Pilgrim’s Progress 2
We are continuing to work our way through Bunyan’s classic work, Pilgrim’s Progress. This is the second of five installments. We pick up where we left off, with Christian having been heightened in his attentiveness and watch-care for the enemy, after his battle with Apollyon. Bunyan uses this to show that God does indeed grow His children through the struggles which He is appointed for us. He then moves from one valley to the next: The Valley of Humiliation, where he faces Apollyon the Destroyer is followed by the Valley of the Shadow of Death. The narrator tells us that this was far more grueling a trial than his battle with Apollyon. He refers to Jeremiah 2 and how the unbelievers in the Hebrew camp of wanderers viewed the valley of the shadow of death as proof of God’s abandonment. Apollyon could be struck with a sword, but what does the Christian do when the threat is nothingness? It is an altogether uniquely horrifying encounter.
The two men he meets on the road, running in the other direction, describe the view of the valley as one of chaos, disorder, and darkness. They would rather abandon the way of the king than trust the promises. They are people whose ultimate authority is the image and not the Word. As with every Christian’s experience with the dark night of the soul, the temptation to believe that things are actually as they appear to be will be powerful, even believable, were not our faith a gift from God and wrought in the fires of Heaven. The Biblical imagery of death is employed on every side of Christian as he approaches: pits, deep waters, chasms, corpses of the blind, etc.
As already stated, Bunyan begins to describe in detail what makes the valley a more formidable foe than Apollyon.
About the midst of this valley I perceived the mouth of hell to be, and it stood also hard by the wayside. Now, thought Christian, what shall I do? And ever and anon the flame and smoke would come out in such abundance, with sparks and hideous noises, (things that cared not for Christian’s sword, as did Apollyon before,) that he was forced to put up his sword, and betake himself to another weapon, called All-prayer; so he cried, in my hearing, O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Thus he went on a great while, yet still the flames would be reaching towards him; also he heard doleful voices, and rushings to and fro, so that sometimes he thought he should be torn in pieces, or trodden down like mire in the streets. This frightful sight was seen, and these dreadful noises were heard by him for several miles together; and coming to a place where he thought he heard a company of fiends coming forward to meet him, he stopped, and began to muse what he had best to do. Sometimes he had half a thought to go back; then again he thought he might be half-way through the valley. He remembered also, how he had already vanquished many a danger; and that the danger of going back might be much more than for to go forward. So he resolved to go on; yet the fiends seemed to come nearer and nearer. But when they were come even almost at him, he cried out with a most vehement voice, I will walk in the strength of the Lord God. So they gave back, and came no farther.
Christian then experiences such confusion and lack of assurance that he believes himself to be the source of the very blasphemies that are ringing in his internal ear. With them apparently arising from within himself, he does not know how to fight them. This is the condemnation of Hell and the ventriloquism of the accuser of the Brethren. It is an identity crisis that will sometimes befall believers, as it did Bunyan in his own life.
One thing I would not let slip. I took notice that now poor Christian was so confounded that he did not know his own voice; and thus I perceived it. Just when he was come over against the mouth of the burning pit, one of the wicked ones got behind him, and stepped up softly to him, and whisperingly suggested many grievous blasphemies to him, which he verily thought had proceeded from his own mind. This put Christian more to it than any thing that he met with before, even to think that he should now blaspheme Him that he loved so much before. Yet if he could have helped it, he would not have done it; but he had not the discretion either to stop his ears, or to know from whence these blasphemies came. When Christian had travelled in this disconsolate condition some considerable time, he thought he heard the voice of a man, as going before him, saying, Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
Hearing, somewhere ahead of him, another believer reciting the 23rd Psalm, he is cheered. The solitary nature of death was such that in his apparent solitary suffering, Christian was so overwhelmed that it bred a kind of unbelief.Proverbs 18:1 He that separates himself seeks his own desire and rages against all sound wisdom.
Finally, the morning light breaks and he is able to see the traps and pitfalls that lay in front of him. He is grateful and rejoices at the understanding that one should not decide in the dark what can only be truly determined in the light.
When Christian passes by two giants, Pope and Pagan, Bunyan’s optimism is made clear. Despite his being in jail and persecuted for the sake of the Gospel, the author still describes Pagan as having been dead for days and Pope as a kind of retired boxer who, in his old age, had taken too many hits to the head; subsequently, Pope was now calcified with arthritis and frozen in a state of madness. All the bishop could do was to bite his nails and smile as Christians walked by right under his nose.
