UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
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THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 OR 
 LECTURE COMMENTARIES 
 
 ON 
 
 BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS 
 BY f UNIVj 
 
 REV. J. H. WYTHE, M. D. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO : 
 
 BOOK DEPOSITORY PRINT, 1037 MARKET STREET. 
 4-1894. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 AS many have testified to the helpfulness 
 of these lectures when delivered, they 
 are published in the hope that their useful- 
 ness may be continued. 
 
 AUTHOR. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I Bunyan and the Pilgrim's Progress. 
 
 II The Way to the Wicket Gate. 
 
 III The House of the Interpreter. 
 
 IV From the Cross to the Palace Beautiful. 
 V The Palace Beautiful. 
 
 VI Vicissitudes of the Way. 
 
 VII Vanity Fair. 
 
 VIII From Vanity Fair to the Delectable Mountains. 
 
 IX The Land Beulah. 
 
 X The River of Death. 
 
 XI Beyond the River. 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 Bunyan and the Pilgrim's 
 Progress. 
 
 Bunyan and the Pilgrim's Progress have been 
 household words among Christian people for 
 several generations, and the most familiar illus- 
 trations of spiritual truth are taken from the 
 immortal allegory. The child reads the story of 
 the King's highway with wonder, reproduces 
 its pictures in his imagination, while the aged 
 find in it the record of life and experience. The 
 young convert is strengthened by its counsels, 
 and the most cultivated Christian finds in it 
 instruction and delight. No book, except the 
 Bible, has had so many readers, and no un- 
 inspired book whatever has done so much good, 
 or led so many to Christ and salvation. Cole- 
 ridge says, "I know of no book, the Bible ex- 
 cepted as above all comparison, which I, accord- 
 ing to my judgment and experience, could so 
 safely recommend as teaching and enforcing the 
 whole saving truth, according to the mind that 
 was in Christ Jesus, as the Pilgrim's Progress." 
 In that judgment the wisest and best of religious 
 teachers are agreed. 
 
6 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 The time in which Bunyan lived was fertile 
 with great men. Raleigh and Cromwell in 
 statesmanship, Shakespeare and Milton in letters, 
 Bacon and Harvey in science, L,eighton, Chilling- 
 worth and Baxter in theology, are among the 
 illustrious names in the galaxy of the Seventeenth 
 century. It was an age of stir and upheaval, 
 and of great events. It was the time of civil 
 war and confusion, when the ideas of liberty and 
 law, the union of which forms our modern civil- 
 ization, were being forged out on the anvil of the 
 English nation. "In no country," says the 
 historian, "has the enmity of race been carried 
 farther than in England. In no country has 
 that enmity been more completely effaced." 
 From the villians and serfs of feudal times to the 
 freedom of the present is indeed a most wonder- 
 ful advance, yet it was produced chiefly by the 
 great ideas of the age of Bunyan. For hundreds 
 of years a contest had been waged between aris- 
 tocracy and priestcraft on the one side, and the 
 liberty of manhood on the other. In the Crom- 
 wellian revolution of two hundred years ago the 
 bed-rock rose to the surface, and although 
 frequent attempts have been made to cover it up, 
 with worn-out trappings of hereditary aristocracy 
 in England and hereditary slavery in America, 
 they have been all in vain. The great truth that 
 " a man's a man for a' that" is too deeply rooted 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 7 
 
 in the Anglo-Saxon mind to be obscured or over- 
 thrown. Our late civil war proved that loyalty 
 to the nation is consistent with the largest liberty 
 of the individual. The union of liberty and law 
 has become our heritage. 
 
 John Bunyan was emphatically one of the 
 people of the lowest class and learned his 
 politics, as he did his religion, from the Bible, 
 which the Reformation, under the labors of 
 Luther and Wickliff, had made for him an open 
 book. The Bible was to him the lever of God 
 which elevated him. He drank into its spirit and 
 was transformed. This Pilgrim's Progress is 
 but a gallery of Bible pictures. Macaulay says, 
 " Bunyan had been bred a tinker, and had served 
 as a private soldier in the parliamentary army. 
 Early in his life he had been fearfully tortured 
 by remorse for his youthful sins, the worst of 
 which seem, however, to have been such as the 
 world thinks venial. His keen sensibility and 
 his powerful imagination made his internal con- 
 flicts singularly terrible. He fancied that he 
 was under sentence of reprobation, that he had 
 committed blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, 
 that he had sold Christ, that he was actually 
 possessed by a demon. Sometimes loud voices 
 from heaven cried out to warn him. Sometimes 
 fiends whispered impious suggestions in his ear. 
 He saw visions of distant mountain-tops, on 
 
8 THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 
 
 which the sun shone brightly, but from which he 
 was separated by a waste of snow. He felt the 
 devil behind him pulling his clothes. He thought 
 that the brand of Cain had been set upon him. 
 He feared that he was about to burst asunder 
 like Judas. His mental agony disordered his 
 health. One day he shook like a man in the palsy. 
 On another day he felt a fire within his breast. 
 It is difficult to understand how he survived 
 sufferings so intense and so long-continued. At 
 length the clouds broke; from the depths of 
 despair the penitent passed to a state of serene 
 felicity. An irresistible impulse now urged him 
 to impart to others the blessing which he himself 
 possessed. ' ' Like every truly converted man he 
 desired to tell of his religious experience. Thus 
 he became a preacher, and such was his zeal that 
 he became obnoxious to the semi-papal govern- 
 ment of England, which led to his arrest and 
 confinement for twelve years in Bedford jail, 
 where he wrote the Pilgrim's Progress, a book 
 which became a substitute for his living voice in 
 preaching Jesus, and whose silent utterances 
 have led thousands to the Saviour of men. 
 
 In order to understand fully Bunyan's immor- 
 tal allegory, it is necessary to read it by the fire- 
 light of Bm^an's own experience. This help 
 we have in his work called * 'Grace Abounding to 
 the Chief of Sinners. ' ' Here we find the reality 
 
THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 9 
 
 becoming the commentary upon the parable, and 
 many hints and metaphors, otherwise obscure, 
 flash out with electric brilliancy, and imprint 
 their significance upon heart and brain. 
 
 ' ' As you read the Grace Abounding, ' ' says 
 Dr. Cheever, " you are ready to say, at every step, 
 here is the future author of the Pilgrim's Pro- 
 gress. It is as if you stood beside some great 
 sculptor, and watched every movement with his 
 chisel, having had his design described to you 
 beforehand, so that at every blow some ne\v trait 
 of beauty in the future statue comes clearly into 
 view. You follow with intense interest the 
 movements of Bunyan's soul. You seem to see 
 a lonely bark driving across the ocean in a 
 hurricane. By the flashes of the lightning you 
 can jUvSt discern her through the darkness, plung- 
 ing and laboring fearfully in the midnight tem- 
 pest, and you think that all is lost; but there 
 again you behold her in the quiet sunshine; or 
 the moon and stars look down upon her, as the 
 wind breathes softly; or in a fresh and favorable 
 gale she flies across the flying w r aters. Now it 
 is clouds, and rain, and hail, and rattling thunder; 
 storms coming down as sudden, almost, as the 
 lightning; and now again her white sails glitter 
 in heaven's light, like an alabatross in the spot- 
 less horizon. The last glimpse you catch of her 
 she is gloriously entering the harbor, the haven 
 
10 THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 
 
 of eternal rest; yea, you see her like a star, that 
 in the morning of eternity dies into the light of 
 heaven." 
 
 The Pilgrim's Progress is a representation of a 
 true Christian, journeying to Mount Zion. In 
 it Bunyan exhibits the details of his own religious 
 experience, and as the experience of Christians 
 is similar, the book attracts Christian hearts by 
 the bond of sympathy, as well as by its poetic 
 beauty and power. What Christian has not been 
 in the Slough of Despond nor felt of the 
 wicked one at the entrance of the way ? Who 
 has not toiled up the Hill Difficulty, nor slipped 
 in going down to the Valley of Humiliation, nor 
 been immured in Doubting Castle because of 
 walking in by-paths ? How beautifully does the 
 scene at the Cross represent the joys of conver- 
 sion. And the Delectable Mountains and the 
 land Beulah, are they not vivid pictures of the 
 pleasures of piety ? 
 
 In the present series of discourses on the 
 Pilgrim's Progress, we attempt no elaborate dis- 
 cussion of its plan or execution. The subject is 
 too fertile for that. We content ourselves with a 
 selection of passages illustrating the spiritual 
 life, with occasional references to Bunyan's auto- 
 biography. 
 
 Bunyan's description of the City of De- 
 struction is for many reasons introductory to 
 
THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 11 
 
 our design. By this image we are presented 
 with one aspect of this present evil world the 
 world of sin against which the apostle warns 
 us, in the words, ' ' Love not the world, neither 
 the things that are in the world; for all that is 
 in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the 
 eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, 
 but is of the world." 
 
 In the picture of Vanity Fair we have another 
 view of the world, which we may consider here- 
 after. It is probable that Bunyan had, in his 
 mind's eye, the great city of London, but in 
 his day, London was very different from what it 
 is now. It was then a group of numerous towns 
 and villages, separated from each other by broad 
 fields which have since been filled up with houses. 
 The roads between them were unpaved and 
 muddy, and were the resort of a variety of vile 
 characters. No gas illumined the streets, and 
 at night, watchmen and bearers of torches were 
 a public necessity. Yet even then the term 
 London was applied to all its suburbs, as well as 
 to the city itself. So in the Pilgrim's Progress, 
 the term City of Destruction is applied to the 
 entire region, including the towns of Carnal 
 Policy, Morality, Vain Glory, Dark Land and 
 Apostacy. All partake of the same spirit, 
 and the same cloud of Divine displeasure rests 
 over all. 
 
12 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 The world, which is an enemy to the Christian, 
 and which he is exhorted in scripture to oppose, 
 and which is called by Bunyan the City of 
 Destruction, is not the world, considered as man's 
 dwelling place, fitted up by Divine Providence. 
 There is nothing evil in the beautiful arrang- 
 ment of mountains and valleys, of land and sea, 
 of earth and sky. Nor is the world of mankind 
 here referred to. The Christian is to live among 
 men in a spirit of kindness and brotherly love. 
 But the sinful maxims and customs and pleasures 
 of the world are opposed to God's law and man's 
 highest good, and must be forsaken, if we would 
 set our faces towards Mount Zion. 
 
 The Pilgrim's Progress describes the trials and 
 experiences of the Christian in forsaking the sins 
 of the world in order to reach everlasting blessed- 
 ness. 
 
 The title given to the city is exceedingly 
 suggestive. By a single master-stroke the 
 allegorist has shown its most prominent charac- 
 teristics. It had its origin in destruction, and 
 this is likewise its very nature and essence, and 
 its doom will be "everlasting destruction from 
 the presence of the Lord and the glory of his 
 power. ' ' Sin breaks the bond which unites the 
 creature to the Creator, and mars the harmony 
 of the universe. It is the principle of antago- 
 nism against creative love. It is the great 
 
THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 13 
 
 destroyer of God's purposes and of human hap- 
 piness. It mars the peace of the heart, the 
 tranquility of families, the harmony of neighbor- 
 hoods, the concord of states, and the fair fabric 
 of creation itself. 
 
 "Sin," says Bunyan, in another place, "so 
 sets itself against the nature of God, that, if 
 possible, it would annihilate and turn him into 
 nothing, it being in its nature point blank against 
 him." 
 
 In accordance with the nature of the place, the 
 inhabitants of the City of Destruction are rep- 
 resented as being naturally inclined to oppose 
 and war against every thing that is good. Even 
 Christian's family tried to hinder him from set- 
 ting out on his pilgrimage. ' ' They also thought 
 to drive away his distemper by harsh and surly 
 carriage to him; sometimes they would deride 
 sometimes they would chide, and sometimes they 
 would quite neglect him." When he started on 
 his journey "the neighbors also came out to see 
 him run, and as he ran, some mocked, others 
 threatened, and some cried after him to return; 
 and among those that did so, there were two that 
 resolved to fetch him back by force. The name 
 of the one was Obstinate, and the name of the 
 other was Pliable. ' ' The arguments of Obstinate 
 did not prevail, but Pliable, moved by Chris- 
 tian's story, was induced to go along with him, 
 
14 THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 
 
 until they fell into the Slough of Despond. On 
 getting out of the Slough, Pliable returned to 
 his own house, and his neighbors came to visit 
 him; and some of them called him a wise man 
 for coming back, and some called him a fool for 
 hazarding himself with Christian; others again 
 did mock at his cowardliness, saying, ' ' Surely, 
 since you began to venture, I would not have 
 been so base as to have given out for a few diffi- 
 culties;" so Pliable sat sneaking among them. 
 But at last he got more confidence, and then 
 they all turned their tales, and began to deride 
 poor Christian behind his back. The unkind 
 treatment of her husband troubled the conscience 
 of Christiana, when she was about to set out on 
 the pilgrimage herself, but she also experienced 
 similar conduct at the hands of her neighbors. 
 Mrs. Timorous tried hard to persuade her not to 
 go after her husband, and when she could not 
 prevail, she must needs scandalize her with her 
 neighbors, Mrs. Batseyes, Mrs. Inconsiderate, 
 Mrs. lyightmind and Mrs. Knownothing. The 
 conclusion of their tittle-tattle was expressed by 
 Mrs. Inconsiderate saying, ' ' Away with such 
 fantastical fools from the town; a good riddance, 
 for my part, I say of her; should she stay where 
 she dwells, and retain this her mind, who could 
 live quietly by her ? for she will either be dump- 
 ish or unneighborly, or talk of such matters as 
 
THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 15 
 
 no wise body can abide. Wherefore, for my 
 part, I shall never be sorry for her departure; 
 let her go, and let better come in her room; it 
 was never a good world since these whimsical 
 fools dwelt in it." Mr. Valiant-for-the-truth, 
 also, who was overtaken by the pilgrims in the 
 way, related how his father and mother used all 
 imaginable means to persuade him against being 
 a pilgrim, saying that it was an idle life, arid 
 full of dangers and discouragements. 
 
 Thus it is that those who will not serve God 
 themselves, try to prevent others from serving 
 Him; it being the nature of those who live in the 
 city of Destruction to oppose everything like 
 true piety and godliness. Nor are they at peace 
 among themselves, but each seeks his own ap- 
 parent advantage, whatever may be the result to 
 others. In his account of Mr. Badman, Bunyan 
 declares that his ' ' envy was so rank and strong, 
 that if it at any time turned its head against a 
 man, it would hardly ever be pulled in again. 
 He would watch over that man to do him mis- 
 chief, as the cat watches over the mouse to 
 destroy it ; yea, he would wait seven years but 
 he would have an opportunity to hurt him, and 
 when he had it, he would make him feel the 
 weight of his envy. This envy is the father and 
 mother of a great many hideous and prodigious 
 wickednesses. It both begets them, and also 
 
16 THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 
 
 nourishes them up till they come to their cursed 
 maturity in the bosom of him that entertains 
 them." 
 
 The dwellers in Destruction delight in the 
 works of the flesh ''adultery, fornication, un- 
 cleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, 
 hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, .se- 
 ditions, heresies, em r yings, murders, drunken- 
 ness, re veilings and such like" of which the 
 apostle declares, ' ' that they which do such 
 things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God." 
 
 Our author does not consider all the inhabi- 
 tants of Destruction to be equally ungodly. 
 ' ' Usually in wicked families, some one or two 
 are more arch for wickedness than are any other 
 that are there." Again, he says: "There are 
 sins against light, sins against knowledge, sins 
 against love, sins against learning, sins against 
 threatenings, sins against promises and vows 
 and resolutions, sins against experience, sins 
 against examples of anger, and sins that have 
 great and high and strange aggravations attend- 
 ing them." Thus there is great variety in 
 wickedness, but all kinds are essentially evil. 
 
 Bunyan's own life, while he lived in Destruc- 
 tion, was exceedingly profane and wicked. He 
 tells us in his 4 ' Grace Abounding, " " As for my 
 own natural life, for the time that I was without 
 God in the world, it was, indeed, ' according to 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 17 
 
 the course of the world, ' and ' the spirit that 
 now worketh in the children of disobedience.' 
 It was my delight to be taken captive by the 
 ' devil at his will,' being filled with all unright- 
 eousness, the which did also so strongly work, 
 and put forth itself both in my heart and life, 
 and that from a child, that I had few equals for 
 cursing, swearing, lying and blaspheming the 
 holy name of God. Yea, such prevalency had 
 the lusts and fruits of the flesh on this poor 
 soul of mine, that, had not a miracle of precious 
 grace prevented, I had not only perished by the 
 stroke of eternal justice, but had also laid 
 myself open even to the stroke of those laws 
 which bring some to disgrace and open shame 
 before the face of the world. In those days the 
 thoughts of religion were very grievous to me ; 
 I could neither endure it myself, nor that any 
 other should ; so that when I have seen some 
 read in those books that concerned Christian 
 piety, it would be as it were a prison to me. 
 Then I said to God, ' Depart from me for I 
 desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.' I was 
 now void of all good consideration ; heaven 
 and hell were both out of sight and mind ; 
 and as for saving and damning, they were 
 least in my thoughts. ' O Lord, Thou know- 
 est my life, and my ways are not hid from 
 Thee.' " 
 
18 THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 
 
 The Scriptures assure us that the end of all 
 these things is death. The town is, therefore, 
 well named Destruction, because of the doom 
 which hangs over it. ' ' Upon the wicked the 
 Lord will rain fire, and snares, and brimstone, 
 and an horrible tempest, and this shall be the 
 portion of their cup. " " God hath appointed a 
 day in the which he will judge the world in 
 righteousness," and then the wicked will depart 
 4 ' into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and 
 his angels. ' ' 
 
 Sinfulness is a disease of the soul, and its 
 natural tendency is to eternal death, but God's 
 mercy has provided a remedy a way of escape 
 from the city of Destruction to eternal life. 
 This way to life is represented in the Pilgrim's 
 Progress. As we study it, may we not only 
 understand and appreciate its wise and beautiful 
 lessons, but be identified with the Christian 
 souls whom it represents. With the Pilgrim, 
 may we turn our backs upon Destruction, and 
 stopping our ears against the persuasions of 
 those who desire us to tarry, run forward, 
 looking not behind us, crying ' ' Life ! life ! 
 eternal life!" 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 The Way to the Wicket Gate. 
 
 We left Christian endeavoring to flee from the 
 city of Destruction, putting his fingers in his 
 ears against the cry of those who would turn 
 back, and running forward, crying " L,ife ! life ! 
 eternal life ! " He had read in his book, the 
 Holy Bible, of the guilt and desert of sin, and 
 was exceedingly troubled. He foresaw the 
 overthrow and doom of the ungodly, and he 
 would fain deliver his soul. Bunyan's own 
 experience had taught him that conviction for 
 sin was no mere child's play. As he says him- 
 self, * ' Conversion to God is not so easy and so 
 smooth a thing as some would have men believe 
 it is. Why is man's heart compared to fallow 
 ground, God's word to a plough, and his 
 ministers to ploughmen, if the heart indeed has 
 no need of breaking in order to the receiving of 
 the seed of God unto eternal life ? ' ' His own 
 heart had been greatly bruised and broken 
 under a sense of sin, hence he represents Chris- 
 tian with the same experience, although he well 
 knew that many true believers are brought to 
 
20 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Christ by more gentle ways. Many of the pil- 
 grims described in the allegory were led to set 
 out on their pilgrimage by intellectual convic- 
 tions, or tender affections, without those earth- 
 quake throes which Bunyan himself experienced. 
 "If God will deal more gently with thee than 
 with others of His children, grudge not at it ; 
 refuse not the waters that go softly, lest He 
 bring up to thee the waters of the rivers strong 
 and many, even the devil and guilt of sin. He 
 saith to Peter, " Follow Me;" and what thunder 
 did Zaccheus see or hear? "Zaccheus, come 
 down," said Christ; and he came down, says 
 L,uke, and received Him joyfully. But had 
 Peter or Zaccheus made the objection that thou 
 hast made looking for a heavy load of guilt, a 
 fearful temptation of Satan and directed the 
 Spirit of the Lord as thou hast done, they might 
 have looked long enough before they had found 
 themselves coming to Jesus Christ. ' ' 
 
 The need of a true gospel ministry is never 
 more plainly seen than in the case of newly- 
 awakened souls. Such scarcely know what to 
 do, and the plainest directions are needful that 
 they may not miss their wa}^ Hence, Evange- 
 list is represented as coming to Christian with a 
 parchment roll, on which was written, " Fly 
 from the wrath to come." When Christian 
 read it, he looked at Evangelist very carefully, 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 21 
 
 and said, " Whither must I fly?" Then said 
 Evangelist (pointing with his finger over a very 
 wide field), " Do you see yonder wicket gate ? " 
 The man said "No." Then said the other, 
 " Do you see yonder shining light ? " He said, 
 " I think I do." Then said Evangelist, " Keep 
 that light in your eye, and go up directly there- 
 to, so shalt thou see the gate ; at which, when 
 thou knockest, it shall be told thee what thou 
 shalt do." This light is God's word that sure 
 word of prophecy unto which we are to ' ' take 
 heed, as' unto a light that shineth in a dark 
 place, until the day dawn, and the day-star 
 arise in our hearts. ' ' 
 
 Christian found it, however, no easy task to 
 get along. The first difficulty he met was the 
 Slough of Despond, into which he fell. By this, 
 our author represents the ' ' fears and doubts, 
 and discouraging apprehensions ' ' which are 
 apt to assail men, especially those who have 
 been great and open sinners when they set out 
 on a pilgrimage. He does not teach that all who 
 seek grace fall into this Slough, for he tells us 
 that "there are, by the direction of the Law- 
 giver, certain good and substantial steps ' ' the 
 promises of forgiveness and acceptance by faith 
 id Christ "placed even through the very midst 
 o: this Slough ; but at such a time as this place 
 doth much spew out its filth, as it doth against 
 
22 THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 
 
 change of weather, these steps are hardly seen, 
 or if they be, men, through the dizziness of their 
 heads, step beside, and then they are bemired to 
 purpose, nothwithstanding the steps be there ; 
 but the ground is good when they are once got 
 in at the gate. Christiana and her company after- 
 wards went readily over the Slough, although 
 they had to look well to their steps." 
 
 Bunyan himself had an awful experience in 
 this terrible Slough. He was tempted by various 
 suggestions of Satan. Sometimes he would think 
 that he had no faith. He was tempted to try to 
 work miracles in order to see if he had faith. 
 Then he was troubled with doubts about his 
 future happiness. Ideas of election and repro- 
 bation worried him, and the movements of cor- 
 ruption, in wicked thoughts and desires, often 
 rolled over his soul like a tempest. He says, 
 1 1 Sometimes I would tell my condition to the 
 people of God, which when they heard, they 
 would pity me, and would tell me of the pro- 
 mises ; but they had as good have told me that 
 I must reach the sun with my finger, as have 
 bidden me receive or rely upon the promises; 
 and as soon I should have done it. All my 
 sense and feeling were against me ; and I saiv 
 I had a heart that would sin, and that lay under 
 a law that would condemn. These things have 
 often made me think of the child which Jie 
 
THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 23 
 
 father brought to Christ, who, while he was yet 
 coming to Him, was thrown down by the devil, 
 and also so rent and torn b}^ him that he lay- 
 and wallowed, foaming/' 
 
 None but God can help an awakened sinner. 
 Nothing but a real transformation can avail to 
 deliver the soul from sin. The power of a new 
 life the power of God's spirit communicated to 
 the soul is needed to turn back the rapid tide 
 of corrupt nature. When the soul of a man is 
 awakened to the perception of the ruin and de- 
 gradation which sin has wrought, it needs to be 
 directed to the only source of refuge. There is 
 but one balm of Gilead for the soul. There is 
 but one true physician for the world's malady. 
 Yet there are quacks and deceivers innumerable, 
 who preach peace when there is no peace, and 
 who turn aside careless souls from the good and 
 the right way. The present time is even more 
 noted than the past for the prevalence of those 
 who would turn men aside from Christ. The 
 religion of culture and philosophy is substituted 
 for the religion of the cross, and morality is 
 preached as an all-sufficient Saviour. Thus, 
 after Christian's escape from the Slough of 
 Despond, he fell in the way of Mr. Worldly 
 Wiseman, who dwelt in the town of Carnal 
 Policy, and who accosted him quite patronizing- 
 ly, and who advised him with all speed to get 
 
24 THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 
 
 rid of his burden. On being told that Evangelist 
 had directed him this way in order to be rid of 
 his burden, Mr. Worldly Wiseman began to 
 berate him for such counsel, telling Christian 
 that there is not a more dangerous and trouble- 
 some way in the world ; full of * ' wearisomeness, 
 pairifulness, hunger, perils, nakedness, swords, 
 lions, dragons, darkness, and, in a word, death, 
 and what not. ' ' But Christian declared that the 
 burden on his back was more terrible than all 
 those things, and that he cared not what he met 
 with so that he could have deliverance. Where- 
 upon he began to advise Christian as follows : 
 W. ' ' How earnest thou by thy burden at first? ' ' 
 C. "By reading this book in my hand." 
 W. "I thought so; and it has happened 
 unto thee as to other weak men, who, meddling 
 with things too high for them, do suddenly fall 
 into distractions, and run upon desperate ven- 
 tures, to obtain they know not what." 
 
