Pilgrim's Progress - Special Edition
Page 1
ABOUT THIS BOOK
210 pages, 65,000 words
This book for all ages is a great choice for young readers, as well as for families, Sunday school teachers, and anyone who wants to read John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress in a clear form.
All the old favourites are here: Christian, Christiana, the Wicket Gate, Interpreter, Hill Difficulty with the lions, the four sisters at the House Beautiful, Vanity Fair, Giant Despair, Faithful and Talkative – and, of course, Greatheart. The list is almost endless.
The first part of the story is told by Christian himself, as he leaves the City of Destruction to reach the Celestial City, and becomes trapped in the Slough of Despond near the Wicket Gate. On his journey he will encounter lions, giants, and a creature called the Destroyer.
Christiana follows along later, and tells her own story in the second part. Not only does Christiana have to cope with her four young brothers, she worries about whether her clothes are good enough for meeting the King. Will she find the dangers in Vanity Fair that Christian found? Will she be caught by Giant Despair and imprisoned in Doubting Castle? What about the dragon with seven heads?
It’s a dangerous journey, but Christian and Christiana both know that the King’s Son is with them, helping them through the most difficult parts until they reach the Land of Beulah, and see the Celestial City on the other side of the Dark River. This is a story you will remember for ever, and it’s about a journey you can make for yourself.
Pilgrim's Progress
Special Edition
Chris Wright
eBook ISBN 13: 978-0-9932760-8-8
This edition ©2015 Chris Wright
Also available as a paperback
ISBN: 978-0-9525956-7-0
The Bible verses in this story are taken from "The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers." No matter what version of the Bible you use, the verses have the same message and promises.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this book.
Published by
White Tree Publishing Bristol
wtpbristol@gmail.com
More White Tree Publishing books on
www.rocky-island.com
Table of Contents
COVER
ABOUT THIS BOOK
INTRODUCTION
PART 1: CHRISTIAN'S JOURNEY
CHAPTER 1: The City of Destruction
CHAPTER 2: Evangelist
CHAPTER 3: Obstinate and Pliable
CHAPTER 4: The Slough of Despond
CHAPTER 5: Help
CHAPTER 6: Young Worldly-Wiseman
CHAPTER 7: Evangelist Again
CHAPTER 8: The Wicket Gate
CHAPTER 9: Interpreter
CHAPTER 10: Passion and Patience
CHAPTER 11: The Cross
CHAPTER 12: Simple, Sloth and Presumption
CHAPTER 13: Hill Difficulty
CHAPTER 14: The House Beautiful
CHAPTER 15: The Four Sisters
CHAPTER 16: The Armoury
CHAPTER 17: Apollyon the Destroyer
CHAPTER 18: "Take Courage!"
CHAPTER 19: The Dark Valley
CHAPTER 20: Faithful
CHAPTER 21: Talkative
CHAPTER 22: Warnings
CHAPTER 23: Vanity Fair
CHAPTER 24: The Governor
CHAPTER 25: Judge Hate-Good
CHAPTER 26: Hopeful
CHAPTER 27: By-Ends
CHAPTER 28: The Silver Mine
CHAPTER 29: The River of the Water of Life
CHAPTER 30: An Easy Path
CHAPTER 31: Giant Despair
CHAPTER 32: The Key of Promise
CHAPTER 33: The Delectable Mountains
CHAPTER 34: Mount Caution
CHAPTER 35: Ignorance
CHAPTER 36: Little-Faith
CHAPTER 37: Caught in the Net
CHAPTER 38: Rescue
CHAPTER 39: Unbelief
CHAPTER 40: The Enchanted Ground
CHAPTER 41: Ignorance Again
CHAPTER 42: The Land of Beulah
CHAPTER 43: Ignorance at the River
CHAPTER 44: "Do Not Be Afraid."
CHAPTER 45: The Celestial City
PART 2: CHRISTIANA'S STORY
CHAPTER 46: The Letter
CHAPTER 47: My Brothers
CHAPTER 48: Leaving Home
CHAPTER 49: The Wicket Gate
CHAPTER 50: Starting Out
CHAPTER 51: Danger
CHAPTER 52: The House of Interpreter
CHAPTER 53: Raking Straw
CHAPTER 54: Greatheart
CHAPTER 55: The Cross
CHAPTER 56: Hill Difficulty
CHAPTER 57: Lions!
CHAPTER 58: Watchful
CHAPTER 59: Mercy's Dream
CHAPTER 60: The Sisters
CHAPTER 61: Matthew's Illness
CHAPTER 62: Dr Skill
CHAPTER 63: The Dark Valley
CHAPTER 64: Another Lion
CHAPTER 65: Traps
CHAPTER 66: Giant Maul
CHAPTER 67: Mr Honest
CHAPTER 68: Fearing
CHAPTER 69: Gaius
CHAPTER 70: Off Again
CHAPTER 71: Near Vanity Fair
CHAPTER 72: In the Fair
CHAPTER 73: The Seven-Headed Dragon
CHAPTER 74: Doubting Castle
CHAPTER 75: The Shepherds
CHAPTER 76: Valiant-for-Truth
CHAPTER 77: Valiant-for-Truth's Son
CHAPTER 78: The Enchanted Ground
CHAPTER 79: Beulah
CHAPTER 80: The Message
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ABOUT WHITE TREE PUBLISHING
ABOUT CHRIS WRIGHT
INTRODUCTION
This introduction tells you how this book came to be written. If you want to skip it and get straight on with the story, that's fine. You can always come back to this page later -- or not at all. To tell you the truth, I'm not too keen on long book introductions myself!
In the year 1677, an Englishman was in prison in Bedford, England. His crime? He had been preaching without a licence, and his name was John Bunyan. Only ministers from the Church of England were allowed to hold services of worship in those days, and the punishment for breaking the rules was severe.
John Bunyan says he had a dream in which he saw people travelling through life as though they were on a map. One man found the way to the Celestial City. John Bunyan decided to write the dream as a story. He called the man he had seen in his dream -- the man who found the way -- Christian. He called his book The Pilgrim's Progress.
Over a hundred years ago, Helen L Taylor realised that young readers found The Pilgrim's Progress hard to read and understand. Much of Bunyan's book consists of deep discussions between Christian and the people he meets. So Helen Taylor rewrote the first part of The Pilgrim's Progress in 1889 and the second part in 1891, using children as the main characters. She called the first part Little Christian's Pilgrimage, and the second part Christiana.
I feel that the time has come for a brand new edition of The Pilgrim's Progress -- a special edition -- that is suitable for readers who are older than those Helen Taylor had in mind -- indeed, for people of any age who want a simplified version of Bunyan's story, but don't want a childish account. I have noth
ing but praise for Helen Taylor, and her books have been read widely. However, she was writing for young readers in the nineteenth, not the twenty-first century.
I am letting the main characters tell the story in their own words. To anyone who thinks what happens in Vanity Fair is too gruesome to repeat here, bear in mind that far more people face death for their Christian faith today than they did in John Bunyan's time.
I have incorporated a few of Helen Taylor's excellent ideas that aren't in Bunyan's story. For instance: the hill above the City of Destruction, the jailor's wife in Vanity Fair, and of course the idea of the pilgrims being young -- but in this book they are definitely older than her main characters.
I have tried to keep the old-fashioned atmosphere intact by sticking closely to the names and events in John Bunyan's original narrative. Don't you just love the thought of there being someone called Mrs Bats-Eyes! I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
Chris Wright
Bristol
PART 1
CHRISTIAN'S JOURNEY
CHAPTER 1
The City of Destruction
I sat alone on the hill above the city. It had been a long day. My friends had gone home some time ago, leaving me to think about the heavy weight on my back. I knew I'd feel better as soon as I could find a way to get rid of it.
I looked at the gloomy streets spread out below. Even with the sun shining, everything seemed broken and neglected. The city would only look worse when the winter winds and rain came.
The City of Destruction. No wonder I felt unhappy in a place with a name like that. There were days when I'd do anything to get away. The only good times, for me, were when the visitors came with their messages of hope.
"Leave this city now, Christian," they said. "Go, while you're young and strong, and travel to the Celestial City where the King lives. You'll be safe there."
Whenever I asked my friends if they would go with me, they told me the Celestial City was only a make-believe place. Nowhere could be better or safer than our city, they said.
Now, on the hill, I felt sure the visitors were speaking the truth. A few months earlier I had been given a special Book, and in it I read exactly the same things the visitors were telling me about the King and the Way to him -- and how the City of Destruction would be destroyed one day.
I showed the Book to two of my friends, but all they did was laugh. "That Book was written a long time ago. It's no use to anyone now," one of them said. "The King's army hasn't come, and we don't think it ever will. So take it easy, Christian. Let's enjoy ourselves while we can."
So there I sat, looking down at the grimy city, wondering if I'd be able to find the Way to the King on my own. The more I thought about it, the more I was afraid I'd get lost if I tried. Even so, I had to get away. Opening my Book again, I read about the King's own Son who had once come here to the City of Destruction, and invited everyone to go to live with him.
I noticed how dirty my clothes had become. I was now in my teens, so I'd worn them a long time, and they were frayed and shabby. The more I tried to live a good life, the worse they looked. "Even if I do find the Celestial City," I decided, "I can't expect the King to receive me dressed in nothing but rags."
My mother was already living with the King in his City, and of course she had wanted my father and me to join her there.
When I got home, the woman who came in every day to look after me asked if I was ill. "Christian, you look so miserable," she said. "Are you running a fever?"
I told her I wanted to go to the Celestial City, and she laughed at me, exactly as my friends had done.
"Just get that nonsense out of your head," she snapped irritably. "There is no Celestial City, my lad, and if you go wandering along the roads after those visitors you'll soon get lost."
So I went to bed without saying anything more. But it was a long time before I could get to sleep.
CHAPTER 2
Evangelist
When I went out the next morning, the sun was shining brightly again. Some of my friends asked me to join them, but I told them, "I can't. I've made up my mind to go to the Celestial City. Will you come with me and help me find the way?"
