Reflections

04 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by Geoffrey RS Sales in Anti Catholic, Faith

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It was kind of Jess to let me have such an amount of space to go through Pilgrim’s Progress. It is a powerful book, and one that has lasted; though I wonder whether a future generation of youngsters will know it as mine did, and suspect not.

It was not an unproblematic choice for a place like this where our hostess seeks to create an oasis of calm between the City of Atheism and the Castle of Sectarian Disputes. In the eyes of Mr Dawkins Onlywiseman, and that of the Rev. Relevanceonly Fraserman, the application of reason and the nostrums of this age are what are required. In the old Castle, Puritan Barebones and Fr Sedevacantist mount their ancient tussles, as much against those within their denominations and against each other; like Cavafy’s senators, they need the barbarians to give a purpose to their purposeless lives. They all love noise – preferably of conflict – even if they have to stir it up themselves.

Well, no need to do that in Bunyan’s day – it was on tap, so to say. No reader with discernment can fail to see that Bunyan is a fierce anti-Papist. Aye, well well he might have been, as in his day it was identified with the enemies of his country – and the smell of the fires of Smithfield lingered. What do we do with that now?

We do nothing. We acknowledge it. We can explain it if we want. Edward Norman wrote a marvellous study of Anti-Catholicism in Victorian England which really says all there is to say on the subject. Catholics were, for Englishmen (and Scotsmen) much what Jews were for the Germans – and thank God the result was not the same.

Do I agree with Bunyan on Catholics? No I don’t. Why not? Well, in my own place I have said something of my background in Loyalist circles, so I not only know that sort of thinking, I was part of it. I stopped for a simple reason. I began to think for myself and examined what I’d imbibed from childhood.

There are some, who, as part of that process find a road to Rome. Such thoughts never came my way. I’ve never found Bishops or high sacramentalism something I needed. I’ve no problem with those who disagree, but equally no desire to follow them. It isn’t that I can’t see what it gives to those to whom it gives it, it is more that to me it gives nothing.

I want, as Christian did, to hear the word of God put forward with power and with learning, and I want to hear it reflected upon. It is is in that marvellous Book that God speaks to me, aye, and in my prayers too. I’ve no need of a priest or a bishop or indeed any man between me and my Maker. He will judge me, and I’ve no one save myself to blame for my many shortcomings. He has searched my inward parts and He knows all; I am content to throw myself on the mercy of the Triune God, trusting not in my righteousness, but in the Blood of the Lamb.

The Celestial City

03 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by Geoffrey RS Sales in Bible, Faith, Salvation

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Baptists, Bunyan, Grace, Salvation, sin

Modern abridgements and adaptations of Pilgrim’s Progress for the stage or television omit most of the ninth stage. As this consists of a dialogue between Hopeful and Christian, with contributions from Ignorance, this is unsurprising. There is no dramatic action here, and the theological details are probably beyond those doing the abridging. This is a shame, because the whole point of the pilgrimage is that you can’t just turn up at Heaven’s Gate and say ‘I’ve done my best God, let me in.’ It is a common enough mistake. But those groups which gather themselves together and see themselves as ‘called out’, actually have firm reasons for doing so. Some of these are explored by Bunyan here.

Hopeful, like so many who have ‘reformed’, was conscious of two difficulties: his former sins still weighed on him; and even though he tried to be good, he still committed sinful acts and had sinful thoughts. Even when Faithful had told him to place his faith in the redeeming blood of Jesus and to turn to Him, Hopeful had not been able to find Christ. His prayers and supplications seemed not to have been answered. Then at his lowest point, Christ came and told him to turn to Him:

I gathered, that I must look for righteousness in his person, and for satisfaction for my sins by his blood: that what he did in obedience to his Father’s law, and in submitting to the penalty thereof, was not for himself, but for him that will accept it for his salvation, and be thankful. And now was my heart full of joy, mine eyes full of tears, and mine affections running over with love to the name, people, and ways of Jesus Christ.

By way of contrast, Ignorance is confident that his ‘good’ thoughts and good intentions will suffice; there is in him no consciousness of personal sin and repentance.