 C. " I know what I would obtain ; it is ease 
 from my heavy burden." 
 
 W. " But why wilt thou seek for ease this 
 way, seeing so many dangers attend it, especial- 
 ly since I could direct thee to the obtaining of 
 what thou desirest, without these dangers ? 
 Yea, arid the remedy is at hand. Besides, I 
 will add, that, instead of dangers, thou shalt 
 meet with much safety, friendship and content.' ' 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 25 
 
 C. " Sir, I pray open this secret to me." 
 W. " Why, in yonder village (the village is 
 named Morality) there dwells a gentleman whose 
 name is 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. His 
 house is not quite a mile from this place ; and if 
 he should not be at home himself, his son, Civility, 
 can do as well as the old gentleman himself. 
 There thou mayest be eased of thy burden ; and 
 canst send for thy wife and children to the 
 village, and live by honest neighbors, in credit 
 and good fashion. " 
 
 By this insinuating and plausible advice, poor 
 Christian was induced to turn aside from the 
 way of life, to seek for Legality and Civility in 
 the town of Morality. But he found that Moral- 
 ity was situated right under Mount Sinai, and it 
 was the terrors of a broken law which had made 
 him afraid. Now, indeed, he knew not what to 
 do, and began to be sorry for having taken Mr. 
 Worldly Wiseman's counsel. Then he saw 
 Evangelist coming to meet him, and he began 
 to blush for shame, for he knew he had departed 
 from his wise directions. After fully setting 
 
26 THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 
 
 forth his sin and folly in departing from the 
 truth, Evangelist again directed him in the way 
 to the wicket gate. 
 
 Bunyan himself fell into the snare which he 
 has thus described. After he was awakened, 
 and before his conversion, he began to leave off 
 swearing, and sports, and plays. He read his 
 Bible, and began to set the Commandments 
 before him as his way to heaven. " Which 
 Commandments, ' ' he says, ' ' I did strive to 
 keep, and as I thought, did keep them pretty 
 well sometimes, and then I would have comfort ; 
 yet now and then would break one, and so afflict 
 my conscience ; but then I would repent, and 
 say I was sorry for it, and promise God to do 
 better next time, and there got help again ; for 
 then I thought I pleased God as well as any 
 man in England. Thus I continued about a 
 year ; all which time our neighbors did take me 
 to be a very godly man, a new and religious 
 man, though I knew not Christ, nor grace, nor 
 faith, nor hope ; and, as I have well since seen, 
 had I died then my state had been most fearful." 
 
 The wicket gate, which the allegory places at 
 the beginning of the way of salvation, indicates, 
 not the time of deliverance and forgiveness of 
 sins, but the period in Christian experience 
 when the soul becomes conscious that it is truly 
 penitent ; w r hen we utterly renounce our sins, 
 
THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 27 
 
 and leave forever the city of Destruction. 
 Christian was conscious that Good Will had 
 opened the gate, yet he carried his burden until 
 he came to the Cross. We may realize that we 
 are in the right way, yet remain oppressed with 
 a load of guilt, although not without some 
 comfort in our hearts. Instruction, intellectual 
 appreciation, and the guidance of the Holy 
 Spirit, is essential to a true faith in Jesus ; such 
 faith as brings deliverance from the burden of sin. 
 
 This beginning-point in the way of life is 
 termed a Wicket Gate, from its narrowness. 
 Our Savior teaches us, ' 'Enter ye in at the strait 
 gate : for wide is the gate and broad is the way 
 that leadeth to destruction, and many there be 
 which go in thereat ; because strait is the gate 
 and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, 
 and few there be that find it." 
 
 The gate is narrow and difficult, because of 
 the difficulty with which we are induced to give 
 up the world and sinful courses, and submit 
 wholly to God's plan of salvation by grace. 
 We can only enter the way of life one at a time, 
 and we must leave the world behind us. 
 
 It is said that when Christian was going in 
 through the gate " the other gave him a pull. 
 Then said Christian, 'What means that?'" 
 He was told that at ' ' a little distance from this 
 gate there is erected a strong castle, of which 
 
28 THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 
 
 Beelzebub is the captain ; from thence both he 
 and they that are with him shoot arrows at those 
 that come up to this gate, if haply they may 
 die before they can enter in." " Christiana and 
 her company were annoyed and frightened, as 
 they came up to the gate, by the barking of a 
 great dog, which threatened to fly upon them. ' ' 
 The dreamer thus represents the fears and appre- 
 hensions of those who are coming to Christ: 
 ' ' In young converts, hope and distrust, or a 
 degree of despair, do work and answer one 
 another, as doth the noise of the balance of the 
 watch in the pocket. Life and death is always 
 the motion of the mind then ; and this noise 
 continues until faith is stronger grown, and 
 until the soul is better acquainted* with the 
 methods and ways of God with a sinner. Yea, 
 was but a carnal man in a convert's heart, and 
 could see, he should discover these two, to wit, 
 hope and fear, to have a continual motion in the 
 soul wrestling and opposing one another as do 
 light and darkness, in striving for the victory. 
 And hence it is that you find such people so 
 fickle and uncertain in their spirits ; now on the 
 mount, then in the valleys ; now in the sun- 
 shine, then in the shade ; now warm, then 
 frozen ; now bonny and blithe, then in a 
 moment pensive and sad, as thinking of a 
 portion nowhere but in hell." 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 29 
 
 In another place, Bunyan endeavors to en- 
 courage such, assuring them that those who 
 come to Christ shall in no wise be cast out. He 
 says, "This word, 'in no wise,' cutteth the 
 throat of all objections ; and it was dropped by 
 the Lord Jesus for that very end, and to help 
 the faith that is mixed with unbelief. 
 
 1 But I am a great sinner,' sayest thou. 
 
 ' I will in no wise cast out, ' says Christ. 
 
 ' But I am an old sinner,' sayest thou. 
 
 ' I will in no wise cast out,' says Christ. 
 
 1 But I am a hard-hearted sinner, ' sayest thou. 
 
 ( I will in no wise cast out, ' says Christ. 
 
 ' But I have served Satan all my days, ' sayest 
 thou. 
 
 * I will in no wise cast out, ' says Christ. 
 
 I But I have sinned against light,' sayest thou. 
 
 I 1 will in no wise cast out,' says Christ. 
 
 I But I have sinned against mercy, ' sayest 
 thou. 
 
 ' I will in no wise cast out, ' says Christ. 
 ' But I have no good thing to bring with me,' 
 sayest thou. 
 
 I 1 will in no wise cast out, ' says Christ. ' ' 
 
 All Christians have not the same struggles 
 and trials in their conversion. There is great 
 variety in this respect. These struggles are 
 generally proportionate to the sinfulness of the 
 previous life, and those who feel them are often 
 
30 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 better prepared for a useful Christian life than 
 those who have them not. "I might tell you of 
 the contests and battles that great sinners at 
 their conversion are engaged in, whereby they 
 find the besettings of Satan above any other of 
 the saints. At which time Satan attacks the 
 soul with darkness, fears, frightful thoughts of 
 apparitions ; now they sweat, pant, cry out and 
 struggle for life. The angels now come down to 
 behold the sight, and rejoice to see a bit of dust 
 and ashes overcome principalities, and powers, 
 and mights, and dominions. But when these 
 come to be a little settled, they are prepared for 
 helping others, and are great comforts unto 
 them. Their great sins give encouragement to 
 the devil to assault them ; and by these tempta- 
 tions Christ takes advantage to make them the 
 more helpful to the churches." Thus Bunyan's 
 own soul was prepared in the fiery crucible of 
 temptation, and was enabled from Bedford jail 
 to leave such a precious legacy to his brethren. 
 
 The contrasted manner in which he treats of 
 the conversion of Mercy, in the second part of 
 the book, marks our author as a perfect master 
 in the knowledge of human nature, and of the 
 ways of divine goodness towards penitent souls. 
 One can hardly read it without bringing water 
 into the eyes. Christiana had invited her 
 young acquaintance, Mercy, to set out with her 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 31 
 
 on the pilgrimage, promising to make intercession 
 for her at the gate. So she started, having 
 many fears lest she should not be well received 
 at the gate. Yet at the Slough of Despond she 
 was the boldest of all the company. When they 
 arrived at the gate, Christiana and her children 
 were admitted, but ''poor Mercy did stand with- 
 out, trembling and crying, for fear that she was 
 rejected. But when Christiana had got admit- 
 tance for herself and her boys, then she began 
 to make intercession for Mercy. And she said, 
 ' My Lord, I have a companion of mine that yet 
 stands without, that is come hither upon the 
 same account as myself ; one that is much de- 
 jected in her mind, for that she comes, as she 
 thinks, without sending for ; whereas I was 
 sent for by my husband's King to come.' 
 
 (< Now Mercy began to be very impatient, and 
 each minute was as long to her as an hour ; 
 wherefore she prevented Christiana from a fuller 
 interceding for her, by knocking at the gate 
 herself. And she knocked so loud that she 
 made Christiana to start. Then said the keeper 
 of the gate, ' Who is there ? ' And Christiana 
 said, ' It is my friend. ' 
 
 So he opened the gate and looked out, but 
 Mercy was fallen down in a swoon, for she 
 fainted, and was afraid that no gate should be 
 opened to her. Then he took her by the hand. 
 
32 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 and said, 'Damsel, I bid thee arise.' 'O sir,' 
 said she, ' I am faint ; there is scarce life left in 
 me. ' But he answered ' that one once said 
 When my soul fainted within me I remembered 
 the Lord ; and my prayer came unto Thee, into 
 Thy holy temple. Fear not, but stand upon 
 thy feet, and tell me wherefore thou art come. ' 
 
 <( MKR. 'I am come for that unto which I was 
 never invited, as my friend Christiana was. 
 Her's was from the King, and mine was but 
 from her. Wherefore I fear I presume.' 
 
 11 KEEPER ' Did she desire thee to come with 
 her to this place ? ' 
 
 "MER. 'Yes; and as my Lord sees, lam 
 come. And if there is any grace and forgive- 
 ness of sins to spare, I beseech thee that thy 
 poor handmaid may be a partaker thereof. ' 
 
 ' ' Then he took her by the hand, and led her 
 gently in, and said, ' I pray for all those that 
 believe on me, by what means soever they come 
 unto me.' ' 
 
 My friends, whether you have been open and 
 outbreaking sinners, as Bunyan and his own 
 Christian, or whether you have been tenderly 
 nurtured like Mercy, there is for you but one 
 door of eternal life. I beseech you to come at 
 once and knock- 'at the gate of salvation that it 
 may be opetied to you, remembering those 
 gracious words, ' ' Him that cometh unto Me, I 
 will in no wise cast out. ' ' 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 The House of the Interpreter. 
 
 Bunyan's immortal book may be called one of 
 England's great classics. For creative power 
 there are but two others with which Bunyan can 
 be compared. Milton's grand conception of the 
 spiritual hierarchies, Shakespeare's pictures of 
 earthly history, and Bunyan's representations of 
 the interior life and experiences of a Christian's 
 soul, are worthy companions in the same gallery 
 of poetic imagery. Bunyan, however, expressed 
 himself in the plain tints of his homely Anglo- 
 Saxon tongue. His language is a clear stream 
 of current English, so plain and strong that 
 while it is intelligible even to children, it pro- 
 duces so vivid an impression that the ideal can 
 scarcely be separated from the actual. 
 
 The soul which enters upon a pilgrimage for 
 eternal life needs much instruction. Our author, 
 therefore, brings Christian, very soon after he 
 has passed the gate at the entrance of the way, 
 to the house of the Interpreter, where he is 
 shown excellent things. "7.3feL this Bunyan refers 
 
 ft >> *- V jp^^V 
 
 / THE \ 
 
 ERSITY * 
 
34 THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 
 
 to the manner in which the Holy Spirit instructs 
 and guides his people in all those things which 
 belong to their peace. 
 
 Human language has its origin in the impres- 
 sions made upon the senses, and as religion is 
 wholly a spiritual thing, transcending all 
 material things whatever, all language must 
 fail in communicating it directly to the soul. 
 The highest function of language in spiritual 
 matters is representative. Hence the use of 
 metaphors, types and parables. There is, how- 
 ever, something connected with Scriptural truth, 
 from the inspiring and interpreting Spirit of 
 God which accompanies it to the awakened 
 soul, which differs from all other truth what- 
 ever. Such truth affords a peculiar zest and 
 satisfaction, and makes impressions of purity 
 and devotion, and elevates and enlarges the 
 ideas of the mind, and quickens all the faculties 
 of the soul, although we cannot by any mental 
 process analyze those impressions and ideas, or 
 embody them in any form of words. They are 
 literally incommunicable by language. The 
 shadowy representations of statement and meta- 
 phor and parable are the best possible in our 
 present imperfect state, and the Holy Spirit uses 
 these representations to attract our regard, and 
 then operates directly on our hearts to produce 
 the true state of soul which is necessary, so that 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 35 
 
 while we meditate on the words or illustration, 
 a tide of meaning and influence streams from 
 them which is ever new and refreshing. Thus 
 the Holy Spirit becomes the Interpreter of in- 
 spired truth. This is far different and more 
 excellent than that system of rhetorical corres- 
 pondences with which many good people now- 
 adays perplex or amuse themselves respecting 
 symbols or emblems of truth. Intellectual truth 
 is not the ultimate object of the Scriptures, but 
 spiritual grace, to satisfy the spiritual need of 
 an immortal mind. No doubt God could satisfy 
 that need directly, by imparting the energies of 
 the Holy Spirit without instrumentalities, as He 
 could satisfy our thirst without water, but this 
 would be inconsistent with His designs and our 
 free agency. Hence He has given us His word, 
 and requires of us a diligent use of the means of 
 grace. ' ' Search the Scriptures, for in them ye 
 think ye have eternal life." But while we 
 search diligently, we know that we ''have an 
 unction from the Holy One," which enables us 
 to see further than the words, or any mere intel- 
 lectual definition of symbols, and to ' ' know the 
 things which are given to us of God." 
 
 The first thing Bunyan represents as shown 
 to Christian was the picture of a true gospel 
 minister, so that he might be on his guard 
 against those who would lead him astray. It 
 
36 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 was the picture of a very grave person, with 
 eyes lifted up to heaven, the best of books in his 
 hand, the law of truth written upon his lips, the 
 world behind his back, standing as if pleading 
 with men, and a crown of gold hanging over 
 his head. This was to show that such only are 
 authorized to be the guide of pilgrims, as study 
 to know and unfold dark things to sinners, and 
 plead with them to seek eternal life ; who slight 
 and despise the things that belong to the present 
 world, for the love they bear to their Master's 
 service ; and who look for their crown in the 
 next world. 
 
 After this lesson, the pilgrim is taught the 
 manner in which the law of God and Divine 
 grace affect the human heart. "He took him by 
 the hand, and led him into a very large parlor 
 that was full of dust, because never swept ; 
 which, after he viewed it a little while, the 
 Interpreter called for a man to sweep. Now, 
 when he began to sweep, the dust began so 
 abundantly to fly about, that Christian had 
 almost therewith been choked. Then said the 
 Interpreter to a damsel that stood by, * Bring 
 hither water and sprinkle the - room ; ' which 
 when she had done, it was swept and cleansed 
 with pleasure. 
 
 "Then said Christian, 'What means this?' 
 The Interpreter answered, 'This parlor is the 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 37 
 
 heart of a man that was never sanctified by the 
 sweet grace of the gospel. The dust is his 
 original sin and inward corruptions, that have 
 defiled the whole man. He that began to sweep 
 at first is the law ; but she that brought water, 
 and did sprinkle it, is the gospel. Now, where- 
 as thou sawest that so soon as the first began to 
 sweep, the dust did so fly about that the room 
 by him could not be cleansed, but that thou 
 wast almost choked therewith ; this is to show 
 thee that the law, instead of cleansing the heart 
 from sin, doth revive, put strength into, and 
 increase it in the soul, even as it doth discover 
 and forbid it ; for it doth not give power to 
 subdue. Again, as thou sawest the damsel 
 sprinkle the room with water, upon which it 
 was cleansed with pleasure ; this is to show thee 
 that when the gospel comes in its sweet and 
 precious influences to the heart, sin is van- 
 quished and subdued, and the soul made clean 
 and fit for the King of Glory to inhabit.' " 
 
 Next, our pilgrim is taught the difference in 
 character between true Christians and the men 
 of this world, by the representation of two 
 children. "The name of the eldest was Passion, 
 and the name of the other, Patience. Passion 
 seemed to be much discontented, but Patience 
 was very quiet. Then Christian asked, ' What 
 is the reason of the discontent of Passion ? ' 
 
38 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 The Interpreter answered, * The governor of 
 them would have him stay for his best things 
 till the beginning of the next year, but he will 
 have all now ; but Patience is willing to wait.' 
 
 * * Then I saw that one came to Passion and 
 brought him a bag of treasure, and poured it 
 down at his feet ; which he took up, and re- 
 joiced therein, and withal laughed Patience to 
 scorn. But I beheld but a while, and he had 
 lavished all away, and had nothing left him but 
 rags." 
 
 Such are the men of this world, who must 
 have all their good things now. All their de- 
 lights will pass away, while those who wait for 
 their portion hereafter will rejoice in everlasting 
 riches ; for the things that are seen are tem- 
 poral, but the things that are not seen are 
 eternal. 
 
 The next emblem is one of great interest to 
 those who are just beginning the divine life. 
 * ' I saw in my dream that the Interpreter took 
 Christian by the hand, and led him to a place 
 where was a fire burning against a wall, and 
 one standing by it, always casting much water 
 upon it to quench it ; yet did the fire burn 
 higher and hotter. Then said Christian, ' What 
 means this ? ' The Interpreter answered, * This 
 fire is the work of grace that is wrought in the 
 heart; he that casts water upon it, to extinguish 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 39 
 
 and put it out, is the devil ; but in that thou 
 seest the fire, notwithstanding, burn hotter and 
 hotter, thou shalt also see the reason of that. 
 So he had him about to the back of the wall, 
 where he saw a man with a vessel of oil in his 
 hand, of which he did also continually cast (but 
 secretly) into the fire. Then said Christian, 
 ' What means this ? ' The Interpreter answered, 
 ' This is Christ, who continually, with the oil of 
 his grace, maintains the work already begun in 
 the heart ; by the means of which, notwith- 
 standing what the devil can do, the souls of His 
 people prove gracious still. And in that thou 
 sawest that the man stood behind the wall to 
 maintain the fire ; this is to teach thee that it is 
 hard for the tempted to see how this work of 
 grace is maintained in the soul.' ' 
 
 It is matter of great comfort for a Christian to 
 remember that invisible forces are enlisted on his 
 side to counteract the opposition of his foes. 
 " Where wast thou, Lord," said one of the old 
 fathers, ' ' when I was being tempted so ? " And 
 the answer came quickly, "Close by thee, my son, 
 all the time." The Christian life is not merely 
 one of passive reception of spiritual influence. 
 Activity, courage and persistent effort are needed, 
 and there is no discharge from this war. The 
 Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the 
 violent take it by force. To teach the pilgrim 
 
40 THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 
 
 this lesson, "the Interpreter took him and led 
 him up towards the door of a stately palace, on 
 the top of which were persons clad in gold. At 
 the door stood a great company of men, as 
 desirous to go in, but durst not. There also sat 
 a man at a little distance from the door, at a 
 table-side, with a book before him, to take the 
 names of them that should enter therein ; he 
 saw also that in the doorway stood many men in 
 armor to keep it, being resolved to do to the 
 men that would enter what hurt and mischief 
 they could. Now was Christian somewhat in 
 amaze. At last, when every man started back 
 for fear of the armed men, Christian saw a man 
 of a very stout countenance come up to the man 
 that sat there to write, saying, ' Set down my 
 name, sir ; ' which, when he had done, he saw 
 the man draw his sword, and put a helmet on 
 his head, and rush towards the door upon the 
 armed men, who laid upon him with deadly 
 force ; but the man, not at all discouraged, 
 fell to cutting and hacking most fiercely. So 
 after he had received and given many wounds to 
 those that attempted to keep him out, he cut his 
 way through them all, and pressed forward 
 into the palace; at which there was a pleasant 
 voice heard from those that were within, even 
 of those that walked upon the top of the palace, 
 saying: 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 41 
 
 * Come in, come in, 
 Eternal glory thou shall win.' 
 
 So he went in, and was clothed with such gar- 
 ments as they. ' ' 
 
 Our author says, with one of those touches 
 which indicate the true artist: "Then Chris- 
 tian smiled, and said, I think verily I know the 
 meaning of this. Let me go hence." It is very 
 plain that Christian deemed himself fully pre- 
 pared for all emergencies. Full of hope and 
 courage, there was some fear that he was in 
 danger of rashness and presumption, therefore 
 he needed another lesson, so the Interpreter 
 "took him by the hand again, and led him into 
 a very dark room, where there sat a man in an 
 iron cage. ' ' The man seemed very sad, sitting 
 with his e}^es fixed upon the ground, his hands 
 folded together, and sighing as if he would 
 break his heart. This represented one who was 
 once a fair and flourishing professor, but who 
 left off to watch and be sober and grieved the 
 spirit of God, and who was now shut up in 
 despair, as in an iron cage. He could find no 
 promise of mercy for himself, yet anticipated 
 the terrors of the future, crying "Eternity! oh 
 eternity! how shall I grapple with the misery 
 that I must meet with in eternity ?" 
 
 Bunyan fully believed in the possibility of a 
 man committing the unpardonable sin. He says 
 
42 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 in another place, "He that grieveth the spirit of 
 God shall smart for it here, or in hell, or both. 
 And that spirit that did sometimes illuminate, 
 teach, and instruct them, can keep silence, can 
 cause darkness, can withdraw itself, and suffer 
 the soul to sin more and more; and this last is 
 the very judgment of judgments. He that 
 grieves the spirit, quenches it; and he that 
 quenches it, vexes it; and he that vexes it sets it 
 against himself, and tempts it to hasten destruc- 
 tion upon himself. Wherefore, take heed, pro- 
 fessors; I say, take heed, you that religiously 
 name the name of Christ; that you meddle not 
 with iniquity. 
 
 ' 'He that has begun to grieve the Holy Ghost, 
 may be suffered to go on until he has sinned the 
 sin that is called the sin against the Holy Ghost. 
 And if God shall once give thee up to that, then 
 thou art in the iron cage, out of which there is 
 neither deliverance nor redemption. ' ' 
 
 The tendency of modern religious thought is 
 quite opposed to Bunyan's judgment respecting 
 the unpardonable sin. A very large number of 
 Christian teachers and people admit the reality of 
 eternal hope. It may be that the pendulum of 
 sentiment has swung too far in this direction, 
 and that the actual truth of Scripture lies mid- 
 way between these and Bunyan, yet it is quite 
 remarkable that a healthy Christian mind is 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 43 
 
 rarely found in sympathy with the scene here 
 represented, while it is one of the most common 
 accompaniments of insane melancholy. The 
 Bible contains warning enough against sinful 
 courses, while it also has promises of hope for 
 all who are willing to depart from iniquity. 
 
 To crown all his instruction, Christian was 
 shown a man who had just dreamed that the day 
 of judgment was come and he was not ready for 
 it; that the angels had gathered several near 
 him and left him behind; and that the pit of hell 
 opened its mouth near where he stood. These 
 things were well calculated to promote watchful- 
 ness and sobriety in Christian's mind, and to 
 show him the need of faithfulness even unto 
 death. 
 
 In the second part of the Pilgrim's Progress, 
 the instructions of the Interpreter are adapted 
 to the different abilities and character of those 
 addressed, so that in addition to the things seen 
 by Christian, many things are added suitable to 
 those who are younger and more tender of soul. 
 Christiana and her company were taken ' 'into a 
 room where there was a man that could look no 
 way but downwards, with a muck-rake in his 
 hand. There stood also one over his head with 
 a celestial crown in his hand, and proffered him 
 that crown for his muck-rake; but the man did 
 neither look up nor regard, but raked to himself 
 
44 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 the straws, the small sticks, and dust of the 
 floor." This symbolized a man of the world, 
 one who is occupied only with the things that 
 perish. In the eyes of such, heaven is but a 
 fable, and a celestial crown of no account, and 
 the perishable trifles of the world are regarded 
 as the only substantial riches. Alas! that so 
 many should be content to be mere secularists, 
 when eternal glory is within their reach. 
 
 The next emblem is one which suggests 
 humility and gratitude. The Interpreter "had 
 them into the very best room in the house; a very 
 brave room it was. So he bid them look round 
 about, and see if they could find anything prof- 
 itable there. Then they looked round and 
 round; for there was nothing to be seen but a 
 great spider on the wall, and that they over- 
 looked. Then said Mercy, 'Sir, I see nothing;' 
 but Christiana held her peace. But, said the 
 Interpreter, look again.' She therefore looked 
 again, and said, 'Here is not anything but an 
 ugly spider, who hangs by her hands upon the 
 wall.' Then said he, 'Is there but one spider in 
 all this spacious room ?' Then the water stood 
 in Christiana's eyes, for she was a woman quick of 
 apprehension; and she said, 'Yea, Lord, there are 
 more here than one; yea, and spiders whose venom 
 is far more destructive than that which is in her. 
 The Interpreter then looked pleasantly on her, 
 
THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 45 
 
 and said, 'Thou hast said the truth. ' This made 
 Mercy to blush, and the boys to cover their faces; 
 for they all began now to understand the riddle. 
 Then said the Interpreter again, 'The spider 
 taketh hold with her hands, as you see, and is 
 in king's palaces/ This is recorded to show 
 you, that, however full of the venom of sin you 
 be, yet you may, by the hand of Faith, lay hold 
 of and dwell in the best room that belongs to the 
 King's house above. 
 
