ignorance or bashfulness, I forbore to press them, but made them hearers, +and turned all into instruction and exhortation. I spent about an hour +with a family, and admitted no others to be present, lest bashfulness +should make it burdensome, or any should talk of the weakness of others.' +And then he tells how his people's necessity made him practise physic +among them, till he would have twenty at his door at once. 'All these my +employments were but my recreations, and, as it were, the work of my +spare hours. For my writings were my chiefest daily labour. And blessed +be the God of mercies that brought me from the grave and gave me, after +wars and sickness, fourteen years' liberty in such sweet employment!' Let +all ministers who would sit at home over a pipe and a newspaper with a +quiet conscience keep Boston's _Memoirs_ and Baxter's _Reliquiae_ at +arm's-length. + +3. Our young communicants' classes, and still more, those private +interviews that precede and finish up our young communicants' classes, +are by far our best opportunities as pastors. I remember Dr. Moody +Stuart telling me long ago that he had found his young communicants' +classes to be the most fruitful opportunities of all his ministry; as, +also, next to them, times of baptism in families. And every minister who +tries to be a minister at all after Dr. Moody Stuart's pattern, will tell +you something of the same thing. They get at the opening history of +their young people's hearts before their first communion. They make +shorthand entries and secret memoranda at such a season like this: 'A. a +rebuke to me. He had for long been astonished at me that I did not speak +to him about his soul. B. traced his conversion to the singing of 'The +sands of time are sinking' in this church last summer. C. was spoken to +by a room-mate. D. was to be married, and she died. Of E. I have great +hope. F., were she anywhere but at home, I would have great hopes of +her,'--and so on. But, then, when a minister takes boldness to turn over +the pages of his young communicants' roll for half a lifetime--ah me, ah +me! What was I doing to let that so promising communicant go so far +astray, and I never to go after him? And that other. And that other. +And that other. Till we can read no more. O God of mercy, when Thou +inquirest after blood, let me be hidden in the cleft of that Rock so +deeply cleft for unwatchful ministers! + +4. And then, as Dr. Joseph Parker says, who says everything so plainly +and so powerfully: 'There is pastoral preaching as well as pastoral +visitation. There is pastoral preaching; rich revelation of divine +truth; high, elevating treatment of the Christian mysteries; and he is +the pastor to me who does not come to my house to drink and smoke and +gossip and show his littleness, but who, out of a rich experience, meets +me with God's word at every turn of my life, and speaks the something to +me that I just at that moment want.' Let us not have less pastoral +visitation in the time to come, but let us have more and more of such +pastoral preaching. + +5. But, my brethren, it is time for you, as John said to the elect lady +and her children, to look to yourselves. The salvation of your soul is +precious, and its salvation is such a task, such a battle, such a danger, +and such a risk, that it will take all that your most watchful minister +can do, and all that you can do yourself, and all that God can do for +you, and yet your soul will scarcely be saved after all. You do not know +what salvation is nor what it costs. You will not be saved in your +sleep. You will not waken up at the last day and find yourself saved by +the grace of God and you not know it. You will know it to your bitter +cost before your soul is saved from sin and death. You and your minister +too. And therefore it is that He Who is to judge your soul at last says +to you, as much as He says it to any of His ministers, Watch! What I say +unto one I say unto all, Watch. Watch and pray, lest you enter into +temptation. Look to yourself, then, sinner. In Christ's name, look to +yourself and watch yourself. You have no enemy to fear but yourself. No +one can hurt a hair of your head but yourself. Have you found that out? +Have you found yourself out? Do you ever look in the direction of your +own heart? Have you begun to watch what goes on in your own heart? What +is it to you what goes on in the world around you compared with what goes +on in the world within you? Look, then, to yourself. Watch, above all +watching, yourself. Watch what it is that moves you to do this or that. +Stop sometimes and ask yourself why you do such and such a thing. Did +you ever hear of such a thing as a motive in a human heart? And did your +minister, watching for your soul, ever tell you that your soul will be +lost or saved, condemned or justified at the last day