Christian: Met you with nothing else in that valley?
Faithful: Yes, I
met with Shame; but of all the men that I met with on my pilgrimage, he, I
think, bears the wrong name. The other would be said nay, after a little
argumentation, and somewhat else; but this bold-faced Shame would never have done.
Christian: Why,
what did he say to you?
Faithful: What?
why, he objected against religion itself. He said it was a pitiful, low,
sneaking business for a man to mind religion. He said, that a tender conscience
was an unmanly thing; and that for a man to watch over his words and ways, so
as to tie up himself from that hectoring liberty that the brave spirits of the
times accustomed themselves unto, would make him the ridicule of the times. He
objected also, that but few of the mighty, rich, or wise, were ever of my
opinion; nor any of them neither, before they were persuaded to be fools, and
to be of a voluntary fondness to venture the loss of all for nobody knows what.
He, moreover, objected the base
and low estate and condition of those that were chiefly the pilgrims of the
times in which they lived; also their ignorance and want of understanding in
all natural science. Yea, he did hold me to it at that rate also, about a great
many more things than here I relate; as, that it was a shame to sit whining and
mourning under a sermon, and a shame to come sighing and groaning home; that it
was a shame to ask my neighbor forgiveness for petty faults, or to make
restitution where I have taken from any. He said also, that religion made a man
grow strange to the great, because of a few vices, which he called by finer
names, and made him own and respect the base, because of the same religious
fraternity: And is not this, said he, a shame?
Christian: And
what did you say to him?
Faithful: Say? I
could not tell what to say at first. Yea, he put me so to it, that my blood
came up in my face; even this Shame fetched it up, and had almost beat me quite
off. But at last I began to consider, that that which is highly esteemed among
men, is had in abomination with God. I thought again, this Shame
tells me what men are; but he tells me nothing what God, or the word of God is.
And I thought, moreover, that at the day of doom we shall not be doomed to
death or life according to the hectoring spirits of the world, but according to
the wisdom and law of the Highest. Therefore, thought I, what God says is best,
is indeed best, though all the men in the world are against it. Seeing, then,
that God prefers his religion; seeing God prefers a tender Conscience; seeing
they that make themselves fools for the kingdom of heaven are wisest, and that
the poor man that loveth Christ is richer than the greatest man in the world
that hates him; Shame, depart, thou art an enemy to my salvation. Shall I
entertain thee against my sovereign Lord? How then shall I look him in the face
at his coming? Should I now be ashamed of his
ways and servants, how can I expect the blessing? But indeed this Shame was a
bold villain; I could scarcely shake him out of my company; yea, he would be
haunting of me, and continually whispering me in the ear, with some one or
other of the infirmities that attend religion. But at last I told him, that it
was but in vain to attempt farther in this business; for those things that he
disdained, in those did I see most glory: and so at last I got past this
importunate one. And when I had shaken him off, then I began to sing,
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“The trials that those men do meet withal,
That are obedient to the heavenly call,
Are manifold, and suited to the flesh,
And come, and come, and come again afresh;
That now, or some time else, we by them may
Be taken, overcome, and cast away.
O let the pilgrims, let the pilgrims then,
Be vigilant, and quit themselves like men.”
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Christian: I am
glad, my brother, that thou didst withstand this villain so bravely; for of
all, as thou sayest, I think he has the wrong name; for he is so bold as to
follow us in the streets, and to attempt to put us to shame before all men;
that is, to make us ashamed of that which is good. But if he was not himself
audacious, he would never attempt to do as he does. But let us still resist
him; for, notwithstanding all his bravadoes, he promoteth the fool, and none
else. “The wise shall inherit glory,” said Solomon; “but shame shall be the
promotion of fools.”
Faithful: I think
we must cry to Him for help against Shame, that would have us to be valiant for
truth upon the earth.
Christian: You
say true; but did you meet nobody else in that valley?
Faithful: No, not
I; for I had sunshine all the rest of the way through that, and also through
the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
Christian: ‘Twas
well for you; I am sure it fared far otherwise with me. I had for a long
season, as soon almost as I entered into that valley, a dreadful combat with
that foul fiend Apollyon; yea, I thought verily he would have killed me,
especially when he got me down, and crushed me under him, as if he would have
crushed me to pieces; for as he threw me, my sword flew out of my hand: nay, he
told me he was sure of me; but I cried to God, and he heard me, and delivered
me out of all my troubles. Then I entered into the Valley of the Shadow of
Death, and had no light for almost half the way through it. I thought I should
have been killed there over and over; but at last day brake, and the sun rose,
and I went through that which was behind with far more ease and quiet.