 "'I thought,' said Christiana, 'of something 
 of this; but I could not imagine it at all. I 
 thought that we were like spiders, and that we 
 looked like ugly creatures, in what fine rooms 
 soever we were; but that by this spider, that 
 venomous and ill-favored creature, we were to 
 learn how to act faith, that came not into my 
 thoughts; and yet she had taken hold with her 
 hands, and, as I see dwelleth in the best room 
 in the house. ' God has made nothing in vain. 
 Then they seemed all to be glad; but the water 
 stood in their eyes; yet they looked one upon 
 another, and also bowed before the Interpreter. " 
 
 Other symbols were shown illustrating the 
 divine calls by the hen and chickens, the meek- 
 ness of Christian character by a slaughtered 
 sheep, the variety of the church by the flowers 
 in the garden, and the uselessness of mere pro- 
 fession by a tree that was rotten inside though 
 
46 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 covered with leaves. In connection with these 
 emblems we find also a large collection of pro- 
 verbs, full of practical wisdom. 
 
 The fertility of Banyan's mind was simply 
 wonderful, yet it is easy to see that the seeds of all 
 these emblems were obtained from the Bible. It 
 is on this account they have such a wonderful 
 charm and such enduring power. The nervous 
 Anglo-Saxon in which they are written adds to 
 their beauty, no doubt, but their spiritual effec- 
 tiveness depends on their spiritual truth. Each 
 emblem is a picture, and each picture a sermon 
 full of evangelical power, instructing and warn- 
 ing all who desire to find the way to heaven. 
 By the Interpreter, Bunyan sets forth the Holy 
 Spirit in one of the sweetest of his offices, bring- 
 ing to our remembrance things new and old, and 
 opening fountains of spiritual truth in places 
 where we would least expect to find them. The 
 house of the Interpreter is the church, in its 
 provision for the guidance and instruction of 
 young converts. Such need to be fed with the 
 sincere milk of the word, that they may grow 
 thereby, and every organization of true Christians 
 must have some arrangement to meet this design. 
 Christian fellowship and conference is by no 
 means a novelty. In the prophetical dispensa- 
 tion ' 'they that feared the L,ord spake often one 
 to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard 
 
THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 47 
 
 them. And a book of remembrance was written 
 before him for them that feared the Lord, and 
 that thought upon his name. And they shall be 
 mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when 
 I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a 
 man spareth his own son that serveth him." In 
 accordance with this ancient custom Bunyan 
 represents the pilgrims at the house of the In- 
 terpreter as singing the songs of Zion, and re- 
 lating their Christian experience to each other. 
 "When the song and music were ended, the 
 Interpreter asked Christiana what it was that at 
 first did move her to betake herself to a pilgrim's 
 life. Christiana answered, 'First, the loss of my 
 husband came into my mind, at which I was 
 heartily grieved; but all that was but natural 
 affection. Then after that came the troubles 
 and pilgrimage of my husband, and also how 
 like a churl I had carried it to him as to that. 
 So guilt took hold of my mind, and would have 
 drawn me into the pond, but that opportunely 
 I had a dream of the well-being of my husband, 
 and a letter sent me by the King of that country 
 where my husband dwells, to come to him. The 
 dream and the letter together so wrought upon 
 my mind that they forced me to this way. ' ' ' 
 
 When Mercy was asked what moved her to 
 come, like many timid souls at the present day, 
 .she hardly knew what to say. She "blushed 
 
48 THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 
 
 and trembled, and for a while continued silent. 
 Then said he, 'Be not afraid; only believe, and 
 speak thy mind.' So she began, and said, 
 'Truly, sir, my want of experience is that which 
 makes me covet to be in silence, and that also 
 that fills me with fears of coming short at last. 
 I cannot tell of visions and dreams as my friend 
 Christiana can; nor know I what it is to mourn 
 for my refusing the counsel of those that were 
 good relations.' 'What was it then,' said Inter- 
 preter, that prevailed with thee?' 'Why,' said 
 she, 'when our friend here was packing up to 
 be gone from our town, I and another went ac- 
 cidently to see her. So we knocked at the door 
 and went in. When we were within and seeing 
 what she was doing, we asked her what was her 
 meaning. She said she was sent for to go to her 
 husband; and then she up and told us how she 
 had seen him in a dream, dwelling in a curious 
 place, among immortals, wearing a crown, etc. 
 Now, methought, while she was telling these 
 things, my heart burned within me. And I 
 said in my heart, if this be true I will leave my 
 father and my mother and the land of my nativity, 
 and will, if I may, go along with Christiana. So 
 I asked her further of the truth of these things, 
 and if she would let me go with her ; for I saw 
 now there was no dwelling, but with the danger 
 of ruin, any longer in our town. But yet I came 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 49 
 
 away with a heavy heart ; not for that I was un- 
 willing to come away, but for that so many of 
 my relations were left behind. And I will come 
 with all the desire of my heart and will go, if I 
 may, with Christiana unto her husband and his 
 King.' " Then said Interpreter, 'Thy setting out 
 is good, for thou hast given credit to the truth. 
 Thou art a Ruth, who did, for the love she bore 
 to Naomi, and to the Lord her God, leave father 
 and mother, and the land of her nativity, to come 
 out and go with a people that she knew not 
 heretofore. The Lord recompense thy work and 
 a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of 
 Israel, under whose wings thou art come to 
 trust.' !> Bunyan adds, " that at night, when 
 Mercy was in bed, she could not sleep for joy, for 
 that now her doubts of missing at last were 
 removed further from her than ever they were 
 before. So she lay blessing and praising God 
 who had such favor for her. ' ' 
 
 Our kind Saviour receiveth all who come 
 unto him and will in no wise cast any out. 
 O, that we might all come, with humility and 
 penitence and faith, so as to realize the teaching 
 of the Holy Spirit, and the blessings of Christian 
 fellowship. "The Spirit and the bride say, 
 ' Come, and let him that heareth say come, and 
 let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, 
 let him take the water of life freely.' " 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 From the Cross to the Palace 
 Beautiful. 
 
 We accompany the awakened and instructed 
 pilgrim from the house of the Interpreter along 
 the King's highway, fenced with salvation. 
 "Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian 
 run, but not without great difficulty, because of 
 the load on his back. He ran thus till 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 burden loosed from off 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. 
 Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and 
 said with a merry heart, ' He hath given me 
 rest by his sorrow and life by his death.' Then 
 he stood still awhile to look and wonder, for it 
 was very surprising to him that the sight of the 
 cross should thus ease him of his burden. He 
 
52 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 looked therefore and looked again, even till the 
 springs that were in his head sent the water 
 down his cheeks." 
 
 Christian lost his burden at the sight of the 
 Cross for it is only when the soul sees clearly the 
 significance of that wondrous fact of Christ's death 
 on Calvary that the burden of sin disappears. 
 All the efforts of the pilgrim to be rid of his load 
 were fruitless till he had a view of the Cross. 
 None but Jesus can relieve a soul from sin and 
 he does this by the merit of his atoning love. 
 The infinite merit of his death is an adequate 
 atonement and satisfaction for a world of sinful 
 men, or for ten thousand worlds, so that we may 
 
 sing: 
 
 " Were sinners more 
 Than sands upon the ocean shore, 
 Christ has for all a ransom paid, 
 For all a full atonement made." 
 
 Those who appropriate this truth can say, 
 1 1 Come and hear, all ye that fear God and I will 
 tell you what he hath done for my soul. As far 
 as the east is from the west, so far hath he 
 removed my transgressions from me. ' ' 
 
 In the second part of the book we find Mr. 
 Greatheart enlarging on this subject, and ex- 
 plaining to the pilgrims the difference between 
 " pardon by promise and pardon by deed." He 
 says, " in order to pardon by deed, there must 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 53 
 
 something be paid to God as a price, as well as 
 something prepared to cover us withal. Sin has 
 delivered us up to the just curse of a righteous 
 law ; now from this curse we must be justified 
 by way of redemption, a price being paid for the 
 harm we have done ; and this is by the blood of 
 your Lord, who came and stood in your place 
 and stead and died your death for your trans- 
 gressions. Thus has he ransomed you from your 
 transgressions by blood and covered your pol- 
 luted and deformed souls with righteousness, for 
 the sake of which, God passeth by you and will 
 not hurt you when he comes to judge the world. ' ' 
 The belief of this was that which made Christian's 
 burden fall off and caused him to leap for joy. 
 
 The blessed effects of saving faith in Christ 
 are well illustrated by the three shining ones 
 who came to Christian at the cross. One said 
 to him, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," another 
 stripped him of his rags and clothed him with 
 change of raiment and the third not only set a 
 mark on his forehead, but also gave him a roll, 
 sealed with the King's seal, to be his passport at 
 the gate of the celestial city. Bunyan thus testi- 
 fies to a knowledge of the forgiveness of sin, a 
 change of heart and life, and the witness of God's 
 Spirit of Adoption. Without the first Christ 
 would only be a painted Saviour, and salvation 
 would only be a picture or a promise unrealized. 
 
54 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Without the second, a Christian life would not 
 be distinguishable from that of worldly men. 
 Without the third there could be no internal com- 
 fort and joy. 
 
 How happy was Christian now ! With leap- 
 ing and singing he went forward in the path of 
 life. It seemed to him that he should never get 
 weary and he wished to tell all around him of the 
 love of Jesus. Surely if people could only learn of 
 this joy they would seek it at any cost, so he 
 thought. But as he went on singing and mak- 
 ing melody in his heart he saw a little out of the 
 way, three men fast asleep with fetters upon 
 their heels. The name of the one was Simple, 
 of another, Sloth, and of the third Presumption. 
 The first thing Christian did was to try to awaken 
 them. So he cried out to them that they might 
 as well sleep on the top of a mast, for the Dead 
 Sea was under them, a gulf without a bottom. 
 He offered also to help them off with their irons 
 if they were willing. At length he roused them 
 up enough to listen to him, but Simple said, ' I 
 see no danger;' Sloth said, 'yet a little more sleep,' 
 and Presumption said, * every tub must stand 
 upon its own bottom. ' And so they lay down 
 to sleep again, and Christian went on his way." 
 
 It is no easy thing to convince ungodly men 
 of their danger. Only the Divine Spirit can 
 flash the light of spiritual truth into the soul. 
 
THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 55 
 
 The-well meant efforts of Christians to persuade 
 men of the reality of eternal things are often 
 fruitless. One-third of the world sees no danger 
 in a life of sin. Another third plead for ease 
 and indulgence and wait for a more convenient 
 season. Presumptive sinners tell us you need 
 not trouble yourself about our interests. We 
 are ready to take our chance. All these classes 
 are met with in life and Christians must keep on 
 their way, sad to think of the insensibility of 
 many, though using every effort for their sal- 
 vation. 
 
 Christian soon met with two of a different sort. 
 He saw them tumbling over the wall and knew 
 that this was unlawful, so he asked them where 
 they came from and whither they went. The 
 name of one was Hypocrisy and of the other 
 Formalist. They told him they were born in 
 the land of Vainglory and were going for praise 
 to Mount Zion. He tried to convince them of 
 their sin and folly in not entering in at the gate 
 but they told him he need not trouble his head 
 about that for it did not seem to matter to them, 
 so they were in the way. Here is a picture of the 
 pretended liberality of so many men. "All per- 
 suasions are right, ' ' say they. ' * We are all 
 traveling one way. So we keep the King's laws 
 hereafter, it matters nothing about repentance 
 and atonement and regeneration." 
 
56 THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 
 
 " 'But,' said Christian, 'I walk by the rule of 
 my Master, you walk by the rude working of 
 your own 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 
 direction and shall go out by yourselves without 
 his mercy. ' ' When he talked with them about 
 his roll they laughed. They could not compre- 
 hend the things of the spirit. I suppose they 
 thought him a harmless sort of enthusiast. 
 But when they came to the Hill Difficulty, and 
 saw two by-ways which seemed to go round it, 
 they left him to clamber the hill alone. "The 
 one took the way which is called Danger and 
 which led him into a great wood, and the other 
 took directly up the way to Destruction, which 
 led him into a wide field, full of dark mountains, 
 where he stumbled and fell and rose no more. ' ' 
 The Hill Difficulty was a serious task to 
 Christian, yet he knew he must surmount it. 
 He knew it was 
 
 "Better, though difficult, the right way to go, 
 Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe." 
 
 It is sometimes hard to make progress in the 
 Christian life. We have to climb from duty to 
 duty, and wait on the Lord when everything 
 seems burdensome. So our pilgrim found it. But 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 57 
 
 God has not forgotten his children in their trials. 
 About half-way up the hill Christian found a 
 pleasant arbor, made by the Lord of the way for 
 the comfort of weary travelers. There he sat 
 down to rest and refresh himself with his roll. 
 But he seemed to forget that he had still further 
 to go, and so fell asleep. His duty was to press 
 forward in the good way. "He that sleeps is a 
 loser," says Bunyan, and Christian found it so, 
 for during his sleep his roll fell from his hand. 
 The good spirit who watches over us awakened 
 him, suggesting to him the text, "Go to the ant, 
 thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise. ' ' 
 Then Christian started up, and went apace till 
 he came to the top of the hill. There two men 
 met him, named Timorous and Mistrust, who 
 gave him a dolorous account of two lions in the 
 way threatening to tear them in pieces, and 
 forthwith ran down the hill. Now was the 
 pilgrim in great distress, and felt in his bosom 
 for his roll, but he found it not. Now he knew 
 not what to do, but at last he thought of his 
 foolish sleep in the arbor, and starting back, 
 carefully looking all the way, he rested not till 
 he had found his roll again. But who can tell 
 how joyful this man was when he had gotten his 
 roll again-? For this was the assurance of his 
 life and acceptance. Giving thanks to God for 
 directing him to where it lay, he betook himself 
 
58 THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 
 
 to his journey. Yet the sun went down and 
 night came on before he got up the hill. This 
 arbor of refreshment seems to have been a losing 
 place, for here also Christiana lost her bottle 
 of spirits. ' 'The cause is sleep, or forgetful- 
 ness. Some sleep when they should keep 
 awake, and some forget when they should 
 remember; and this is the very cause why often, 
 at the resting places, some pilgrims in somethings 
 come off losers. Pilgrims should watch, and re- 
 member what they have already received, under 
 their greatest enjoyments; but for want of doing 
 so, oftentimes their rejoicing ends in tears, and 
 their sunshine in a cloud. ' ' 
 
 By the Palace Beautiful, to which Christian 
 next arrives, Bunyan gives us an emblem of the 
 church, in its communion and ordinances; the 
 association of true Christians, or visible Kingdom 
 of Christ on earth. He represents it, however, 
 as having lions in the way, before the door, and 
 in the second part of his book as beset also by 
 Giant Grim, for the church in Bunyan 's day 
 was terribly opposed and afflicted. 
 
 We who enjoy the freedom of religious wor- 
 ship can form but a feeble conception of the 
 trials of conscientious Christians of former times. 
 In 1620, only eight years before the- birth of 
 Bunyan, and only removed from us by three 
 generation of long-lived men, the pilgrims of 
 
THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 59 
 
 the Mayflower came to the rocky coast of New 
 England to seek an asylum for religious liberty. 
 After this followed the struggle against tyranny, 
 and the brief Commonwealth under the protec- 
 torate of Cromwell, in England. On the restora- 
 tion of the house of Stuart, Charles II entered 
 London, in May, 1660. He was the most 
 corrupt and unprincipled King who ever reigned 
 in England, being given to debauchery and 
 drunkenness, and utter contempt of all religion. 
 On November 12th of the same year Bunyan was 
 indicted as an upholder of unlawful assemblies 
 and conventicles, and for not conforming to the 
 Church of England, and was sentenced to per- 
 petual banishment. Although the sentence was 
 never executed, he was kept in prison for twelve 
 years. In 1661 the Corporation Act was passed, 
 by which, contrary to the King's previous stip- 
 ulations, all persons who refused to conform to 
 the established Episcopal Church were rendered 
 incapable of serving in civil offices. In 1662 
 came the Act of Uniformity, requiring reordina- 
 tion of all ministers who had not received their 
 orders from the Church of England, and impos- 
 ing assent to the Book of Common Prayer. By 
 this act 2,000 ministers were silenced and rejected 
 from the pulpits, among whom were some of the 
 purest and greatest divines of the age, such as 
 Owen, Goodwin, Baxter and Howe. This was 
 
60 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 followed in 1665 by the Five Mile Act, making 
 it a penal offence for any non-conforming minis- 
 ter to be found within five miles of any town. 
 In 1666 and 1671 were the Conventicle Acts, 
 imposing fines, imprisonment and death, on all 
 persons over 16 years of age who attended wor- 
 ship in any place where the liturgy was not used. 
 These severe measures made great havoc through- 
 out all the land. Satanic malignity was arrayed 
 in open antagonism to the followers of Christ. 
 Troops of horse and foot were scattered through 
 the country, to break up religious meetings. 
 The jails were filled with prisoners. Many were 
 transported as convicts. Many emigrated to 
 America. Many lost their lives. It is estimated 
 that over 8,000 perished in prison during the 
 reign of Charles II. When we remember 
 that all this occurred but three or four gener- 
 ations ago, it is no wonder that the idea of 
 the union of church and state has come to be 
 abhorred by every intelligent lover of freedom 
 and benevolence throughout the land. These 
 persecuting edicts of the English Parliament 
 were removed by the Toleration Act under 
 William III, but some of them disgraced the 
 statute books until 1828. 
 
 Bunyan endured the severity of persecution 
 for Christ's sake in Bedford jail. This structure 
 stood upon the bridge. It was a miserable 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 61 
 
 prison. There was no court yard, no space for 
 out-of-door exercise; nothing but stonewalls and 
 iron bars, a bridge and a river. A small uncom- 
 fortable cell communicated with the common 
 room of the prison. But Bunyan had learned 
 how to be happy anywhere. He could truly sing: 
 
 1 'Stone walls do not a prison make, 
 
 Nor iron bars a cage; 
 Minds innocent and quiet take 
 That for a hermitage. ' ' 
 
 In his own vigorous but unpolished rhymes 
 he did sing: 
 
 "For though men keep my outward man 
 
 Within their locks and bars, 
 Yet by the faith of Christ I can 
 Mount higher than the stars. ' ' 
 
 Yet he was not only in jail, but had also to 
 support his family, consisting of his wife and 
 four children, one of whom was blind. Being 
 cut off from his own trade, he learned how to 
 put tags on thread laces, which his family would 
 sell outside the jail, and in this way eke out a 
 scanty subsistence. Thus he was occupied dur- 
 ing the day, but at night, having taken prayerful 
 leave of his family, and imprinted a loving kiss 
 upon the brow of his dear blind child, he was 
 left alone. Yet not alone, for with his Bible, 
 
62 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 and Concordance, and Fox's Book of Martyrs; 
 with his own inspired imagination, and pen and 
 paper, he finds company enough. As he writes, 
 his care-worn features light up with joy, as if 
 the glory of the Celestial city were just before 
 him, and he rejoices in that Saviour who can so 
 fully reveal himself to the heart. He says him- 
 self "I never had, in all my life, so great an 
 inlet into the Word of God, as now. Those 
 Scriptures that I saw nothing in before, are * 
 made in this place and state, to shine upon me. 
 Sometimes, when I have been in the savor of 
 them, I have been able to laugh at destruction, 
 and to fear neither the horse nor the rider. I 
 have had sweet sights of the forgiveness of my 
 sins in this place, and of my being with Jesus 
 in another world. O, the mount Zion, the 
 heavenly Jerusalem, the innumerable company 
 of angels, and God, the Judge of all, and the 
 spirit of just men made perfect, and Jesus, have 
 been sweet to me in this place ! I have seen 
 that here, which I am persuaded I shall never, 
 in this world, be able to express. ' ' 
 
 This was John Bunyan; imprisoned in Chris- 
 tian England, so called, shut up like a wild 
 beast within stone walls and iron bars; because 
 he would pray without a Prayer Book, and 
 would declare to his fellowmen that Christ Jesus 
 came into the world to save sinners ! 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 63 
 
 During Banyan's imprisonment, however, a 
 fearful affliction fell upon London. It was the 
 great plague of 1666, which threatened to de- 
 populate the city. The grass grew up in the 
 once crowded streets. A great red cross, a foot 
 long, marked the doors of those who were 
 stricken. 
 
 The dead cart moved from street to street, the 
 driver ringing a doleful bell and crying: " Bring 
 out your dead!" There were not coffins enough 
 for burial, and scores were huddled together in 
 one common grave. During this state of things 
 large numbers of the established clergy fled from 
 their pulpits, while many of the non-conformists, 
 in defiance of the statutes came into the city to 
 minister the word of God. 
 
 Bunyan's jailor was a kind man and allowed 
 him occasional liberty. Sometimes he permitted 
 him to go to the city, where he would preach, 
 and once he was even chosen pastor. But this 
 came to the ears of his persecutors and they sent 
 an officer to inquire about it. In order to make 
 sure this officer was to arrive at the jail in the 
 middle of the night. Bunyan had been allowed 
 to go home to his family but he was so restless 
 that he could not sleep. He told his wife that 
 he must return to jail immediately. He did so 
 and the jailor blamed him for coming in at so 
 unreasonable an hour. Early in the morning 
 
64 THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 
 
 the officer came and said, ' ' 'Are all the prisoners 
 safe?' < Yes.' 'Is John Bunyan safe?' 'Yes.' 
 ' Let me see him. ' He was called into the 
 officers' presence and all was well. After the 
 messenger left the jailor said to Bunyan, ' You 
 may go out when you think proper for you know 
 when to return better than I can tell you.' " 
 
 I said it is difficult for us to form an idea of 
 the trials of former times. After centuries of 
 experience the world is beginning to learn that 
 uniformity in religion is impossible. Union, 
 charity, concord, may exist, but not uniformity. 
 We, of this land, have as many differences of 
 opinion as England had at the close of the Com- 
 monwealth, and if legal restraints were put upon 
 them we should have equal trouble and equal 
 suffering. It is not toleration we claim for 
 religion, it is liberty. Toleration is tyranny. 
 You have no more authority to permit me than 
 I have to permit you. If you cannot con- 
 scientiously worship God as I do you have a 
 right to worship as you please, provided you do 
 not interfere with my liberty nor injure others. 
 If you cannot be a Methodist, be a Congregationa- 
 list, a Swedenborgian, a Buddist if you will, or 
 anything else. Truth is not afraid of freedom 
 of opinion. Milton nobly says, " Though all the 
 winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon 
 the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 65 
 
 injuriously by licensing and prohibiting, to mis- 
 doubt her strength. Let her and falsehood grap- 
 ple ; whoever knew truth put to the \vorse in a 
 free and open encounter." 
 
 In Bunyan's day these principles of freedom 
 were not recognized. The old Popish idea of 
 the subjection of conscience to human authority 
 had not been shaken off. Hence, the efforts to 
 force conformity of worship and opinion with the . 
 state church. Hence penal enactments, perse- 
 cutions and imprisonments. These were the 
 Giant Grims and the lions which beset the way 
 to the Palace Beautiful. Let us thank God that 
 we live in better times. We may each worship 
 God under our own vine and fig-tree, with none 
 to molest us or make us afraid. 
 
 It would detain us too long to consider Bun- 
 yan's idea of a church, as represented by the 
 Palace Beautiful. One thing, however, is plain ; 
 that while he represent Christian as finding his 
 way to the church, he represents him as a saved 
 man before he came thither. His sins fell from 
 him and he was made a child of God at the cross, 
 and by virtue of the cross, not by the church. 
 My friend, if you feel the burden of sin, do not 
 look for the church to relieve you but go right to 
 Jesus. The church is human, Jesus is., divine. 
 The best thing the church can do for a burdened 
 
66 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 soul is to point him to the Cross. This we 
 would do now and say : 
 
 " Come to Calvary's holy mountain, 
 
 Sinners mined by the fall ; 
 Here a pure and healing fountain 
 
 Flows for every thirsty soul, 
 In a full perpetual tide, 
 Opened when the Saviour died. 
 
 ' ' Come, ye dying, live forever, 
 
 'Tis a soul-reviving flood ; 
 God is faithful, he will never 
 
 Break his cov'nant sealed in blood ; 
 Signed when our Redeemer died, 
 By his Spirit ratified." 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 The Palace Beautiful. 
 
 The history of God's people shows plainly 
 that all who would live godly and serve 
 Christ will suffer persecution. The form of the 
 opposition changes with the time, but the spirit 
 is always the same. In the martyr ages physi- 
 cal force was employed to keep men from a 
 Christian pilgrimage, but at the present day 
 moral influences are 'opposed to it. A religious 
 life is sneered at, and religious doctrines are 
 called unpopular and unscientific, and whoever 
 would stand well in the world finds it necessary 
 to give religion but very slight, if any, attention. 
 
 But the trials of the church now are not so 
 much external, as internal. In times of perse- 
 cution the church kept pure, both in doctrine 
 and in life, but the time of outward prosperity is 
 often a time of formalism and of doctrinal error. 
 At the present, men make great pretensions to 
 progress, and speak great swelling words of van- 
 ity, and compass sea and land to proselyte oth- 
 ers, but their notions, if fully carried out, would 
 subvert the very foundations of Christian faith, 
 
68 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 and carry us back to heathen philosophy and 
 heathen impurity. Thus, the trinity, and the 
 atonement, and future retribution are denied by 
 men who pretend to be in the Christian church, 
 and they profess to have found some wonderful 
 way of interpreting the scriptures so that they 
 may teach otherwise than they seem. And all 
 this is done, not so much openly as by tracts 
 and books and insinuating speeches secretly dis- 
 tributed among the members of different 
 churches. This is the effort now being made to 
 oppose the church's true progress, and subvert 
 by fraud what could not be won by force. These 
 secret emissaries of error are the lions in the way 
 which young converts now have to meet. 
 
