Bunyan Characters (1st series) | Page 8

number our days to put off our
death to the last possible period? Why do we so refuse to think of the
only thing we are sure soon to come to? We are absolutely sure of
nothing else in the future but death. We may not see to-morrow, but we
shall certainly see the day of our death. And yet we have all our plans
laid for to- morrow, and only one here and one there has any plan laid
for the day of his death. And can it be for the same reason that made the
man in rags unwilling to die? Is it because of the burden on our back?
Is it because we are not fit to go to judgment? And yet the trumpet may
sound summoning us hence before the midnight clock strikes. If this be
thy condition, why standest thou still? Dost thou see yonder shining
light? Keep that light in thine eye. Go up straight to it, knock at the gate,
and it shall be told thee there what thou shalt do next. Burdened sinner,
son of man in rags and terror: What has burdened thee so? What has
torn thy garments into such shameful rags? What is it in thy burden that
makes it so heavy? And how long has it lain so heavy upon thee? 'I
cannot run,' said the man, 'because of the burden on my back.' And it
has been noticed of you that you do not laugh, or run, or dress, or dance,
or walk, or eat, or drink as once you did. All men see that there is some
burden on your back; some sore burden on your heart and your mind.
Do you see yonder wicket gate? Do you see yonder shining light?
There is no light in all the horizon for you but yonder light over the
gate. Keep it in your eye; make straight, and make at once for it, and
He who keeps the gate and keeps the light burning over it, He will tell
you what to do with your burden. He told John Gifford, and He told
John Bunyan, till both their burdens rolled off their backs, and they saw
them no more. What would you not give to-night to be released like

them? Do you not see yonder shining light?
Having set Christian fairly on the way to the wicket gate, Evangelist
leaves him in order to seek out and assist some other seeker. But
yesterday he had set Faithful's face to the celestial city, and he is off
now to look for another pilgrim. We know some of Christian's
adventures and episodes after Evangelist left him, but we do not take
up these at present. We pass on to the next time that Evangelist finds
Christian, and he finds him in a sorry plight. He has listened to bad
advice. He has gone off the right road, he has lost sight of the gate, and
all the thunders and lightnings of Sinai are rolling and flashing out
against him. What doest thou here of all men in the world? asked
Evangelist, with a severe and dreadful countenance. Did I not direct
thee to His gate, and why art thou here? Christian told him that a
fair-spoken man had met him, and had persuaded him to take an easier
and shorter way of getting rid of his burden. Read the whole place for
yourselves. The end of it was that Evangelist set Christian right again,
and gave him two counsels which would be his salvation if he attended
to them: Strive to enter in at the strait gate, and, Take up thy cross daily.
He would need more counsel afterwards than that; but, meantime, that
was enough. Let Christian follow that, and he would before long be rid
of his burden.
In the introductory lecture Bishop Butler has been commended and
praised as a moralist, and certainly not one word beyond his deserts;
but an evangelical preacher cannot send any man with the burden of a
bad past upon him to Butler for advice and direction about that. While
lecturing on and praising the sound philosophical and ethical spirit of
the great bishop, Dr. Chalmers complains that he so much lacks the sal
evangelicum, the strength and the health and the sweetness of the
doctrines of grace. Legality and Civility and Morality are all good and
necessary in their own places; but he is a cheat who would send a
guilt-burdened and sick-at-heart sinner to any or all of them. The
wicket gate first, and then He who keeps that gate will tell us what to
do, and where next to go; but any other way out of the City of
Destruction but by the wicket gate is sure to land us