As they come to the river which divides them from the Celestial City, the Pilgrims learn that they have to cross it themselves – there is neither bridge nor boat; as he cannot swim, Christian was sore afraid. His own fears drag him down, and even though Hopeful helps him stay above the waters, Christian fears he will never get to shore – but calling on the name above all names bears him there at the last.

On the shore, two ‘Shining Ones’ lead them to the city, where all the promises made to the faithful will be fulfilled and where they will see God face to face and serve Him in eternal felicity.

Now I saw in my dream, that these two men went in at the gate; and lo, as they entered, they were transfigured; and they had raiment put on that shone like gold. There were also that met them with harps and crowns, and gave them to them; the harps to praise withal, and the crowns in token of honor. Then I heard in my dream, that all the bells in the city rang again for joy, and that it was said unto them, “enter ye into the joy of your lord.”
I also heard the men themselves, that they sang with a loud voice, saying,
“blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the lamb, for ever and ever.”

Ignorance – who has come the easy way, is turned away at the last.

At that point, Bunyan wakes from his dream – and leaves us with a timeless classic.

The lessons he taught there are as valid then as they are now. If we would be saved, be must call on the Grace of God and the Name of the Lord Jesus – there is no other way to the Father save through the Son. The road is hard, the way is narrow. Not all shall enter, and who follows Christ must bear His cross. The Pilgrim must be as valiant now as then.

Despair

02 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by Geoffrey RS Sales in Faith

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Baptists, Bunyan, Grace, Obedience, Salvation, sin

Christian and Hopeful resist and reject the lures of the world, but as ever in the ‘dream’, they fall away when they take confidence in their own judgement rather than following the advice they have been given. Tiring of the hard path by the river, they spy a stile, and over it a smoother path through a meadow; they follow it. Of course, it is the wrong way, and they are captured by the Giant Despair and taken to Doubting Castle, where they are cruelly tortured, until, almost losing hope, they consider taking the advice of the Giant – who suggests suicide as the only way out for them. It is Hopeful who twice counsels Christian not to take such a route – but to trust in God. It is whilst in prayer that Christian remembers he has a key to open every lock – ‘Promise’. They escape the Giant – and when they regain the highway, put up a sign to warn others not to follow that route which looked so tempting.

When they reach the Delectable Mountain, wise Shepherds tell them more about the Castle, which is one of three places where even those who have laboured hard on pilgrimage may be lost; the message is driven home – only by following the way set out in the Book can men attain the Celestial City. A reliance upon one’s own wit will lead only to destruction.

As the two Pilgrims come closer to their destination, they pass by the city of Conceit, where they meet one of its inhabitants – Ignorance – who is quite convinced that because he is a good fellow and pays his tithes, fasts, and gives alms, he will gain admittance, despite not having followed the narrow way.

But, even as they discuss the fate of other pilgrims, the two men once more find themselves led astray by the Flatterer. Although warned about him by the wise Shepherds, their excuse, when rescued, was that they did not think he would come in the guise of a well-spoken gentleman. The experience serves them well with the next traveller they meet – Atheist – who rails at them and tells them there is no such place as the Celestial City. He has looked for it these many years, he tells them, and if it had existed a man of his wisdom would have found it.

Christian wonders whether he can be right, but Hopeful had learnt wosdom:

Remember what it cost us once already for our hearkening to such kind of fellows. What! no Mount Zion? Did we not see from the Delectable Mountains the gate of the city? Also, are we not now to walk by faith? 2 Cor. 5:7. Let us go on, lest the man with the whip overtake us again. You should have taught me that lesson, which I will sound you in the ears withal: “Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.” Prov. 19:27. I say, my brother, cease to hear him, and let us believe to the saving of the soul.

With this resolve, the two men are able to pass through further challenges until they come to the final challenge.

The world and the flesh

01 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by Geoffrey RS Sales in Bible, Faith

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Baptists, Bunyan, sin, works

Thus far, though beset with many a foe, Christian has journeyed forward, impelled by his desire to escape the City of Destruction and reach the Celestial City. Armed against every foe he meets, Christian finds one of the deadliest where he least expected it. As he rises out of the dreadful valley, he overtakes an old friend from home, Faithful, with whom he exchanges pilgrims’ tales. They each tell the other of their ordeals. Faithful had been tempted by Wanton, and almost yeilded to her charms. When he fell in with Old Adam, the same temptation once again assailed him, in the forms of the daughters of Adam – but he resisted – but was punished all the same for his lust of the mind, by Moses who sought to exact from him the letter of the Law – but the mercy of Christ saved him.

