RELIGIOUS LIFE

Southland Times, Issue 23954, 21 October 1939, Page 17

RELIGIOUS LIFE

[By

ICHTHUS.

“Be of good cheer, my brother; I feel the bottom, and it is good.” I want to write today about this fine saying of John Bunyan. By the way, what a mistake it is to think of The Pilgrim’s Progress” as simply a book for children. It is an even better book for grown men and women. Where, apart from the Bible, is there any book so rich in luminous and memorable sayings? I never weary of it, and I never pick it up without finding a nugget of pure gold. So it was tonight. I turned to the close of the first part of the book. Why, I do not know. Probably some memory was stirring deep in the pool of my sub-conscious mind, or was it the war, which makes the background of all our deeper thought and feeling in these days? I read how Christian and Hopeful—a good pair: they should always go together—come to the _ dark river to be crossed at last.” It is inimitably told: , “So I saw in my dream that they went on together till they came in sight of the gate. Now I further saw that between them and the gate was a river; but there was no bridge to go over. The river was very deep. At the sight, therefore, of this river the pilgrims were much stunned; but the men that went with them said, You must go ■through, or you cannot come at the gate The pilgrims then, especially Christian, began to despond, and looked this way and that, but could find no way by which they might escape the river. Then they asked the men if the waters were all of the same depth. They said, No: yet they could not help them in that case; for, said they, you shall find it deeper or shallower, as you believe in the King of the place. “Then they addressed themselves to the water, and entering, Christian began to sink, and crying out to his good friend, Hopeful, he said, I sink in deep waters; the billows go over my head; all the waves go over me. “Then said the other, Be of good cheer, my brother; I feel the bottom, and it is good. . . . Then I saw in my dream that Christian was in a muse awhile. To whom also Hopeful added these words, Be of good cheer; Jesus Christ maketh thee whole. And with that Christian broke out with a loud voice, Oh, I see Him again! and he tells me, 'when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.’ Then they both took courage, and the enemy was after that as still as a stone, until they were gone over. Christian therefore presently found ground to stand upon, and so it followed that the rest of the ground was but shallow. Thus they got over.” That is great writing. It is literature at its highest and best. But it is that, not only because of the literary genius of the diction, but because what is written is a transcript of human experience: when it has a basis of Christian faith, that is. ALWAYS THE DEEP RIVER The river Bunyan is speaking of is, of course, the river of death that lies between all of us mortals and the gate of the City. For us as for Christian and Hopeful there is no other way to the gate. The river cannot be escaped, there is no bridge to go over, and the waters are very deep. But our concern with that river is not only for ourselves. Quite often, it is for some one dear to us who comes before us to the river. Our concern for them is often greater than it is for ourselves. But there are other deep rivers to be crossed. As we travel on in our pilgrimage through life we come to these deep waters flowing directly across our path. They cannot be escaped. There is no other way. There is no bridge to go over, and the river is very deep. It may be a severe and prolonged illness; or, a failure in our business affairs; or, sudden unemployment in bad times. It may be any one of a number of things. We can all fill in the blank for ourselves with experiences that are hard and sorrowful enough. There is no bridge to go over, the waters are deep, and they have to be faced and crossed. The war has brought us all to such a

place. What we have dreaded as an incredible possibility and a hideous menace to all that we value in life—the breakdown of all efforts to build a secure and durable peace, and the recurrence of the appalling. deathstruggle and sacrifice of 25 years—has actually happened. Before our feet the dark waters are flowing. There is no escape, no bridge to go over, and the river is very deep. We have all to pass through the waters, for the gate is on the othei side, and there is no way round. “At the sight, therefore, of this river the pilgrims were much stunned.”

A NUGGET OF GOLD It was just here that I found my nugget. It was of pure gold. In Bunyan’s story the two pilgrims,, faced with the deep river, and the necessity of going forward, asked the men who were with them if the waters were all cf the same depth. They received a deep and memorable answer: “You shall find it deeper or shallower according as you believe in the King of the place” It is good to know that there is a “King of the place.” Bunyan had been through the Slough of Despond, he had climbed the hill Difficulty, he had been the prisoner of Giant Despair in Doubting Castle, he had met and fought for his life with Apollyon, and now he has come to the deep river. But he had found also, in each experience, that there is a “King of the place.” He found that God is not confined to the Celestial'City. He is the King of the whole realm of human experience and human necessity. And even the dark river is ruled over by “the King of the place.” He is to be found there by those who know Him.

How true it is, too, that “the waters are deeper or shallower according as we believe in the King of the place." One man comes to the river that crosses his pathway, and because he has to face it without any knowledge of, or belief in “the King of the Place,” the waters are deep indeed. There is no bottom his feet can find, or, almost worse, the bottom is of horrible mire and deadly quicksands in which the more he struggles the deeper he sinks. How can it be otherwise? All the mortal props he has been accustomed to are of no help here. The truth is quite simple and inescapable: if we do not believe in “the King of the place” the dark waters of life are bottomless. But another man, in the language of the Bible, knows in Whom he believes. He, too, comes to the river, and it is dark, deep, and there is no bridge. But it is part of the King’s realm, and under the King’s rule. There is a way across, a hidden and secret way, and the Kling Himself is there to set the pilgrim’s feet on the solid bed of rock, and to take his hand and guide him across. This soul is not engulfed in bottomless depths or the horror of sinking sands; he feels the solid rock beneath his feet, and the grip of a Hand stretched out to draw him near. He finds the water shallow, and is able to cry: “Be of good cheer, my brother; I feel the bottom, and it is good.” Whatever may be the river we have to cross, sickness or unemployment; failure, shame or sorrow; the anxieties, sacrifices and distresses of the war; or the last river of all, this is how it is for those who know “the King of the place.” In that marvellous fashion, well known by all who have genuine Christian faith and experience, suddenly the worst turns to the best, there is solid rock beneath their feet, and they are aware of a Presence that guides and upholds. They cross the river with the King Himself for guide, and they feel the bottom and find it good. “And with that Christian brake out with a loud voice, ‘Oh, I see Him again!’ And He tells me, ‘When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee’ . . . After that the enemy was as still as a stone until they were gone over. Christian therefore presently found ground to stand upon, and so it followed that the rest of the ground was but shallow. Thus they got over.”