The Pilgrim’s Progress

Monotheism – the idea that a single god is responsible for everything – was a ubiquitous mindset in the Western world in Bunyan’s time. No one questioned that accepted wisdom, largely because science was still in its infancy, so religions provided rounded explanations for the workings of the world. It would be some time before science demonstrated empirical explanations for phenomena previously attributed to the actions of an omnipotent entity.

The Pilgrim’s Progress describes the quasi-literal spiritual journey of the central character, Christian, who meets various other characters and visits many places along the way. These characters and places represent good and bad qualities and concepts. Christian has to negotiate his way through a supernatural parallel world, from his hometown, The City of Destruction (Earth), to his intended destination, The Celestial City (Heaven). The second part of the book relates the same journey taken by his family.

The book thus falls into the genre of fantasy, albeit with a religious message. Bunyan used the word ‘dream’ to describe its manner of delivery. He clearly reasoned that it needed to be a good read first and foremost, to keep the reader engaged throughout. That way, the allegory would be effortlessly absorbed, making it far more accessible than the Bible. Of course, it also suited the tradition of public storytelling. As relatively few people were able to read, they would rely on an educated individual to entertain them with an interesting yarn. In that respect a journey is a useful device, as it allows the central characters to travel through different experiences and circumstances. In other words, there is a plot, which makes the reader or listener want to know what will happen next – the staple of all good stories.

It just so happened that the Popish Plot coincided with publication in England. It was alleged that the Catholic Church was infiltrating England and conspiring to assassinate Charles II. Bunyan’s work fuelled the fire of anti-Catholic sentiment in England, a sentiment which lived on into the 20th century in some regions. When King James II took the throne in 1685 he introduced a policy of religious tolerance, because he had Catholic beliefs. He was widely detested by Protestants and this led to the Glorious Revolution in 1688, when James was overthrown by William III, who had come from Holland to restore the Protestant regime.

Catholicism fell from favour because it was seen as too extravagant to be godly. The term ‘catholic’ is used as a synonym for gaudy tastes, because Catholic churches were so adorned with colourful decoration that they were seen to detract from true faith. Protestantism, in contrast, was all about getting back to basics. Its churches were plain and simple, so that attention was centred on devotion and worship. Corruption was also rife in the Catholic Church, because priests were allowed to accept payments and gifts for their work as conduits to the Christian God. Protestant priests, on the other hand, were nourished by their devotion and made far more modest demands of their congregations.

Three years after the publication of the first part of The Pilgrim’s Progress in England, it was published in America, where it enjoyed success among Protestant communities. Life in America was hard-going as it was still very much in its embryonic stages of development. Bunyan’s work was viewed as a useful guide in an environment where hardships often led people to think selfishly and intolerantly.

Bunyan died as unpredictably as one could expect in his day. He developed a cold while riding to London. Within hours he was delirious with fever and died soon after of pneumonia. His death served to illustrate the importance of keeping up one’s pursuit of godliness at all times, so as to be certain – even at very short notice – of favourable treatment in the afterlife.

PREFACE (#ulink_d32ef714-c631-5cd5-9a34-708fbcc28252)

It may seem a very bold undertaking to change even a word of the book which, next to the Bible, has been read by more people, old and young, than any other book in the English language.

But, it must be remembered that, although The Pilgrim’s Progress has come to be a children’s book, and is read more often by young people than by those who are older, it was not the purpose of John Bunyan to write a book for children or even for the young.

The Pilgrim’s Progress was a book for men and women; and it was aimed to teach the great truths of the gospel. Hence while most of it is written in a simple style,—as all books should be written,—it contains much that a child cannot understand; not often in the story, but in the conversations and discussions between the different persons. Some of these conversations are in reality short sermons on doctrines and teachings which Bunyan believed to be of great importance. But these are beyond the minds of children and give them great trouble when the book is read. They do not like to have them left out of the reading, thinking that they may lose something interesting. Many a young person has stumbled through the dull, doctrinal parts of the book, without understanding them; and even grown people find them in our time somewhat of a blemish upon the wonderful story, valuable as they were supposed to be in Bunyan’s own time.

For many years it has been in my mind, not to re-write The Pilgrim’s Progress, for that would destroy its greatest charm, but to change the words here and there to simpler ones, and to omit all the conversations and arguments concerning subjects belonging to the field of doctrine; in other words to place the story of The Pilgrim’s Progress in such a form that every child ten years old can understand it. My purpose is to make it plain and interesting to children, leaving the older form of the book to be read by them when they become older.