 Bunyan does not put his* Palace Beautiful at 
 the entrance of the way. Although he was a 
 Baptist, he knew very well that there were many 
 Christians in other denominations, yet it is some- 
 what remarkable that he makes no allusion to 
 Baptism in any part of the allegory. 
 
 Some people "make church-membership the 
 door of heaven, to the hazard of very many souls. 
 The ideas of baptismal regeneration and salva- 
 tion by the Lord's Supper are most unscriptural 
 and pernicious, yet many hang their whole no- 
 tion of religion upon them, crying, "The temple 
 of the Lord are we. " It is a sad perversion of 
 the Saviour's design when the people begin to 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 69 
 
 refer to their own particular communion as the 
 church, to the exclusion of all others. The real 
 communion of saints is the spiritual unity of all 
 who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and this 
 embraces many varieties of doctrine and forms of 
 worship. Yet an open acknowledgment of 
 Christ and attachment to his people is incumbent 
 upon every true Christian. External fellowship 
 is the only way in which the knowledge of the 
 truth and the worship of God can be preserved and 
 spread abroad, so that voluntary abstinence from 
 church membership is antagonism to Jesus Christ. 
 Bunyan represents the advantages of Christian 
 fellowship by what Christian gained from Piety, 
 Prudence, Discretion and Charity at the Palace 
 Beautiful. These bade him welcome to the 
 household of faith, and discoursed with him re- 
 specting his feelings and hopes and joys. They 
 also spake of the Lord of the hill, what he had 
 done and suffered for theni, and all his wonder- 
 ful love to poor pilgrims, until Christian's heart 
 burned within him and he was ready to sing : 
 
 " Blest be the tie that binds 
 
 Our hearts in Christian love, 
 The fellowship of kindred minds 
 
 Is like to that above." 
 
 They took him into the study and showed him 
 records of the greatest antiquity respecting their 
 
70 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Lord and the wonderful works which he had 
 done. They read also how his servants, by 
 trusting in him were able to subdue kingdoms, 
 obtain promises, stop the mouths of lions, 
 quench the violence of fire, escape the edge- of 
 the sword, wax valiant in fight, and turn to 
 flight the armies of the aliens. They showed 
 him the Delectable Mountains before him, and to 
 which fidelity and perseverance would bring him, 
 and from whence he could see the gate of the 
 Celestial City. The prospect of greater joys to 
 come is necessary to stimulate us to persevere in 
 so arduous a journey. Then, before he went on 
 his way they took him into the armory and 
 clothed him from head to foot with the armor of 
 righteousness; sword, shield, helmet, breastplate, 
 all-prayer and shoes of the gospel of peace ; 
 according to St. Paul's directions, " Put on the 
 whole armor of God, that ye may be able to 
 stand against the wiles of the devil, for we 
 wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against 
 principalities, against powers, against the rulers 
 of the darkness of this world, against spiritual 
 wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take 
 unto you the whole armor of God that ye may 
 be able to withstand in the evil day, and having 
 done all to stand. Stand, therefore, having your 
 loins girt about with truth and having on the 
 breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 71 
 
 with the preparation of the gospel of peace ; 
 above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith 
 ye shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the 
 wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and 
 the sword of the spirit which is the word of God; 
 praying always and watching with all prayer 
 and supplication in the Spirit. ' ' 
 
 In the second part Bunyan represents the 
 matrons of the house as catechizing and instruct- 
 ing Christiana and the children in Christian 
 doctrine and morals. The Sunday School in its 
 present form has sprung up since Bunyan's day, 
 but the instruction of the young has ever been a 
 part of church labor, nor has the form of catechet- 
 ical instruction been properly superseded. Our 
 lessons and songs are good, but sound doctrine 
 should never be forgotten, for it is the fountain 
 of the church's strength. 
 
 The church has always had people of indif- 
 ferent or evil character hanging on to its skirts 
 in hope of some worldly gain or advantage. 
 This class of persons seldom impose upon the 
 discreet, but are apt to influence the unthinking 
 who look not below the surface for the motives 
 of human character. Bunyan was not a man to 
 be easily deceived by such professors. He had 
 such deep insight into the motives of men, with 
 such descriptive powers, that he may not 
 inaptly be called the religious Shakespeare. As 
 
72 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Shakespeare painted the masses of men, so has 
 Bunyan delineated the various classes connected 
 with the church. Among the beautiful touches of 
 nature with which his work abounds we notice 
 the addresses paid Mercy by Mr. Brisk at the 
 Palace Beautiful. Our young ladies may here 
 find some hints which may be of service to 
 them. 
 
 ' ' Now, by that these pilgrims had been at this 
 place a week, Mercy had a visitor that pre- 
 tended some goodwill unto her and his name 
 was Mr. Brisk, a man of some breeding, and that 
 pretended to religion, but a man that stuck very 
 close to the world. So he came once or twice, or 
 more, to Mercy, and offered love unto her. Now 
 Mercy was of fair countenance, and, therefore, 
 the more alluring. Her mind, also, was to be 
 always busying of herself in doing; for when 
 she had nothing to do for herself, she would be 
 making hose and garments for others, and would 
 bestow them upon those that had need. And 
 Mr. Brisk, not knowing where or how she 
 disposed of what she made, seemed to be greatly 
 taken, for that he never found her idle. I will 
 warrant her a good housewife, quoth he to him- 
 self. Mercy then revealed the business to the 
 maidens that were of the house, and inquired of 
 them concerning him, for they did know him 
 better than she. So they told her that he was a 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 73 
 
 very busy young man, and one who pretended 
 to religion, but was, as they feared, a stranger 
 to the power of that which is good. ' Nay then, ' 
 said Mercy, ' I will look no more on him; for I 
 purpose never to have a. clog to my soul.' Pru- 
 dence then replied, that there needed no matter 
 of great discouragement to be given him; her 
 continuing as she had begun to do for the poor 
 would quickly cool his courage. So the next 
 time he comes he find her at her old work, mak- 
 ing things for the poor. Then said he, 'What, 
 always at it?' 'Yes, ' said she, 'either for myself or 
 for others.' 'And what canst thou earn a day ?' 
 said he. 'I do these things,' said she, 'that I 
 may be rich in good works, laying up in store 
 for myself a good foundation against the time to 
 come, that I may lay hold on eternal life. ' 'Why, 
 prithee, what doest thou with them ?' said he. 
 'Clothe the naked,' said she. With that his 
 countenance fell. So he forbore to come again. 
 And when he was asked the reason why, he said, 
 'that Mercy was a pretty lass, but troubled with 
 ill conditions.' When he had left her, Prudence 
 said, 'Did I not tell thee that Mr. Brisk would 
 soon forsake thee ? yea, he will raise up an ill 
 report of thee; for, notwithstanding his pretence 
 to religion, and his seeming love to Mercy, yet 
 Mercy and he are of tempers so different that 
 they will never come together. ' ' 
 
74 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 In his life and death of Mr. Bad-man, or the 
 third part of the Pilgrim's Progress, now rarely 
 met with, Bunyan gives an account of Bad-man's 
 courtship. He sought a rich and pious com- 
 panion, and was advised by his crafty associates 
 to dissemble and seem to be religious; to take 
 notes of sermons, talk of scripture, etc. ; to en- 
 tangle her. As he was comely to look on, well- 
 dressed, of quick and versatile talents, and the 
 young woman was an orphan and a little too 
 fond of having her own way in such matters, he 
 succeeded in gaining her. But his subsequent 
 irreligion and dissipation led her to a broken 
 heart and an early death. Such are some of the 
 devices of the wicked. Our author shows us 
 many of them, sufficient to put us on our guard 
 against false professors and evil men. 
 
 We accompany Christian in his descent into 
 the Valley of Humiliation. If it was difficult to 
 go up the hill to the Palace Beautiful, it was 
 dangerous to go down. Many a man has found 
 to his cost how hard it is to be humiliated. A 
 public humiliation is perhaps the greatest trial of 
 a Christian's life, yet grace is sufficient even 
 for this. It is a hard matter for a man to go 
 down into the Valley of Humiliation and catch 
 no slip by the way. Even Christian caught a 
 slip or two, for which he paid dearly. For the 
 slips of a Christian are the reasons of most of 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 75 
 
 his severe contests with the powers of darkness. 
 "L,et him that thinketh he standeth take heed 
 lest he fall." 
 
 In this Valley of Humiliation, Christian met 
 with Apollyon himself, who endeavored to win 
 him back to his service. When he could not 
 prevail he endeavored to frighten him by remind- 
 ing him of the difficulties and trials of the way 
 he was in and to discourage him by recalling 
 instances of Christian's unfaithfulness. When 
 all this failed he determined to destroy him out- 
 right and began to throw at him his fiery darts. 
 Now did Christian's shield and sword serve him 
 well, nevertheless he was pressed so hard that 
 he fell down and his sword flew out of his hand . 
 As Apollyon was fetching his last blow, so 
 as to make a full end of this good man, Christian 
 caught his sword again, saying: "Rejoice not 
 against me, O mine enemy; when I fall I shall 
 arise ; ' ' and with that gave him a deadly thrust 
 which made him give back. Christian perceiv- 
 ing that, made at him again, saying, "nay, in 
 all these things we are more than conquerors, 
 through him that loved us. ' ' And t with 
 that Apollyon spread forth his dragon wings 
 and sped him away, that Christian saw him 
 no more. 
 
 With what tears of gratitude did Christian 
 thank God for his deliverance ; and there came 
 
76 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 to him a divine hand with leaves of the tree of 
 life to heal his wounds. 
 
 In the account of the conflict with Apollyon 
 and of the passage through the Valley of the 
 Shadow of Death, Bunyan has condensed his 
 own experience of temptation, as detailed in his 
 Grace Abounding. At one time he thought all 
 the wrathful passages of God's word were aimed 
 at him. Then he was tempted to believe he had 
 commited the unpardonable sin. His soul was 
 tossed to and fro as with a tempest. But God at 
 last delivered him from all his fears. 
 
 Every soul who resolutely sets out* for heaven 
 will have to encounter the arch-enemy. Every 
 one must fight the good fight of faith, and we 
 are to overcome through the blood of the Lamb 
 and the word of our testimony. Satan will not 
 give up his hold on the human soul without a 
 struggle; we may be sure of that. Yet to some 
 Satan reveals himself more clearly than to others 
 and assaults them more violently. When a man 
 is led away by his lust or besetting sins, or be- 
 comes careless and insensible, there is no need of 
 Satan to tempt him. Such a one tempts Satan. He 
 enters into temptation. Our Lord never said, pray 
 that ye be not tempted, but watch and pray that ye 
 enter not into temptation, into its spirit, its power, 
 its direction, because then the soul is powerless 
 and is led captive by the Devil at his will. 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 77 
 
 There is nothing in the Valley of Humiliation 
 itself to lead to such dreadful contests. Christiana 
 and her company went well through it and 
 found it a delightful place. The slips of Christian 
 in going down were the cause of his fray with 
 Apollyon. These slips came of discontent and 
 pride, and he needed the sore buffetings of the 
 enemy to humble him. 
 
 In his description of this valley, Bunyan has 
 excelled himself. It is the most beautiful and 
 most poetic part of the book. Christiana heard 
 the birds answering one another with most 
 curious melodious note, from grove to grove, in 
 this valley. 'We need not be so afraid of this 
 valley, 'said Mr. Great-heart, 'for there is nothing 
 to hurt us unless we procure it for ourselves. ' 
 This Valley of Humiliation is the best and most 
 fruitful piece of ground in all these parts. It is 
 meadow ground and in the summer time a man 
 may feast his eyes with that which will be 
 delightful to him. Behold how green this valley 
 is, also how beautiful with lillies ! I have known 
 many laboring men that have got good estates in 
 the Valley of Humiliation; for God resisteth the 
 proud but giveth grace to the humble. 
 
 As they were going along and talking they 
 espied a boy feeding his father's sheep. The 
 boy was in very mean clothes, but of a fresh and 
 well-favored countenance ; and as he sat by 
 
78 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 himself he sang. 'Hark,' said Mr. Great-heart, 
 'to what the shepherd's boy saith.' So they 
 hearkened and he said: 
 
 ' 'He that is down, needs fear no fall, 
 
 He that is low no pride ; 
 
 He that is humble, ever shall 
 
 Have God to be his guide. 
 
 ' 'I am content with what I have, 
 
 Little be it or much ; 
 And, Lord, contentment still I crave, 
 Because thou savest such. 
 
 "Fullness to such a burden is 
 
 Who go on pilgrimage 
 Here little and hereafter bliss 
 Is best, from age to age." 
 
 Then said their guide, ' ' do you hear him ? 
 I will dare to say this boy lives a merrier life 
 and wears more of that herb called heart 's-ease 
 in his bosom, than he that is clad in silk and 
 velvet." 
 
 Bunyan declares that our Lord loved this val- 
 ley and delighted to walk in its meadows. Here 
 a man is free from the noise and the hurryings of 
 this life and need not be hindered in his medita- 
 tions as he is apt to be elsewhere. As another 
 
 has said, 
 
 ' ' Meditation here 
 
 May think down hours to moments. 
 Here the heart may give a useful lesson to the head, 
 And, learning wiser, grow without his books." 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 79 
 
 Mercy declared that the place suited her well. 
 ' ' I love to be in such places where there is no 
 rattling with coaches, no rumbling with wheels; 
 rnethinks here one may, without molestation, be 
 thinking what he is, whence he came, what he 
 has done and to what the King has called him. 
 Here one may think, and break the heart, and 
 melt in one's spirit." They that go rightly 
 through this valley of Baca, make it a well ; the 
 rain that God sends down from heaven upon them 
 that are there also filleth the pools. To this man 
 will I look, saith the King, even to him that is 
 humble and of a contrite spirit, and who tremb- 
 leth at my word. 
 
 The poet Cowper has described this lowly vale 
 in most beautiful strains: 
 
 "Far from the world, O Lord, I flee, 
 
 From strife and tumult far; 
 From scenes where Satan wages still 
 His most successful war. 
 
 "The calm retreat, the silent shade, 
 
 With prayer and praise agree; 
 And seem by thy sweet bounty made 
 For those that follow thee. 
 
 "There, if thy spirit touch the soul, 
 
 And grace her mean abode, 
 Oh, with what peace and joy and love, 
 She communes with her God. 
 
80 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 "Then, like the nightingale she pours 
 
 Her solitary lays; 
 Nor asks a witness of her song, 
 Nor thirsts for human praise." 
 
 Humility is of the very essence of true relig- 
 ion. The sweetest joys of salvation, like lovely 
 flowers, do not grow upon mountain tops, but in 
 retired valleys. Here it is safe to dwell, if it be 
 God's will. Even if we are called by providence 
 to a public and busy life, the spirit of humility 
 may remain with us, and will be our safeguard 
 against vanity and folly. It is the fairest jewel 
 in the Christian's coronet; not sparkling like the 
 diamond, nor blazing like the ruby, but softly 
 shining as a pearl of great price. He that would 
 reach the Celestial City must first cultivate 
 humility, since salvation is especially attached 
 to this virtue. We cannot dictate terms to God, 
 or turn away from the fountain appointed for our 
 cleansing to some Abana or Pharpar of our own 
 selection and expect to be saved. It is only to 
 those who come to God as little children, in a 
 spirit of simplicity and humility, that God re- 
 veals himself as a Father. To others he is a 
 King, a Ruler, perhaps an Avenger, but to the 
 humble trusting soul he is a Father, full of love 
 and tenderness and compassion. May we learn, 
 therefore, to submit ourselves to God, remember- 
 ing that ( 'the I/ord hath respect unto the lowl} 7 , 
 but the proud he knoweth afar off. ' ' 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 Vicissitudes of the Way. 
 
 It is a pleasant thing to contemplate the con- 
 dition of Christian, as Bunyan represents him 
 in the house of the Interpreter, or at the Cross, 
 or in the Palace Beautiful, but there are some 
 parts of the way of life which are not so pleas- 
 ant. The Valley of Humiliation is described as 
 a delightful one, although Christian had there 
 his terrible fight with Apollyon, on account of 
 his slips in going down into the valley. After 
 this he came to the Valley of the Shadow of 
 Death a most gloomy and dangerous place; 
 where the path became exceedingly narrow, 
 with ditches on one side and quagmires on the 
 other. The mouth of the pit, also, was close by, 
 and for a time it was quite dark, except the 
 dreadful light of the flames which threatened to 
 devour him. There were also doleful voices 
 and rushings to and fro of fiends, so that 
 Christian thought he should be torn in pieces, or 
 trodden down like mire in the streets. To add 
 to his terror, horrid blasphemies were whispered 
 in his ears by fiends, in such a manner that he 
 
82 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 fancied they were the suggestions of his own 
 mind. Here his sword was of no avail, and he 
 was obliged to resort to a weapon of most singu- 
 lar efficacy, called All-prayer, crying out, "O 
 Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul," and 
 again, "I will walk in the strength of the Lord 
 God." 
 
 By the Valley of the Shadow of Death our 
 author represents those afflctions and seasons of 
 darkness, which are sometimes permitted to the 
 best of men for the trial of their faith. Thus 
 Job was tried to the very verge of human endur- 
 ance. King David, also, was long in this valley, 
 and the book of Psalms shows in many places 
 how terrible it appeared to him. 
 
 The discipline of trial seems to be necessary 
 to personal perfection. No * amount of reading 
 or observation of others can take the place of 
 personal experience. Every pilgrim must learn 
 for himself by actual trial, both the depth of 
 natural corruption in his heart, the strength of 
 temptation and the delivering power of Almighty 
 love. Happy is that man who bears this yoke 
 in his youth, and comes early to learn his 
 own weakness, and the strength of a Saviour's 
 grace. 
 
 There are many things which may become a 
 Valley of the Shadow of Death to a believer. 
 External evils may be arrayed so as almost to 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 83 
 
 overwhelm the soul. Sickness, poverty, deser- 
 tion, loss of friends, disappointments, failure of 
 plans of life, destruction of schemes of usefulness, 
 the triumphing of the wicked, the apparent pros- 
 tration of the cause of God; all these things may 
 bring darkness and press the soul almost out of 
 life. There may be also internal trials known 
 only to the soul itself, such as the apparent hid- 
 ing of the divine countenance by the withdrawal 
 of sensible sweetness in devotion, or the per- 
 mission of horrible temptations and whispered 
 blasphemies and fears. At such times we need 
 to betake ourselves to All-prayer for deliverance, 
 and to cry like David, ''Hide not thy face from 
 me, lest I become like them that go down to the 
 pit. ' ' This weapon will put the sturdiest foe to 
 flight, and the L,ord our God will lighten our 
 darkness. 
 
 The next scene in the Pilgrim's Progress is 
 one that is quite suggestive. "Now I saw in my 
 dream, that at the end of the valley lay blood, 
 bones, ashes and mangled bodies of men, even of 
 pilgrims that had gone this way formerly; and 
 while I was musing what should be the reason, 
 I espied a little before me a cave, where two 
 giants, Pope and Pagan dwelt in old times; by 
 whose power and tyranny the men whose bones, 
 blood, ashes, etc., lay there, were cruelly put to 
 death. But by this place Christian went without 
 
84 THEl WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Bfffn? 
 
 much danger, whereat I* somewhat wondered; 
 but I have learnt since, that Pagan has been 
 dead many a day; and as for the other, though 
 he be yet alive, he is, by reason of age, and also 
 of the many shrewd brushes that he met with in 
 his younger days, grown so crazy and stiff in his 
 joints that he can now do little more than sit in 
 his cave's mouth, grinning at pilgrims as they 
 go by and biting his nails because he cannot 
 come at them. So I saw that Christian went on 
 his way; yet at the sight of the old man that sat 
 at the mouth of the cave, he could not tell what 
 to think, especially because he spoke to him, 
 though he could not go after him, saying, 'You 
 will never mend till more of you be burned.' 
 But he held his peace, and set a good face on it; 
 and so went by, and catched no hurt/' 
 
 Pope and Pagan are put very properly by 
 Bunyan into the same cave, since they are not 
 only similar instances of depravity, but one has 
 succeeded to the seat and power and trappings of 
 the other. Both claimed control of the con- 
 sciences of men, and both have shed the blood 
 of the saints of the Most High. As to their 
 present state, power only is lacking to make 
 then as fierce and tyrannical as ever. Csesarism 
 in Europe is not dead, although it seemed to be 
 so for awhile, and the old man of the Vatican, 
 though he can only sit at the cave's mouth, still 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 85 
 
 mutters his curses against freedom and the 
 gospel. "You will never mend till more of you 
 be burned, ' ' is the spirit of Paganism and of 
 Popery everywhere. And it may be that before 
 the final fall of Antichrist, these two giants may 
 come out of their cave, armed again with per- 
 secuting power. If Infidelity should ever suc- 
 ceed in bringing us back to Paganism, or dema- 
 gogues restore Papal supremacy, I have no 
 doubt at all that cruel and tyrannical edicts 
 against liberty of conscience would be again 
 enacted and enforced. 
 
 The journey of Christian hitherto had been a 
 solitary one. * * The heart knoweth its own 
 bitterness and a stranger intermeddleth not 
 with its joy." Hereafter we meet him in com- 
 pany with those who, like himself, though with 
 varying experience, were traveling to Mount 
 Zion. His first companion was Faithful, who ac- 
 companied him to Vanity Fair where he sealed 
 his testimony with his blood. Their conversa- 
 tion was mostly on their religious experience to 
 their mutual edification and profit. In the Valley 
 of Humiliation, Faithful had been assaulted by a 
 bold opposer called Shame one who is often met 
 with now-a-days by those who go on pilgrimage. 
 The delineation of this character by Bunyan is a 
 piece of masterly satire, grouping together all 
 the objections which are made by worldly men 
 
m THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 against religion. Faithful says that this bold- 
 faced Shame told him that it was a pitiful, low, 
 sneaking business for a man to mind religion; 
 that a tender conscience was an unmanly thing; 
 and that for a man to watch over his words and 
 ways would make him the ridicule of the times. 
 He objected also, that but few of the mighty, 
 or rich, or wise became pilgrims; that they were 
 mostly men of base and low estate, and very 
 ignorant about natural science. He declared 
 that it was a shame to sit whining and mourn- 
 ing under a sermon, and a shame to come sigh- 
 ing and groaning home, and a shame to ask for- 
 giveness or make restitution. 
 
 " 'And what did you say to him?' asked 
 Christian. 'Say?' replied Faithful; 'I could 
 not tell what to say at first. Yea, he put me so 
 to it, that my blood came up in my face. But 
 at last I began to consider, that that which is 
 highly esteemed among men is had in abomina- 
 tion with God. And I thought again, this 
 Shame tells me what men are, but he tells me 
 nothing what God, or the word of God, is. And 
 I thought, moreover, that at the day of doom 
 we shall not be judged according to the hectoring 
 spirits of the world, but according to the wisdom 
 and law of the Highest. Therefore, thought I, 
 what God says is best, is indeed best, though all 
 the men in the world are against it. Seeing, 
 
N1VERSITY 
 
 or 
 
 THE WAY OF SALVATION H7 
 
 then, that God prefers his religion; seeing God 
 prefers a tender conscience; seeing they that 
 make themselves fools for the kingdom of 
 heaven are wisest, and that the poor man that 
 loves Christ is richer than the greatest man in 
 the world that hates him; Shame, depart, thou 
 art an enemy to my salvation. But indeed, this 
 Shame was a bold villain; I could scarcely shake 
 him out of my company ; yea, he would be 
 haunting of me, and continually whispering me 
 in the ear with some one or other of the infirmi- 
 ties that attend religion.' ' 
 
 As they journeyed, they overtook one Talka- 
 tive, who may stand very well as a type of many 
 professors of religion at the present day, whose 
 piety is all in their heads, and not in their hearts 
 and lives. This Talkative was tall and comely, 
 and walked by the side of the way at a little dis- 
 tance from them. Faithful addressed himself to 
 him, and found him rather pleasant and anxious 
 to talk, so that at first he was quite pleased with 
 him. He was somewhat rambling, however, and 
 Faithful asked him what one thing they should 
 converse upon so as to be edified. Talkative re- 
 plied, "'What you will. I will talk of things 
 heavenly, or things earthly; things moral, or 
 things evangelical; things sacred or things pro- 
 fane; things past, or things to come; things for- 
 eign, or things at home; things more essential, 
 
88 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 or things circumstantial; provided all be done to 
 our profit. ' Now did Faithful begin to wonder, 
 and stepping up to Christian, who was walking 
 by himself, said softly to him, 'What a brave 
 companion we have got ! Surely this man will 
 make a very excellent pilgrim.' At this Christ- 
 ian modestly smiled and said, 'This man with 
 whom you are so taken, will beguile with his 
 tongue twenty of them that know him not.' He 
 told him further that he dwelt in the town of Des- 
 truction, and his name is Talkative, the son of 
 one Say- well, who dwelt in Prating-row, and 
 that notwithstanding his fine tongue, he is but 
 a sorry fellow that religion has no place in his 
 heart, or house, or life; all he hath lieth in his 
 tongue. He talketh of prayer, of repentance, of 
 faith, and of the new birth; but he knows only 
 to talk of them. I have been in his family,' said 
 he, 'and I know what I say of him is the truth. 
 Good men are ashamed of him; they can neither 
 call him brother nor friend; the very naming of 
 him among them makes them blush, if they 
 know him.' ' 
 
 This warning of Christian's cannot be called 
 evil speaking, since it was designed to guard a 
 brother against a real imposter and quack relig- 
 ionist one of the most deceptive and dangerous 
 characters in the world. Christian ethics do 
 not require us to hold our peace and allow a 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 89 
 
 brother to be imposed upon by false pretences, 
 although it does require that we should not 
 speak evil, or wickedly nor even speak of the 
 sins of others without a good and sufficient de- 
 sign. A good man does not take up a reproach 
 against his neighbors, yet he will not suffer sin 
 upon his neighbor, nor allow the innocent and 
 unsuspecting to be imposed upon without 
 warning. 
 
