Valiant for Truth
Then they went on; and just at the place where Little-faith formerly was robbed, there stood a man with his sword drawn, and his face all bloody. Then said Mr Great-heart, What art thou? The man made answer, saying, I am one whose name is Valiant-for-truth. I am a Pilgrim, and am going to the Celestial City. Now as I was in my way, there were three men did beset me and propounded unto me these three things: 1. Whether I would become one of them? 2. Or go back from whence I came?
3. Or die upon the place?
To the first I answered, I had been a true man a long season, and therefore it could not be expected that I now should cast in my lot with thieves. Then they demanded what I would say to the second. So I told them that the place from whence I came, had I not found incommodity there, I had not forsaken it at all; but finding it altogether unsuitable to me, and very unprofitable for me, I forsook it for this way. Then they asked me what I said to the third. And I told them, My life cost more dear far than that I should lightly give it away. Besides, you have nothing to do thus to put things to my choice, wherefore at your peril be it if you meddle. Then these three, to wit Wild-head, Inconsiderate and Pragmatic, drew upon me, and I also drew upon them. So we fell to it, one against three, for the space of above three hours. They have left upon me, as you see, some of the marks of their valour, and have also carried away with them some of mine. They are but just now gone. I suppose they might, as the saying is, hear your Horse dash, and so they betook them to flight.
Great-heart: But here was great odds, three against one.
Valiant For Truth: 'Tis true, but little or more are nothing to him that has the Truth on his side. Tho' an host encamp against me, said one, my heart shall not fear; tho' war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. Besides, saith he, I have read in some Records, that one man has fought an army; and how many did Samson slay with the jaw-bone of an ass?
Great-heart: Why did you not cry out, that some might a come in for your succour?
Valiant For Truth: So I did, to my King, who I knew could hear, and afford invisible help, and that was sufficient for me.
Great-heart: Then said Great-heart to Mr Valiant-for-truth, Thou hast worthily behaved thyself. Let me see thy sword. So he shewed it him. When he had taken it in his hand, and looked thereon a while, he said, Ha, it is a right Jerusalem Blade.
Valiant For Truth: It is so. Let a man have one of these Blades, with a hand to wield it and skill to use it, and he may venture upon an Angel with it. He need not fear its holding, if he can but tell how to lay on. Its edges will never blunt. It will cut flesh and bones and soul and spirit and all.
Great-heart: But you fought a great while, I wonder you was not weary.
Valiant For Truth: I fought till my sword did cleave to my hand; and when they were joined together, as if a sword grew out of my arm, and when the blood ran through my fingers, then I fought with most courage.
Great-heart: Thou hast done well. Thou hast resisted unto blood, striving against sin. Thou shalt abide by us, come in and go out with us, for we are thy companions.
Then they took him and washed his wounds, and gave him of what they had to refresh him, and so they went on together. Now as they went on, because Mr Great-heart was delighted in him (for he loved one greatly that he found to be a man of his hands) and because there were with his company them that was feeble and weak, therefore he questioned with him about many things, as first, what country-man he was?
Valiant For Truth: I am of dark-land, for there I was born, and there my father and mother are still.
Great-heart: Dark-land, said the Guide, doth not that lie upon the same coast with the City of Destruction?
Valiant For Truth: Yes it doth. Now that which caused me to come on Pilgrimage was this; we had one Mr Tell-true came into our parts, and he told it about what Christian had done, that went from the City of Destruction, namely, how he had forsaken his wife and children, and had betaken himself to a Pilgrim's life. It was also confidently reported how he had killed a serpent that did come out to resist him in his journey, and how he got through to whither he intended. It was also told what welcome he had at all his Lord's lodgings, especially when he came to the Gates of the Celestial City, for there, said the man, he was received with sound of trumpet by a company of Shining Ones. He told it also, how all the bells in the City did ring for joy at his reception, and what golden garments he was clothed with, with many other things that now I shall forbear to relate. In a word, that man so told the story of Christian and his travels, that my heart fell into a burning haste to be gone after him, nor could father or mother stay me: so I got from them, and am come thus far on my way.
