The Young Pilgrim: A Tale Illustrative of "The Pilgrim's Progress"

by A. L. O. E.

“I will give you this book, which I look upon as a valuable chart of the way you must tread,” replied Mr. Ewart, placing in the hand of Ernest a copy of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. “In this book you will see the Christian’s path, over part of which you yourself have travelled. You will recognize some spots that are familiar to you, some people with whom you have had to deal; and you will see, as if a curtain were drawn up before you, much that you are likely to meet with in the future.”

“Oh, thanks! this must indeed be a most wonderful book! But I cannot understand how it can tell me about things that have happened or will happen to myself, the paths of people through life are so many.”

“The paths of men are many—the Christian has but one. Our circumstances, indeed, are very various; to some the hill Difficulty comes through bitter poverty, to some from unkind relations, to some from broken health. Some pass through the gloomy valley in sunshine, and see but little of its horrors; some are helped, some hindered on their way to heaven by those amongst whom they live. But there are certain points in the pilgrimage which every Christian must know. We all set out from the City of Destruction—we are all by nature born in sin. Even children must flee from the wrath to come, turning from—that is, repenting of their unrighteousness. Even children must come to the one strait gate—faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; must knock by prayer, and having once entered in, must press on in the way leading unto life! Even children bear a burden of sin, though the sooner they come to the cross of the Saviour the lighter that burden must be; but were it only the burden of one unholy word, one sinful thought, nothing but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ could take even that away! Even children are beset by spiritual foes—must, if pilgrims, know something of the battle within; even children must wear the whole armour of God; and to the youngest, the weakest, is offered the crown which the Lord has prepared for them that love Him!”

“What a wonderfully wise and learned man he must have been who wrote such a book as you say that this is!”

“It was written by a man who had very little learning except what he gained from the Word of God itself. The wisdom which he possessed came from above, and the men of the world deemed it foolishness. The author of that book was a tinker, named Bunyan, a man who supported himself by the labour of his hands, and who for twelve years, only on account of his religion, was confined in Bedford jail.”

“Were men put in prison for being religious?” exclaimed Ernest, in surprise.

“At all times the world has been an enemy to holiness, and religion has been liable to persecution; but this persecution has at different times taken very different shapes. The early Christians were tortured, beaten, thrown to wild beasts, till so many people had adopted their holy faith that the civilized world began to call itself Christian. Then the Evil One, seeing that he could not put out the light, heaped up a thousand superstitions around it, so that sinners might be prevented from seeing it. Yet, doubtless, even through the dark ages, as they are called, God had always some faithful believers upon earth, whom the world would hate because they were not of it; and persecute, though not always openly. At length the time of the Reformation arrived; brave men and holy forced a way through the mass of superstitions which had hidden the precious light of truth; and then, indeed, there was a fearful struggle, and persecution bathed its sword in the blood of martyrs. Many were the stakes raised in England, Germany, and France, where saints yielded up their souls in the midst of flames. But no persecution could tread out the light which God himself had kindled. As blows upon gold but make it spread wider, so the very efforts of the wicked to suppress the truth, made it more extensively known.”

“And was it then that Bunyan was imprisoned?”

“Not then, but more than a century after, in the reign of an unworthy monarch, Charles II., when the light which had shone so brightly was becoming obscured again by superstition and worldly policy. Bunyan was confined for preaching the Word; was separated from the family of whom he was the support. That which most deeply wounded his heart was the helpless position of his poor blind child, who so much needed the protecting care of a father.”