Two men stumbling

Yet was Christian troubled to think that men (Simple, Sloth and Presumption) in that danger should so little esteem the kindness of him that so freely offered to help them, both by awakening of them, counselling of them, and proffering to help them off with their irons. And as he was troubled thereabout he espied two men come tumbling over the wall, on the left hand of the narrow way; and they made up apace to him. The name of the one was Formalist, and the name of the other Hypocrisy. So, as I said, they drew up unto him, who thus entered with them into discourse.

Christian: Gentlemen, Whence came you, and whither do you go?

Formalist and Hypocrisy: We were born in the land of Vainglory, and are going for praise to Mount Sion.

Christian: Why came you not in at the Gate which standeth at the beginning of the Way? Know you not that it is written, That he that cometh not in by the Door, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber?

Formalist and Hypocrisy: That to go to the Gate for entrance was by all their countrymen counted too far about; and that therefore their usual way was to make a short cut of it, and to climb over the wall, as they had done.

Christian: But will it not be counted a trespass against the Lord of the City whither we are bound, thus to violate His revealed will?

Formalist and Hypocrisy: They told him, That as for that, he needed not to trouble his head thereabout; for what they did they had custom for; and could produce, if need were, Testimony that would witness it for more than a thousand years.

Christian: But, said Christian, will your practice stand a Trial at Law?

Formalist and Hypocrisy: They told him, That custom, it being of so long a standing as above a thousand years, would doubtless now be admitted as a thing legal by an impartial Judge; and besides, said they, if we get into the way, what's matter which way we get in? if we are in, we are in; thou art but in the way, who, as we perceive, came in at the Gate; and we are also in the way, that came tumbling over the wall; wherein now is thy condition better than ours?

Christian: I walk by the rule of my Master; you walk by the rude working of your fancies. You are counted thieves already, by the Lord of the way; therefore I doubt you will not be found true men at the end of the way. You come in by yourselves, without his direction; and shall go out by yourselves, without his mercy.

To this they made him but little answer; only they bid him look to himself. Then I saw that they went on every man in his way, without much conference one with another; save that these two men told Christian, that as to Laws and Ordinances, they doubted not but they should as conscientiously do them as he; therefore, said they, we see not wherein thou differest from us but by the coat that is on thy back, which was, as we trow, given thee by some of thy Neighbors, to hide the shame of thy nakedness.

Christian: By Laws and Ordinances you will not be saved, since you came not in by the door. And as for this coat that is on my back, it was given me by the Lord of the place whither I go; and that, as you say, to cover my nakedness with. And I take it as a token of His kindness to me, for I had nothing but rags before. And besides, thus I comfort myself as I go: Surely think I, when I come to the gate of the City, the Lord thereof will know me for good, since I have this coat on my back; a coat that He gave me freely in the day that He stripped me of my rags. I have moreover a mark in my forehead, of which perhaps you have taken no notice, which one of my Lord's most intimate associates fixed there in the day that my burden fell off my shoulders. I will tell you moreover, that I had then given me a Roll sealed, to comfort me by reading as I go in the way; I was also bid to give it in at the Celestial Gate, in token of my certain going in after it; all which things I doubt you want, and want them because you came not in at the Gate.

To these things they gave him no answer; only they looked upon each other and laughed. Then I saw that they went on all, save that Christian kept before, who had no more talk but with himself, and that sometimes sighingly, and sometimes comfortably; also he would be often reading in the Roll that one of the Shining Ones gave him, by which he was refreshed.

Interpretation:

There are two categories of people. They are formalist and hypocrisy. They are born in the land of Vainglory. They consider the City of Destruction as a glorious land. People of Formalist are merely religious but not spiritual. They observe all the religious ordinances. They sing hymns and say prayers. But they want to go to the Celestial City not by the Gate.

Jesus said, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture" (John 10:9). Jesus is the Wicket Gate. The Wicket Gate leads to the Cross and the Sepulchre. People of Hypocrisy pretend to be highly spiritual. No doubt, many people had heard the gospel at the Wicket Gate that Jesus was only the Way but unfortunately they have never made it to the Cross and the Sepulchre through the Wicket Gate. They have head knowledge about the way of salvation through the Wicket Gate (the only Gate) and the Cross and the Sepulchre but have not truly entered through the Wicket Gate and experienced the initial deliverance from the sin or from the cares of this life at the Cross and the Sepulchre. There are multitudes who claim to have been filled with the Holy Spirit but they have not received the true deliverance experience at the Cross and the Sepulchre. They pretend to have been freed from their burden but in fact they bear it.

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