Great-heart: You came in at the Gate, did you not?
Valiant For Truth: Yes, yes, for the same man also told us that all would be nothing, if we did not begin to enter this way at the Gate.
Great-heart: Look you, said the Guide to Christiana, the Pilgrimage of your husband, and what he has gotten thereby, is spread abroad far and near.
Valiant For Truth: Why, is this Christian's wife?
Great-heart: Yes, that it is, and these are also her four sons.
Valiant For Truth: What, and going on Pilgrimage too?
Great-heart: Yes verily they are following after.
Valiant For Truth: It glads me at heart. Good man, how joyful will he be when he shall see them that would not go with him, yet to enter after him in at the Gates into the City.
Great-heart: Without doubt it will be a comfort to him; for next to the joy of seeing himself there, it will be a joy to meet there his wife and his children.
Valiant For Truth: But now you are upon that, pray let me hear your opinion about it. Some make a question, Whether we shall know one another when we are there?
Great-heart: Do they think they shall know themselves then, or that they shall rejoice to see themselves in that bliss? and if they think they shall know and do these, why not know others, and rejoice in their welfare also?
Again, since relations are our second self, though that state will be dissolved there, yet why may it not be rationally concluded that we shall be more glad to see them there than to see they are wanting?
Valiant For Truth: Well, I perceive whereabouts you are as to this. Have you any more things to ask me about my beginning to come on Pilgrimage?
Great-heart: Yes. Was your father and mother willing that you should become a Pilgrim?
Valiant For Truth: Oh no. They used all means imaginable to persuade me to stay at home.
Great-heart: What could they against it?
Valiant For Truth: They said it was an idle life, and if I myself were not inclined to sloth and laziness, I would never countenance a Pilgrim's condition.
Great-heart: And what did they say else?
Valiant For Truth: Why, they told me that it was a dangerous way; yea, the most dangerous way in the world, said they, is that which the Pilgrims go.
Great-heart: Did they shew wherein this way is so dangerous?
Valiant For Truth: Yes, and that in many particulars.
Great-heart: Name some of them.
Valiant For Truth: They told me of the Slough of Despond, where Christian was well nigh smothered. They told me that there were archers standing ready in Beelzebub-castle to shoot them that should knock at the wicket-gate for entrance. They told me also of the wood and dark mountains, of the Hill Difficulty, of the lions, and also of the three Giants, Bloody-man, Maul and Slay-good. They said moreover that there was a foul fiend haunted the Valley of Humiliation, and that Christian was by him almost bereft of life. Besides, say they, you must go over the Valley of the Shadow of Death, where the Hobgoblins are, where the light is darkness, where the way is full of snares, pits, traps, and gins. They told me also of Giant Despair, of Doubting Castle and of the ruin that the Pilgrims met with there. Further, they said I must go over the Inchanted Ground, which was dangerous. And that after all this, I should find a river, over which I should find no bridge, and that that river did lie betwixt me and the Celestial Country.
Great-heart: And was this all?
Valiant For Truth: No. They also told me that this way was full of deceivers, and of persons that laid await there, to turn good men out of the path.
Great-heart: But how did they make that out?
Valiant For Truth: They told me that Mr Worldly Wiseman did there lie in wait to deceive. They also said that there was Formality and Hypocrisy continually on the road. They said also that By-ends, Talkative or Demas would go near to gather me up, that the Flatterer would catch me in his net, or that with green - headed Ignorance I would presume to go on to the Gate, from whence he always was sent back to the hole that was in the side of the hill, and made to go the by-way to Hell.
Great-heart: I promise you this was enough to discourage, but did they make an end here?
Valiant For Truth: No, stay. They told me also of many that had tried that way of old, and that had gone a great way therein, to see if they could find something of the Glory there that so many had so much talked of from time to time; and how they came back again, and befooled themselves for setting a foot out of doors in that path, to the satisfaction of all the Country. And they named several that did so, as Obstinate and Pliable, Mistrust and Timorous, Turn-away and old Atheist, with several more, who, they said, had some of them gone far to see if they could find, but not one of them found so much advantage by going as amounted to the weight of a feather.
