The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan [most popular novels .txt] 📗

love his wife as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband” (Ephesians 5:33). Abigail would not speak a word to her churlish husband until he was in a sober temper, and his wine gone out of him. —⁠Bunyan’s Christian Behaviour, vol. 2, pp. 558⁠–⁠561 ↩

Luke 18:13. ↩

This is the first cry of an awakened sinner⁠—mercy for the lost and miserable; and no sooner are the sinner’s eyes opened to see his ruined, desperate state, and to cry for mercy, but the god of this world, who hitherto had blinded the eyes, and kept the heart securely by presumption, now opposes the sinner’s progress to a Throne of Grace, to a God of mercy, and to the Saviour of the lost. Satan does not easily part with his prey. But Jesus, the strong man, armed with almighty power and everlasting love, will conquer and cast him out. That is the sinner’s mercy, or none could ever be saved. —⁠Mason ↩

The mind, during sleep, is often occupied with those subjects that have most deeply engaged the waking thoughts; and it sometimes pleases God to make use of ideas thus suggested, to influence the conduct by exciting fears or hopes. But if we attempt to draw conclusions on doctrines, or to discover hidden things by them, it becomes a dangerous species of enthusiasm. —⁠Scott There is no just reason to doubt that God still employs dreams for the conversion of sinners. “In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then He openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction” (Job 33:15, 16). —⁠Ivimey Dreams are sometimes of use to warn and encourage a Christian, and seem to be really “from God;” but great caution is necessary, lest they mislead us, as they do weak and enthusiastic persons. They must never be depended on as the ground of hope, or the test of our state; nothing must be put in the place of the Word of God. —⁠Burder ↩

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalms 111:10); and “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him” (Psalms 25:14). The Spirit, the Comforter, never convinces the soul of sin, but He also revives and comforts the heart with glad tidings of free and full pardon of sin, through the blood of the Lamb. —⁠Mason Probably the name of this visitor was derived from what was said by the heavenly visitor to Manoah (Judges 13:18). —⁠Ivimey The silent influences of the Holy Spirit are here personified. The intimations of Secret represent the teachings of the Holy Spirit, by which the sinner understands the real meaning of the Sacred Scriptures as to the way of salvation. —⁠Scott, abridged ↩

Song of Solomon 1:3. ↩

“Rote of heart;” “rote” is to commit to memory, so as to be able to repeat fluently, as a wheel runs round, but without attaching any idea or sense to the words; “rote of heart” is to do this with a full understanding of the meaning. —⁠Editor ↩

Psalms 119:54. ↩

As the Spirit testifies of Christ, so He leads the soul to Christ, that He may be the sinner’s only hope, righteousness, and strength.

Thus He glorifies Christ. —⁠Mason

But bring thou with thee a certificate,
To show thou seest thyself most desolate;
Writ by the Master, with repentance seal’d.

—⁠House of God, vol. 2, p. 580

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Blessed penitence! Christian’s children, when he set out in his pilgrimage, had been liable to Mr. Bunyan’s severe remarks in his valuable book on Christian Behaviour⁠—“I observe a vile spirit amongst some children, who overlook, or have slighting or scornful thoughts of their parents. Such an one hath got just the heart of a dog or a beast, that will bite those that begot them. But my father is poor, and I am rich, and it will he a hindrance to me to respect him. I tell thee, thou arguest like an atheist and a beast, and standest full flat against the Son of God (Mark 7:9⁠–⁠13). Must a little of the glory of the butterfly make thee not honour thy father and mother? Little dost thou know how many prayers, sighs, and tears have been wrung from their hearts on thine account.” —⁠(Vol. 2, pp. 562, 563) —⁠Editor ↩

The awakening of a sinner may be effected by very different means. Lydia’s heart was opened through attending to Paul’s ministry; the jailer’s, through the alarm produced in his mind by the fear of disgrace and punishment. Christian was brought to a sense of his lost condition by reading the Scriptures; Christiana, by reflecting, after the death of her husband, upon her unkind treatment of him on account of his religion, the thought of which “rent the caul of her heart in sunder;” and the four boys, by the conversation of their mother with them about their departed father, and about her having neglected their souls. Religion is a personal concern, and begins with repentance and sorrow for sin. Children are not saved by the faith of their parents, but must be individually brought to feel their own sinfulness, and to confess their own guilt and danger; nor will a mother’s prayers save her children, unless they heartily unite with her in them. —⁠Ivimey ↩

Reader, stop and examine. Did ever any of your carnal acquaintance take knowledge of a difference of your language and conduct? [Does it stun them?] Or do they still like and approve of you as well as ever? What reason, then, have you to think yourself a pilgrim? If the heart be ever so little acquainted with the Lord, the tongue will discover it, and the carnal and profane will ridicule and despise you