As so often in Pilgrim’s Progress it is Christ’s unlooked for and undeserved mercy which saves His faithful followers. But Bunyan, whilst always rejecting any idea of a link between works and salvation, nonetheless emphasises the importance of the endeavour of every pilgrim. Shorn of the polemic, few, if any Christians, could dissent.

As Christian and Faithful talk, they fall in with a tall fellow called Talkative. He seems a fascinating man, full of talk about the Faith, and happy to discourse of the most abtruse parts of it. But Christian remembers him of old, and describes him (and his sort) well:

“They say, and do not;” but the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. Matt. 23:3; 1 Cor. 4:20. He talketh of prayer, of repentance, of faith, and of the new birth; but he knows but only to talk of them.

The attempt to convince Talkative that his faith must have some practical sign that it exists soon drives him away, and the two pilgrims advance until they once more meet with the Evangelist. He warns them of the dangers to come. The town they are about to enter, Vanity, has a great Fair, and its inhabitants will seize them both – and one of them will die.

The men of Vanity Fair find the pilgrims a source of sport and mockery, and they seize them and beat them when they will not compound with the ways of the town. The worldlings cannot bear the Pilgrims and their rejection of their ways, and Faithful is tried and cruelly killed. Christian is returned to prison, from whence he escapes and falls in with a new friend, Hopeful.

They are joined bya new companion – By Ends, who sees religion as a means to the end of getting on in society. Christian rejects him, and others like him, and spurns a gentleman they meet on the way who promises them great riches. They are duly grateful when, a little further on they encounter a pillar of salt – Lot’s wife who looked back to the destruction of Sodom.

The message is plain to all. The world and its lures will hold as much peril for the Pilgrim as Appolyon – and be encountered more often.

Fighting Appolyon

31 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by Geoffrey RS Sales in Anti Catholic, Bible, Faith, Prayers

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Baptists, Bunyan, choices, Salvation, sin

Nurtured, advised and armed by the Four Maidens, Christian goes forth to what he knows will be his greatest trial. As he walks through the dark valley of humiliation, he meets the lord of this world, Appolyon, who claims Christian for his own. Undaunted (though afraid), Christian avows his faith in God, and, unmoving in that, Appolyon sets on him with his full force.

The strife is fierce, the warfare long, and whilst he is wounded and wishes to flee, Christian knows all his armour is to the front, and if he flees he is defenceless. He fights the whole day and is sore-pressed, even unto the edge of destruction, as he loses his faithful sword and is grasped by Appolyon in a death grip. But God rewards His faithful servant:

Christian nimbly reached out his hand for his sword, and caught it, saying, Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise, Mic. 7:8; and with that gave him a deadly thrust, which made him give back, as one that had received his mortal wound. Christian perceiving that, made at him again, saying, Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us. Rom. 8:37. And with that Apollyon spread forth his dragon wings, and sped him away, that Christian saw him no more. James 4:7.

When I first read this story, this episode thrilled me the most. I always linked it (rightly) with Bunyan’s great hymn, ‘He who would valiant be’, – ‘no foe shall stay his might, though he with giants fight’ – and I imagined myself as Christian, sword in hand. It’s not a bad way to engage a young boy’s mind in Christian teaching. I always found the bit with the Four Maidens deadly dull, and used to skip over it to get to the great fight. Only life and experience taught me the folly of that; still, it engaged my imagination as David and Goliath, or as Samson did. We’d do better now if we engaged the imagination of lads the way they did back when I were one.

Bunyan was a great homespun philosopher, as well a great story teller, for he keeps the tension ratcheted up. No sooner has Christian escaped Appolyon than he finds himself in the Valley of Death, near Hell’s mouth – so close he can hear the demons calling for him. Only by crying to the demons that he walks in the strength of the Lord can he fight them off – and he was sore afraid. But he recalled the words of the Psalmist and rallied: ‘Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.’ Psa. 23:4.

