Pictures from Pilgrim’s Progress, by C H Spurgeon, published by the Banner of Truth Trust, paperback, 221 pages, £7.50, obtainable from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
In the construction of Solomon’s temple two men, Bezaleel and Aholiab were “filled with the spirit of God” (Ex 31:3) and thus were equipped for the onerous work in hand. We have in the book under review, two men, John Bunyan, the tinker of Bedford, and C H Spurgeon, minister of the gospel, moved by the same spirit in their work for the Lord. Both were pilgrims and well-acquainted with the difficulties and rewards of the journey of faith and well-equipped to be like Great Heart, in Bunyan’s work, to guide others to the Celestial City.
Spurgeon is not so much in awe of Bunyan that he refrains from criticism, as the following quotation shows: “John Bunyan put the getting rid of the burden too far from the commencement of the pilgrimage. . . . We must not say to the sinner: ‘Now sinner, if thou wilt be saved, go to the baptismal pool; go to the Wicket Gate; go to the church; do this or that’. No, the cross should be right in front of the Wicket Gate; and we should say to the sinner; ‘Throw thyself down there, and thou art safe; but thou art not safe till thou canst cast off thy burden, and lie at the foot of the cross, and find peace in Jesus” (p 13).
Spurgeon himself, as a sinner saved by grace, spends some time in chapter 6 on “Christian at the Cross”. The burden which had troubled Christian was the burden of his sin. Bunyan writes, “Now I saw in my dream that the highway, up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Up this way therefore did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty because of the load on his back. He ran thus until he came to a place somewhat ascending, and on that place stood a cross, and a little below in the bottom, a sepulchre” (p 59). Again: “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” (p 60).
Spurgeon stresses the need of repentance as well as the joy of salvation; “A dry-eyed repentance is no repentance. They who turn unto the Lord aright, mourn for sin and are in bitterness as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. It is from the cross that both repentance and faith arise. We do not bring these graces to the cross” (p 62). The Pilgrim’s tears of repentance and three leaps of joy blend in well together and illustrate Spurgeon’s own conversion experience. “I thought I could have sprung from the seat on which I sat and have called out with the wildest of those Methodist brethren who were present, ‘I am forgiven! I am forgiven! A monument of grace! A sinner saved by blood.’”
Another picture Spurgeon draws is of the “Enchanted Ground”. Both Christian and Hopeful, his fellow pilgrim, felt drowsy and Hopeful wanted to lie down and sleep. He said, “Let us lie down here and take one nap.
“Christian. ‘By no means, said the other; lest, sleeping, we never awake more.’
“Hopeful. ‘Why, my brother? Sleep is sweet to the labouring man; we may be refreshed if we take a nap.’
“Christian. ‘Do you not remember that one of the Shepherds bid us beware of the Enchanted Ground? He meant by that, that we should beware of sleeping; “therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (1 Th 5:6)” (p 156).
Spurgeon comments that he saw much of the malign effects of the Enchanted Ground in the churches of his own day. He notes that where there is this soul sleep, there is a state of spiritual insensibility [unconsciousness]. In that state, If I “talk to you of perishing multitudes . . . you hear it as an old, old, tale” (p 158). This ground also induces a state of inaction. “It is not merely that the pulpit is a sentinel box with the sentinel fast asleep, but the pews are affected too. . . . Where is the spirit of prayer, where the life of
devotion?” (p 159). Spurgeon notes that the most likely times to succumb to sleep are when temporal circumstances are comfortable and our nest is well-feathered; and also when we are near our journey’s end. He quotes Bunyan: “For when, thinks the enemy, will these fools be so desirous to sit down as when they are weary, and when so like to be weary as when almost at their journey’s end” (p 163). Beware the Enchanted Ground.
In the last picture Spurgeon takes from Pictures from Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan writes of Christiana passing over the river: “But glorious it was to see how the upper region was filled with horses and chariots, with trumpeters and pipers, with singers and players on stringed instruments, as they went up, and followed one another in at the beautiful gate of the city” (p 207). Mr Steadfast, who accompanied Christiana to the brink of the river, said, “The waters, indeed, are to the palate bitter, and to the stomach 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 on my heart. … Now, methinks, I stand easy, my foot is fixed upon that on which the feet of the priests that bare the ark of the covenant stood, while Israel went over this Jordan” (p 207).
Altogether an illuminating commentary on a Christian classic.
(Rev) J R Tallach