John Bunyan (1628-1688). Bunyan’s work falls into the category of the greatest masterpieces ever written by a mortal.
Commentary:
Translated into more than 200 languages and has never been out of print, The Pilgrims’s Progress has become a religious classic deemed by many second only to the Bible in terms of Christian enlightment. Its author, John Bunyan, was one of the most noteworthy products of Puritan England. Although he made his daily living with down-to-earth arts of a tinker and mender, his highly sensitive and creative disposition left him profoundly vulnerable, even as a small child, to the extraordinary religious fervor of his day; and his conversion to the Baptist faith as a young bachelor transported him to the verge of religious mania.
Finally, after serving in Cromwell’s army and marrying a woman “as poor as himself,” he could no longer resist the call; he went west out into the streets as a roving evangelist. In 1660 he was imprisoned for preaching without a license, and it was in jail that he wrote the first part of his imaginative allegory Pilgrim’s Progress. In lucid but majestic prose, the book traces the good Christian’s journey from the “City of Destruction” to the “Celestial City.”
In Bunyan’s prefatory “Author’s Apology,” a cheery and gentle defense written in doggered verse, he offers an explanation of his allegorical approach to moral edification:
“May I not write in such a style as this?/In such a method too, and yet not miss/ My end, thy good? / Why may it not be done? / Dark clouds bring waters, when the bright bring none.”
He then goes on to explain the moral purposes of his allegory:
“This book it chalketh out before thine eyes / The man that seeks the everlasting prize: / It shews you whence he comes, whither he goes: / What he leaves undone; also what he does: / It also shews you how he runs and runs / Til he unto the gate of glory comes.”
Story Overview:
Part 1
Bunyan begins by describing a marvelous dream he had:
As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted down on a certain place where was a den; and I laid me down in that place to sleep; and as I slept I dreamed a dream……I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back.
This oppressed figure was a man called Christian, shouldering the burden of his sins, and the book which he held bore horryfying revelations. “I am certainly informed that this our city will be burned with fire from heaven,” Christian lamented, speaking to his family, “in which….both myself, with thee my wife, and you my my sweet babies shall miserably come to ruin.” Walking through his fields with a prayer in his heart, Christian sought some remedy to his distress.
Suddenly the figure of Evangelist strode through the fields towards Christian. Then he gave him a parchment roll; and there was written within, “Flee from the wrath to come.” Confused, Christian asked where he might flee to. Said Evangelist, “Do you see yonder shining light? …. Keep that light in your eye, and go up directly thereto, so thou shalt see the [wicket] gate; at which when thou knockest, it shall be told thee what to do.”
Unable to convince his wife and children to follow him, Christian set out alone, running toward the light—a solitary man, a pilgrim seeking truth. His family called after him, begging him to return. But Christian put his fingers in his ears and ran on, crying, “Life! life! eternal life!” Watching his flight, some neighbors mocked him, while others tried to deliver him back to the City of Destruction.
Two of the neighbors who sought to dissuade Christian were called Obstinate and Pliable. When his attempts failed, Obstinate turned back. Pliable, however, swayed by Christian’s determination, agreed to accompany him to the Celestial City and to see it for himself.
Unfortunately, the two pilgrims soon slipped and fell into the dank and murky Slough of Despond, where they “wallowed for a time, being grievously bedaubed with the dirt.” Unnerved and disgusted, Pliable finally pulled himself out of the trough and raced for home, leaving Christian, still weighed by the burden of sin on his back, to sink in the mire.
By and by, a man named Help came to pull Christian out of the trough; and, weary yet determined, the traveler continued his journey—a solitary pilgrim in pursuit of truth. Nearly diverted from his path by the enticing words of a Worldly Wiseman, Christian was saved by the intervention of Evangelist. At last, with great difficulty he reached the wicket gate and entered onto the Straight and Narrow path.
Up this way therefore did the burdened Christian run, but not without a great of difficulty because of the load on his back. He ran thus until he came at 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 the cross, his burdened loosed from 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. At last free of his heavy load, Christian now moved more quickly.
After a long and arduous journey of ascent, the fatigued Christian finally stopped to rest at the stately Palace called Beautiful, where he was fed and fitted with armor and a sword by three damsels, Prudence, Piety, and Charity. Indeed, he would soon need this protection, for the straight and narrow path next led him down into the valley of Humiliation, where he confronted the ill-tempered lion-mouthed, bear-footed monster Apollyon. This terrible beast besieged the traveler, savagely wounding him. Bleeding profusely, Christian gathered the last of his strength to slay the fiend with his sword. A hand then appeared bearing leaves from the tree of life, instantly healing Christian’s wounds.