according to your +motives? You never knew that! You were never told that by your +minister! Miserable pair! What does he take up his Sabbaths with? And +what leads you to waste your Sabbaths and your soul on such a stupid +minister? But, shepherd or no shepherd, minister or no minister, look to +yourself. Look to yourself when you lie down and when you rise up; when +you go out and when you come in; when you are in the society of men and +when you are alone with your own heart. Look to yourself when men praise +you, and look to yourself when men blame you. Look to yourself when you +sit down to eat and drink, and still more when you sit and speak about +your absent brother. Look to yourself when you meet your enemy or your +rival in the street, when you pass his house, or hear or read his name. +Yes, you may well say so. At that rate a man's life would be all +watching. So it would. And so it must. And more than that, so it is +with some men not far from you who never told you how much you have made +them watch. Did you never know all that till now? Were you never told +that every Christian man, I do not mean every communicant, but every +truly and sincerely and genuinely Christian man watches himself in that +way? For as the one essential and distinguishing mark of a New Testament +minister is not that he is an able man, or a studious man, or an eloquent +man, but that he is a pastor and watches for souls, so it is the chiefest +and the best mark, and to himself the only safe and infallible mark, that +any man is a sincere and true Christian man, that he watches himself +always and in all things looks first and last to himself. + + + + +SINCERE + + + 'In all things showing sincerity.'--Paul to Titus. + +Charles Bennett has a delightful drawing of Sincere in Charles Kingsley's +beautiful edition of _The Pilgrim's Progress_. You feel that you could +look all day into those clear eyes. Your eyes would begin to quail +before you had looked long into the fourth shepherd's deep eyes; but +those eyes of his have no cause to quail under yours. This man has +nothing to hide from you. He never had. He loves you, and his love to +you is wholly without dissimulation. He absolutely and unreservedly +means and intends by you and yours all that he has ever said to you and +yours, and much more than he has ever been able to say. The owner of +those deep blue eyes is as true to you when he is among your enemies as +he is true to the truth itself when he is among your friends. Mark also +the unobtrusive strength of his mouth, all suffused over as it is with a +most winning and reassuring sweetness. The fourth shepherd of the +Delectable Mountains is one of the very best of Bennett's excellent +portraits. But Mr. Kerr Bain's pen-and-ink portrait of Sincere in his +_People of the Pilgrimage_ is even better than Bennett's excellent +drawing. 'Sincere is softer in outline and feature than Watchful. His +eye is full-open and lucid, with a face of mingled expressiveness and +strength--a lovable, lowly, pure-spirited man--candid, considerate, +willing, cheerful--not speaking many words, and never any but true +words.' Happy sheep that have such a shepherd! Happy people! if only +any people in the Church of Christ could have such a pastor. + +It is surely too late, too late or too early, to begin to put tests to a +minister's sincerity after he has been licensed and called and is now +standing in the presence of his presbytery and surrounded with his +congregation. It is a tremendous enough question to put to any man at +any time: 'Are not zeal for the honour of God, love to Jesus Christ, and +desire of saving souls your great motives and chief inducement to enter +into the function of the holy ministry?' A man who does not understand +what it is you are saying to him will just make the same bow to these +awful words that he makes to all your other conventional questions. But +the older he grows in his ministry, and the more he comes to discover the +incurable plague of his own heart, and with that the whole meaning and +full weight of your overwhelming words, the more will he shrink back from +having such questions addressed to him. Fools will rush in where Moses +and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Peter and Paul feared to set their foot. Paul +was to be satisfied if only he was let do the work of a minister all his +days and then was not at the end made a castaway. And yet, writing to +the same church, Paul says that his sincerity among them had been such +that he could hold up his ministerial life like spotless linen between +the eye of his conscience and the sun. But all that was written and is +to be read and understood as Paul's ideal that he had honestly laboured +after, rather than as an actual attainment he had arrived at. Great as +Paul's attainments were in humility, in purity of