Perhaps a short account of Bunyan’s own life may add to the interest of his book. John Bunyan was born in 1628 at Elstow, a small village near Bedford, which is in the heart of England. His father was a poor man, traveling on foot from place to place mending pots and pans and the simple furniture of country kitchens, and the son followed the same trade, and was known as a “tinker.” He tells us that he lived a wild life, and was especially known as one of the worst swearers in the region.

When the great Civil War broke out in England, in 1642, between King Charles the First and the Parliament, Bunyan became a soldier on the side of the Commonwealth, as the party against the king was called. He served in the army between 1644 and 1646.

In 1648, at the age of twenty years, he married a good young woman, who led him to prayer and to a new life. But it was hard for one who had led such a life as his had been to turn to God, and it cost the young man a great struggle. It seemed to him that his past sins were like a load upon his back, just as he afterward wrote of his “pilgrim,” and it was long before he found peace.

He became a member of a little Baptist society, and soon began to preach. Crowds came to hear him, drawn by his earnest spirit and his quaint striking manner. But when Charles the Second became king, no religious services were allowed except those of the Church of England, and all other meetings were forbidden. Bunyan however went on preaching, until he was sent to prison in Bedford. In Bedford jail he stayed twelve years. To find a means of living in jail, he made lace, and sold it as a support for himself and his blind daughter.

If the prison was hard for Bunyan his sufferings were made a blessing to untold millions, for while in Bedford jail he wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress. This story was intended to be a parable, like many of our Saviour’s teachings; that is, it put into the form of a story the life of one who turns from sin, finds salvation through Christ, and in the face of many difficulties makes his way through this world to heaven. Even a child who reads or listens to the book will see this meaning in part; and he will understand it better as he grows older.

In 1672 Bunyan was set free, and allowed to begin again his work as a Baptist minister, and he soon became one of the most popular preachers in all England. He died quite suddenly in 1688, when he was sixty years old, and is buried in an old graveyard now near the center of London, called Bunhill Fields Burial-ground. In the same ground is buried another great writer, Daniel Defoe, whose story of “Robinson Crusoe” ranks next to The Pilgrim’s Progress in the number of its readers; also Isaac Watts, the author of many hymns sung in all the churches, and Mrs. Susanna Wesley, the mother of the great John Wesley. Four people who have left a deep mark upon the world, all lie near together in this small cemetery in London.

Every child should read The Pilgrim’s Progress as a story if no more than a story; should read it until he knows it by heart. And the older he grows the deeper will be the meaning that he will see in it.

JESSE LYMAN HURLBUT.

PART I (#ulink_2e0bbd6d-775b-5b29-a35a-f9bf80453f7e)

CHAPTER 1 (#ulink_b092718a-8359-55e2-a68f-2292d51d8156)

As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a den, and laid me down in that place to sleep; and as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back. I looked, and saw him open the book, and read therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled; and, not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry, saying, “What shall I do?”

In this plight, therefore, he went home, and restrained himself as long as he could, that his wife and children should not perceive his distress; but he could not be silent long, because that his trouble increased. Wherefore at length he brake his mind to his wife and children; and thus he began to talk to them: “Oh my dear wife,” said he, “and you my sweet children, I, your dear friend, am in myself undone by reason of a burden that lieth hard upon me; moreover, I am told to a certainty that this our city will be burned with fire from heaven; in which fearful overthrow, both myself, with thee, my wife, and you, my sweet babes, shall miserably come to ruin, except some way of escape can be found whereby we may be delivered.” At this all his family were sore amazed; not for that they believed that what he had said to them was true, but because they thought that some frenzy or madness had got into his head; therefore, it drawing towards night, and they hoping that sleep might settle his brain, with all haste they got him to bed. But the night was as troublesome to him as the day; wherefore, instead of sleeping, he spent it in sighs and tears. So when the morning was come, they would know how he did. He told them, Worse and worse: he also set to talking to them again; but they began to be hardened. They also thought to drive away his madness by harsh and surly treatment of him: sometimes they would ridicule, sometimes they would chide, and sometimes they would quite neglect him. Wherefore he began to retire himself to his chamber, to pray for and pity them, and also to sorrow over his own misery; he would also walk solitary in the fields, sometimes reading, and sometimes praying; and thus for some days he spent his time.