Great-heart: Said they anything more to discourage you?
Valiant For Truth: Yes. They told me of one Mr Fearing who was a Pilgrim, and how he found this way so solitary that he never had comfortable hour therein. Also that Mr Despondency had like to have been starved therein; yea, and also, which I had almost forgot, that Christian himself, about whom there has been such a noise, after all his ventures for a celestial crown, was certainly drowned in the black River, and never went foot further, however it was smothered up.
Great-heart: And did none of these things discourage you?
Valiant For Truth: No, they seemed but as so many nothings to me.
Great-heart: How came that about?
Valiant For Truth: Why I still believed what Mr Tell-true had said, and that carried me beyond them all.
Great-heart: Then this was your victory, even your faith.
Valiant For Truth: It was so; I believed, and therefore came out, got into the way, fought all that set themselves against me, and by believing am come to this place.
Who would True valour see,
Let him come hither;
One here will constant be,
Come Wind, come Weather.
There's no Discouragement
Shall make him once relent
His first avow'd intent
To be a Pilgrim.
Who so beset him round
With dismal Stories,
Do but themselves confound,
His Strength the more is;
No Lion can him fright,
He'll with a Giant fight,
But he will have a right
To be a Pilgrim.
Hobgoblin nor foul Fiend
Can daunt his spirit;
He knows he at the end Shall Life inherit.
Then Fancies fly away,
He'll fear not what men say,
He'll labour night and day
To be a Pilgrim.
Interpretation:
Valiant For Truth is a typical character that we have to emulate on pilgrimage. We have to fight for the truth that we have learnt. There are three spiritual thieves, Wild-head, Inconsiderate and Pragmatic that we have to fight. Wild-head means not accepting the truth as a child due to harness of heart and spiritual pride. Those wild-headed preachers preach messages out of their head knowledge and not out of their lives. Their lives do not convey the message they preach. They deprive us of the work of the Spirit of the truth who indwells us as they come to kill and steal the works of the Spirit of the truth in our lives.
Being inconsiderate means being selfish or self-centered or being insensitive to suffering saints. Incoderate preachers are those who do not feel the agonies of others in the Body of Christ as they are self-centered and covet our sacrificial offerings for themselves. They come to steal our money.
Being pragmatic means attempting to deal with things practically or philosophically contrary to the Christian faith. Pragmatic preachers are those false teachers who try to prove their present day ministries on men-made stages and not through the power of Christ as was done by the first century disciples and by those disciples who had been demonstrating the power of Christ through their ministries during the subsequent centuries. Christian faith cannot be merely preached or defended by way of pragmatism but by the power of God. During evangelical crusades, only a few people receive miracles or divine healing in response to prayers but multitudes go home disappointed losing their faith. Jesus would heal the sick in His own time and not in our time. Evangelists should pray for the sick and send them home without inviting the few who have received miracles or divine healing to come to their stage for testimony. The faith of the multitudes who have not received instant miracles or healings is more precious than the few who have received instant miracles or healing. When the few testify on the stage, the glory goes to such preachers and not to God. As spiritual thieves, these ministers steal the glory of God and also weaken the faith of the multitudes who have not received such miracles or healing.
John Bunyan calls these three ministers thieves because they steal God's glory and our money by exhorting us to support their ministries by our hard-earned money in lieu of their prayers.
Valiant For Truth fought these thieves with the two-edged Sword which John Bunyan calls the Jerusalem Blade which was used by Jesus Christ and His apostles in the first century. Today we do not use this sword, a two-edged Sword of the Spirit but a different sword. Today many preachers use one-edged sword, quoting the word of God from one angle. Properity preachers preach the word of God from one angle. The Devil quoted the Scriptures correctly but from one angle to tempt Jesus in the wilderness.
We have to fight these three types of thieves who operate through the False Prophet, another person of the trinity of Satan. It is only through the right doctrines that we have to fight this spirit.