intention, and in +simplicity and sincerity of heart, yet the mind of Christ was not so +given even to His most gifted apostle, that he could seriously say that +he had attained to such utter ingenuity, simplicity, disengagement from +himself, and surrender to Christ, as to be able to face the sun with a +spotless ministry. All he ever says at his boldest and best on that +great matter is to be read in the light of his universal law of personal +and apostolic imperfection--Not that I have attained, either am already +perfect; but I follow after. And blessed be God that this is all that He +looks for in any of His ministers, that they follow all their days after +a more and more godly sincerity. It was the apostle's love of absolute +sincerity,--and, especially, it was his bitter hatred of all the +remaining dregs of insincerity that he from time to time detected in his +own heart,--it was this that gave him his good conscience before a God of +pity and compassion, truth and grace. And with something of the same +love of perfect sincerity, accompanied with something of the same hatred +of insincerity and of ourselves on account of it, we, too, toward this +same God of pity and compassion, will hold up a conscience that would +fain be a good conscience. And till it is a good conscience we shall +hold up with it a broken heart. And that genuine love of all sincerity, +and that equally genuine hatred of all remaining insincerity, will make +all our ministerial work, as it made all Paul's apostolic work, not only +acceptable, but will also make its very defects and defeats both +acceptable and fruitful in the estimation and result of God. It so +happens that I am reading for my own private purposes at this moment an +old book of 1641, Drexilius _On a Right Intention_, and I cannot do +better at this point than share with you the page I am just reading. 'Not +to be too much troubled or daunted at any cross event,' he says, 'is the +happy state of his mind who has entered on any enterprise with a pure and +pious intention. That great apostle James gained no more than eight +persons in all Spain when he was called to lay down his head under +Herod's sword. And was not God ready to give the same reward to James as +to those who converted kings and whole kingdoms? Surely He was. For God +does not give His ministers a charge as to what they shall effect, but +only as to what they shall intend to effect. Wherefore, when his art +faileth a servant of God, when nothing goes forward, when everything +turneth to his ruin, even when his hope is utterly void, he is scarce one +whit troubled; for this, saith he to himself, is not in my power, but in +God's power alone. I have done what I could. I have done what was fit +for me to do. Fair and foul is all of God's disposing.' + +And, then, this simplicity and purity of intention gives a minister that +fine combination of candour and considerateness which we saw to exist +together so harmoniously in the character of Sincere. Such a minister is +not tongue-tied with sinister and selfish intentions. His sincerity +toward God gives him a masterful position among his people. His words of +rebuke and warning go straight to his people's consciences because they +come straight out of his own conscience. His words are their own witness +that he is neither fearing his people nor fawning upon his people in +speaking to them. And, then, such candour prepares the way for the +utmost considerateness when the proper time comes for considerateness. +Such a minister is patient with the stupid, and even with the wicked and +the injurious, because in all their stupidity and wickedness and +injuriousness they have only injured and impoverished themselves. And if +God is full of patience and pity for the ignorant and the evil and the +out of the way, then His sincere-hearted minister is of all men the very +man to carry the divine message of forgiveness and instruction to such +sinners. Yes, Mr. Bain must have seen Sincere closely and in a clear +light when he took down this fine feature of his character, that he is at +once candid and considerate--with a whole face of mingled expressiveness +and strength. + +Writing about sincerity and a right intention in young ministers, old +Drexilius says: 'When I turn to clergymen, I would have sighs and groans +to speak for me. For, alas! I am afraid that there be found some which +come into the ministry, not that they may obtain a holy office in which +to spend their life, but for worse ends. To enter the ministry with a +naughty intention is to come straight to destruction. Let no minister +think at any time of a better living, but only at all times of a holier +life. Wherefore, O ministers and spiritual men, consider and take heed. +There can be no safe guide to your office but a right, sincere, pure +intention. Whosoever cometh to it