Pictures from Pilgrim's Progress - Part Three

Extract

Pictures from Pilgrim’s Progress
Part Three
C. H. Spurgeon

Booklet Contents
11. Christian and Apollyon
12. What Faithful Met With in the Way
13. What Faithful Met With in the Way (Concluded)
14. Vanity Fair
15. “Beware of the Flatterer”
11. Christian and Apollyon.

“Now Christian bethought himself of setting forward, and they were willing he should. ‘But first,’ said they, ‘let us go again into the armoury.’ So they did, and when he came there, they harnessed him from head to foot with what was of proof, lest perhaps he should meet with assaults in the way.” John Bunyan, with great wisdom, puts the Palace Beautiful first, and then no sooner does Christian get out of the Palace gates than he begins to descend into the Valley of Humiliation. They had given him a sword, and a shield, and a helmet. He had never had those before. Now that he had his sword, he found that he had to use it against Apollyon; now that he had his shield, he had to hold it up to catch the fiery dart; now that he had received the weapon of “All prayer,” he found that he had need of it as he walked through that desperate place, the Valley of the Shadow of Death. God does not give His people weapons to play with; He does not give them strength to spend on their lusts. Lord, if Thou hast given me these goodly weapons, it is sure I shall need them in hard fighting. If I have had a feast at Thy table, I will remember that it is but a short walk from the upper chamber to the garden of Gethsemane. Daniel, the man greatly beloved, was reduced very low. “All his comeliness was turned into corruption and he retained no strength,” when God shewed him “the great vision.” Thus, too, with favoured John. He must be banished to …