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
CHRIS. I walk by the rule of my Master; you walk by the rude working
of your fancies. You are counted thieves already by the Lord of the way;
therefore I doubt you will not be found true men at the end of the way.
You come in by yourselves without His word, and shall go out by
yourselves without His mercy.
To this they made him but little answer; only they bid him look to
himself. Then I saw that they went on every man in his way, without much
talking one with another; save that these two men told Christian, that,
as to law and rules, they doubted not but that they should as carefully
do them as he. "Therefore," said they, "we see not wherein thou
differest from us, but by the coat which is on thy back, which was, as
we believe given thee by some of thy neighbors to hide the shame of thy
nakedness."
CHRIS. By laws and rules you will not be saved, since you came not in by
the door. And as for this coat that is on my back, it was given to me by
the Lord of the place whither I go; and that, as you say, to cover my
nakedness with. And I take it as a token of His kindness to me; for I
had nothing but rags before. And besides, thus I comfort myself as I go.
Surely, think I, when I come to the gate of the city, the Lord thereof
will know me for good, since I have His coat on my back; a coat that He
gave me freely in the day that He stripped me of my rags. I have
moreover, a mark in my forehead, of which perhaps you have taken no
notice, which one of my Lord's most intimate friends fixed there the day
that my burden fell off my shoulders. I will tell you, moreover, that I
had then given me a roll sealed, to comfort me by reading as I go in the
way; I was also bid to give it in at the heavenly gate, in token of my
certain going in after it; all which things, I doubt, you want, and want
them because you came not in at the gate.
To these things they gave him no answer; only they looked upon each
other, and laughed. Then I saw that they went on all, save that
Christian kept before, who had no more talk but with himself, and
sometimes sighingly, and sometimes comfortably; also he would be often
reading in the roll that one of the Shining Ones gave him, by which he
was refreshed.
[Sidenote: THE HILL OF DIFFICULTY]
I beheld then that they all went on till they came to the foot of the
Hill Difficulty, at the bottom of which was a spring. There were also in
the same place two other ways, besides that which came straight from the
gate; one turned to the left hand, and the other to the right, at the
bottom of the hill; but the narrow way lay right up the hill, and the
name of that going up the side of the hill is called Difficulty.
Christian now went to the spring, and drank thereof to refresh himself,
and then began to go up the hill, saying:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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