"You're crazy," they said. "You keep going on about that stupid Celestial City. Why don't you just go there -- instead of talking about it and spoiling our fun?"
I didn't feel like arguing, so I let them walk off to do whatever they were planning. Presently my friend Christiana came down the street. She stopped to speak to me, which made me feel a little better. Christiana was the sort of friend who understands when things aren't going well.
"Why do you listen to the visitors if they make you unhappy?" she asked, which is something I'd been wondering myself. Then without waiting for an answer, she said, "Come on, let's climb the hill."
Although Christiana said she didn't believe the stories in my Book, she never laughed at me. I think, in a way, she wanted to believe they were true -- perhaps she even thought they were.
"You know," I said, as we walked up the path, "I have to go to the King. I've not told you before, but I have a burden to carry. The King is the only one who can take it from me."
"Burden?" Christiana asked, sounding surprised. "I can't see a burden."
"It's on my back, and it feels so heavy it makes me tired."
Christiana came round behind me, looking puzzled. "You must be ill, Christian, if you think there's something on your back."
"I'm not ill," I insisted. "Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there."
We reached to the top of the hill, and were so out of breath that I forgot about my plans for my journey, and it wasn't until I got back that night that I began to think again of the Celestial City.
The house was empty. The woman who looked after me had gone home, and my father wasn't back from his work -- as usual. He had an important job in the city, and always came home late.
The next morning I went round to Christiana's house, hoping to go out with her again and persuade her to travel with me. Her parents had both gone to live with the King, and she told me she had too much to do at home, as she was now like a mother to her four younger brothers.
My other friends said they wanted nothing to do with me, so I wandered into the meadows outside the city wall and sat down on a grass bank to read my Book. The more I read, the more convinced I became that I needed to find the King. As I read about the King's Son, tears came my eyes as I thought he might not want anything to do with me -- even if I found him.
After a while I heard someone coming, and looking up saw one of the visitors on his way to the city. His name was Evangelist. I'd seen him before, and I think he recognised me because he came over. I looked the other way. My eyes were red, and I felt foolish.
"Why are you upset?" Evangelist asked.
I found his voice was comforting. So I told him how I wanted to get away, and how my friends made fun of me, and how no one seemed to believe there really was a place called the Celestial City.
"And what is the Book in your hand?" Evangelist asked.
I showed it to him. "This Book is why I'm upset," I said. "It tells me there's no hope for me if I stay here in the City of Destruction. Is the Book true?"
"The Book is true," Evangelist said quietly. "But haven't you read the good news in there as well?"
I put the Book down. "What good news?" I asked.
"Your Book says the King loves everyone. He even loves you, Christian. If you start your journey, he'll watch over you all the way. Then, when you reach the Celestial City, you'll be safe for ever."
"I've read that," I agreed, "but I still don't know what to do. I'd start now -- if I could find the Way."
Evangelist turned and looked across the fields, along the path by which he'd come. "Do you see a high wall in the far distance?" He pointed with his finger.
But my eyes were still cloudy with tears, and I wasn't able to see anything clearly.
"Look,"
Evangelist said, "there's a light shining above it. Can you see that?"
I thought I could, so I nodded.
"That light marks the start of the Way to the Celestial City. When you get to the wall you will see a large door. No one can open that door, but there is a small door in the large one, called a Wicket Gate. You have to go through it to begin your journey."
"Is that the only way?" I asked.
"Indeed, yes, there is no other way. The King's Son made that Wicket Gate. Now, I will show you a promise to all travellers."
Evangelist opened my Book and pointed to some words spoken by the King's Son. I read them aloud. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."
Evangelist smiled as I looked up at him in surprise. "Now, Christian, if you want to meet the King, you must go quickly to the Wicket Gate -- and make sure you knock."
CHAPTER 3
Obstinate and Pliable
I noticed a group of my friends creeping closer while Evangelist was speaking to me. I wondered why they were taking such an interest now. This must be the first time they'd ever bothered to listen to the visitors.
I told Evangelist I couldn't wait to get started, and he waved me on my way. In spite of the weight of the burden on my back, I began to run across the fields towards the light. Then I heard my friends call out, "Where are you going, Christian?"
I didn't say anything, but just kept running.
"Running away, running away," they chanted. "Christian is running away!"
"Come back," I heard one of them shout. "You'll get lost."
I blocked my ears with my fingers, and kept running. There was no way now I was going to let anyone talk me out of going.
I unblocked my ears when I thought I was far enough away, and was surprised to hear the voices of two of the boys, Obstinate and Pliable, close to me. They were older than me, but the three of us often messed around together. Obstinate wasn't a pleasant companion, for he always wanted his own way, and Pliable used to give in for the sake of peace. I didn't care much for either of them, but I liked Pliable better. Difficult, and Easily Led. How well their names suited them.
"Come back, Christian," Obstinate called. "You're stupid if you believe there's a Celestial City."
"Wait for us," Pliable added. "We're coming with you."
I heard them shouting but refused to wait, or even look round again.
"If they talk me into going back," I kept thinking, "I may never have another chance to get away."
So I ran as fast as I could, but I soon began to feel tired because of the weight on my back. Even if no one else could see it, I knew it was there.