CHRISTIAN’S DISTRESS OF MIND

Now, I saw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was (as he was wont) reading in his book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and as he read, he burst out as he had done before, crying, “What shall I do to be saved?”

I saw also that he looked this way and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still, because (as I perceived) he could not tell which way to go. I looked then, and saw a man named Evangelist coming to him, who asked, “Wherefore dost thou cry?”

He answered, “Sir, I read in the book in my hand, that I am condemned to die, and after that to come to judgment; and I find that I am not willing to do the first, nor able to do the second.”

Then said Evangelist, “Why not willing to die, since this life is troubled with so many evils?” The man answered, “Because I fear that this burden that is upon my back will sink me lower than the grave, and I shall fall into Tophet. And, sir, if I be not fit to go to prison, I am not fit to go to judgment, and from thence to death; and the thoughts of these things make me cry.”

Then said Evangelist, “If this be thy condition, why standest thou still?”

He answered, “Because I know not whither to go.” Then he gave him a parchment roll, and there was written within, “Flee from the wrath to come.”

The man, therefore, read it, and looking upon Evangelist very carefully, 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 thereto; so shalt thou see the gate; at which, when thou knockest, it shall be told thee what thou shalt do.” So I saw in my dream that the man began to run. Now, he had not run far from his own door, when his wife and children perceiving it, began to cry after him to return; but the man put his fingers in his ears, and ran on, crying, “Life! life! eternal life!” So he looked not behind him, but fled towards the middle of the plain.

CHRISTIAN FLEES FROM THE CITY

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 Pliable. Now, by this time the man was got a good distance from them; but, however, they were resolved to pursue him, which they did, and in a little time they overtook him. Then said the man, “Neighbors, wherefore are ye come?” They said, “To persuade you to go back with us.” But he said, “That can by no means be: you dwell,” said he, “in the City of Destruction, the place also where I was born: I see it to be so; and, dying there, sooner or later, you will sink lower than the grave, into a place that burns with fire and brimstone. Be content, good neighbors, and go along with me.”

OBST. “What!” said Obstinate, “and leave our friends and comforts behind us?”

CHRIS. “Yes,” said Christian (for that was his name), “because that all which you forsake is not worthy to be compared with a little of that I am seeking to enjoy; and if you would go along with me, and hold it, you shall fare as I myself; for there, where I go, is enough and to spare. Come away, and prove my words.”

OBST. What are the things you seek, since you leave all the world to find them?

CHRIS. I seek a place that can never be destroyed, one that is pure, and that fadeth not away, and it is laid up in heaven, and safe there, to be given, at the time appointed, to them that seek it with all their heart. Read it so, if you will, in my book.

OBST. “Tush!” said Obstinate, “away with your book; will you go back with us or no?”

CHRIS. “No, not I,” said the other, “because I have put my hand to the plough.”

OBST. Come, then, neighbor Pliable, let us turn again, and go home without him: there is a company of these crazy-headed fools, that, when they take a fancy by the end, are wiser in their own eyes than seven men that can render a reason.

PLI. Then said Pliable, “Don’t revile; if what the good Christian says is true, the things he looks after are better than ours; my heart inclines to go with my neighbor.”

OBST. What! more fools still? Be ruled by me, and go back; who knows whither such a brain-sick fellow will lead you? Go back, go back, and be wise.

CHRIS. Nay, but do thou come with thy neighbor Pliable; there are such things to be had which I spoke of, and many more glories besides. If you believe not me, read here in this book; and for the truth of what is told therein, behold, all is made by the blood of Him that made it.

PLI. “Well, neighbor Obstinate,” said Pliable, “I begin to come to a point; I intend to go along with this good man, and to cast in my lot with him. But, my good companion, do you know the way to this desired place?”

CHRIS. I am directed by a man, whose name is Evangelist, to speed me to a little gate that is before us, where we shall receive directions about the way.

PLI. Come, then, good neighbor, let us be going. Then they went both together.

“And I will go back to my place,” said Obstinate; “I will be no companion of such misled, fantastical fellows.”

Now, I saw in my dream, that, when Obstinate was gone back, Christian and Pliable went talking over the plain; and thus they began:

DISCOURSES WITH PLIABLE