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diff --git a/old/1bnch10.txt b/old/1bnch10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf97624 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1bnch10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7460 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext Bunyan Characters: First Series by Whyte +#1 in our series by Alexander Whyte D.D. + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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'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. Byends 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 today, 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 gate-keeper'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 life-long 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 +UNrighteousnesses 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 life-long +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 gun-shot 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 +life-long 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 death-bed 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 Project Gutenberg Etext Bunyan Characters: First Series by Whyte + diff --git a/old/1bnch10.zip b/old/1bnch10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..139f657 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1bnch10.zip |