As the morning dawns, Christian looks back and marvels that he has come through the goblins and foul fiends – but it is well that it is day – for there is more to come. Passing the bones of dead pilgrims in the valley, he passes the mouth of the caves wherein dwell the great foes, Pagan and Pope. The former’s power has long waned, but the latter remains awake – ready to burn Christians if need be – but Christian passes by him.

A century’s passing had not been sufficient for free-born Englishmen to forget the fires of Smithfield; though sufficient to forget the ones their forefathers had lit in revenge.

To the Palace Beautiful

30 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by Geoffrey RS Sales in Faith

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Baptists, Bunyan, Grace, Salvation

Thus far, Christian’s progress has been one many of us will recognise; a journey long and tiring with perils on the way. But as he reaches the highway with a wall called Salvation on either side, he sees a Cross and a sepulchre – and his burden falls from his back and rolls to the mouth of the tomb. Quickened by Faith, he has come thus far – and by Grace, Grace unmerited and undeserved, by the action of the Cross, the burden has gone. But it is not the end of Christian’s journey. Now as he stood looking and weeping, three

Shining Ones came to him, and saluted him with, “Peace be to thee.” So the first said to him, “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” Mark 2:5; the second stripped him of his rags, and clothed him with change of raiment, Zech. 3:4; the third also set a mark on his forehead, Eph. 1:13, and gave him a roll with a seal upon it, which he bid him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the celestial gate: so they went their way.

As Christian continues on his way, he is joined by two strangers who have taken a short-cut over the wall rather than coming by the narrow gate. His contemporaries, like ours, had no doubts who ‘Hypocrisy’ and ‘Formalist’ were. Their justification for their action gave the game away – they had many years of tradition which verified that their way was approved of – by men, of course. That they end up following the roads of Death and Destruction is no surprise.

Christian, however, falls asleep and fears he has lost the roll given to him by the Shining Ones – and is relieved when he retraces his steps and finds it. But the loss makes him realise the need for vigilance, and means he turns up after dark at the palace where he is to rest. Like all of us, he had taken his eye off the ball – and there were consequences.

At the Palace Beautiful four maidens – Discretion, Prudence, Piety and Charity – advise him and provide him with counsel and weapons for his journey. Although it is a place of rest and calmness, for the Pilgrim, there is no respite from the challenges he will meet. His answer to their question of what he seeks and why he journeys is one we all know:

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 in me an annoyance to me: there they say there is no death, Isa. 25:8; Rev. 21:4; and there I shall dwell with such company as I like best. For, to tell you the truth, I love Him because I was by Him eased of my burden; and I am weary of my inward sickness. I would fain be where I shall die no more, and with the company that shall continually cry, Holy, holy, holy.

Lessons for us all

29 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by Geoffrey RS Sales in Bible, Faith

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Baptists, Bunyan, Grace

Passing through the gate, where he is greeted by Goodwill, Christian comes to the House of the Interpreter where the lessons he is taught are as relevant now as they were when Bunyan wrote.

The first lesson is that Christ is the only way, and that unless the heart of man is sanctified by Grace, he can never, even by the most strenuous efforts, rid himself of the dust that is Original Sin. Faith in Jesus saves. He learns too that passion for the things of this world, however strong it burns, is not to be compared with the patience which attends on the things of the next. He sees, also, that Grace is renewed by Christ and refreshed by His company – and how needful that is since the lord of this world fights with Him eternally; entrance to the Kingdom is not easy; it is necessary to fight evil.

Most fearful of all is the lesson to be had from the man in the iron cage. Christian, like us all, asks whether the love of Jesus might not yet save this sinner – but he declares:

I have crucified him to myself afresh, Heb. 6:6; I have despised his person,
Luke 19:14; I have despised his righteousness; I have counted his blood an unholy thing; I have done despite to the spirit of grace, Heb. 10:29: therefore I have shut myself out of all the promises and there now remains to me nothing but threatenings, dreadful threatenings, faithful threatenings of certain judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour me as an adversary.

This man has fashioned for himself, in the pride of the imagination of his own heart his own cage; he cannot escape because he has willed the opposite.

