AP

Review of C. H. Spurgeon, Pictures from Pilgrim’s Progress, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2024.

            It is not often that in the one book we receive double the blessing. Here we have Spurgeon and Bunyan together, and the result is wonderful to behold. Over his lifetime, Spurgeon read The Pilgrim’s Progress at least one hundred times, and it shows.

            Yet Spurgeon was willing to differ from Bunyan, as when he says that Bunyan’s Evangelist was wrong to point Christian to the Wicket-gate; he should have pointed him to the Cross. Only the precious blood of Jesus can take the burden off Christian’s back. Nevertheless, Bunyan did better than John Mason Neale who added his own High Church touches to his edition of Pilgrim’s Progress by having Christian lose his burden in a bath, the laver of baptism.

            There are places where Spurgeon opens his heart about himself and his congregation at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. He says, for example, that there were some at the Tabernacle who respected Spurgeon but remained unsaved. Formalist is found in the Church of England, in Rome, among the Presbyterians, and even in the Tabernacle. Spurgeon does not miss in his applications. As for himself, he was aware of his indwelling sin: ‘I may be worse than other people, but I am obliged to confess to you that never a day passes in which I am not painfully conscious of the sin that dwelleth in me’. He once refused church membership to a man who claimed he had not sinned for six months. Yet, like Bunyan, Spurgeon was tender to Mr Fearing, Mr Feeble-mind, and Mr Ready-to-halt.

            There are the expected gems that will help any reader, especially a pastor. Here are some: ‘Sympathy is the mainspring of our ability to comfort others’; ‘Learn to stoop’; ‘A dry-eyed repentance is no repentance‘; ‘Joy in the Lord is more injurious to Satan’s empire than anything’; ‘It is the sweetness of sin that makes it the more dangerous’; ‘There is no temptation half so bad as not being tempted.’ In dealing with the Enchanted Ground, Spurgeon warned of sleepiness, and even ‘a rut of godliness’.

            In his final paragraph, Spurgeon is most convicting and most comforting: ‘Wherefore I counsel you, go to the graves of your loved ones, with songs of gladness. Stand there, and if you drop a tear let the smile of your gratitude to God light it up, and transform it into a gem; and then go home, each one of you, and wait trustfully until your own change comes.’

            Spurgeon and Bunyan together provide a feast for any reader.

– Peter Barnes