Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Spurgeon on Bunyan

I noted that I finished reading John Bunyan's The Holy War a few weeks back.  I also recently started reading again through Part One of Pilgrim's Progress with a brother from CRBC.  We've been meeting once a week for coffee c. 7-8 am at Java Java on the Downtown Mall.  My favorite edition of Pigrim's Progress for devotional study is the cheap paperback one published by Whitaker that is broken into easy to read chapters.  A fantastic version to read with children (or to give adults an overview of the work) or to use in family devotions is Dangerous Journey.

I was also reminded this week of Spurgeon's comments on Bunyan as an example of a man saturated in the Scriptures:

John Bunyan is an instance of what I mean. Read anything of his, and you will see that is it almost like reading the Bible itself. He had studied our Authorized Version, which will never be bettered, as I judge, till Christ shall come; he had read it till his whole being was saturated with Scripture; and, though his writings are charmingly full of poetry, yet he cannot give us his Pilgrim’s Progress—that sweetest of all prose poems—without continually making us feel and say, “Why this man is a living Bible!” Prick him anywhere; and you will find that his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his soul is full of the Word of God.

From C. H. Spurgeon: Autobiography: Volume 2 (Banner, 1973): p. 159.

No comments: