The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read
a brave companion have we got! Surely this man will make a very
excellent pilgrim."
[Sidenote: FAITHFUL DISPUTES TALKATIVE]
CHRIS. At this Christian modestly smiled, and said, "This man with whom
you are so taken will deceive with this tongue of his twenty of them
that know him not."
FAITH. Do you know him, then?
CHRIS. Know him? Yes, better than he knows himself.
FAITH. Pray what is he?
CHRIS. His name is Talkative; he dwelleth in our town. I wonder that you
should be a stranger to him: only I consider that our town is large.
FAITH. Whose son is he? and whereabout doth he dwell?
CHRIS. He is the son of one Say-well. He dwelt in Prating Row, and is
known to all that are acquainted with him by the name of Talkative of
Prating Row; and notwithstanding his fine tongue, he is but a sorry
fellow.
FAITH. Well, he seems to be a very pretty man.
CHRIS. That is, to them that have not a thorough acquaintance with him,
for he is best abroad; near home he is ugly enough. Your saying that he
is a pretty man brings to my mind what I have observed in the work of
the painter, whose pictures show best at a distance, but very near more
unpleasing.
FAITH. But I am ready to think you do but jest, because you smiled.
CHRIS. God forbid that I should jest (though I smiled) in this matter,
or that I should accuse any falsely. I will give you a further discovery
of him. This man is for any company, and for any talk. As he talketh now
with you, so will he talk when he is on the ale-bench; and the more
drink he hath in his crown, the more of these things he hath in his
mouth. Religion hath no place in his heart, or house, or conversation:
all he hath lieth in his tongue, and his religion is to make a noise
therewith.
FAITH. Say you so? Then am I in this man greatly deceived.
CHRIS. Deceived! you may be sure of it. Remember the proverb, "They say,
and do not;" but the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. He
talketh of prayer, of turning to God, of faith, and of the new birth;
but he knows but only to talk of them. I have been in his family, and
have seen him both at home and abroad, and I know what I say of him is
the truth. His house is as empty of religion as the white of an egg is
of savor. There is there neither prayer nor sign of turning from sin;
yea, the brute, in his kind, serves God far better than he. He is the
very stain, reproach, and shame of religion to all that know him. It can
hardly have a good word in all that end of the town where he dwells,
through him. Thus say the common people that know him: "A saint abroad,
and a devil at home." His poor family finds it so: he is such a
fault-finder, such a railer at, and so unreasonable with his servants,
that they neither know how to do for or speak to him. Men that have any
dealings with him say, it is better to deal with a Turk than with him,
for fairer dealing they shall have at their hands. This Talkative, if it
be possible, will go beyond them, cheat, beguile, and overreach them.
Besides, he brings up his sons to follow his steps; and, if he findeth
in any of them a foolish timorousness (for so he calls the first
appearance of a tender conscience), he calls them fools and blockheads,
and by no means will employ them in much, or speak to their commendation
before others. For my part, I am of opinion that he has, by his wicked
life, caused many to stumble and fall, and will be, if God prevent not,
the ruin of many more.
FAITH. Well, my brother, I am bound to believe you, not only because you
say you know him, but also because like a Christian you make your
reports of men. For I cannot think you speak these things of ill-will,
but because it is even so as you say.
CHRIS. Had I known him no more than you, I might, perhaps, have thought
of him as at first you did; yea, had he received this report only from
those that are enemies to religion, I should have thought it had been a
slander, a lot that often falls from bad men's mouths upon good men's
names and professions. But all these things, yea, and a great many more
as bad, of my own knowledge I can prove him guilty of. Besides, good men
are ashamed of him: they can neither call him brother nor friend; the
very naming of him among them makes them blush, if they know him.
FAITH. Well, I see that saying and doing are two things, and hereafter I
shall better observe the difference between them.
CHRIS. They are two things, indeed, and are as diverse as are the soul
and the body; for, as the body without the soul is but a dead carcase,
so _saying_, if it be alone, is but a dead carcase also. The soul of
religion is the practical part. "Pure religion and undefiled before God
and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their
affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." This,
Talkative is not aware of: he thinks that hearing and saying will make a
good Christian, and thus he deceiveth his own soul. Hearing is but as
the sowing of the seed; talking is not sufficient to prove that fruit is
indeed in the heart and life. And let us assure ourselves that, at the
day of doom, men shall be judged according to their fruits.
FAITH. Well, I was not so fond of his company at first, but I am as sick
of it now. What shall we do to be rid of him?
CHRIS. Take my advice, and do as I bid you, and you shall find that he
will soon be sick of your company too, except God shall touch his heart
and turn it.
FAITH. What would you have me to do?
CHRIS. Why, go to him, and enter into some serious conversation about
the power of religion and ask him plainly (when he has approved of it,
for that he will) whether this thing be set up in his heart, house or
conduct.
FAITH. Then Faithful stepped forward again, and said to Talkative,
"Come, what cheer? How is it now?"
TALK. Thank you, well: I thought we should have had a great deal of talk
by this time.