That is a hard saying to the modern ear. We do not like to talk of ‘hellfire’. It was not so when I was a lad, then the preacher would fair make us shudder with the tales of what would become of us. Some there are as would say that was ‘abuse’; aye, well happen telling a child that if he puts his hand on that stove when its hot will scare him – but that’s better than that he should find out the truth the hard way.

I can, you can, my friends, do what the man in the iron cage did. But then we shall find ourselves like the last man Christian meets in the house, one who rises from bed trembling and, when asked why, recounts a terrible dream of judgement:

Why, I thought that the day of judgment was come, and that I was not ready
for it: but this frightened me most, that the angels gathered up several, and left me behind; also the pit of hell opened her mouth just where I stood. My conscience too afflicted me; and, as I thought, the Judge had always his eye upon me, showing indignation in his countenance.

That day comes to us all. No more than Buyan’s Interpreter do I want myself or you to wake up too late and to see that pit opening. He died for us. If we die to Him then that is the iron cage we create.

GRSS

Worldly Wiseman

28 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by Geoffrey RS Sales in Faith, Salvation

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Baptists, Bunyan, choices, sin

As he comes out of the Slough of Despond, Christian meets one of Bunyan’s most memorable characters – Mr Worldly Wiseman. He is a man of wisdom and experience and counsels Christian thus:

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.

Some critics seem to think that Wiseman is trying to deceive Christian, but he is not, he is doing something which oft discourages – telling the unvarnished truth. Our Lord Himself suffered and asked if others were ready to drink of that cup? The narrow way is hard; it is not attended by flights of angels. It is what Worldly Wiseman tells Christian it is.

Wiseman says that it is Christian’s untutored reading of the Bible which has driven him to such straits and recommends that in order to remove his burden he should do to the village of Morality to see:

Legality, a very judicious man, and a man of a very good name, that has skill to help men off with such burdens as thine is from their shoulders; yea to my knowledge, he hath done a great deal of good this way; aye, and besides, he hath skill to cure those that are somewhat crazed in their wits with their burdens.

Christian is persuaded and turns aside to find the village, only to be daunted by the terrain. In his perplexity he meets Evangelist who chides him for departing from the true way so soon.

Then Christian fell down at his feet as dead, crying, Woe is me, for I am undone! At the sight of which Evangelist caught him by the right hand, saying, “All manner of sin and blasphemies shall be forgiven unto men.” Matt. 12:31. “Be not faithless, but believing.” John 20:27

That’s a moment many a Believer can relate to, surely? Even as a lad, I found in it comfort.

What follows though is something which is hard to ears attuned to the bad type of ecumenicism now so common, for Evangelist makes it plain that Wiseman is the Church by law Established, and that it is the modern equivalent of those Pharisees whom Jesus had condemned. We are not, he sternly says, saved by works or by the law. Well, on another occasion, I may say more fully what I say now friends, which is that no one believes we are saved by these things, though there are many who think some do so hold. Aye, it is a conflict going back to James and Paul, and I’m never sure those two understood each other.

James, we know, was a man called ‘the Just’ and he was steeped in the ways of the Hebrews and distrusted what he heard of Paul; Paul, with the zeal of the recent convert, chided James’ men as Judaisers. The story is well enough known, and Bunyan, as you’d expect, is Pauline here.

Reassured by Evangelist that not all is lost, Christian makes for the narrow gate.

The Slough of Despond

27 Sunday Jan 2013

Posted by Geoffrey RS Sales in Faith, Salvation

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Baptists, Bunyan, Salvation

Christian’s eyes have been opened not only to his own sin, but to an impending sense of judgement; he, and all those he loves stand under judgement and all could be lost. Disturbed by this, his neighbours do what we would all do – they think him a bit daft in the head, and try to jolly him out of it. But Christian is gripped by his epiphany and he asks, as the Apostle Paul did: ‘“What shall I do to be saved?” Acts 16:30.

His question is answered by the first of a series of characters who represent the options open to us: Evangelist. He confesses his fear of hell, and asks:

“Whither must I fly?” Then said Evangelist, (pointing with his finger over a very wide field,) “Do you see yonder wicket-gate?” Matt. 7:13,14. The man said, “No.” Then said the other, “Do you see yonder shining light?” Psalm 119:105; 2 Pet. 1:19. He said, “I think I do.” Then said Evangelist, “Keep that light in your eye, and go up directly thereto, so shalt thou see the gate; at which, when thou knockest, it shall be told thee what thou shalt do.”

