John Bunyan's "Christian" has now arrived at the "House Beautiful" – the "house built by the Lord of the Hill;" and while he tarries in that place he is to be cared for by three godly women, "Prudence", "Piety", and "Charity". Each one in turn talks with the Pilgrim-Christian ensuring that he is Prudent, and Pious, and Charitable; but, it's the conversation between Christian and the last-mentioned – Charity, that I want us to consider together for a few moments this month.
It's this conversation that reminds us once again of the responsibilities of bringing up our children in the fear and nurture of the Lord. And don't let those who have no children of their own feel that they need not read any further, or that the obligation of teaching the young and caring for them is no concern of theirs. Charity was an "old maid"; she had never been married; but, my, what an insight she has into the question of instructing those of tender years, as her interrogation of Christian will show.
Charity: Then said Charity to Christian, "Have you a family? Are you a married man?"
Christian: "I have a wife and four small children".
Charity: "And why did you not bring them along with you?"
Christian: Then Christian wept and said: "Oh, how willingly would I have done it! But they were all of them utterly averse to my going on pilgrimage".
Charity: "But you should have talked to them and endeavoured to have shown them the danger of staying behind".
Christian: "So I did, and told them also what God had shown to me of the destruction of our city; but I seemed to them as one that mocked, and they believed me not. (Genesis 19 verse 14).
Charity: "And did you pray to God that He would bless your counsel to them?"
Christian: "Yes, and with much affection … …"
Charity: "But what could they say for themselves why they came not?"
Christian: "Why, my wife was afraid of losing this world, and my children were given to foolish delights of youth; so, what by one thing, and what by another, they left me to wander in this manner alone."
Surely in this short passage we see Bunyan as great as he has ever been. How replete with lessons this solemn interview between the immortal tinker's two great characters is.
Look at the word to fathers. "Why did you not bring them along with you?" Asks Charity. Charity begins at home, and never mind how many you have pointed Christ, she is saying here, why have you not brought your own flesh and blood into the way everlasting? "You should have talked to them," she tells him again. Don't give up at the first refusal - keep at them. "You should have … shown them the danger of staying behind." As old Bishop Ryle has already told us, Preach sin and its consequences to your children (see series Sermon for Parents by J.C. Ryle). And did you pray to God that He would bless your counsel to them?" Charity asks. What a word for every father among us. How easy it is to talk sometimes – even about hell, but what of the prayer to make that counsel effective? A prayer before we speak; a prayer after we have spoken. "Did you pray to God that He would bless your counsel to them"? May our conscience be as clear as the Pilgrim's as we answer all those searching questions in the affirmative.
But, there is a word to young people. "But what could they say for themselves …?" "… My children were given to the foolish delights of youth, " says Christian. How many young people of good Christian homes are there and this is a picture of them? In spite of endeavours and warnings and words of loving rebuke and prayers, they are still only concerned for this world and have no time for the things of Christ.
But, what a terrible world regarding the "heart of the home," - the mother! "What could they say for themselves?" "Why", says Christian - and can't you see the poor man's head bowed low as he answers Charity's question? "Why," he says, "my wife was afraid of losing this world". Mother! Where is your mother-heart? Don't you see, the mother wouldn't leave the world, and so the children were tied to the world as well, by the cords of her apron strings that their young hands clung to.
Oh Charity, speak to all our hearts.
This Page Title – Christian and the House Beautiful – Pictures from Pilgrim's Progress The Wicket Gate Magazine "A Continuing Witness". Internet Edition number 55 – placed on line July 2005 Magazine web address – www.wicketgate.co.uk |