 Faithful put Talkative' s pretences to the test 
 by beginning to talk of heart work and experi- 
 mental religion. Talkative said that saving 
 grace in the soul leads to a great outcry against 
 sin, but Faithful showed that it rather produced 
 hatred of sin and that many cry out against it 
 who, nevertheless, cherish it. Talkative looked 
 upon grace as giving great knowledge of gospel 
 mysteries. Faithful proved that a man might 
 have knowledge without love that it is not him 
 that knoweth, but him that doeth the will of God 
 who is accepted of him. He declared that a gen- 
 uine work of grace discovers itself to the person 
 himself by conviction and sorrow for sin, and 
 faith in the Saviour, and spiritual desire for ho- 
 liness; and also exhibits itself to others by con- 
 fession of experimental faith in Christ, and a 
 life of holiness heart-holiness, family-holiness 
 and conversation-holiness; holiness not merely 
 in talk, but by a practical subjection in faith and 
 
90 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 love to the power of God's word. He desired 
 also to know of Talkative whether his experience 
 conscientiously conformed to this. Such kind 
 of talk disgusted Talkative, for it stripped him 
 of his borrowed plumes, and obliged him to ex- 
 amine the ground of his own personal experi- 
 ence. As, therefore, he had no real religious ex- 
 perience and desired none, he quickly bade them 
 adieu. 
 
 Alas ! there are too many like Talkative, who 
 think that hearing and saying will make a good 
 Christian, and so deceive their own souls ! May 
 God give us real spiritual discernment, to dis- 
 tinguish clearly between a true religious ex- 
 perience and mere historical head work, and may 
 we daily seek the one and eschew the other ! 
 
 But if there are men like Talkative, who are 
 fond of display and pretend to a knowledge 
 which they do not possess, there are also many 
 more of an opposite disposition, who are timid 
 and shrink from duty through a fancied un- 
 worthiness or from a constitutional backward- 
 ness which interferes with their enjoyment. 
 Such are often very amiable and excellent 
 Christians and should be regarded with tender 
 affection. They are not models to be imitated, 
 for if all pilgrims were of this temper the world 
 could hardly be won for Christ, yet many of 
 their traits are worthv of all commendation. 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 91 
 
 Bunyan has described such in his representation 
 of Mr. Fearing, which is a most instructive con- 
 trast with the character of Talkative. It would 
 be well for all of us if we possesed Mr. Fearing 's 
 tenderness of conscience. There would be much 
 less evil done in the world, though there would 
 be less good done. Mr. Great-heart says of 
 him that he was always afraid that he would 
 come short of whither he had a desire to go. 
 Everything frightened him that he heard any- 
 body speak of, if it had but the least appearance 
 of opposition in it. He lay at the Slough of 
 Despond a long time, till one sunshiny morning 
 he ventured and got over; but when he was over 
 he would scarce believe it. When he came to 
 the gate at the head of the way he stood a good 
 while before he would venture to knock. When 
 the gate was opened, he would give back, and 
 give place to others, and say that he was not 
 worthy. Yet he would not go back again. At 
 last, he took the hammer that hanged on the 
 gate, in his hand, and gave a small rap or two ; 
 then one opened to him but he shrunk back as 
 before. He that opened stepped out after him 
 and said, ' Thou trembling one, what wantest 
 thou ? ' With that he fell down to the ground. 
 He that spoke wondered to see him so faint, so 
 he said to him, * Peace be to thee, up, for I 
 have set open door to thee ; come in, for thou 
 
92 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 art blessed.' With that he got up and went in 
 trembling and when he was in he was ashamed 
 to show his face. This trembling and backward 
 spirit he carried all through his pilgrimage. He 
 staid so long outside the Interpreter's house that 
 Mr. Great-heart had to go out and persuade him 
 to come in and he was introduced into the Palace 
 Beautiful almost before he was willing, and 
 when he was there he desired to be alone, 
 although he delighted to hear the good conver- 
 sation of others. 
 
 Good Mr. Fearing' s difficulty was a lack of 
 confidence in God and the spirit of freedom in 
 his service. He had a true sense of his unworthi- 
 ness, but lacked a corresponding sense of the 
 free mercy of Christ to sinners, so that in him 
 humility and self-abasement prevailed rather than 
 trusting love. Humility is a rare and precious 
 grace, but it is not humility to distrust the 
 mercy of the Saviour or to shrink from active 
 duty for fear of our un worthiness. It is well to 
 distrust ourselves, but we should ever remember 
 that God has said, ' My grace is sufficient for 
 thee.' 
 
 With all Mr. Fearing's timidity, however, he 
 was ready to meet difficulty and self-denial. He 
 was often bold where stronger Christians were 
 fearful. The Hill Difficulty he did not mind at 
 all, and in Vanity Fair he was so indignant at sin 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 93 
 
 and foolery that old father Honest could hardly 
 restrain him in the bounds of prudence. Then 
 on the Enchanted Ground, where so many are 
 sleepy, he was vigilant. Thus he was always 
 giving good evidence to others that he was a 
 child of God, while he would hardly entertain a 
 hope for himself and had many fears ol being 
 refused admission at the gates of the Celestial 
 City. At the Valley of the Shadow of Death he 
 was in a terrible fright and when he came to the 
 River of Death itself, where there was no bridge, 
 he was full of fears of being drowned. Yet he 
 found the water of the river so low that he went 
 over quite easily and all his fears forsook him 
 before he reached the other side. 
 
 Mr. Fearing was one who would rather have 
 dwelt in the Valley of Humiliation than encoun- 
 ter the duties of the pilgrim's lot. He was 
 often a burden to himself and a trouble to others. 
 Yet the King has a tender love to such, since he 
 has said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for of 
 such is the kingdom of heaven." And again, 
 "To this man will I look, even to him that is 
 poor, and of a contrite spirit, and who trembleth 
 at my word. ' ' 
 
 The two great temptations of Satan, by 
 which he leads pilgrims astray, are distrust and 
 presumption. Each are fatal if yielded to. 
 Old Mr. Honest in the allegory says, "I have 
 
94 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 been a traveler in this road many a day, and I have 
 taken notice of many things. I have seen some 
 that have set out as if they would drive all the 
 world before them, who yet have, in a few days, 
 died as they in the wilderness, and so never got 
 sight of the promised land. I have seen some 
 that have promised nothing at first setting out, 
 and who one would have thought, could not 
 have lived a day, that have yet proved very 
 good pilgrims. I have seen some who have 
 run hastily forward, that have after a little time, 
 run just as fast back again. I have seen some 
 who have spoken very well of a pilgrim's life at 
 first, that after a while have spoken as much 
 against it. I have heard some vaunt what they 
 would do in case they should be opposed, that 
 have, even at a false alarm, fled faith, the 
 pilgrim's way, and all." It behooves us to be 
 on our guard against an over- weening confidence 
 in ourselves and against despondency also. 
 Above all, let not false shame prevail upon us to 
 desert the way of life and follow after the 
 maxims of worldly men. 
 
 ''Leave no unguarded place, 
 No weakness of the soul, 
 Take every virtue, every grace, 
 And fortify the whole." 
 
 If we are called upon to meet with fiery trials, 
 like those of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 95 
 
 let us betake ourselves to prayer, remembering 
 him who has said, "No weapon that is formed 
 against thee shall prosper, and every tongue 
 that riseth against thee in judgment shall be 
 condemned. ' ' Thus we shall be able to fight 
 valiantly the good fight of faith, and lay hold on 
 eternal life. 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 Vanity Fair. 
 
 By the City of Destruction Bunyan symbol- 
 ized the sinful state of men before they begin 
 a pilgrimage for life eternal, and by Vanit} r 
 Fair he represents the world in its temptations 
 and opposition to Christian life. He gives 
 us two representations of the latter. First, 
 as it existed in the days of the martyrs and 
 early confessors of Christ ; and again, in the 
 second part of the book, as it exists now, with 
 the leavening spirit of the gospel infused into it, 
 and its opposition held in check. In the first, 
 Christians were rare spectacles, and their un- 
 couth apparel and speech raised quite an excite- 
 ment, while they hastened to pass through the 
 city, putting their fingers in their ears when any 
 tempted them, and crying, ' 'Turn away mine eyes 
 from beholding vanity. ' ' In the second instance, 
 the pious company met with hospitality, tarried 
 some time, and met also with many friends of their 
 King who were residents of the city, such as Mr. 
 Contrite, Mr. Holy-man, Mr. lyove-saints, Mr. 
 Dare-not-lie and Mr. Penitent. 
 
98 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 The town of Vanity is a dangerous place for 
 pilgrims, and its varied allurements are described 
 by our author with great force of satire. 
 
 Here ' ' are all such merchandise sold as 
 houses, lands, trades, places, honors, preferments, 
 titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures; and 
 delights of all sorts, as harlots, wives, husbands, 
 children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, 
 souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones and 
 what not. And moreover, there is at all times 
 to be seen jugglings, cheats, games, plays, fools, 
 apes, knaves and rogues, and that of every kind. 
 Here are to be seen, too, and that for nothing, 
 thefts, murders, adulteries, false-swearers, and 
 that of a blood-red color. And as in other fairs 
 of less moment, there are the several rows and 
 streets under their proper names, where such 
 and such wares are vended; so here, likewise, 
 you have the proper places, rows, streets, 
 (namely, countries and kingdoms) where the 
 wares of this fair are soonest to be 'found. Here 
 is the Britain Row, the French Row, the Italian 
 Row, the Spanish Row, the German Row, where 
 several sorts of vanities are to be sold. But, as 
 in other fairs, some one commodity is as the chief 
 of all the fair, so the ware of Rome and her 
 merchandise is greatly promoted in this fair; only 
 our English nation, with some others, have 
 taken a dislike thereat. 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 99 
 
 ' ' Now, as I said, the way to the Celestial City 
 lies just through this town, and he that would 
 go to the city and }^et would not go through this 
 town, must needs go out of the world. The 
 Prince of princes himself, when here, went 
 through this town to his own country, and that 
 upon a fair-day, too; yea, Beelzebub, the chief 
 lord of this fair invited him to buy of his 
 vanities and would have made him lord of the 
 fair, would he but have done him reverence as 
 he went through the town. Yea, because he 
 was a person of honor, Beelzebub had him from 
 street to street, and showed him all the kingdoms 
 of the world in a little time, that he might, if 
 possible, allure that Blessed One to cheapen and 
 buy some of his vanities; but he had no mind to 
 the merchandise, and therefore left the town 
 without laying out so much as one farthing upon 
 these vanities. ' ' 
 
 It is of great importance to our salvation that 
 we understand the true relation of the world to 
 a real Christian life. The bible represents it as 
 the enemy of God. "Love not the world," 
 writes the beloved disciple, ''neither the things 
 which are in the world. If any man love the 
 world, the love of the Father is not in him. For 
 all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the 
 lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of 
 the Father, but is of the world. ' ' The scriptures 
 
100 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 say that the world cannot receive the spirit of 
 truth; that the world loves it own; that the 
 world hated Christ ; that Christ overcame the 
 world; that he would not pray for the world; 
 that the world by wisdom knew not God; that 
 Christians receive not the spirit of the world; 
 that the world was not worthy of the saints of 
 God; that the world passeth away, and the lusts 
 thereof; that the friendship of the world is en- 
 mity with God, and that whosoever is born of 
 God overcometh the world. What then is meant 
 by the "world," against which there are such 
 emphatic declarations? It cannot mean the 
 world considered as man's habitation. In this 
 sense the world is not an enemy. St. Paul in- 
 structs us to use the world as not abusing it, and 
 Christ prayed for his disciples, not that they 
 should be taken out of the world, but be kept 
 from the evil of the world. God made the world 
 in which we live for our enjoyment. The varia- 
 gated landscape, the joyousness of sunrise and 
 sunset, the wide-spread forest, the incense-breath- 
 ing flowers, the murmuring rivulets, the melo- 
 dies of birds, the cloud-piercing mountains, the 
 placid moon, the twinkling stars, the rolling 
 river, the swelling sea; all are for man's enjoy- 
 ment. All the beauty, the richness, the mag- 
 nificence of the creation is for the profit and 
 pleasure of the creature, that God may be 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 101 
 
 glorified in us. The heavens declare the glory of 
 God, and the lilies of the field and fowls of the 
 air are mementoes of his providence. O, this 
 beautiful world, so full of many colored mercies, 
 would be a paradise were it not for sin ! Its 
 blight is a spiritual one. Nor is the world of 
 mankind an enemy to us. We are commanded 
 to love all men, and do unto others as we would 
 they should do to us. Men may despise or per- 
 secute us, but we are taught to love even those 
 that hate us, and to live among men in a spirit 
 of kindness and gentleness to all. 
 
 Yet, in the midst of the loveliness of the 
 natural world, in the companionship of our 
 fellow men, is that world which is the enemy of 
 God. A world which is enmity itself personified, 
 and which is wholly shut out of the mercy and 
 love of God. A world under ban; cursed by 
 God's law, as tending to ruin. Everything in 
 the world which is not of the Father; the lust 
 of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride 
 of life; in short, whatever leads us from God, 
 and hinders salvation, may be called, in this 
 sense, the "world." It has no definite shape or 
 outline. It cannot be seen, yet we are living in 
 it, as we live in the air. We are acting in view 
 of it and are often possessed by it when we least 
 suspect it. It is a most intangible, shadowy 
 thing, yet its presence is universal, its power 
 
102 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 terrific, and its deceitfulness beyond conception, 
 It is a spirit, a life, an inspiration, a witchery, 
 an infection, an atmosphere, a mi asm, a fashion, 
 a taste, an influence; vague, but easily recog- 
 nized. As a tree is known by its fruit, so the 
 spirit of the world is known by its effects. 
 
 The world is not always an open enemy. L,ike 
 its master, it can transform itself into an angel 
 of light. It may have a sweet voice, and gentle 
 manners, and an insinuating address, all the 
 more readily to seduce us to sin. The lighter its 
 footfall, the more dangerous, perhaps, is its ap- 
 proach. It may come to our firesides and mingle 
 with our domestic affections. It has often a 
 wonderful regard for public decency and order, 
 and the regulations of police. It can open 
 churches, and bring people to public worship. 
 It is found both in the pew and the pulpit. Yet 
 it is not always the same. It has its character- 
 istics of time, and place, and circumstance. 
 The worldliness of one century or people differs 
 from that of another. At one time it tends to 
 grossness and vulgarity, and debasing pursuits, 
 and at another it will tolerate nothing but edu- 
 cated sin and refinement in vice. One while it 
 patronizes materialism, and then spiritualism. 
 
 It is hard to live in a place and avoid its spirit 
 to live in the world without worldliness. Yet 
 this is what we have to do. We cannot leave 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 103 
 
 the world till God summons us, but worldliness, 
 the spirit of the world, should not affect us. As 
 the three Hebrew children passed through the 
 furnace without the smell of fire clinging to 
 their garments, so our souls should pass to God 
 with no odor of worldliness upon them. 
 
 So opposed is the spirit of the world to the 
 religion of Jesus, that animosity is ever excited 
 against all who live true and godly lives. It 
 does not always persecute with death and im- 
 prisonment, but its enmity is unchanged. It 
 shed the blood of all the martyrs, from the time 
 of Abel until now. Bunyan represents Christian 
 and Faithful abused and insulted as they passed 
 along, and finally put in prison. Faithful was 
 put on trial for his life, and made a manly de- 
 fence of his character, but envy and superstition 
 bare false witness against him, so that he was 
 condemned, and suffered martyrdom at the stake. 
 If it were not for the facts of history, it would 
 hardly seem possible that men would burn others 
 to death merely for matters of opinion, yet it 
 has been even so. The blood of the martyrs has 
 been called the seed of the church, and we do 
 well to remember their constancy and endurance. 
 Foxe's old Book of Martyrs, one of the few 
 books which Bunyan owned, should have a 
 place in every family library; not the emasculated 
 and abridged editions, with a great part of the 
 
104 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 truth for which men suffered left out, but in all 
 its integrity. We need the examples of such as 
 Faithful, who resisted unto blood, striving 
 against sin, to encourage us to faithful testimony 
 and the patient bearing of affronts. 
 
 In his description of Faithful's trial, Bunyan 
 seems to have had an eye to his own arraign- 
 ment before Justices Keeling, Chester, etc., as 
 an upholder of unlawful assemblies and con- 
 venticles, and for not conforming to the Church 
 of England. The following is his own account 
 of that examination : 
 
 "Justice Keeling said that I ought not to 
 preach, and asked me where I had my authority; 
 with many other such like words. 
 
 ' 'I said that I would prove that it was lawful for 
 me, and such as I am, to preach the word of God. 
 
 " He said unto me, ' By what scripture ?' 
 
 " I said ' by that in I Peter 4:11, and Acts 18, 
 with other scriptures \vhich he would not suffer 
 me to mention, but said, ' Hold, not so many ; 
 which is the first ? ' 
 
 " I said this, 'As every man hath received the 
 gift, even so, let him minister the same unto 
 another as good stewards of the grace of God. If 
 any man speak, let him speak as the oracles 
 of God. 
 
 "He said, let me a little open that scripture to 
 you. As every man hath received the gift ; 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 105 
 
 that is, said he, as every man hath received a 
 trade, so let him follow it. If any man hath 
 received a gift of tinkering as thou hast done, 
 let him follow his tinkering ; and so other men 
 their trades, and the divine his calling, etc. 
 
 11 Nay sir, said I, but it is most clear that the 
 apostle speaks here of preaching the word ; if 
 you do but compare both the verses together, 
 the next verse explains this gift what it is ; say- 
 ing, ' If any man speak, let him speak as the 
 oracles of God, so that it is plain that the Holy 
 Ghost doth not so much in this place exhort to 
 civil callings, as to the exercising of those gifts 
 that we have received from God. I would have 
 gone on but he would not give me leave. He 
 said we might do it in our families, but not 
 otherwise. I said, if it was lawful to do good to 
 some it was lawful to do good to more. If it 
 was a good duty to exhort our families it is good 
 to exhort others ; but if they held it a sin to 
 meet together to seek the face of God and exhort 
 one another to follow Christ, I should sin still ; 
 for so we should do. 
 
 ' 'He said he was not so well versed in scripture 
 as to dispute, or words to that purpose. And 
 said, moreover, that they could not wait upon 
 me any longer, but said to me, then you confess 
 the indictment, do you not ? Now, and not till 
 now, I saw I was indicted. 
 
106 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 "I said, this I confess; we have had many 
 meetings together, both to pray to God and 
 to exhort one another, and we had the sweet com- 
 forting presence of the Lord among us for 
 encouragement. I confessed myself guilty no 
 otherwise. 
 
 "Then, said he, hear your judgment. You 
 must be had back again to prison and lie there 
 for three months following ; and at three months 
 end, if you do not submit to go to church to 
 hear divine service and leave your preaching, 
 you must be banished the realm, and if, after 
 such a day as shall be appointed you to be gone, 
 you shall be found in this realm or be found to 
 come over again without special license from the 
 King, you must stretch by the neck for it; I tell 
 you plainty. And so he bid my jailer have me 
 away. 
 
 "I told him, as to this matter I was at a point 
 with him ; for if I was out of prison to-day, I 
 would preach the gospel again to-morrow, by 
 the help of God." 
 
 Bunyan's courage and fidelity are worthy of 
 imitation and praise. His blustering, bullying 
 judges could not daunt a spirit like his which 
 had submitted itself through so many inward 
 trials to the service and law of Christ. Like 
 Christian and Faithful in the cage, exposed to 
 the jeers of the crowd, he acted with so much 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 107 
 
 wisdom and patience as to prove himself a 
 genuine servant of the King. 
 
 It is worthy of notice, also, how Providence 
 has vindicated and exalted the name of the man 
 upon whom the licentious courtiers and corrupt 
 judges of a bad king looked down with scorn. 
 The indicted tinker has displaced the judge who 
 insulted and condemned him, and in the English 
 House of Parliament the bust of Bunyan has its 
 place among those which conmemorate the chief 
 worthies of the nation. There is a divine provi- 
 dence which controls the fate and reputation of 
 men, dissapointing human judgments and plans, 
 exalting the lowly and true and overthrowing 
 the wicked from the high places. What Milton 
 calls a "resurrection of character" is often seen 
 in this life, as in the history of Bunyan, and it 
 will, one day, be accomplished for all. Our his- 
 tory has an eternity in which to be written or 
 accomplished, and in the ages to come rank and 
 station must give place to character and truth. 
 
 The second picture of Vanity Fair which Bun- 
 yan presents is one more like the times in which 
 we live. Legal pains and penalties are no longer 
 in force against pilgrims and man}^ of their 
 friends are residents of the town. This con- 
 dition of things has brought about peculiar temp- 
 tations to worldliness and formality which Bun- 
 yan, in his day, could scarcely have forseen. 
 
108 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 One of the best of Bunyan's commentators, Dr. 
 Cheever, has fancied the Dreamer to lie down 
 again to dream in the wilderness of this world, 
 and give an account of the change in Vanity Fair 
 during the progress of the two hundred years 
 since he w r rote. Following his example, we 
 shall imagine Bunyan to say : ' 'The town has 
 much changed since Christian and Faithful 
 passed through it, because many pilgrims had 
 settled there, being allured by the air and mer- 
 chandise of the place. These have formed 
 partnerships with the natives of the place, so that 
 a great part of the business is now carried on by 
 those who had been pilgrims. This is done 
 partly by permission of the King and partly by 
 the self-will of some who have become tired of 
 the toils of pilgrimage. The pilgrims who have 
 settled here have often thrived in their business 
 and many have built costly and beautiful houses 
 and stores. Some have become directors and 
 presidents of banks, and the name of pilgrim has 
 become so fashionable that many of the citizens 
 have adopted it, although they never took a step 
 towards the Celestial City. 
 
 "There was one, Mr. Genteel, whose name at 
 first was Mr. Rustic, who came to Vanty Fair 
 very dusty and poor from his pilgrimage, and 
 thought he would stay here just long enough to 
 better his circumstances, but such a tide of 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 109 
 
 worldly prosperity set in upon him that he be- 
 came very rich, and put up one of the finest 
 houses in the place. He then concluded to 
 change his purpose of going further and re- 
 mained in Vanity. His example was followed 
 also by Mr. Worldly Conformity, Mr. Luke- 
 warm, Mr. Indifferent, and several others. 
 
 ' 'Some of these professed pilgrims became very 
 extravagant and lived beyond their means, and 
 at length came to pass that you could not distin- 
 guish the citizens of Vanity from those who 
 were called pilgrims. When any of the latter 
 recalled their pilgrim life and love of Mt. Zion, 
 and would make preparations to set out again, 
 their worldly acquaintances of influence and 
 respectability, such as Mr. Self-indulgence, Mr. 
 Indolence, Mr. Love-of-ease and Mr. Please-all, 
 would generally, with fair speeches and company, 
 contrive to detain them till the day of their 
 death. Then indeed, they had great distress, and 
 would often cry out, O that I had never ceased 
 to be a pilgrim !" 
 
 I noticed also that there were many plans and 
 contrivances for the amusement and pleasure of 
 the pilgrim settlers or for the entertainment of 
 their new friends. Some of these projects were 
 never carried out, but others were quite success- 
 ful in promoting the union of pilgrims with the 
 original citizens. 
 
110 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 One plan proposed was a joint stock company 
 to build a railroad from the City of Destruction 
 to Mt. Zion, with palace cars and hotel accomo- 
 dations all the way. I do not think that this 
 was ever completed, for they could not fill up 
 the Slough of Despond, nor remove the gate at 
 the entrance of the way, much less bridge over 
 the dark river. 
 
 Another plan was to secure all the benefits of 
 pilgrimage without its labors and perils, and to 
 this end several things were designed with more 
 or less of success. In one place they built a 
 large cathedral, and decorated it with beautiful 
 church millinery and established a sing-song 
 sort of ritual. 
 
 . Those who submitted to the ceremonies there 
 performed considered themselves quite sure of 
 the Celestial City, although they had not 
 Christian's roll, and never went a step beyond 
 Vanity Fair. The preacher was so fashionable, 
 the music so fine, the seats so soft, and all the 
 ceremonies so pleasant, that very many citizens 
 of Vanity became church-going people. Yet 
 all the teaching of the place went to show that 
 a man could be his own Saviour. All the 
 threatenings of the Bible against sin were 
 smoothed away and no alarm ever suffered to be 
 given to the consciences of the people who came 
 there. It was even declared that the fiends who 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 111 
 
 vexed Christian were only creatures of his 
 imagination, and that Apollyon himself and the 
 place to which he belonged were merely fancies. 
 There was also another singular thing practised 
 upon the credulity of pilgrims who had become 
 worldly in this place. A sort of fashionable 
 pilgrimage was instituted to the cave of Giant 
 Pope, which lay close by the town. This cave 
 was greatly adorned and illuminated by a dim 
 light, so as to appear romantic and sacred, the 
 bones and skulls of burned pilgrims were care- 
 fully covered up, and very attractive ceremonies 
 performed, in order to bring together a crowd. 
 I observed also another thing in my dream which 
 is worthy of recording in order to show how 
 cunning Beelzebub, the master and ruler of 
 Vanity Fair, can be. All over the city there 
 were meeting-places for what are called circles, 
 or seances, where people came, not to learn the 
 will of God, nor the way to the Celestial land, 
 but to seek a sort of inspiration or gratify curi- 
 osity by an imaginary correspondence with their 
 deceased friends. In these circles I noticed that 
 they sometimes sang and prayed in imitation of 
 the customs of pilgrims, although their sole de- 
 sign was to prevent people from going on pil- 
 grimage at all. 
 