So begins the Pilgrim’s Progress, as he follows the injunction to leave all and follow Christ.

Two neighbours pursue him, intent on stopping him. Obstinate cannot understand what it is which impels him to leave his ‘friends and his comforts’, whilst Pliable goes along with him until the reach the Slough of Despond – at which point, discouraged, he departs. Christian only gets through because another character, Help, assists. He tells Christian:

“This miry slough is such a place as cannot be mended: it is the descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction for sin doth continually run, and therefore it is called the Slough of Despond; for still, as the sinner is awakened about his lost condition, there arise 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 this ground.”

Bunyan’s message is clear and it is the product not simply of his own consciousness, but that of many of us, my friends. And here is the danger of the ‘born again’ movement.

It is good and right to be stirred up to a sense of our sinfulness and to seek to do something about it. For sure, the worldlings will get in the way; but so too will the worldling in us. What, are we the sinner we were when we first woke to Christ? Surely we should be a ‘new creation’, and yet we are mired in filth and like the dog return to our vomit. Surely then we cannot be born anew? Bunyan, like so many Baptists, knew better. God quickens the heart, conscience-stricken we turn to Him – but we are not free of the cares of the world, neither are we clean. We are awake, we are aware of the Lord God of Hosts. Are we, in that state, aware of His love for us? As we, like Christian, suffer and groan, are we remembering Him who suffered on that Cross for us?

At that point, like Christian, we are ready for the advice of Mr Worldly Wiseman. It his to his counsel we shall go next.

GRSS

Pilgrim’s Progress

26 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by Geoffrey RS Sales in Bible, Faith, Salvation

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Baptists, Bunyan

I am a Yorkshireman. My life has been spent in that marvellous part of the world. My childhood was cluttered with the mill towns further down the valley, and opened out by the moors further up it, and as a lad I’d walk up there until there was not a trace of any other human being. It was in such places that my ancestors met to hear the word of God when an Anglican Parliament passed the Conventicle Act of 1664 which tried to force all God-fearing Englishmen back into the Church of England. It was a foolish act, as such acts tend to be. Free-born Englishmen are not to be told on such things. Some joined their families across the Atlantic where they already breathed a freer air – but some just headed out for the moors with their Bibles and listened to the word of the Lord in the open air – closer by far to Him.

The persecution of my forefathers was real. Some were imprisoned, some whipped – but such treatment deterred only those who could be; the true remnant persevered. If, in after days, they seemed ramrod stiff and intransigent, be it remembered that without those qualities, they’d have fallen away. Persecution separates wheat from chaff; but it does not produce diplomats or compromisers. It also produces literature. In this case one of the best of all books, Pilgrim’s Progress. When I was a lad, Pilgrim’s Progress was one of few books in our house. My father, who was not a believer, indeed was the opposite, nonetheless thought Bunyan a great Englishman, and his book one I should read. Not that he’s buy it me, for that it was necessary to save my pocket money. I did, and for 2/6d I bought my copy in the good old Everyman Library series; I have it to this day.

Back then it was one of those books we all read; it seems less so now. Quite apart from its very considerable literary merit – Bunyan’s prose, shaped by the King James Bible and the language of Shakespeare, was clear, direct and yet poetic in cadence – and being readable is never a bar to success. But the book had the impact it had then and since because it spoke to the everyday life of the Christian. If I might, I want to dwell on it for a few posts as time allows.

Bunyan begins with his dream:

I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold, 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. Isa 64:6; Luke 14:33; Psalm 38:4. I looked and saw him open the book, and read therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled; and not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry, saying, “What shall I do?” Acts 2:37; 16:30; Habak 1:2,3.

That is where so many of us began, and when I first read it I cried out in recognition, as so many have before and since – that was me. I had a great burden on my back – my accumulated sins – and in my hands I had a book – but how should I divine its purpose? That, too, Bunyan went on to tell me.

That is where we shall go next time.

GRSS