Long before Faithful and Christian persevere through the fire of Vanity Fair, Christian is less inclined than his fellow traveler to press as hard into the journey; but, desirous of the company, Christian calls on Faithful to slow down so that Christian can catch up. Faithful will not listen and by so doing requires that, if Christian wants his friendship, he must press harder for the prize. Christian speeds up and is nearly match-paced with Faithful when we are told that Christian stumbles.
Then did Christian vain-gloriously smile, because he had gotten the start of his brother, but not taking good heed to his feet, he suddenly stumbled and fell and could not rise again, until Faithful came up to help him.
Then I saw in my dream they went very lovingly on together; and had sweet discourse of all things that had happened to them in their pilgrimage; and thus Christian begun:
My honored and well beloved brother, Faithful, I am glad that I have overtaken you and that God has tempered our spirits, that we can walk as companions in this so pleasant a path.
Faithful is not only compassionate for his brother when he stumbles, but he is also confessional about his own sin and honest about where he himself was weak, tempted, and even overcome.
FAITHFUL: I escaped the slough that I perceive you fell into, and got up to the gate without that danger; only I met with one whose name was Wanton, that had like to have done me mischief.
CHRISTIAN: It was well you escaped her net: Joseph was hard put to it by her, and he escaped her as you did; but it had like to have cost him his life. But what did she do to you?
FAITHFUL: You cannot think (but that you know something) what a flattering tongue she had; she lay at me hard to turn aside with her, promising me all manner of content.
CHRISTIAN: Nay, she did not promise you the content of a good conscience.
FAITHFUL: You know what I mean; all carnal and fleshly content.
CHRISTIAN: Thank God that you escaped her: the abhorred of the Lord shall fall into her pit.
FAITHFUL: Nay, I know not whether I did wholly escape her or no.
CHRISTIAN: Why, I trow you did not consent to her desires?
FAITHFUL: No, not to defile myself; for I remembered an old writing that I had seen, which said, “Her steps take hold on Hell.” So I shut mine eyes, because I would not be bewitched with her looks. Then she railed on me, and I went my way.
Faithful recounts another story about his encountering a man named Adam the First who suggested that he should join his endeavors and begin to earn some decent money. His work was delight and his wages were the gift of inheritance in his household. When Faithful asked the names of his other children, since inheritance was the prize, he admitted that he had three daughters: The Lust of the Flesh, The Lust of the Eyes, and The Pride of Life. After staring at the man for some time, Faithful began to see the appearance of some words etched upon the man’s forehead, “Put off the old man with his deeds,” and so Faithful rebuffs the old man, which earns him persistent threats and hostility.
Faithful tells more of his war stories and when he describes a time in which a man rushed at him out of the blue and began to beat him senseless, Christian immediately recognizes the character’s description. “Oh, that’s Moses,” he says. He would have beaten Faithful to death had not Christ Himself walked by and told him to stop. Bunyan shows his Lutheran affinity in his employment of antagonistic tension between the Law and the Gospel.
Perhaps, Faithful’s most formidable enemy was Shame. Similar to the manner in which Christian suffered greater in the Valley of the Shadow of Death than at the hands of Apollyon, Shame was a foe peculiar in his strength and strangely designed in his tenacity. After mocking the religion and casting criticism on every angle possible, he suggests that virtue is that which should be repented of.
“The trials that those men do meet withal,
That are obedient to the heavenly call,
Are manifold, and suited to the flesh,
And come, and come, and come again afresh;
That now, or some time else, we by them may
Be taken, overcome, and cast away.
O let the pilgrims, let the pilgrims then,
Be vigilant, and quit themselves like men.”
We are shown that Faithful did not have such a hard time going through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. This was strange, at first, to Christian, but for us, the readers, it should bring a remembrance of what Bunyan promised to deliver in the book: a truthful recounting of the fact that some Christians will face death with fear and trembling and great trial, while some will face it with ease. A realistic view of Christian suffering is not that it is homogenous in the experience it produces, but that there is only one way through it alive . . . perseverance by faith in Christ.
The men meet the man named Talkative who impresses them with all he knows, as represented in speech. When he begins to be asked to provide examples of experiencing the Gospel taking effect in his own life, an argument ensues which inevitably causes the parties to part ways. Bunyan describes the powerlessness of those who profess Christ in speech only as unclean animals according to the Law.
