Pictures from Pilgrim’s Progress

Introduction

Meditations, or Flowers from a Puritan’s Garden ); and here we have his Commentary on The Pilgrim’s Progress , ‘that sweetest of all prose poems’ as he himself describes it. It is easy to see that the commentator is in sympathy with his author, and that he loves his task. If Mr Spurgeon were ever prevailed upon to fill up a page of the once popular Confession Album, I am pretty sure that his answer to the query, ‘Who is your favourite author?’ was, ‘John Bunyan.’ He has spoken of him over and over again as ‘my great favourite,’ and has left it on record that he had read The Pilgrim’s Progress at least one hundred times. The reason for his liking is not far to seek. They both loved ‘the Book of books.’ Urging the earnest study of the Scriptures, C. H. Spurgeon once said: Oh, that you and I might get into the very heart of the word of God, and get that word into ourselves! As I have seen the silkworm eat into the leaf, and consume it, so ought we to do with the word of the Lord—not crawl over its surface, but eat right into it till we have taken it into our inmost parts. It is idle merely to let the eye glance over the words, or to recollect the poetical expressions, or the historic facts; but it is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in scriptural language, and your very style is fashioned upon Scripture models, and, what is better still, your spirit is flavoured with the words of the Lord. I would quote John Bunyan as an instance of what I mean. Read anything of his, and you will see that it is

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