A Place That Can Never Be Destroyed
John Bunyan (1628—1688) was an English writer and Puritan pastor best known, of course, as the author of Pilgrim's Progress.
On his deathbed, Bunyan said to those who gathered around him, “Weep not for me, but for yourselves. I go to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will, no doubt, through the mediation of his blessed Son, receive me, though a sinner; where I hope we ere long shall meet, to sing the new song, and remain everlastingly happy, world without end.”
Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress sold more than 100,000 copies in its first decade in print and has since been reprinted in at least 1,500 editions and translated into more than two hundred languages.
In Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan writes of Christian leaving the City of Destruction in search of a place that can never be destroyed:
So I saw in my dream that the man began to run. Now, he had not run far from his own door, when his wife and children perceiving it, began to cry after him to return; but the man put his fingers in his ears, and ran on, crying, “Life! life! eternal life!” So he looked not behind him, but fled towards the middle of the plain.
The neighbors also came out to see him run; and as he ran, some mocked, others threatened, and some cried after him to return; and among those that did so there were two that resolved to fetch him back by force. The name of the one was Obstinate, and the name of the other Pliable. Now, by this time the man was got a good distance from them; but, however, they were resolved to pursue him, which they did, and in a little time they overtook him. Then said the man, “Neighbors, wherefore are ye come?” They said, “To persuade you to go back with us.” But he said, “That can by no means be: you dwell,” said he, “in the City of Destruction, the place also where I was born: I see it to be so; and, dying there, sooner or later, you will sink lower than the grave, into a place that burns with fire and brimstone. Be content, good neighbors, and go along with me.”
Obstinate: “What!” said Obstinate, “and leave our friends and comforts behind us?”
Christian: “Yes,” said Christian (for that was his name), “because that all which you forsake is not worthy to be compared with a little of that I am seeking to enjoy; and if you would go along with me, and hold it, you shall fare as I myself; for there, where I go, is enough and to spare. Come away, and prove my words.”
Obstinate: “What are the things you seek, since you leave all the world to find them?”
Christian: “I seek a place that can never be destroyed, one that is pure, and that fadeth not away, and it is laid up in heaven, and safe there, to be given, at the time appointed, to them that seek it with all their heart. Read it so, if you will, in my book.”
Obstinate: “Tush!” said Obstinate, “away with your book; will you go back with us or no?”
Christian: “No, not I,” said the other, “because I have put my hand to the plough.”