The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read
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THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS
BY JOHN BUNYAN
EVERY CHILD CAN READ
EDITED BY REV. JESSE LYMAN HURLBUT, D.D.
ILLUSTRATED
EVERY CHILD'S LIBRARY
THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. PHILADELPHIA COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY THE JOHN C.
WINSTON CO.
PREFACE
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 in 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.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
CHRISTIAN CONFIDES IN HIS WIFE _Frontispiece_
PAGE
EVANGELIST POINTS TO WICKET-GATE 15
CHRISTIAN BEFORE THE CROSS 50
CHRISTIAN AND FAITHFUL JOIN COMPANY 89
HOPEFUL AND CHRISTIAN 129
ATHEIST LAUGHING AT CHRISTIAN AND HOPEFUL 170
CHRISTIANA'S BOYS BEGAN TO EAT 231
TURN-AWAY RESISTING EVANGELIST 357
THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS
PART I
CHAPTER I.
As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain
place where was a den,[1] 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?"
[1] Bedford jail, in which Bunyan was twelve years a prisoner.
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.
[Sidenote: 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.[2] 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."
[2] Tophet here means hell.
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.
[Sidenote: 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