 Whatever plans or customs prevailed, they 
 were such as were approved by the enemies of 
 
112 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 the King of pilgrims, and were intended to hin- 
 der all who would go to the Heavenly City. 
 
 Is not the continuation of the allegory a true 
 picture ? O, let us turn away our souls from 
 worldly vanity, and seek the robustness and en- 
 ergy of a true Christian faith ! Although called 
 to live in the world, and surrounded by the 
 allurements of the world, let us live above the 
 world. Let us have that faith which overcomes 
 the world. As strangers and pilgrims on the 
 earth, let us look for that city which hath spirit- 
 ual and eternal foundations; the heavenly Jeru- 
 salem. Let us endure as seeing him who is 
 invisible, counting all earthly good but dross 
 in comparison with spiritual blessings. With 
 true Christian independence let us sing with 
 Charles Wesley : 
 
 "A stranger iu the world below, 
 
 I calmly sojourn here; 
 Nor can its happiness or woe, 
 
 Provoke my hope or fear. 
 Its evils in a moment end; 
 
 Its joys as soon are past; 
 But, O, the bliss to which I tend, 
 
 Kternally shall last. 
 To that Jerusalem above, 
 
 With singing I repair; 
 While in the flesh, my hope and love, 
 
 My heart and soul are there." 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 From Vanity Fair to the Delec- 
 table Mountains. 
 
 After the death of Faithful, at Vanity Fair, 
 Christian went on his journey ; not alone, for 
 God had raised him up another companion, 
 whose name was Hopeful. Beholding Christian 
 and Faithful, and taking notice of their w r ords 
 and behavior during their sufferings at the fair, 
 Hopeful saw the superiority of a spiritual life 
 and joined himself to Christian in a brotherly 
 covenant. Thus one died to bear testimony to 
 the truth and another one rises out of his ashes. 
 The violence of persecution fails to extinguish 
 the spirit of truth and gives publicity to that 
 it would fain destroy. 
 
 In this part of the allegory we are introduced 
 to the character of a large class of men, under 
 the characteristic appellations of By-ends, Hold- 
 the- world. Money-love and Save-all. These are 
 sometimes found in the King's highway, but 
 they differ from real pilgrims in two points : 
 1 They never strive against wind and tide. 
 2 They are always most zealous for religion 
 
114 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 when it walks in silver slippers. They patro- 
 nize piety when the sun shines on it and people 
 applaud it. It is contrary to their nature to 
 uphold a weak and struggling cause. They go 
 with the crowd and float upon the current of 
 popular favor. Mr. By-ends was of the same 
 kindred with Messrs. Time-sewer, Fair- speech, 
 Smooth-man and Two-tongues ; and with his 
 companions went to school in the town of Love- 
 gain where they were taught the art of getting, 
 either by violence, cozenage, flattering, lying, 
 or by putting on a guise of religion. They 
 thought it quite right to appear religious in 
 order to get trade, or to marry a rich wife, or for 
 any other worldly good, and argued stoutly with 
 Christian and his companion on its propriety. 
 Mr. By-ends proposed this question : Suppose a 
 minister or a tradesman should have an advan- 
 tage lie before him to get the good things of 
 this life, yet he cannot attain them except, in 
 appearance at least, he becomes exceedingly 
 zealous in some points of religion which he 
 meddled not with before ; may he not use this 
 means to obtain this end and yet be a right 
 honest man ? Mr. Money-love undertook to 
 answer this question and his reply is a fair 
 example of the sophistry by which men of this 
 world seek to justify themselves in hypocrisy 
 and falsehood. Alas, how many there are who 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 115 
 
 have no higher aim than the loaves and fishes ! 
 Money-love argued that a minister may lawfully 
 desire a more wealthy place, and if this desire 
 made him more studious and more compliant 
 with the temper of his ^people, even if he should 
 alter some of his principles, he should not be 
 condemned as covetous. Also he said a trades- 
 man might become religious to bring customers 
 to his shop, or marry a rich wife, because it is 
 a good thing to become religious, no matter with 
 what motive. 
 
 Christian however cut the argument very 
 short, by a very few strokes of his sword of truth. 
 He declared that none but heathens, hypocrites, 
 devils, and wizards, were of this opinion. The 
 hypocritical Pharisees pretended to make long 
 prayers in order to get widows' houses, and 
 their judgment was greater damnation. Judas 
 the devil was religious for the bag and was the 
 very son of perdition. Simon the wizard was 
 of this religion, for he would have the Holy 
 Ghost in order to get money, and his sentence 
 was in accordance with his sin. Christian 
 further declared that a man who takes up relig- 
 ion for the world will throw away or sell religion 
 for the world. 
 
 The reply of Christian completely staggered 
 those men and they were unable to answer a 
 word; so Christian said to Hopeful, "If they 
 
116 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 cannot stand before the sentence of men, what 
 will they do with the sentence of God ?" 
 
 This part of the Pilgrim's Progress is full of 
 instruction and warning, There is great danger 
 of having bad motives even in a good cause, 
 and it is the motive which makes any action 
 good or bad. Christ wants men who love him 
 for his own sake, not for self interest. An eye 
 single, not double, is the sole condition of 
 spiritual illumination. "If thine eye be single 
 thy whole body shall be full of light, but if 
 thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full 
 of darkness. If therefore the light that is in 
 thee be darkness, how great is that darkness !" 
 
 Just after the conversation recorded by Bun- 
 yan, our pilgrims had their principles put to. the 
 test. They came to a narrow plain, called Ease, 
 near w r hich was a hill called Lucre, and in that 
 hill a silver mine. Many pilgrims had turned 
 aside here, and falling into the pit had been 
 slain, or maimed. A very gentlemanly man, 
 named Dernas, invited them to examine and 
 speculate, so that they might get rich with little 
 trouble. He declared the mine was not dangerous 
 except to such as were careless. Many have 
 been snared by such reasoning. They think to 
 dig just a little in the mine, and to be very care- 
 ful, but one temptation leads to another, and 
 they learn to their sorrow at last, that they that 
 
/'V*- OF THE A 
 
 I UNIVERSITY j 
 
 THE tt'AY Ol< SALVATION 117 
 
 will be rich fall into temptation, and a snare, 
 and into man} 7 foolish and hurtful lusts, which 
 drown men in perdition. For the love of money 
 is the root of all evil, which, while some have 
 coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and 
 pierced themselves through \vith many sorrows. 
 ' 'In our day' ' says Cheever, ' 'there are many such 
 hills Lucre and such men Demas, to be encountered 
 in our pilgrimage. But the air of the mines, it is 
 observable, is in all those regions, and the pilgrims 
 who turn aside, generally get so infected with it 
 that they are ever after either greatly hindered 
 and weakened in their course, or entirely dis- 
 abled from pursuing their pilgrimage. There are 
 also certain wild lands stretching off behind the 
 hill Lucre, where some pilgrims wandering in 
 search of treasure have lost their way, and 
 never been heard of more." By divine grace 
 the care of Christian carried him and his com- 
 panion past this danger, but By-ends, Money- 
 love, and their companions went over at once to 
 the mine, and were never seen again in the way 
 of life. 
 
 Let us not be deceived by vain show. We 
 cannot serve God and Mammon. We may try 
 to do so but we cannot, and the trying to 
 perform an impossibility is the hardest task a 
 man can have. How many drudges there are in 
 the church who are vainly striving to do this 
 
118 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 crouching down, like Issachar, between two 
 burdens ! Many have just enough religious 
 desire to be miserable, because they love the 
 world too well to forsake all for Christ. O, that 
 men could learn the happiness of being whole- 
 hearted with God ! 
 
 After a while, the pilgrims came to a delight- 
 ful part of the way, which ran along by the banks 
 of the river of life, shaded by fruitful and 
 pleasant trees. This represents one of those 
 seasons of great enjoyment and religious fervour 
 which Christians sometimes experience, parti- 
 cularly after declining some special worldly temp- 
 tation. Then the soul has sweet communion 
 with God, and delightful views of the spiritual 
 life, and is content with its portion in Jesus. 
 But this pleasant condition did not last long. 
 The hardy virtues of Christian character require 
 trial for their development and perfection. We 
 must learn to trust God without sensible sweet- 
 ness, and endure as seeing Him who is invisible. 
 When the road became rough, however, the pil- 
 grims began to be discontented and wish for a 
 better. As if there could be a better way than 
 that of Divine Providence ! How touching is 
 the expostulation of the Lord with Israel by 
 Jeremiah ; ' 'Thus saith the Lord, I remember 
 thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of 
 thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 119 
 
 the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. 
 Israel was holiness unto the L,ord, and the first- 
 fruits of his increase. ' ' 
 
 The wilderness itself is no fearful thing if God 
 is before us and the love of espousal is in our 
 hearts; but when we murmur or are discontented 
 with the divine allotment we are in danger of 
 leaving the way of life. So the pilgrims found 
 it. No sooner had they wished for a better way 
 than By-path meadow presented itself, with a 
 convenient tempting stile, and a path which 
 seemed to go along by the the King's highway, 
 but on the other side of the fence. They might 
 have known better, but they washed a smoother 
 road, and went to the stile to see. Thus the} 7 
 entered into temptation, and took the first step 
 aside which led them into many sorrows. From 
 looking over the stile, it was but a small thing to 
 climb over, and get into what seemed a smoother 
 path, and they soon met one Vain Confidence 
 also, who assured them that the way led to the 
 Celestial City. But before long night came on, 
 and it grew very stormy and Vain Confidence 
 fell down into a deep pit. Then were the pil- 
 grims troubled and tried to go back to the road 
 they had left, but the rain increased, with dread- 
 ful thunder and lightning, and the waters rose 
 so high that they could not get back. All night 
 long they remained in the storm, and in the 
 
120 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 morning they were made prisoners by Giant 
 Despair, and locked up in the dungeon of 
 Doubting Castle. This part of the allegory is 
 of great interest. It shows how miserable a 
 Christian may become by falling into sin, and 
 how far the mercy of God in Christ can reach. 
 
 There are many ways of getting into the 
 castle of Giant Despair. Some get there by un- 
 belief, and some by pride and self-righteousness. 
 Some dally with temptations to self-indulgence 
 till they find themselves unable to hope in Christ. 
 Some have a natural gloom and despondency of 
 mind of which Satan takes advantage. Others 
 brood over the threatenings of God's Word and 
 neglect his promises. Many get into Doubting 
 Castle by indulging in speculation and endeavor- 
 ing to reduce all divine truth to the measure of 
 their own intellects. These begin by puzzling 
 their brains over the divine personalities in the 
 Trinity, or predestination or the rational grounds, 
 of the atonement, or the nature of the resurrec- 
 tion; and arguing away the simple truth of God's 
 Word until they find nothing left for a sinful soul 
 to cling unto. Some get into prison by spiritual 
 sins and some by sensual, but in whatever .way 
 we may get there the position is deplorable 
 enough. Christian and Hopeful found the hard- 
 ships of Doubting Castle worse than all the 
 fatigue and trials of their pilgrimage. Deep 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 121 
 
 clown in darkness, without food, or light, or 
 comfort, the} 7 were subjected to unmerciful beat- 
 ings and privations, and tempted to destroy 
 themselves, Christian indeed was on the point 
 of giving up all hope, but the more elastic 
 nature of Hopeful kept him from absolute death. 
 One Saturday night, after many days of suffer- 
 ing, they began to pray, and kept on praying 
 till almost break of da}\ If they had only 
 used this weapon of all-prayer before, they might 
 have lessened their trials, for, behold, a little 
 before day-break, a new revelation seems to dawn 
 upon Christian's soul ! The Hoty Spirit, the 
 Heavenly Reminder, in answer to prayer, brings 
 to his recollection the Key of Promise which 
 will unlock any door in Doubting Castle. With 
 trembling eagerness they apply the key, open 
 the doors of the dungeon, and walk out to light 
 and liberty. It was Sabbath morning the 
 memorial of creation and of resurrection and 
 to them a day of life from the dead. How cheer- 
 ing seemed the beams of the sun ! How the 
 fresh reviving air brought balm and bloom to 
 their wasted frames ! How gladly, after their 
 long imprisonment did they regain the King's 
 highway ! No sooner did they get back, than 
 with true Christian concern for others, they 
 nailed up an inscription, "Over this stile is the 
 way to Doubting Castle, kept by Giant Despair. " 
 
122 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Many that followed after read what was written, 
 and escaped the danger. 
 
 We next meet with our pilgrims among the 
 Delectable Mountains, where there were gardens, 
 and orchards, and vineyards, and fountains of 
 living water, to refresh their spirits. Here were 
 shepherds of Christ's flock, named Knowledge, 
 Experience, Watchful and Sincere, who took 
 them by the hand, and showed them the wonders 
 of these mountains as the Interpreter and the 
 inmates of the Palace Beautiful had done before. 
 No one who had not a real experience in divine 
 things would have imagined such a scene so 
 soon after the castle of Giant Despair. God's 
 ways are not as man's ways. His pardon is an 
 abundant pardon. Those who return to his 
 ways are welcomed with a Father's love, and 
 without upbraiding are placed where they can 
 be sweetly instructed in divine things. 
 
 The shepherds took them to the hill called 
 Error, and showed them how men are dashed to 
 pieces by rashly trying to climb ; as Hymeneus 
 and Philetus, who erred concerning the resurrec- 
 tion. At another place the}' saw a number of 
 blind men stumbling amid tombs, and were told 
 that they were prisoners of Giant Despair, who 
 had put out their eyes and thrown them among 
 the dark tombs, according to the saying of 
 Scripture. "He that wandereth out of the way 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 123 
 
 of understanding shall remain in the congrega- 
 tion of the dead." Then Christian and Hope- 
 ful looked upon one another, with tears gushing 
 out, but said nothing. Before they left the 
 shepherds, they were taken to the the hill Clear, 
 from whence they could see the Celestial City if 
 they could skillfully use the shepherd's telescope. 
 Their hands trembled however, and their eyes 
 were somewhat dim, yet they saw something 
 like the gate, and also some of the glory of the 
 place. Imperfect as the vision was, it was 
 enough to ravish their spirits to find the great 
 object of all their journey so near their view. 
 Like Moses they had a general, though distant 
 view of Canann, and could sing, 
 
 " The promised land, from Pisgah's top, 
 
 I now exult to see ; 
 My hope is full, (O glorious hope !) 
 Of immortality." 
 
 When they were about to depart, one of the 
 shepherds gave them a map, or note of the way, 
 another bade them beware of the Flatterer, a 
 third warned them not to sleep on the Enchanted 
 ground, and the fourth bade them God speed. 
 
 It would have been w r ell if the pilgrims had 
 heeded the parting words of the shepherds, since 
 they came to a place where the road forked in 
 such a way that they knew not which path to 
 take, and listening to the direction of a dark 
 
124 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 man dressed in white, they took the wrong 
 road, and were ensnared in the net of the 
 Flatterer. They were severely punished for 
 this, by a shining one with a whip of eords, and 
 led back into the way. On nearing the En- 
 chanted Ground, they kept themselves from 
 sleeping by rehearsing their religious experience. 
 If the church gets cold in religion, it is sure to 
 go to sleep, and the very best safeguard is to 
 sing and speak together of the \vays of God. 
 Bunyan has truly, though quaintly sung, 
 
 " Saint's fellowship, if it be managed well, 
 Keeps them awake, and that in spite of hell." 
 
 Hopeful gave Christian an account of his con- 
 version. He was first awakened by the life and 
 death of Faithful in Vanity Fair. He related 
 how, in his unconverted state, he used to remem- 
 ber God, and his sins, arid be troubled. If he 
 met a good man in the streets, or if he heard 
 any one read in the Bible, or if he heard of the 
 sickness of a neighbor, or the tolling of funeral 
 bells, or the news of some sudden death, or the 
 thought of his own death and of the judgment to 
 come, it would bring his sins to mind. Then he 
 would try to reform his' life, but found that there 
 was no hope of acceptance out of Christ. By 
 Faithful's direction he went to the mercy-seat, 
 and pleaded with God to reveal Christ to him, 
 
THE WAY OF SALVTION 125 
 
 and though he was often tempted to leave off 
 praying, yet he persevered till he obtained peace. 
 The closing part of Hopeful's relation contains 
 such forcible words and is so true to nature, as 
 to be worthy of special attention. 
 
 ' 'I did not see Christ with my bodily eyes, 
 but with the eyes of my understanding, and 
 thus it was. One day I was very sad, I think 
 sadder than at any one time in my life, and this 
 sadness was through a fresh sight of the great- 
 ness and vileness of my sins. And as I was 
 then looking for nothing but hell, and the ever- 
 lasting dammation of my soul, suddenly, as I 
 thought, I saw the Lord Jesus looking down 
 from heaven upon me, and saying, 'Believe on 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved. ' 
 But I replied, 'Lord, I am a great, a very great 
 sinner;' and he answered 'My grace is sufficient 
 forthee.' Then I said, 'But, Lord, what is 
 believing? And then I saw from that saying, 
 'He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and 
 he that believeth on me shall never thirst', that 
 believing and coming was all one, and that he 
 that came, that is, that ran out in his heart and 
 affections after salvation by Christ, he indeed 
 believed in Christ. Then the water stood in my 
 eyes, and I asked further, 'But, Lord, may such a 
 great sinner as I am be indeed accepted of thee, 
 and be saved by thee?' And I heard him say 'And 
 
126 THE WAY OP SALVATION 
 
 him that cometh to me, I will in nowise cast out.' 
 Then I said, 'But how, Lord, must I consider of 
 thee in my coming to thee, that my faith may be 
 placed aright upon thee ?' Then he said, 'Christ 
 Jesus came into the world to save sinners.' 'He 
 is the end of the law for righteousness to every 
 one that believes. ' 'He died for our sins and 
 roj3e again for our justification.' 'He loved us, 
 and washed us from our sins in his own blood. ' 
 'He is mediator between God and us.' 'He ever 
 liveth to make intercession for us. ' From all 
 which I gathered, that I must look for righteous- 
 ness 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 sal vat ion, and be thank- 
 ful. 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. It made me see that all the world, 
 notwithstanding all the righteousness thereof, is 
 in a state of condemnation. It made me see 
 that God the Father, though he be just, can 
 justly justify the coming sinner. It made me 
 greatly ashamed of the vileness of my former 
 life. It made me love a holy life, and long to do 
 something for the honor and glory of the name 
 of the Lord Jesus. ' ' 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 127 
 
 How different is the experience of Hopeful 
 from the vain hope of Ignorance, who is des- 
 cribed as a brisk lad who came from the country 
 of Conceit, by a little crooked lane. Christian 
 asked him how he thought to get in at the gate 
 of the Celestial City, and received for answer, "As 
 other good people do." "But what have you to 
 show at that gate, ' ' said Christian, 'that it should 
 be opened to you ?" "I know my Lord's will," 
 replied Ignorance, 4 'and have been a good liver; 
 I pay every man his own; I pray, fast, pay tithes, 
 and gives alms, and have left my country for 
 whither I am going. ' ' Here we have the type of 
 a professor of religion who is seeking to be 
 saved by his own merits. Ignorant of the 
 depravity and sin of their own nature and know- 
 ing nothing of Christ's righteousness, such go 
 about to establish their own righteousness with- 
 out submitting to God's plan. There are many 
 such among us who will come short of the goal 
 at last. 
 
 Hopeful's experience shows the humility of a 
 renewed heart, and its relish for spiritual truth ; 
 while Ignorance is a specimen of spiritual pride 
 and the antagonism of the natural man against 
 all that is spiritual and divine. 
 
 Let us ponder well the path in which we go ! 
 Let us keep in the way of holiness, until we 
 reach the portals of the shining city ! It is no 
 
128 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 easy thing to be a true Christian. A fanciful 
 faith is a false faith, and if we would be saved 
 we must be guided by the law and the testimony, 
 for if we walk not according to God's word 
 there is no light in us. Let us also be careful 
 against discontent and heart wanderings, lest we 
 become prisoners of Giant Despair. 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
 The Land Beulah. 
 
 We accompany our pilgrims to the land 
 Beulah. By this Bui^an represents that ma- 
 tured state of Christian experience in which the 
 soul becomes ripe for heaven. It matters not by 
 what name it may be called Christian perfection, 
 entire sanctification, holiness, or full assurance 
 it is a state in which the soul is entirely devoted 
 to Christ; when it no longer appropriates the 
 terms I, or me, or mine, but Christ is all in all. 
 
 We have seen Christian forsaking the City of 
 Destruction, applying for admission at the 
 Wicket Gate, instructed at the house of the 
 Interpreter, relieved at the sight of the Cross, 
 admitted to fellowship in the palace Beautiful, 
 contending with Apollyon and the powers of 
 darkness, repudiating the follies of Vanity Fair, 
 falling into Doubting Castle, yet reaching the 
 Delectable Mountains. We have now to con- 
 sider him as fully established in grace and enjoy- 
 ing the happiness of continual communion with 
 God. 
 
180 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 "Now I saw in my dream, that by this 
 time the pilgrims were got over the En- 
 chanted ground, and entering into the country 
 of Beulah, w r hose air was very sweet and 
 pleasant, the way lying directly through it, they 
 solaced themselves there for a season. Yea, 
 here they heard continually the singing of birds, 
 and saw every day the flowers appear in the 
 earth, and heard the voice of the turtle in the 
 land. In this country the sun shineth night and 
 day; wherefore this was beyond the Valley of 
 the Shadow of Death, and also out of the reach 
 of Giant Despair, neither could they from this 
 place so much as see Doubting Castle. Here 
 they were within sight of the city they were go- 
 ing to; here also met them some of the inhabi- 
 tants thereof, for in this land the shining ones 
 commonly walked, because it was upon the bor- 
 ders of heaven. In this land also the contract 
 between the Bride and the Bridegroom was re- 
 newed, yea, here 'as the bridegroom rejoiceth 
 over the bride, so doth their God rejoice over 
 them.' Here they had no want of corn and 
 wine, for in this place they met with abundance 
 of what they had sought for in all their pilgrim- 
 age. Here they heard voices from out of the 
 city, loud voices, saying, 'Say ye to the daugh- 
 ter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh ! 
 Behold, his reward is with him !' Here all the 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 131 
 
 inhabitants of the country called them 'the holy 
 people, the redeemed of the Lord, sought out, ' etc. 
 
 Now, as they walked in this land, they had 
 more rejoicing than in parts more remote from 
 the kingdom to which they were bound; and 
 drawing near the city, they had yet a more 
 perfect view thereof. It was builded of pearls 
 and precious stones, also the streets thereof were 
 paved with gold; so that, by reason of the 
 natural glory of the city, and the reflection of 
 the sunbeams upon it, Christian with desire fell 
 sick." Here also were orchards, vineyards, and 
 gardens, belonging to the King, and planted for 
 his own delight, and for the solace of pilgrims. 
 In these they rested, and slept, and mused, until 
 they were summoned to go over the river and 
 enter the Celestial City. 
 
 Bun}^an had himself some experimental know- 
 ledge of the happy state he symbolized, in which 
 death seemed to him as nothing, and the light 
 and air and melodies of heaven came floating 
 round the soul and entrancing it with more than 
 mortal joy. He says, "I have a desire to be 
 with Christ. There the spirits of the just are 
 perfected. There the spirits of the righteous 
 are as full as they can hold. A sight of Jesus in 
 the word some know how it will change them 
 from glory to glory. But how then shall we be 
 changed and filled when we shall see him as he 
 
132 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 is? 'When he shall appear, we shall be like 
 him, for we shall see him as he is. ' 
 
 Moses and Elias appeared to Peter and James 
 and John, at the transfiguration of Christ, 'in 
 glory.' How so ? Why, they had been in the 
 heavens, and came thence with some of the 
 glories of heaven upon them. 
 
 Glory is a strange thing to men that are on 
 this side of heaven. It is that which eye hath 
 not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath entered in the 
 heart of man; only the Christian has a word and 
 spirit that at times gives a little of the glimmer- 
 ing thereof unto him. But oh, when he is in 
 the spirit, and sees in the spirit, do you think his 
 tongue can tell ? But if the sight of heaven at 
 so vast a distance is so excellent a prospect, 
 what will it be when. one is in it? No marvel, 
 then, if the desires of the righteous are to be 
 with Christ." 
 
