Bunyan Characters (1st series) | Page 4

helped many men in the intelligent formation of their
character, and what higher praise could be given to any author? Butler
will lie on our table all winter beside Bunyan; the bishop beside the
tinker, the philosopher beside the poet, the moralist beside the
evangelical minister.
In seeking a solid bottom for our subject, then, we naturally turn to
Butler. Bunyan will people the house for us once it is built, but Butler
lays bare for us the naked rock on which men like Bunyan build and
beautify and people the dwelling-place of God and man. What exactly
is this thing, character, we hear so much about? we ask the sagacious
bishop. And how shall we understand our own character so as to form it
well till it stands firm and endures? 'Character,' answers Butler, in his
bald, dry, deep way, 'by character is meant that temper, taste,
disposition, whole frame of mind from whence we act in one way
rather than another . . . those principles from which a man acts, when
they become fixed and habitual in him we call his character . . . And
consequently there is a far greater variety in men's characters than there
is in the features of their faces.' Open Bunyan now, with Butler's
keywords in your mind, and see the various tempers, tastes,
dispositions, frames of mind from which his various characters act, and
which, at bottom, really make them the characters, good or bad, which
they are. See the principles which Bunyan has with such inimitable
felicity embodied and exhibited in their names, the principles within
them from which they have acted till they have become a habit and then
a character, that character which they themselves are and will remain.
See the variety of John Bunyan's characters, a richer and a more
endless variety than are the features of their faces. Christian and
Christiana, Obstinate and Pliable, Mr. Fearing and Mr. Feeblemind,
Temporary and Talkative, Mr. Byends and Mr. Facing-both-ways,
Simple, Sloth, Presumption, that brisk lad Ignorance, and the genuine
Mr. Brisk himself. And then Captain Boasting, Mr. High-mind, Mr.

Wet-Eyes, and so on, through a less known (but equally well worth
knowing) company of municipal and military characters in the Holy
War.
We shall see, as we proceed, how this and that character in Bunyan was
formed and deformed. But let us ask in this introductory lecture if we
can find out any law or principle upon which all our own characters,
good or bad, are formed. Do our characters come to be what they are by
chance, or have we anything to do in the formation of our own
characters, and if so, in what way? And here, again, Butler steps
forward at our call with his key to our own and to all Bunyan's
characters in his hand, and in three familiar and fruitful words he
answers our question and gives us food for thought and solemn
reflection for a lifetime. There are but three steps, says Butler, from
earth to heaven, or, if you will, from earth to hell--acts, habits,
character. All Butler's prophetic burden is bound up in these three great
words--acts, habits, character. Remember and ponder these three words,
and you will in due time become a moral philosopher. Ponder and
practise them, and you will become what is infinitely better--a moral
man. For acts, often repeated, gradually become habits, and habits, long
enough continued, settle and harden and solidify into character. And
thus it is that the severe and laconic bishop has so often made us
shudder as he demonstrated it to us that we are all with our own hands
shaping our character not only for this world, but much more for the
world to come, by every act we perform, by every word we speak,
almost by every breath we draw. Butler is one of the most terrible
authors in the world. He stands on our nearest shelf with Dante on one
side of him and Pascal on the other. He is indeed terrible, but it is with
a terror that purifies the heart and keeps the life in the hour of
temptation. Paul sometimes arms himself with the same terror; only he
composes in another style than that of Butler, and, with all his vivid
intensity, he calls it the terror of the Lord. Paul and Bunyan are of the
same school of moralists and stylists; Butler went to school to the
Stoics, to Aristotle, and to Plato.
Our Lord Himself came to be the express image He was and is by
living and acting under this same universal law of human life-- acts,
habits, character. He was made perfect on this same principle. He
learned obedience both by the things that He did, and the things that He

suffered.