The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can ReadBunyan, John
Religion
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read
Bunyan, John
Christian life -- Juvenile literature; Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages -- Juvenile literature
I make bold to talk thus in figures, for the ripening of the wits of
young readers, and because, in the book of the Revelation, the saved
are compared to a company of musicians, that play upon their trumpets
and harps, and sing their songs before the throne.
HON. He was a very zealous man, as one may see by the relation which you
have given of him. Difficulties, lions, or Vanity Fair he feared not at
all; it was only sin, death, and hell that were to him a terror, because
he had some doubts about his interest in that Celestial Country.
GREAT. You say right: those were the things that were his troublers, and
they, as you have well observed, arose from the weakness of his mind
thereabout, not from weakness of spirit as to the practical part of a
pilgrim's life. I dare believe that, as the proverb is, he would have
bit a firebrand, had it stood in his way; but the things with which he
was oppressed no man ever yet could shake off with ease.
CHR. Then said Christiana, "This relation of Mr. Fearing has done me
good. I thought nobody had been like me; but I see there was some
semblance betwixt this good man and I: only we differed in two things.
His troubles were so great that they broke out; but mine I kept within.
His also lay so hard upon him, they made him that he could not knock at
the houses provided for entertainment; but my trouble was always such as
made me knock the louder."
MER. If I might also speak my heart, I must say that something of him
has also dwelt in me; for I have ever been more afraid of the lake, and
the loss of a place in Paradise, than I have been of the loss of other
things. Oh, thought I, may I have the happiness to have a habitation
there, it is enough, though I part with all the world to win it!
MATT. Then said Matthew, "Fear was one thing that made me think that I
was far from having that within me which makes me sure of being saved.
But if it were so with such a good man as he, why may it not also go
well with me?"
JAMES. "No fears, no grace," said James, "Though there is not always
grace where there is the fear of hell, yet, to be sure, there is no
grace where there is no fear of God."
GREAT. Well said, James; thou hast hit the mark. For the fear of God is
the beginning of wisdom; and, to be sure, they that want the beginning
have neither middle nor end. But we will here conclude our discourse of
Mr. Fearing, after we have sent after him this farewell:
"Well, Master Fearing, thou didst fear
Thy God, and wast afraid
Of doing anything while here
That would have thee betrayed.
"And didst thou fear the lake and pit?
Would others did so too!
For, as for them that want thy wit,
They do themselves undo."
[Sidenote: HONEST TELLS OF MR. SELF-WILL]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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