 Very many of God's servants have attained an 
 experimental knowledge of the state which 
 Bunyan describes, few however have left such 
 records of their experiences in it as that eminent 
 Christian minister, Dr. Pay son. A few selections 
 from his writings and biography will give us the 
 best possible commentary on this part of the 
 Pilgrim's Progress. He says in one place 
 "When I formerly read Bui^an's description of 
 the land Beulah, where the sun shines and the 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 133 
 
 birds sing day and night, I used to doubt 
 whether there was such a place; but now my own 
 experience has convinced me of it, and it infin- 
 itely transcends all my precious conceptions. ' ' 
 
 In another place, speaking of the believer's 
 foretastes of heaven, he says, "The apostle, 
 after informing us 'that eye hath not seen, nor 
 ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived of 
 those things which God has prepared for them 
 that love him,' adds, 'but God hath revealed 
 them unto us by his spirit. ' Of the truth of this 
 assertion every Christian, who walks in the fear 
 of God, is convinced by happy experience. 
 Like the blessed inhabitants of heaven, such 
 persons are enabled by the Holy Spirit to enjoy 
 fellowship with the Father, and with his Son 
 Jesus Christ; to participate in the joy that is felt 
 in heaven when sinners repent; and to unite 
 with the spirits of the just made perfect in 
 ascribing blessing, and glory, and power, unto 
 God and the Lamb. At intervals, which return 
 more or less frequently in proportion to their 
 diligence, zeal, and fidelity, God is pleased to 
 grant them still greater consolation, to lift upon 
 them the light of his countenance, and cause 
 them to rejoice in his salvation. He sheds abroad 
 his love in their hearts, makes them to know the 
 great love wherewith he has loved them, shines 
 in upon their souls with the pure, dazzling, 
 
134 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 transforming beams of celestial mercy, truth, and 
 grace; displays to their enraptured view the in- 
 effable beauties and glories of Him who is the 
 chief among ten thousands, and enables them 
 in some measure to comprehend the lengths and 
 breadths, the heights and depths, of that love of 
 Christ which passeth knowledge. While the 
 happy Christian, in these bright enraptured 
 moments, sinks lower and lower in self-abase- 
 ments and humility, the spirit of God stooping 
 from his blessed abode, raises him, as it were, 
 on his celestial wings, and places him before the 
 open door of heaven, and enables him to look in 
 and contemplate the great I Am, the ancient of 
 days, enthroned with the Son of his love, the 
 brightness of his glory. He contemplates, he 
 wonders, he admires, he loves, he adores. Ab- 
 sorbed in the ravishing, the ecstatic contempla- 
 tion of uncreated loveliness, glory, and beauty, 
 he forgets the world, he forgets himself, he 
 almost forgets that he exists. His whole soul 
 goes forth in one intense flame of admiration, 
 love, and desire, and he longs to plunge into the 
 boundless ocean of perfection which opens to 
 his view, and to be wholly swallowed and lost in 
 God. With an energy and activity of soul 
 unknown before, he roams and ranges through 
 this infinite ocean of existence and happiness, of 
 perfection and glory, of power and wisdom, of 
 
THE WAY OF SALVTION 135 
 
 light and love, where he can neither find bottom 
 nor shore. His soul dilates itself beyond its 
 ordinary capacity, and expands to receive the 
 tide of felicity which fills and overwhelms it. 
 No language can do justice to his feelings, for 
 his joys are unspeakable, but with an emphasis, 
 a meaning, an energy, which God only could 
 excite, and which God alone can comprehend, 
 he exclaims in broken accents, My Father and 
 my God ! Thus by the agency .of the spirit is 
 he filled with all the fullness of God, and re- 
 joices with joy unspeakable and full of glory, 
 till his wise and compassionate Father, in con- 
 descension to the weakness of his almost expir- 
 ing child, graciously draws a veil over glories 
 too dazzling for mortal eyes long to sustain; 
 leaving him still, however, in the enjoyment of 
 that peace of God which passe th all under- 
 standing." 
 
 Dr. Payson's last illness was very severe. 
 His right arm and left side were paralyzed as to 
 motion and external sensation, and he suffered 
 the most excruciating pain internally. Yet his 
 mind was clear and vigorous and his spiritual 
 experiences most joyful. In a letter to his sister 
 he writes, "Were I to adopt the figurative lan- 
 guage of Bunyan, I might date this letter from 
 the land of Beulah, of which I have been for 
 some time such a happy inhabitant. The celestial 
 
136 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 city is full in my view. Its glories beam 
 upon me, its breezes fan me, its odors are wafted 
 to me, its sounds strike upon my ears, and its 
 spirit is breathed into my heart. Nothing sepa- 
 rates me from it but the river of death, which 
 now appears as an insignificant rill, which can 
 be crossed at a single step, whenever God shall 
 give permission. The Sun of Righteousness 
 has been gradually drawing nearer and nearer, 
 appearing larger and brighter as he approached, 
 and now fills the whole hemisphere, pouring 
 forth a flood of glory, in which I seem to float 
 like an insect in the beams of the sun, exulting, 
 yet almost trembling, while I gaze on this ex- 
 cessive brightness, and wondering why God 
 should deign thus to shine upon a sinful worm." 
 On being asked, "Do you feel reconciled?" 
 he replied, "O that is too cold; I rejoice; I 
 triumph; and this happiness will endure as long 
 as God himself, for it consists in admiring and 
 adoring him. I can find no words to express 
 my happiness. I seem to be swimming in a 
 river of pleasure which is carrying me on to the 
 great fountain. It seems as if all the bottles in 
 heaven were opened, and all its fullness and 
 happiness have come down into my heart. God 
 has been depriving me of one blessing after 
 another, but as each one was removed, he has 
 come in and filled up its place. If God had 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 137 
 
 told me some time ago that he was about to 
 make me as happy as I could be in this world, 
 and that he should begin by crippling me in all 
 my limbs and removing from me all my usual 
 sources of enjoyment, I should have thought it 
 a very strange mode of accomplishing his pur- 
 pose. Now, when I am a cripple, and not able 
 to move, I am happier than I ever was in my 
 life before or ever expected to be. 
 
 "It has often been remarked that people who 
 have passed into the other world cannot come 
 back to tell us what they have seen, but I am 
 so near the eternal world that I can almost see 
 as clearly as if I were there; and I see enough 
 to satisfy me of the truth of the doctrines I 
 have preached. I do not know that I shall feel 
 at all surer had I been really there. ' ' 
 
 "Watchman, what of the night?" asked a 
 grey-headed member of his church. "I should 
 think it was about noon-day, ' ' replied the dying 
 Pay son. 
 
 He sent a request to his pulpit that his people 
 should come to his sick-chamber. They came 
 in classes, a few at a time, and received his dy- 
 ing message. To the young men of his congre- 
 gation he said, "I felt desirous that you might 
 see that the religion I have preached can support 
 me in death. You know that I have many ties 
 which bind me to earth; a family to which I am 
 
138 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 strongly attached, and a people whom I love 
 almost as well; but the other world acts like a 
 much stronger magnet, and draws my heart 
 away from this. Death comes every night, and 
 stands by my bed-side in the form of terrible 
 convulsions, every one of which threatens to 
 separate the soul from the body. These grow 
 worse and worse till every bone is almost dislo- 
 cated with pain. Yet while my body is thus 
 tortured, the soul is perfectly, perfectly happy 
 and peaceful. I lie here and feel these convulsions 
 extending higher and higher, but my soul is filled 
 with joy unspeakable ! I seem to swim in a 
 flood of glory which God pours down upon me. 
 Is it a delusion that can fill the soul to overflow- 
 ing with joy in such circumstances ? If so, it 
 is a delusion better than any reality. It is no 
 delusion. I feel it is not. I enjoy this happi- 
 ness now. And now, standing as I do on the 
 ridge that separates the two worlds feeling 
 what intense happiness the soul is capable of 
 sustaining, and judging of your capacities by 
 my own, and believing that those capacities will 
 be filled to the very brim with joy or wretched- 
 ness forever, my heart yearns over you, my 
 children, that you may choose life and not death. 
 "A young man," he continued, "just about 
 to leave the world, exclaimed, 'The battle's 
 fought, the battle's fought, but the victory is 
 
THE WAY Ob SALVATION 139 
 
 lost forever !' But I can say, 'The battle's 
 fought, and the victory is won the victory is 
 won forever !' I am going to bathe in the ocean 
 of purity, and benevolence, and happiness, to all 
 eternity. And now, my children, let me bless 
 you, not with the blessing of a poor feeble dying 
 man, but with the blessing of the infinite God." 
 He then pronounced the apostolic benediction. 
 
 After his death, these words were attached to 
 a label on his breast, by his own direction. 
 "Remember the words which I spoke unto you 
 while I -was yet present with you." At the 
 request of his people, the same words were en- 
 graved on his coffln, and read by thousands on 
 the day of interment. 
 
 But the tempter is suggesting, doubtless, to 
 some of you that such a state of Christian per- 
 fection as Payson and Bunyan attained is too 
 high for you. A few eminent saints may reach 
 it, but practically, it is far beyond the reach of 
 ordinary Christians. Be not deluded, I pray you 
 by such suggestions. It is Satan's business to 
 discourage you if he cannot lead you into pre- 
 sumptions sins. Let Payson's stirring example 
 and exhortation stimulate you to go on to per- 
 fection. "The professed disciple of Christ who 
 desponds and trembles when he hears his Master 
 calling him to go on to perfection may derive 
 courage and support from looking at the promises 
 of Christ and at their Author. 
 
140 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Among the blessings promised, you will find 
 every thing which any man can need to assist 
 him in arriving at perfection. There are 
 promises of light and direction to find the path 
 which leads to it; promises of assistance to walk 
 in that path; promises of strength to resist and 
 overcome all opposition; promises of remedies to 
 heal us when wounded, of cordials to invigorate 
 us when faint, and of most glorious rewards to 
 crown the end of our course. You will hear 
 Jehovah saying, 'Fear not, for I am with thee; 
 be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will 
 strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I 
 will uphold thee with the right hand of my 
 righteousness.' 'Though thou art in thyself 
 but a worm, thou shalt thresh the mountains, 
 and beat them small as the dust.' L,ook next 
 at Him who gives these promises. It is one 
 who is almighty, and who therefore can fulfil 
 them. It is one who possesses all power in 
 heaven and on earth; one whose treasures of 
 grace are unsearchable and inexhaustible; one 
 in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead 
 bodily. With all this fullness faith indissolubly 
 unites us. Say, then, ye who despond and 
 tremble when you contemplate the almost in- 
 measureable distance between your own moral 
 characters and that of Christ, what, except 
 faith in these promises and in their Author is 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 141 
 
 necessary to support, encourage, and animate 
 you in going on to perfection ? If Christ him- 
 self is perfect; if faith makes you members of 
 this perfect Head; if it causes his fullness to 
 flow into your souls; then it is most evident that 
 he can and will enable all who exercise faith in 
 him to imitate his example, and finally to be- 
 come perfect as he is perfect. 
 
 Let not the Christian listen to the suggestions of 
 indolence, despondency and unbelief ; but let him 
 rather listen to the calls and promises of Christ. 
 See what he has already done for those of our 
 race who relied upon him. Look at Enoch, who 
 walked with God; at Abraham, the friend of 
 God; at Moses, the confidential servant of God; 
 at Daniel, the man greatly beloved of God; at 
 Stephen, full of faith and the Holy Ghost; at St. 
 Paul, glowing with an ardor like that of 'the 
 rapt seraph, who adores and burns;' and at the 
 many other worthies with whom the historian 
 and biographer have made us acquainted. See 
 to what heights they soared, how nearly they 
 approached to perfection. And who enabled 
 them to make these approaches, to soar to these 
 heights ? He, I answer, who now calls upon 
 you to follow them; he who now offers you the 
 same assistance which he afforded them. Rely, 
 then, with full confidence on his perfections and 
 promises, and recommence with new vigor your 
 
142 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Christian warfare. Do you still hesitate and 
 linger ? O thou of little faith, wherefore dost 
 thou doubt ? Why cast round a trembling 
 desponding glance upon the roaring wind and 
 stormy waves which oppose thy progress ? Look 
 rather at him who calls thee onward; at the 
 omnipotent arm which is to be thy strength and 
 support. Look till you feel faith, and hope, and 
 courage reviving in your breast. Then say to 
 your Lord, I come. I will follow where thou 
 leadest the way. I will once more aim, with 
 renovated strength, at the perfection which I 
 have long deemed unattainable. ' ' 
 
 May we all come to the land Beulah, and re- 
 joice in the light and glory of the goodly land 
 beyond ! 
 
 Do not imagine that this state of Christian 
 perfection will unfit a man for the ordinary 
 duties of life. On the contrary, it will sanctify 
 and ennoble these duties. It will make men 
 better husbands and fathers, better mechanics, 
 merchants, lawyers, physicians and statesmen. 
 It implies the habit of loving and serving God 
 and doing good to men. If all the world had 
 attained such a state it would be Paradise 
 regained. "The merchant at his desk, the 
 mechanic in his shop, the mariner in his vessel, 
 the husbandman in his field, the traveller on his 
 journey, and the female at home shall have such 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 143 
 
 a constant realizing sense of the presence and 
 perfections of God, and such love, confidence, 
 and reverence in exercise toward him, as will 
 lead them to do every thing in a holy manner 
 and with a view to his glory. Every thing will 
 then be sanctified by the word of God and 
 prayer. Religion will not then be confined, as 
 it too often is now, to the closet and house of 
 God; but she will walk abroad, pervading every 
 place with her blessed influence, and cheering 
 happy man in all his employments with her 
 heavenly smiles and heart-enlivening consola- 
 tions. Men will then labor as Adam did in 
 Paradise, where labor was rest, and employment, 
 and pleasure. Friends and acquaintances will 
 then meet, as Christians now meet, to serve and 
 praise God; every meeting will be a religious 
 meeting; men will then speak of the things of 
 God, as the Jews were commanded to do, in the 
 house and by the way, when they sit down and 
 when they rise up, and conversation on earth 
 will be like the converse of saints and angels in 
 heaven. Then there will be no idle or profane 
 language, no evil speaking or slander heard; for 
 the law of love will be in the heart, and, of 
 course, the law of kindness will dwell on the lips. 
 Then, too, the press, as well as the tongue, will 
 be sanctified. As men will learn war, so the 
 press will tell of war, no more; but periodical 
 
144 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 publications will then spread abroad the politics, 
 the laws, and the triumphs of the Redeemer's 
 kingdom. Books will no longer contain poison 
 for the soul, or fuel for hateful passions, but be 
 streams flowing from the fountains of life and 
 truth. Then, too, all the domestic relations will 
 be sanctified. Husbands and wives, parents and 
 children, brothers and sisters, masters and ser- 
 vants, will then love out of a pure heart fer- 
 ventty, as members of the same body and fellow- 
 heirs of the same heaven. ' ' 
 
 Such will be the ultimate result of the gospel 
 of our salvation. It will bring in the universal 
 reign of Christ, the emancipation of humanity 
 from the slavery of sin and sense, the Sabbath- 
 rest of creation. Each Christian who strives 
 after the state of grace which it is his privilege 
 to reach is thus co-operating with Christ in the 
 service of humanity. Let us therefore leave the 
 first principles of the doctrine of Christ and go 
 on to perfection. Let our daity prayer be that 
 we may be filled with power by God's spirit in 
 the inner man, that Christ may dwell in our 
 hearts by faith, and that we may comprehend 
 with all saints what is the length and breadth, 
 and depth and height of that love of Christ 
 which passeth knowledge. 
 
LECTURE X. 
 
 The River of Death 
 
 The closing scene of life is symbolized by Bun- 
 yan as a river, which separates us from the land 
 beyond. In no part of the allegory does the 
 author show more discretion and knowledge of 
 human nature than in the contrasts he draws re- 
 specting our last hours on earth. From the 
 character given of Christian, the chief pilgrim, 
 one would suppose he would be represented as 
 having attained a very triumphant death, but 
 Bunyau desires to show us that spiritual enemies 
 and human infirmities accompany the soul until 
 its last earthly moments, and that natural tem- 
 perament, or the peculiarities of disease, as well 
 as divine grace, modify the feeling and lead to a 
 great variety of experiences. Christian and 
 Hopeful saw between them and the gate of the 
 Celestial city a deep river with no bridge to go 
 over. The sight of it troubled them, and they 
 inquired of their celestial companions if there was 
 no other way to the gate, to which they replied 
 that none but Enoch and Elijah had ever been 
 permitted to go in any other way. They then be- 
 gan to despond, and asked if the waters were all 
 
146 THE WAY OF SALTATION 
 
 of a depth. They were told they would find the 
 river deeper or shallower as they believed in their 
 King. They then addressed themselves to the 
 water, and entering, Christian began to sink and 
 said to his friend Hopeful, 'I sink in deep waters, 
 the billows go over my head, all his waves go 
 over me. ' The other said, ' be of good cheer my 
 brother, I feel the bottom and it is good.' But 
 Christian could get no comfort. A great dark- 
 ness and horror fell upon him. He remembered 
 his past sins and unfaithfulness, and appari- 
 tions of evil spirits troubled him, so that Hope- 
 ful had much ado to keep his brother's head 
 above the water. When Christian was sinking, 
 Hopeful cried out, ' brother, I see the gate, and 
 men standing by to receive us ' ; but Christian 
 replied, ' it is you, it is you they wait for ; for you 
 have been hopeful ever since I knew you.' And 
 so have you said the other. After a while, 
 Christian began to muse, when Hopeful added 
 these words, ' be of good cheer, Jesus Christ 
 niaketh thee whole.' And with that Christian 
 broke out with a loud voice, 'Oh, I see him again' ; 
 and he tells me, " When thou passeth through 
 the waters I will be with thee, and through the 
 rivers they shall not overflow thee." Then they 
 both took courage, the enemy was driven back, 
 and the rest of the river was shallow until they 
 got over. They were met at the bank by the 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 147 
 
 shining ones, who came as ministering spirits, 
 and led them up a glorious path to the gate of 
 the city. 
 
 Bunyan also describes how Ignorance, full of 
 vain conceit, came to the river side and soon got 
 over without much trouble, for a certain ferry- 
 man called Vain-Hope, helped him over with his 
 boat. But no one met him at the bank, and 
 when he, knocked at the gate of the city the 
 watchers asked, ' whence come you ? ' He an- 
 swered, ' I have ate and drank in the presence of 
 the King, and he has taught in our streets.' 
 They then asked for his certificate, but he had 
 none. And by the Kings orders he was taken, 
 bound hand and foot, and carried away to the 
 door of perdition. " Then I saw, says Bunyan, 
 that there was a way to hell even from the gate 
 of heaven, as well as from the City of Destruc- 
 tion." 
 
 How different was the passage of Christian 
 and of Ignorance over the dark river ! One full 
 of vain hope, the other overwhelmed with peni- 
 tential sorrow ; one ferried lightly and carelessly 
 over, the other earnestly seeking for solid ground 
 beneath his feet ! 
 
 It is a serious thing to die. At that hour, if we 
 have nothing but earthly hopes and philosophy, 
 we shall find no light nor comfort, but die like 
 Hume, who said that it was taking a leap into 
 
148 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 the dark. Then the world will fade away and dis- 
 appear. All that is material of us will crumble 
 away, and only that which is spiritual remain. 
 Mere sentimental reflections then will be of no 
 avail. How often have we heard such senti- 
 ments as "We must all die," " The will of the 
 L,ord must be done, " * * This is the end of earth. ' ' 
 Alas ! there is nothing in such thoughts to afford 
 solid peace to the soul. We need the presence 
 of Jesus when we come to die. Our pilgrim 
 could get no comfort from a consideration of his 
 past life, since his sins and unfaithfulness stared 
 him in the face. Nor could he find hope from 
 the condition of others like his friend Hopeful. 
 But when his faith took hold of the spiritual 
 power of Jesus all his fears were at an end, and 
 his soul was full of light and joy. 
 
 The manner of our death will be of very little 
 consequence to us. The principal thing with 
 us will be the activity of our faith in spiritual 
 truth, and our moral fitness for the scenes be- 
 yond the river. Medical men speak of several 
 ways of dying, and the mental manifestations 
 may vary accordingly. For all practical pur- 
 poses we may regard physical dissolution as 
 beginning either at the head, the lungs, or the 
 heart. If it begins at the heart, it either occurs 
 suddenly, or shows itself by gradually increas- 
 ing weakness until the lamp of life flickers in its 
 
THE WAY OF SALVTIQN 149 
 
 socket and expires. If death begins at the 
 lungs there is increasing difficulty of breathing 
 which at last oppresses the brain, and leads to 
 symptoms of death beginning at the brain, which 
 are either stupor and insensibility, from which 
 the person is occasionally, but with difficulty, 
 aroused, or else delirium and frequent convul- 
 sions or paralysis. In some such way we shall 
 each of us be called to pass over the river. 
 
 An old friend of our early ministry, Rev. Dr. 
 Hagany, went suddenly. He had been reading 
 a religious book in the parlor, and placing his 
 head upon his hand he fell asleep in Jesus. 
 Sudden death to such is sudden glory. 
 
 Many die from gradual weakness and have 
 time to consider well the grounds of their hope 
 and to speak of the comfort afforded them by 
 the grace of God. Such was the case with Dr. 
 Pay son, who left such glowing accounts of his 
 spiritual joy. Such also was Bunyan's own 
 departure. He had been on a journey of Chris- 
 tian benevolence, and was overtaken by rain. 
 Getting very wet he fell sick with a violent fever, 
 which he bore with constancy and patience till 
 the vital powers gave way. He comforted those 
 about him, exhorting them to trust in God and 
 pray for mercy and the forgiveness of their sins; 
 telling them what a glorious exchange it would 
 be to leave the troubles and cares of a wretched 
 
150 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 mortality to live with Christ forever, with peace 
 and joy inexpressible. He desired some to pray 
 with him, and he joined with them in prayer; 
 and his last words were "Weep not for me, but 
 for yourselves. I go to the Father of our L,ord 
 Jesus Christ, who will, through the mediation of 
 his blessed Son, receive me, though a sinner, 
 where I hope we ere long shall meet to sing the 
 new song, and remain everlastingly happy, world 
 without end. ' ' Thus passed away a soul full of 
 natural and gracious gifts which had been used 
 in the service of God and humanity. As he 
 who had improved his ten talents was made 
 ruler over ten cities, we cannot doubt that Bun- 
 yan occupies a place of honorable service in the 
 upper temple and rejoices in the joy of the Lord. 
 Many persons die during delirium, and al- 
 though no value can be placed on many of their 
 expressions, since the soul is irresponsible in 
 such a state, yet the language, even in such 
 cases, is often indicative of the state of the heart. 
 How many I have heard say, as the dying head 
 rolled from side to side on the pillow, "I want 
 to go home !" Some longing of soul for quiet 
 rest and heart's ease has thus found vent, and 
 where the life has corresponded with known 
 duty who shall deny that some glimmer of the 
 glory of the Celestial city was in that hour shed 
 down upon the dying saint for his comfort and 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 151 
 
 support. I knew one in his delirium to rise 
 from his bed, saying, "I am going to have a 
 shout iu glory !" and then expired. Another, 
 though delirious from pain and debility, was so 
 evidently happy that not only the expression of 
 the countenance, but the very flesh, seemed to be 
 transfigured, and those who looked on were 
 seized with solemn wonder at the amazing and 
 almost miraculous change, so glorious and sub- 
 lime, which preceded dissolution. No words 
 were needed there, for the scene itself was a 
 revelation of spiritual power which no words 
 could express. 
 
 It is a terrible thing to die if the conscience 
 is truly awake, and sin unforgiven. The terrors 
 of an unprepared soul cannot be expressed. To 
 such Death is indeed the King of Terrors. The 
 mystery of a disembodied state, the fear of 
 future retribution, and the upbraidings of con- 
 science, mingle with sorrow and regret for the 
 loss of worldly goods and worldly associates, and 
 often produce feelings which amount to agony. 
 Blair has not overdrawn the picture in his mem- 
 orable lines 
 
 "How shocking must thy summons be, O death ! 
 To him that is at ease in his possessions; 
 Who counting on long years of pleasure here, 
 Is quite unfurnished for that world to come ! 
 In that dread moment, how the frantic soul 
 
152 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Raves round the walls of -her clay tenement, 
 Runs to each avenue, and shrieks for help, 
 But shrieks in vain ! How wishfully she looks 
 On all she's leaving, now no longer hers ! 
 A little longer, yet a little longer, 
 O might she stay to wash away her stains, 
 And fit her for her passage ! Mournful sight ! 
 Her very eyes weep blood; and every groan 
 She heaves is big with horror. But the Foe, 
 Like a staunch murderer, steady to his purpose, 
 Pursues her close through every lane of life, 
 Nor misses once his track, but presses on, 
 Till, forced at last to the tremendous verge, 
 At once she sinks to everlasting ruin." 
 
 But the death-bed scene is very different if 
 Christ is formed in the soul, the hope of glory. 
 To such as realize the power of Christ's atone- 
 ment death is but the door of endless life. 
 
 "The chamber where the good man meets his fate 
 Is priviledged beyond the common walks 
 Of virtuous life, just on the verge of heaven." 
 
 1 'Death has no terrors for the Christian's soul; 
 His sting's extracted, and his mighty dart 
 Was blunted by its task on Calvary." 
 
 The representations given by Bunyan of the 
 scenes at the river, in the second part of his 
 book contain many beautiful pictures. The 
 death of Mr. Standfast has been especially ad- 
 mired. This Mr. Standfast was one whom the 
 pilgrims found upon his knees in the Enchanted 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 153 
 
 Ground. He had been assaulted by one Madame 
 Bubble, and had betaken himself to prayer for a 
 refuge. As the company of pilgrims tarried in 
 the land Beulah there came a summons for Mr. 
 Standfast. The contents of the message were, 
 that he must prepare for a change of life, for his 
 Master was not willing that he should be so far 
 from him any longer. At this Mr. Standfast 
 was put into a muse. Nay, said the messenger, 
 you need not doubt the truth of my message, 
 for here is a token of the truth thereof, "Thy 
 wheel is broken at the cistern." Then he called 
 to him Mr. Great-Heart, who was their guide, 
 and said unto him, 'sir, although it was not my 
 hap to be much in your good company during 
 the days of my pilgrimage, yet, since the time I 
 knew you, you have been profitable to me. 
 When I came from home, I left behind me a 
 wife and five small children, let me entreat that 
 you send to my family, and let them be ac- 
 quainted with all that hath and shall happen 
 unto me. Tell them of my happy arrival at 
 this place and of the blessed condition I am in. 
 I have little or nothing to send to my family, 
 unless it be prayers and tears for them.' When 
 Mr. Standfast had thus set things in order, and 
 the time being come for him to haste away, he 
 went down to the river. Now there was a great 
 calm at that time in the river, wherefore Mr. 
 