with any other conduct or companion +must either return to his former state of life, or here he shall +certainly perish . . . What is more commendable in a religious man than +to be always in action and to be exercised one while in teaching the +ignorant, another while in comforting such as are troubled in mind, +sometimes in making sermons, and sometimes in admonishing the sick? But +with what secret malignity doth a wrong intention insinuate itself into +these very actions that are the most religious! For ofttimes we desire +nothing else but to be doing. We desire to become public, not that we +may profit many, but because we have not learned how to be private. We +seek for divers employments, not that we may avoid idleness, but that we +may come into people's knowledge. We despise a small number of hearers, +and such as are poor, simple, and rustical, and let fly our endeavours at +more eminent chairs, though not in apparent pursuit; all which is the +plain argument of a corrupt intention. O ye that wait upon religion, O +ministers of God, this is to sell most transcendent wares at a very low +rate--nay, this is to cast them, and yourselves too, into the fire.' + +There are some outstanding temptations to insincerity in some ministers +that must be pointed out here. (1) Ministers with a warm rhetorical +temperament are beset continually with the temptation to pile up false +fire on the altar; to dilate, that is, both in their prayers and in their +sermons, upon certain topics in a style that is full of insincerity. +Ministers who have no real hold of divine things in themselves will yet +fill their pulpit hour with the most florid and affecting pictures of +sacred and even of evangelical things. This is what our shrewd and +satirical people mean when they say of us that So-and-so has a great +_sough_ of the gospel in his preaching, but the _sough_ only. (2) +Another kindred temptation to even the best and truest of ministers is to +make pulpit appeals about the evil of sin and the necessity of a holy +life that they themselves do not feel and do not attempt to live up to. +Butler has a terrible passage on the heart-hardening effects of making +pictures of virtue and never trying to put those pictures into practice. +And readers of Newman will remember his powerful application of this same +temptation to literary men in his fine sermon on Unreal Words. (3) +Another temptation is to affect an interest in our people and a sympathy +with them that we do not in reality feel. All human life is full of this +temptation to double-dealing and hypocrisy; but, then, it is large part +of a minister's office to feel with and for his people, and to give the +tenderest and the most sacred expression to that feeling. And, unless he +is a man of a scrupulously sincere, true, and tender heart, his daily +duties will soon develop him into a solemn hypocrite. And if he feels +only for his own people, and for them only when they become and as long +as they remain his own people, then his insincerity and imposture is only +the more abominable in the sight of God. (4) Archbishop Whately, with +that strong English common sense and that cultivated clear-headedness +that almost make him a writer of genius, points out a view of sincerity +that it behoves ministers especially to cultivate in themselves. He +tells us not only to act always according to our convictions, but also to +see that our convictions are true and unbiassed convictions. It is a +very superficial sincerity even when we actually believe what we profess +to believe. But that is a far deeper and a far nobler sincerity which +watches with a strict and severe jealousy over the formation of our +beliefs and convictions. Ministers must, first for themselves and then +for their people, live far deeper down than other men. They must be at +home among the roots, not of actions only, but much more of convictions. +We may act honestly enough out of our present convictions and principles, +while, all the time, our convictions and our principles are vitiated at +bottom by the selfish ground they ultimately stand in. Let ministers, +then, to begin with, live deep down among the roots of their opinions and +their beliefs. Let them not only flee from being consciously insincere +and hypocritical men; let them keep their eye like the eye of God +continually on that deep ground of the soul where so many men unknown to +themselves deceive themselves. And, thus exercised, they shall be able +out of a deep and clean heart to rise far above that trimming and hedging +and self-seeking and self-sheltering in disputed and unpopular questions +which is such a temptation to all men, and is such a shame and scandal in +a minister. + +Now, my good friends, we have kept all this time to the fourth shepherd +and to his noble name, but let us look in closing at some of his +sheep,--that is to say, at ourselves. For is it not said in the prophet: +Ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith +the Lord God. All, therefore, that has been said about the sincerity and +insincerity of ministers is to be said equally of their people also in +all their special and peculiar walks of life. Sincerity is as noble a +virtue, and insincerity is as detestable a vice, in a doctor, or a +lawyer, or a schoolmaster, or a merchant,--almost, if not altogether, as +much so as in a minister. Your insincerity and hypocrisy in your daily +intercourse with your friends and neighbours is a miserable enough state +of mind, but at the root of all that there lies your radical insincerity +toward God and your own soul. In his _Christian Perfection_ William Law +introduces his readers to a character called Julius, who goes regularly +to prayers, and there confesses himself to be a miserable sinner who has +no health in him; and yet that same Julius cannot bear to be informed of +any imperfection or suspected to be wanting in any kind or degree of +virtue. Now, Law asks, can there be a stronger proof that Julius is +wanting in the sincerity of his devotions? Is it not as plain as +anything can be that that man's confessions of sin are only words of +course, a certain civility of sacred speech in which his heart has not a +single atom of share? Julius confesses himself to be in great weakness, +corruption, disorder, and infirmity, and yet he is mortally angry with +you if at any time you remotely and tenderly hint that he may be just a +shade wrong in his opinions, or one hair's-breadth off what is square and +correct in his actions. Look to yourself, Julius, and to your insincere +heart. Look to yourself at all times, but above all other times at the +times and in the places of your devotions. Ten to one, my hearer of to- +night, you may never have thought of that before. And what would you +think if you were told that this Sincere shepherd was appointed us for +this evening's discourse, and that you were led up to this house, just +that you might have your attention turned to your many miserable +insincerities of all kinds, but especially to your so Julius-like +devotions? 'And Nathan said unto David, Thou art the man. And David +said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.' + +What, then, my truly miserable fellow-sinner and fellow-worshipper, what +are we to do? Am I to give up preaching altogether because I am +continually carried on under the impulse of the pulpit far beyond both my +attainments and my intentions? Am I to cease from public prayer +altogether because when engaged in it I am compelled to utter words of +contrition and confession and supplication that little agree with the +everyday temper and sensibility of my soul? And am I wholly to eschew +pastoral work because my heart is not so absolutely clean and simple and +sincere toward all my own people and toward other ministers' people as it +ought to be? No! Never! Never! Let me rather keep my heart of such +earth and slag in the hottest place of temptation, and then, such +humiliating discoveries as are there continually being made to me of +myself will surely at last empty me of all self-righteousness and self- +sufficiency, and make me at the end of my ministry, if not till then, the +penitent pastor of a penitent people. And when thus penitent, then +surely, also somewhat more sincere in my designs and intentions, if not +even then in my attainments and performances. + +'O Eternal God, Who hast made all things for man, and man for Thy glory, +sanctify my body and my soul, my thoughts and my intentions, my words and +my actions, that whatsoever I shall think or speak or do may be by me +designed to the glory of Thy name. O God, turn my necessities into +virtue, and the works of nature into the works of grace, by making them +orderly, regular, temperate, subordinate, and profitable to ends beyond +their own proper efficacy. And let no pride or self-seeking, no +covetousness or revenge, no impure mixtures or unhandsome purposes, no +little ends and low imaginations, pollute my spirit or unhallow any of my +words or actions. But let my body be the servant of my spirit, and both +soul and body servants of my Lord, that, doing all things for Thy glory +here, I may be made a partaker of Thy glory hereafter; through Jesus +Christ, my Lord. Amen.' + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +{1} Delivered on the Sabbath before Communion. + +{2} Delivered June 26th, 1892, on the eve of a general election. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUNYAN CHARACTERS*** + + +******* This file should be named 1885.txt or 1885.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/8/1885 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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