13. The Moral of the Story.
Uncle Jeff was at the family’s home again one day, and Betty snuggled up to him. “Has our story about Pilgrim all finished now?” she asked. “Of course it has, silly,” said Bobby , “He got to the Celestial City where he was going to, don’t you remember?” Sarah came in then and she said, “Where did this story come from Uncle Jeff? Who wrote it and exactly what did it mean? I mean I can see some of the points of it, but what was it all about?”
“That’s a very good question, Sarah,” Uncle Jeff said , “ And this is how it came about….. There was a man called John Bunyan who lived in England back in the 1600s…” “Oooh, that’s a long time ago!” said Betty, interrupting the story. “Yes, it sure was”, said Uncle Jeff, “And he made his living by being a tinker.” “What’s that?” Bobby asked.
“A tinker was someone who travelled from place to place mending pots and pans and other things that needed mending,” Uncle Jeff said “But anyway. when John’s father died, he was still only a boy, but he had gone to school long enough to learn to read and write. He went to church, but didn’t really take much notice of what was said, and back then, there were strict rules for people to live by. They weren’t supposed to go to wild parties or anything like that, but young John did all of these things. For a while the Puritans were the ruling people of England, and tried to make people follow their rules. “
“What made John change his ideas about life then, Uncle Jeff?” Sarah wanted to know.
“Well, “ said Uncle Jeff slowly, “he was sent off to the civil war in England and one day as he was standing next to another soldier, that man was shot in the head, and John realised that if he had been in that man’s place, it would have been him that was shot. So it made him stop and think, that maybe God had some work that He wanted him to do. So John made a point of really listening to the sermons after that, and as he listened to the preacher, he wanted to be like that too.
So then John began to preach around the place. As time went by, new rules came in as the government changed, and people weren’t allowed to preach out in the open air any more. But that didn’t make any difference to John, he still went ahead and did it. One day the police came and arrested him and had him put in prison for preaching outside in the streets.
The prison was a horrible place, it was smelly and dirty, and he was often on his own. But John stayed cheerful through it all, and said well, he could preach to the walls and still read his Bible so what did it matter!! After a while, he was told that if he promised to stop preaching, he could be let out, but he felt he couldn’t do that, it would be letting the Lord down.” “How long was he in prison altogether for then?” Bobby wanted to know.
“He was there for twelve years, Bobby,“ Uncle Jeff said, “ and it was while he was there thinking about his life and what had happened, that he had these dreams about Christian being a pilgrim travelling to the Celestial city, and all the things that happened to him on the way. Let’s see how many of these things you can remember now….why do you think his name was Pilgrim?” “It was because he was travelling through his life”, said Bobby. “That’s right,” said Uncle Jeff, “What was he carrying on his back?” “It was a heavy load,” said Sarah, “and he couldn’t get rid of it either, until he got to the cross where Jesus died. I suppose that’s like us knowing we are sinners and it feels like a load on our backs until we ask Jesus to take it away.”
“What other people did he meet on the way that you can remember about?” Uncle Jeff asked. “There was Mr. Helpful and Mr. Faithful , “ Bobby said. “Yes, but there were the other sort that tried to stop him going to the city, Mr. Smarty-Pants, and Mr. Atheist too, “ said Sarah, “And they are the sort of people we have to be careful not to have too much to do with in case they put us off.” “Ooh, I remember there was that nasty mean Giant Despair that threw them into his dungeon!” Betty said.
“I know what that means,” said Bobby, “It means that when things go wrong we can get down in the dumps and think that God has forgotten about us!” “What about the different places that Christian saw as he went along?”
“Well, there was Vanity Fair where they were tempted to do wrong things,“ Sarah said, “And then there was By-Path Meadow where they left the narrow path to the city and thought there was an easier way to go and they nearly fell over the cliff.” “So what do you think all these things mean for us?” Uncle Jeff asked.
They were all quiet for a bit, thinking about the question. “I know, I know,” Betty piped up, “It means that when we follow Jesus we are not to get put off by bad things that happen to us, like if we get sick or have an accident.” “It means that we mustn’t take the easy ways out,“ Sarah said, “that if we do, we might come to grief and miss out on what God really wants us to do.”
“It means that we have to think ahead, “ Bobby said slowly, “Instead of doing things in a hurry, and making mistakes that we might be sorry about later”. “Well, I can see that you have got the points that the story was trying to bring out,” Uncle Jeff said, “And what was the final outcome?”
“When Christian came to the end of the road, even though it wasn’t going to be easy for him, he knew that the King was waiting for him on the other side,” Sarah said, “And we can be like that too….even though we don’t like the thought of dying, we know that the best for us is on the other side. Doesn’t the Bible say that to be with Christ is far better? I guess that is what we have to keep remembering. Even young people die sometimes, so it pays to be ready because we never know when that is going to be ! “ “Very good!” Uncle Jeff said, “Now I think that warrants something to eat, look in my coat pocket and see what I brought for each of you!!”