164 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Standfast, when he was about half-way in, stood 
 a while, and talked with his companions. He 
 said, 'This river has been a terror to many; yea, 
 the thoughts of it also have often frightened me; 
 but now I stand easy; my foot is fixed on that 
 on which the feet of the priests that bare the 
 art of the covenant stood while Israel went over 
 Jordan. The waters are to the palate bitter, and 
 to the vStomach cold; yet the thoughts of what I 
 am going to, and of the convoy that waits for 
 me on the other side lie as a glowing coal at my 
 heart. I see myself now at the end of my 
 journey; my toilsome days are ended. I have 
 formerly lived by hearsay and faith, but now I 
 go where I shall live by sight, and shall be with 
 Him in whose company I delight myself. I 
 have loved to hear my Lord spoken of, and 
 whenever I have seen the print of his shoe in 
 the earth, there I have coveted to set my foot 
 too. His words I did use to gather for niy food, 
 and for antidotes against my faintings. He hath 
 held me, and hath kept me from mine iniquities; 
 yea, my steps hath he strengthened in his way.' 
 Now, while he was thus in discourse, his coun- 
 tenance changed; his strong man bowed under 
 him; and after he had said, 'Take me, for I come 
 to thee, ' he ceased to be seen of them." 
 
 The departure of Christiana herself was even 
 more glorious. There came to her house a mes- 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 155 
 
 senger from the Celestial city declaring that in 
 ten days she must stand in the presence of the 
 Master in clothes of immortality. He brought 
 for a token an arrow sharpened with love. In 
 such ways the King often deals with his child- 
 ren. Many a matron receives the sharp arrow 
 which is the token of impending dissolution. 
 When Christiana saw that her time was come, 
 she called Mr. Great-Heart, her guide, and told 
 him the news. Then she called for and blessed 
 her children, and afterwards exhorted and com- 
 forted the other pilgrims who had been her com- 
 panions. Now the day drew on that Christiana 
 must be gone. So the road was full of people to 
 see her take her journey. But behold, 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 her 
 children and friends returned to their place, for 
 those that waited for Christiana had carried her 
 out of sight. So she went and called and en- 
 tered in at the gate with all the ceremonies of 
 joy that her husband Christian had entered with 
 before her. At her departure, the children weat. 
 But Mr. Great-Heart and Mr. Valiant played 
 upon the well-tuned cymbal and harp for joy. 
 
156 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Some years ago a number of ministers went to 
 a private exhibition of a panorama of the Pil- 
 grim's Progress before its general introduction. 
 As the moving pictures passed before our eyes, 
 one came into view representing Christiana on 
 her sick bed with her children about her, Mr. 
 Great-Heart praying over her and the celestial 
 messenger, with his arrowy token, at the door, 
 The next showed Christiana up to her waist in 
 the dark river, with the hue of death on her 
 cheek, waving her hand in triumph to her 
 friends who had gathered on the shore. So 
 striking was the picture that some of my im- 
 pulsive friends could not refrain from singing 
 and soon we were all engaged in repeating the 
 chorus : 
 
 "O, that will be joyful, 
 
 Joyful, joyful, 
 O, that will be joyful, 
 
 To meet to part no more !" 
 
 4 'Filled with delight, my raptured soul 
 
 Would here no longer stay, 
 Though Jordan's waves around me roll, 
 
 Fearless I'd launch away." 
 
 "O, that will be joyful, etc." 
 
 My friends, the time of our own departure 
 hastens on. Are we ready for the passage of th e 
 dark river ? Have we a good hope of eternal life 
 through the merits of our Redeemer ? Let not 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 157 
 
 vain confidence rob us of our salvation at last. 
 Let us look well to our situation and experience, 
 that we may determine whether we are really 
 pilgrims, bound for Mount Zion. Let us never 
 rest until we come to the land Beulah, when we 
 may say, "All the days of my appointed time 
 I will wait till my change come. ' ' And when 
 the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, 
 may we have ' ' a house not made with hands, 
 eternal in the heavens." "Let me die the death 
 of the righteous, and let my last end be like 
 
 his." 
 
 "O, may I triumph so 
 
 When all my warfare's past, 
 And dying, find my latest foe, 
 Under my feet at last ! ' ' 
 
LECTURE XI. 
 
 Beyond the River. 
 
 There is great variety in the opinions and im- 
 aginations of men respecting the world of spirits. 
 To refer to them all would fill a volume. Yet 
 all who believe in a spiritual world agree in cer- 
 tain fundamental ideas. All admit the continu- 
 ance of our true personality and consciousness 
 and intellectual activity, and agree that mental 
 and moral character in the present life affects 
 the condition of the life to come. The heathen are 
 ultra spiritualists, and believe that not only man, 
 but the objects associated with him here have a 
 spiritual form or entity which is not destroyed 
 by physical decomposition, but is set free from 
 material bonds to reappear in the disembodied 
 state. Thus the "poor Indian" dreams of the 
 happy hunting grounds, where, 
 
 "Admitted to that equal sky, 
 His faithful dog shall bear him company." 
 
 The Chinese make offerings to the spirits of 
 the departed, and even burn paper representa- 
 tions of money and clothes that their spiritual 
 essences may serve their friends in the other 
 
160 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 world. Plato represents Socrates, before drink- 
 ing the poison ordered by his judges, as con- 
 versing on the subject of meeting the distin- 
 guished dead in the spirit land. If Christianity 
 had done no more for the world than to teaqh 
 the existence of the spirit after death, it could 
 hardly be said with truth to have brought life 
 and immortality to light. It teaches much 
 more than this, even the renewal of divine life 
 in the human soul while in this world, and the 
 influence of that life on soul and body forever. 
 Its distinguishing doctrines are ' Jesus and the 
 resurrection." Yet it does teach the reality of 
 a disembodied state or the continuance of ex- 
 istence, either in happiness or misery, after 
 death ; and its revelations of that state, by 
 visions, parables, metaphors and direct state- 
 ments, far surpass all that man had otherwise 
 conceived. It is not true that we know nothing 
 of the spirit land. We know far more of it than 
 we do of the interior of Africa or Australia, or 
 even of many countries from which some travel- 
 ers have returned. Yet even among nomina 
 Christians there are many cnide and curious 
 notions about the future, arising chiefly from 
 neglect of that record which God has given for 
 our guidance, and indulgence in a spirit of 
 unguided philosophic speculation. The Spirit- 
 ualists, as they are called, profess to hold inter- 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 161 
 
 course with the disembodied, and their notions 
 are a perfect parallel with those of the heathen. 
 Our Swedenborgian friends also lean to the same 
 ideas. Some persons have a mere blank or 
 vacancy in their minds respecting a future state, 
 although they do not deny, but hope for it ; 
 while others have a sort of vague, dreamy, be- 
 wildering conception of aerial creatures who are 
 to be our companions after death. Still another 
 class suppose that the soul sleeps till the resur- 
 rection of the body, or rather, that man has no 
 soul, and the body only is capable of thought 
 and affection and will. A careful study of the 
 Bible will show that it is not responsible for such 
 a variety of opinions. It does not, indeed, 
 minutely describe the residence and employ- 
 ments of the disembodied, but it does speak of 
 their consciousness and knowledge, and affections, 
 and will of the bliss of the good and the misery 
 of the bad of a great variety in their condition 
 of angelic companionship and of the more 
 perfect vision of God and his glory than is 
 possible on earth. All other things are matters 
 of speculation, which is not forbidden, provided 
 we keep within the limit revealed by ' 'the law 
 and the testimony. ' ' In the course of my read- 
 ing I have met with many efforts to set forth 
 the sentiments suggested by an enlightened 
 Christian imagination respecting the condition 
 
162 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 and employment of disembodied saints. Some 
 of these are worthy of a place in some perma- 
 nent collection of specimens of Christian litera- 
 ture. If they do not add to our knowledge of 
 eschatology they tend to elevate our minds, 
 inspire pure affections, and quicken our desires 
 that we may be found worthy of future bliss. 
 This is my apology, if apology be needed, for 
 the selections I have made. 
 
 Most Christian people suppose that imme- 
 diately after death we shall be admitted instan- 
 taneously into the presence of God's glory in 
 heaven, and see Jesus and angels, and be filled 
 with intuitive knowledge and complete happi- 
 ness. Others imagine that some time will 
 elapse before the completion of our bliss in 
 heaven, and angelic ministries will prepare the 
 soul, so to speak for its ultimate home. There 
 is nothing improbable in this view of an inter 
 mediate state for the blessed in Paradise, and 
 Bunyan has, with great beauty, made it the basis 
 of the closing scene in his allegory. 
 
 He says that on the other side of the river the 
 pilgrims saw again the two shining ones they 
 had seen in the land Beulah, who had waited 
 for them on the bank and assured them that 
 they were sent as ministering spirits to them. 
 The city itself stood upon a mighty hill, but 
 the pilgrims went up with ease because of the 
 
THE WAY OF SALVTION 163 
 
 assistance of the angels and because they had 
 left their mortal garments behind them in the 
 river. They went, therefore, up through the 
 region of the air, sweetly talking with their com- 
 panions about the beauty and glory of the city. 
 The angels told them that its glory was inex- 
 pressible. "There," they said, "is Mount Zion, 
 the heavenly Jerusalem, the innumerable com- 
 pany of angels, and the spirits of just men made 
 perfect. You are going to the paradise of God, 
 wherein you shall see the tree of life, and eat of 
 the never-fading fruits thereof ; and your walk 
 and talk shall be every day with the King. You 
 shall not see again such things as you saw on 
 earth, as sorrow, sickness, affliction and death, for 
 the former things are passed away. You are go- 
 ing to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob, and to the 
 prophets. You will receive the comfort of all 
 your toil and have joy for your sorrow. In that 
 place you will wear crowns of gold and enjoy 
 the perpetual vision of the Holy One, for you 
 shall see him as he is. You shall enjoy your 
 friends again that are gone before you, and with 
 joy receive every one that follows after you. 
 You shall be clothed with glory and majesty, 
 and put into an equipage fit to ride out with the 
 King of Glory. When he shall come with 
 sound of trumpet in the clouds, as upon the 
 wings of the wind, you shall come with him, and 
 
164 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 when he shall sit upon the throne of judgment, 
 you shall sit by him." 
 
 Now as they thus conversed, and drew near 
 the gate, a company of the heavenly host came 
 out to meet them with music and trumpets, so 
 that the pilgrims were in heaven, as it were, 
 before they came to it. The city itself was in view 
 and the bells rang out a joyful peal to welcome 
 them. 
 
 Over the gate was written in letters of gold, 
 "Blessed are they that do his commandments, 
 that they may have right to the tree of life, and 
 may enter in through the gates into the city." 
 At the gate they presented their certificates, 
 which they had received at the beginning, and 
 were admitted. As they went in they were 
 transfigured, and had raiment given them that 
 shone like gold. Harps and crowns also were 
 presented to them, and while the bells of the 
 city rang again for joy, it was said unto them, 
 "Enter ye into the joy of your Lord." The 
 pilgrims also sang with a loud voice, "Blessing 
 and honor, and glory and power, be unto Him 
 that sittith upon the throne, and unto the 
 Lamb, for ever and ever." 
 
 As the gates were opened to let them in, says 
 our dreamer, "I looked in after them, and be- 
 hold the city shone like the sun; the streets also 
 were paved with gold; and in them walked 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATWN 165 
 
 many with crowns on their heac^s, palms in their 
 hands, and golden harps. There were also them 
 that had wings, who answered one another with- 
 out intermission, saying, 'Holy, holy, holy is 
 the Lord.' After that they shut the gates: 
 which, when I had seen, I wished myself among 
 them. ' ' 
 
 Others, besides Bunyan, have dreamed of 
 angelic ministries on the other side of the 
 river of death, nor was it all a dream, since 
 Jesus has told us that Lazarus, when he died, 
 was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom. 
 The dream of Dr. Doddridge was a remarkable 
 combination of Scriptural ideas in the imagina- 
 tion of a cultivated Christian mind. 
 
 Dr. Doddridge was on terms of very intimate 
 friendship with Dr. Samuel Clark, and they 
 spent many happy hours together in religious 
 conversation. Among other matters, a favorite 
 topic was the intermediate state of the soul, and 
 the probability that at the instant of dissolution 
 it was not introduced into the presence of the 
 heavenly hosts and the splendors round the 
 throne of God. One evening, after a conversa- 
 tion of this nature, Dr. Doddridge retired to rest 
 with his mind full of the subject discussed, and 
 in the visions of the night his ideas were shaped 
 into the following beautiful form. He dreamed 
 that he was at the house of a friend, when he 
 
166 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 was suddenly taken dangerously ill. By degrees 
 he seemed to grow worse, and at last to expire. 
 In an instant he was sensible that he exchanged 
 the prison-house and sufferings of mortality for 
 a state of liberty and happiness. Embodied in 
 a splendid aerial form, he seemed to float in a 
 region of pure light. Beneath him lay the 
 earth, but not a glittering city, or a village, the 
 forest, or the sea, was visible. There was 
 naught to be seen below save the melancholy 
 group of his friends weeping around his lifeless 
 remains. Himself thrilled with delight, he was 
 surprised at their tears, and attempted to inform 
 them of his happy change, but by mysterious 
 power utterance was denied, and as he anxiously 
 leaned over the mourning circle, struggling to 
 speak, he rose silently upon the air, their forms 
 became more and more indistinct, and gradually 
 melted away from his sight. Reposing on 
 golden clouds, he found himself swiftly mount- 
 ing to the skies, with a venerable figure at his 
 side guiding his mysterious movements, and in 
 whose countenance the lineaments of youth and 
 age were blended together with an intimate 
 harmony and majestic sweetness, They passed 
 through a vast region of empty space, until at 
 lengthed the battlements of a glorious edifice 
 shone in the distance, and as its form rose brill- 
 iant and distinct among the far-off shadows that 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 167 
 
 flitted athwart their path, the guide informed 
 him that the palace he beheld was for the 
 present to be the mansion of rest. Gazing upon 
 its splendor he replied, that on earth he had 
 often heard that the eye had not seen, nor had 
 the ear heard, nor could it enter into the heart 
 of man to conceive the things which God had 
 prepared for those that love him; but, notwith- 
 standing the building to which they approached 
 was superior to anything which he had actu- 
 ally before seen, yet its grandeur had not 
 exceeded the conceptions he had formed. The 
 guide introduced him into a spacious apartment, 
 at the extremity of which stood a table covered 
 with snow-white cloth, a golden cup, and a 
 bunch of grapes, and then said he must remain, 
 for he would receive in a short time a visit from the 
 L,ord of the mansion, and that during the inter- 
 val before his arrival the apartment would furnish 
 him sufficient entertainment and instruction. 
 The guide vanished and he was left alone. He 
 began to examine the decorations of the room, 
 and observed that the walls were adorned with 
 a number of pictures. Upon nearer inspection 
 he found to his astonishment that they formed a 
 complete biography of his own life. Here he 
 saw upon the canvass that angels, though unseen, 
 had ever been his familiar attendants, and sent 
 by God had sometimes preserved him from 
 
1H8 THE WAY OF SALVATION* 
 
 immediate peril. He beheld himself represented 
 as an infant just expiring, when an angel pro- 
 longed his life by gently breathing into his 
 nostrils. Most of the occurrences delineated 
 were perfectly familiar to his recollection, and 
 unfolded many things which he never before 
 understood, and which had perplexed him with 
 many doubts and much uneasiness. Among 
 others, he was particularly struck with a picture 
 in which he was represented as falling from a 
 horse, when death would have been inevitable 
 had not an angel received him in his arms and 
 broken the force of his descent. These merciful 
 interpositions of God filled him with joy and 
 gratitude, and his heart overflowed with love as 
 he surveyed in them all an exhibition of good- 
 ness and mercy far beyond all that he had 
 imagined. Suddenly his attention was arrested 
 by a rap at the door. The Lord of the mansion 
 had arrived the door opened and he entered, 
 so powerful and so overwhelming, and withal of 
 such singular beauty was his appearance that he 
 sunk down as his feet completely overcome by 
 his majestic presence. His Lord gently raised 
 him from the ground, and taking his hand led 
 him forward to the table. He pressed with 
 his fingers the juice of the grapes into the 
 golden cup, and after having himself drank, 
 presented it to him saying ; "This is the 
 
THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION 169 
 
 new wine in my Father's Kingdom." No 
 sooner had he partaken than all uneasy sen- 
 sations vanished ; perfect love had now cast out 
 fear ; and he conversed with his Saviour as an 
 intimate friend. Like the silver rippling of the 
 summer sea he heard fall from his lips the grate- 
 ful approbation : "Thy labors are over, thy 
 work is approved, rich and glorious is the re- 
 ward." Filled with an unspeakable bliss, that 
 glided over his spirit and sank into the depths 
 of his soul, he suddenly saw glories upon glories 
 bursting upon his view. 
 
 The doctor awoke. Tears of rapture from 
 this joyful interview were rolling down his 
 cheeks. Long did the lively impressions of this 
 charming dream remain on his mind, and never 
 could he speak of it without emotions of joy and 
 tenderness. 
 
 As our friends who die in Jesus are said in 
 Scripture to be equal to angels, and to be em- 
 ployed as angels, it is reasonable to suppose that 
 some of them may be among the first to meet us 
 on the other side of the stream, and usher us into 
 the joys of immortal life. This thought underlies a 
 prose-poem, published some years ago called 'The 
 Awakening," from the German by Theremin. 
 
170 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 "Wife Hast thou slept well ? 
 
 Husband As never before. Not even in childhood 
 did I experience such a deep, soft, refreshing slumber. 
 
 My old father thou rememberest him well used to 
 say, when he stepped into the room in the morning, in 
 answer to our inquiry how he had slept, "Like the 
 blessed." Like the blessed, I may say, have I slept; 
 or rather like the blessed have I wakened. I feel my- 
 self new quickened, as if all weariness and all need of 
 sleep were gone forever. Such vigor is in my limbs, 
 such elasticity in my movements, that I believe I could 
 fly if I would. 
 
 Wife And you are pleased with this place ? 
 
 Husband Indeed, I must say, we have been in many 
 a beautiful place together, but this is wonderful and 
 beautiful beyond description. What trees ! Actually 
 heaven high ! They bear blossoms and fruit together. 
 Behind the trees the mountains tower up ; their ma- 
 jestic forms clearly defined in the pure air and glowing 
 with all the hues of sunrise and sunset, which stretch 
 along their sides or float over their summits. Under 
 the highest peak, out of a translucent shining mist, 
 there spring as it were the gates and towers and palaces 
 of a splendid city. Wide about us are sprinkled the 
 drops which water the trees and flowers and impart a 
 delicious coolness to the air, making it ecstacy to 
 breathe here. Look, too, at this bank whereon we 
 stand ! How luxuriant, and how thickly strewn with 
 wonderful flowers ! We wander over it, and yet the 
 spires of grass are not broken, nor are the flowers 
 crushed by our footsteps. 
 
 Wife Hast thou seen this before, or dost thou see it 
 to-day for the first time ? 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 171 
 
 Husband Although all is so homelike here, and 
 though everything greets me as long beloved, yet when 
 I think, I must say ; No, I have never been here 
 before. 
 
 Wife And dost thou not wonder to see me again at 
 thy side ? 
 
 Husband Indeed! hast thou not somehow always 
 been near me ? 
 
 Wife In a certain sense I have, but in another not 
 so. 'Tis long since thine eyes have seen me. Think on 
 the fourteenth of February. 
 
 Husband It is all clear to me now. It was near noon. 
 Four days hadst thou been sick. We had feared much, 
 but still had hope. Suddenly a faintness came over 
 thee, thou didst lean thy head on my breast and sink 
 back with a deep sigh* Yes, thou art dead. 
 
 Wife I am dead ; yet, see, I live. 
 
 Husband Then do I really dream ? 
 
 Wife Thou dreamest not, for thou art awake. 
 
 Husband Art thou then sent down to earth for a 
 short time that I may see thee again ? 
 
 Wife No ; henceforth we shall never separate. I 
 am indeed sent to thee, but not down to earth. Look 
 round thee. Where on earth hast thou seen such trees, 
 such waters ? Look at thyself. Yonder thou didst go 
 about bowed beneath the weight of years. Now thou 
 art young again. Thou dost not only walk, thou float- 
 est. Thine eyes not only see, but see immeasurably far. 
 Look inward ; has it always been with thy heart as 
 now ? 
 
172 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Husband Within me is a deep unfathomable, ever- 
 swelling, and yet peaceful sea. Yes, when I look about 
 me, and when I feel thy hand in mine, I must say I am 
 blessed I am in heaven. 
 
 Wife Thou art. 
 
 Husband Then I must actually be dead. 
 
 Wife Thou art. Hast thou not lain sick in that 
 chamber where I died? Has not thy son, day and 
 night, tenderly nursed thee? Hast thou not, by day 
 and night, found open the blue eye of thy daughter? 
 Was not then a deep mist and utter darkness spread over 
 everything ? 
 
 Husband I AM DEAD ! Lord of life and death, I 
 thank Thee that thou hast fulfilled so great a thing in me 
 that Thou hast led me to such high happiness, such 
 great honor dead, and happy to be dead ? What stood 
 before me is now over. Truly, though dead, I have not 
 yet learned exactly what death is ; but this much I 
 know, death is sweet. As one bears a sleeping child 
 out of a dark chamber into a bright spring garden, so 
 hast Thou borne me from earth to heaven. But now, 
 loved one, hold me no longer back ? 
 
 Wife Whither wouldst thou go ? 
 
 Husband Canst thou ask ? To whom else but to 
 Him? All is beautiful here, but this does not satisfy 
 me. Himself I must see. Let him adorn his heaven 
 as beautifully as he may, that cannot compensate for the 
 loss of his presence. I must away to him, see him, 
 thank him if I am capable of thanking him if in the 
 overpowering bliss thanksgiving be not swallowed up. 
 
THE WAY O* SALVATION 173 
 
 Wife Thou wilt see him, but not till he comes to 
 thee. Until then be patient. I am sent to tell thee 
 such is his will. 
 
 Husband Now I know for a certainty that I am in 
 heaven, for my will yields itself implicitly to his without 
 a struggle. So readily we could not submit below. 
 But if thou art sent to me from Him, he must already 
 have spoken many words with thee ? 
 
 Wife Already many. 
 
 Husband O thou truly blessed one ! Canst thou tell 
 me how it was with thee when he spake with thee for 
 the first time ? 
 
 Wife As it has been in my heart each following time. 
 I am using an earthly language with thee, in which 
 these things cannot be described. 
 
 Husband As thou sawest Him for the first time, did'st 
 thou instantly recognize him ? 
 
 Wife Instantly. 
 
 Husband How ? By that particular glory in which 
 he outshines all angels? 
 
 Wife He has no need to clothe himself in splendor. 
 We know him without that. 
 
 Husband Do there exist among you here differences 
 in glory and blessedness ? 
 
 Wife In endless degrees; but then the highest are 
 even as the most lowly, so they stoop down to the 
 humblest. And this does He require of them ; for He 
 who ranks above the highest is himself the humblest of 
 all. So these diversities are swallowed up and we are 
 all one in Him. 
 
174 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Husband I often thought, if I only reach heaven I 
 shall be content to be the least of all there. 
 
 Wife Be trustful. Whom he receives, he receives to 
 
 glory. Knowest thou not by what wonderful way he 
 has called us in his word ? 
 
 Husband Well do I know that, and I see with what 
 glory he has crowned thee. Between thine image in 
 thy last sickness and that which now stands before me 
 what a difference. Thou wilt show me the glory of the 
 heavenly mansions and also lead me to other blessed 
 ones who are dear to me. 
 
 Wife Thou wilt see them as soon as thou hast seen 
 
 Husband Is Christ here ? 
 
 Wife Yes. 
 
 Husband I had not expected it. That, however, was 
 wrong. Why am I here ? Hearest thou those sounds ? 
 like the mingled roaring of the sea, and sweetest flute- 
 notes. They come from that quarter and float through 
 heaven. Now, melody arises from the other side, just 
 as strange and enrapturing, yet a wholly different note. 
 What may it be ? 
 
 Wife They are angel choirs, which from immeasur- 
 able distance answer one another. 
 
 Husband What do they sing ? 
 
 Wife Ever of one, who is theme of eternal and 
 ceaseless praise. 
 
 Husband For some time past a form moves about 
 yonder. 
 
 Wife Observe it closely and tell me why it attracts 
 thee so. 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 175 
 
 Husband To use a earthly childish comparison, that 
 man seems like the gardener in this heavenly garden. 
 He moves about quietly and in mildest radiance, yet 
 everything seems familiar to him. He casts around a 
 satisfied and friendly glance and appears to find joy in 
 all creation. My heart ! till now I have felt only soft 
 soothing emotions, but now a tempest is rising in my 
 breast ! I am dizzy ! Heaven with its glory vanishes 
 from my sight ! I see Him alone !Now he turns hither- 
 ward, and looks upon us. He appears to rejoice over 
 us. His eyes glisten with tears of joy. I can no longer 
 restrain myself, I must go to Him I must say 
 to Him that I love him as I never loved aught before. 
 He raises his hand the pierced, the bleeding hand ! 
 He blesses us ! Deep in my heart I feel his blessing. 
 Now I know that I am in heaven now I know that 
 this is He!" 
 
 or THF 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
91.1.