Ahead lay even graver peril. In the Valley of the Shadow of Death, Christian found his sword useless against the myriad demons and dragons who lined his path. Only fervent prayer and supplication carried him past the mouth of Hell and the terrible creatures and sights of the valley. Emerging at last on the other side, Christian met Faithful, a fellow pilgrim. Cheered and strengthened by the companionship, the two continued on.
While crossing the plain of Ease, Christian and Faithful passed through the town of Vanity, and there in its center they came upon Vanity Fair—a large open-air market in which was peddled all manner of ostentatious commodity. When the pilgrims refused to buy and denounced the wicked fair, an angry mob seized them. Faithful, the more vocal of the two, was tried and condemned for his stern denunciations and thrown to the mob, who scourged him . . . buffeted him . . . lanced his flesh with knives . . . stoned him with stones . . . pricked him with their swords [and, finally,] burned him to ashes at the stake.
Heartened by a vision of the martyred Faithful carried to the Celestial City in a fiery chariot, Christian escaped the brutal mob. He soon joined forces with Hopeful, a believer who had also witnessed Faithful’s execution. Distracted by their discourse, the pair soon wandered onto the property of the Giant Despair, who cast them “into a very dark dungeon, nasty and stinking.” Deprived of food and water, the prisoners were flogged by the Giant and at last ordered to take their own lives. But Christian unexpectedly found a key called Promise in his bosom, with which he unlocked the dungeon. Before fleeing the spot, however, the pilgrims erected a sign to warn others of the danger.
Next they forded the deep river of tribulation, whose waters washed over their heads as they strained against the rolling currents. Overwhelmed, Christian cried out, Jesus Christ . . . tells me, “When thou passest through waters, I will be with thee!” . . . Wherefore Christian presently found ground to stand upon, and so it followed that the rest of the river was but shallow . . .
Emerging from the river, the valiant travelers were met by two shining angels, “sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation.” These emissaries ushered them to the gates of the Celestial City, where a company of heavenly hosts came out to meet them; to whom it was said by the other two shining ones, “These are the men that have loved our Lord while they were in the world, and have left all for his holy name, and he hath sent us to fetch them, and we have brought them thus far on their desired journey, that they may go in and look their Redeemer in the face with joy.”
Upon entering the glorious gate, Christian and Hopeful were presented with “raiment . . . that shone like gold” and harps and crowns. Thus supplied, they walked down the city’s “streets paved with gold” to meet their beloved Lord.
Part II
Bunyan now reports a second dream: After refusing her husband’s entreaties to follow him through the fields towards the light, Christiana, Christian’s wife, is eventually moved to remorse. Then said she to her children . . . “I have sinned away your father, and he is gone: he would have had us with him, but I would not go myself: I also have hindered you of life.” With that the boys fell into tears and cried to go after their father. . .
The next night Christiana also had a dream: And behold she saw as if a broad parchment was opened before her, in which was recorded the sum of her ways; and the crimes, as she thought, looked very black upon her . . . and then she thought she saw a Christian her husband in a place of bliss among many immortals, with a harp in his hand, standing and playing upon it before one that sat upon a throne, with a rainbow about his head. . .
At her door the following morning stood a messenger named Secret, who handed her an invitation. “Here. . .is a letter for thee,” the messenger said, “which I have brought from thy Husband’s king: So she took it and opened it; but it smelt after the manner of the best perfume. Also it was written in letter of gold. The contents of the letter were these: that the King would have her do as did Christian her husband; for that was the only way to come to his City, and to dwell in his presence with joy forever.
And so it was with Christiana and her children, accompanied by the comforting personage of Mercy, set out on their quest—again over the objections of two neighbors, Mrs. Inconsiderate and Madame Wanton.
Fleeing the City of Destruction and holdly facing a multitude of trials and tribulations as threatening as those which her husband had endured, Christiana sped on towards the light. At last she stood on the far shores of the river which bordered the Celestial City.
. . . All the banks beyond the river were full of horses and chariots, which were come down from above, to accompany her to the city-gate. So she came forth, and entered the river with a beckon of farewell to those that followed her . . . The last words that she was heard to say were, “I come, Lord, to be with thee, and bless thee . . . ” So she went and called, and entered in at the gate, with all the ceremonies of joy that her husband Christian had entered with before her.
And though Bunyan’s book gives no account of it, we may safely assume that the reunion of Christian and Christiana was a joyous one, each having braved many perils to achieve sure and ceaseless happiness together in the service of the Lord.
The great and faithful preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, had this to say about John Bunyan:
“If you cut him, (John Bunyan) he’d bleed Scripture…”
And the most learned Puritan preacher, John Owen, had this to say about the tinker (Bunyan):
“Could I possess the tinker’s abilities, please your majesty, I would gladly relinquish all my learning.”
This “tinker” John Owen was referring to was none other than John Bunyan.