The very last sermon Bunyan preached is the only sermon we have from him that was not expanded into a treatise. It was preached just before his death in 1688. In it he develops the comparison of children and their father in preaching on the theme of children of God from John 1:13. The infant craves warmth and food; “it is natural to them to depend upon their Father for what they want; if they want a pair of shoes, go and tell him; if they want bread, go and tell him”.
“A child when it is in its mother’s lap, the mother takes great delight to have that which will be for its comfort; so it is with God’s children, they shall be kept in His lap, and dandled upon His knee . . . There is a similitude in these things that nobody knows of but those that are born again.” “If you be born again you cannot live without the milk of God’s Word . . . [the mother’s milk is the child’s] comfort night and day, there is its succour night and day. O how loth are they it should be taken from them.”
If we are to apply personally all that we have considered from Bunyan we might first of all be exhorted to give ourselves as entirely to Scripture as Bunyan did. We ought to experience its power and meditate deeply on its glorious realities. We ought to delight in the way that the Holy Spirit has chosen to speak to us – in such rich metaphorical language designed to be attractive to us and to encourage us to meditate deeply on it and turn it over and over in our minds drawing out its sweetness. And do we? If you read John Bunyan’s writings, you will get great benefit from them and one of the best benefits is if they give you a renewed love for and delight in the Scriptures.
1This series discusses aspects of Bunyan’s life and work that have been forgotten. Last month’s article spoke of his controversies. This is the last in the series.
The other personal application we might make is to read The Pilgrim’s Progress. Perhaps you read it once some time ago and you wonder why you would need to read it again. But what we need is a different kind of reading: read it experientially; find your own experience in it. How far have you come along the journey? Where are you now? What experiences can you identify with? Is it not encouraging and strengthening to have it set out in such an attractive way?
Bunyan declares that the allegory will not only engage, but also transform, the reader.
This book will make a traveller of thee
If by its counsel thou wilt ruled be;
It will direct thee to the Holy Land,
If thou wilt its directions understand.
Come back to it and re-read it. You will find more and more in it. Some of it takes a little thinking about and that is why you need to re-read it. Read it slowly and seek to discover new insights from it in relation to your own heart and your own progress in the way to heaven. Do not think of it as a book that is helpful mainly to children; it is useful to us always. Perhaps it has not appealed to you before, but now when you think of it as drawing so deeply out of Scripture and following the same purpose and approach as a sermon, you can read it with new eyes and appreciation.
Wouldst read thyself, and read thou knowest not what,
And yet know whether thou art blest or not,
By reading the same lines? O then come hither,
And lay my book, thy head and heart together.
When Christ spake to Paul and struck him to the ground, if he had not a light within as well as without he had not been humbled; nor the jailor, if there had not been an earthquake in his heart as well as in the earth. Jeroboam had as great a miracle wrought before him as Paul; you may well think the drying up of his hand amazed him, yet it did not make him give over his sin. And what was the reason? There was a miracle in both, but not the Spirit.
John Preston