FAITH. Well, if you will, we will fall to it now; and, since you left it
with me to state the question, let it be this: How doth the saving grace
of God show itself when it is in the heart of man?
TALK. I perceive, then, that our talk must be about the power of things.
Well, it is a very good question, and I shall be willing to answer you.
And take my answer in brief, thus. First, where the grace of God is in
the heart, it causeth there a great outcry against sin. Secondly,--
FAITH. Nay, hold; let us consider of one at once. I think you should
rather say, it shows itself by inclining the soul to hate its sin.
TALK. Why, what difference is there between crying out against and
hating sin?
FAITH. Oh! a great deal. A man may cry out against sin in order to
appear good; but he cannot hate it except by a real dislike for it. I
have heard many cry out against sin in the pulpit, who yet can abide it
well enough in the heart, house, and life. Some cry out against sin,
even as the mother cries out against her child in her lap, when she
calleth it a naughty girl, and then falls to hugging and kissing it.
TALK. You are trying to catch me, I perceive.
FAITH. No, not I; I am only for setting things right. But what is the
second thing whereby you would prove a discovery of a work of God in the
heart?
TALK. Great knowledge of hard things in the Bible.
[Sidenote: TALKATIVE PARTS COMPANY]
FAITH. This sign should have been first; but, first or last, it is also
false; for knowledge, great knowledge, may be obtained in the mysteries
of the Gospel, and yet no work of grace in the soul. Yea, if a man have
all knowledge, he may yet be nothing, and so, consequently, be no child
of God. When Christ said, "Do ye know all these things?" and the
disciples had answered, "Yes," He added, "Blessed are ye if ye do them."
He doth not lay the blessing in the knowledge of them, but in the doing
of them. For there is a knowledge that is not attended with doing: "He
that knoweth his master's will, and doeth it not." A man may know like
an angel, and yet be no Christian; therefore your sign of it is not
true. Indeed, to know, is a thing that pleaseth talkers and boasters;
but to do is that which pleaseth God.
TALK. You are trying to catch me again: this is not profitable.
FAITH. Well, if you please, name another sign how this work of grace
showeth itself where it is.
TALK. Not I; for I see we shall not agree.
FAITH. Well, if you will not, will you give me leave to do it?
TALK. You may say what you please.
FAITH. God's work in the soul showeth itself either to him that hath it
or to standers by. To him that has it, it is shown by making him see and
feel his own sins. To others who are standing by it is shown by his
life, a life of doing right in the sight of God. And now, sir, as to
this brief account of the work of grace, and also the showing of it, if
you have aught to object, object; if not, then give me leave to ask you
a second question.
TALK. Nay, my part is not now to object, but to hear; let me, therefore,
have your second question.
FAITH. It is this: Have you felt your own sins, and have you turned from
them? And do your life and conduct show it the same? Or is your religion
in word or in tongue, and not in deed and truth? Pray, if you incline to
answer me in this, say no more than you know the God above will say
Amen to, and also nothing but what your conscience can approve you in;
for not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord
commendeth. Besides, to say I am thus and thus, when my conduct and all
my neighbors tell me I lie, is great wickedness.
TALK. Then Talkative at first began to blush; but, recovering himself,
thus he replied: "This kind of discourse I did not expect; nor am I
disposed to give an answer to such questions, because I count not myself
bound thereto, unless you take upon you to be a questioner; and though
you should do so, yet I may refuse to make you my judge. But, I pray,
will you tell me why you ask me such questions?"
FAITH. Because I saw you forward to talk, and because I knew not that
you had aught else but notion. Besides, to tell you all the truth, I
have heard of you that you are a man whose religion lies in talk, and
that your life gives this your mouth-profession the lie. They say you
are a spot among Christians, and that religion fareth the worse for your
ungodly conduct; that some already have stumbled at your wicked ways,
and that more are in danger of being destroyed thereby: your religion,
and an alehouse, and greed for gain, and uncleanness, and swearing, and
lying, and vain company-keeping, etc., will stand together. You are a
shame to all who are members of the church.
TALK. Since you are ready to take up reports, and to judge so rashly as
you do, I cannot but conclude you are some peevish or cross man, not fit
to be talked with; and so adieu.
CHRIS. Then came up Christian, and said to his brother, "I told you how
it would happen; your words and his heart could not agree. He had rather
leave your company than reform his life. But he is gone, as I said: let
him go; the loss is no man's but his own: he has saved us the trouble of
going from him; for he continuing (as I suppose he will do) as he is, he
would have been but a blot in our company. Besides, the Apostle says,
'From such withdraw thyself.'"
FAITH. But I am glad we had this little talk with him; it may happen
that he will think of it again: however, I have dealt plainly with him,
and so am clear of his blood, if he perisheth.
CHRIS. You did well to talk so plainly to him as you did. There is but
little of this faithful dealing with men now-a-days; and that makes
religion to be despised by so many; for they are these talkative fools,
whose religion is only in word, and are vile and vain in their life,
that, being so much admitted into the fellowship of the godly, do puzzle