CHRISTIAN: They are two things indeed, and are as diverse as are the soul and the body; for, as the body without the soul is but a dead carcass, so saying, if it be alone, is but a dead carcass also. The soul of religion is the practical part. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” This, Talkative is not aware of; he thinks that hearing and saying will make a good Christian; and thus he deceiveth his own soul. Hearing is but as the sowing of the seed; talking is not sufficient to prove that fruit is indeed in the heart and life. And let us assure ourselves, that at the day of doom men shall be judged according to their fruits. It will not be said then, Did you believe? but, Were you doers, or talkers only? and accordingly shall they be judged. The end of the world is compared to our harvest, and you know men at harvest regard nothing but fruit. Not that any thing can be accepted that is not of faith; but I speak this to show you how insignificant the profession of Talkative will be at that day.
FAITHFUL: This brings to my mind that of Moses, by which he describeth the beast that is clean. He is such an one that parteth the hoof, and cheweth the cud; not that parteth the hoof only, or that cheweth the cud only. The hare cheweth the cud, but yet is unclean, because he parteth not the hoof. And this truly resembleth Talkative: he cheweth the cud, he seeketh knowledge; he cheweth upon the word, but he divideth not the hoof. He parteth not with the way of sinners; but, as the hare, he retaineth the foot of the dog or bear, and therefore he is unclean.
Bunyan adds the Biblical example of Potiphar’s wife whose voice cried out as though she were righteous but was in deed, unclean. Christ’s followup to the question, Do you know all these things? was, Blessed are you if you do them.
Finally, the men come to Vanity Fair. We are told that their first offense was responding to the hawkers of wares and informing them that they were only interested in buying the truth. Bunyan marks them out as drawing a crowd in the company of the wicked for three distinct reasons:
Their strange dress and appearance.
Their strange speech.
Their strange affections.
As the two travelers are accosted all the more, they are described as increasing in self-control, composure, and grace. And because of the strangeness of this response, it won to their side several of the men of the fair, though a small number when compared with the crowd.
Many of the men who condemn them are sketched after the likeness of Alexander the Coppersmith who despised the Gospel preached by the Apostles because it threatened the success of their business of idol-making.
One named Envy brings the accusation that the men suggested that it was impossible to be a Christian and yet at the same time hold to the customs of the town. This outraged the judge and many others. The most offensive part, he tells the judge, is that they think themselves to be so much better than others that they can stand in judgment.
When Faithful is finally killed, his death is like an amalgamation of multiple martyr deaths. He was scourged, buffeted, lanced, stoned, stabbed, and burned to death. God, however, works a way of peace in the middle of the chaos by which Christian is enabled to escape with one named Hopeful.
Together they encounter a small band of scoundrels, amongst whom is one named Mr. Money-love. He sets up an oratory on the virtue of selfishness and greed in a pastor. He argues that if a man is able to pursue worldly gain and acquire it, the better suited he will be for all the stations a pastor is required to fill. The love of money is the root of all kinds of blessings. He then goes on to describe a business-man who is wise enough to see the same truth from the other side, that the Gospel is actually a means of worldly gain. The men take the warnings of 1st Timothy 6 and they break fellowship with the prosperity preachers. Bunyan points out the nuance concerning the destruction of Shechem, which on the surface is inspired by the rape of Dinah . . . but Bunyan suggests is also related to the fact that the men of Shechem thought they could use circumcision and the Gospel as a means of monetary gain, “If every male of us be circumcised, as they are circumcised, Shall not their cattle and their substance, and every beast of theirs be ours?”
In their encounter with Demas, who forsook the Gospel for the love of the world, the question is raised as to whether the destruction of those who pursue wealth is due to their own slipping and falling or their willful eagerness to descend into the silver mine? It remains unanswered.
Lastly, they do what is right in their own eyes for a short season and depart from the path in favor of easier traveling. The end of this decision is imprisonment in the Giant Despair’s castle dungeon. They are close to being destroyed when Christian remembers a master key that is tied around his neck. It is called Promise. Upon remembering this, they not only escape after receiving serious beatings and facing deep discouragement, but they set up a memorial to warn others not to depart from the path even though it might look easier. Many people are saved from tragedy because of that memorial. God is faithful to His children and upon being delivered, like believers of every age, their first act is that of worshiping the God of their salvation.
Out of the way we went, and then we found
What ’twas to tread upon forbidden ground,
And let them that come after have a care
Lest they for trespassing, his prisoners are,
Whose Castle’s Doubting, and whose name’s Despair.
For the next installment, have read through pg. 177 in the Penguin Classics edition, or stop just prior to the Second Part.
