Religion in Silver Slippers

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 2 TIMOTHY 3:5

The Pilgrim’s Progress is crowded with false pilgrims. Some are comic, some pitiable, some sinister. Bunyan spent more ink on them than on almost anything else, and it is not hard to see why. The danger he feared most for his readers was not open unbelief. It was a religion that looked like the real thing and was not. Two of these counterfeits stand out: Talkative, whom Christian and Faithful meet before Vanity Fair, and By-ends, whom Christian and Hopeful meet just after it.

Talkative: saying and doing

Talkative is a tall man, better looking at a distance than near at hand, and he can talk about anything — heaven and earth, law and gospel, the new birth, the insufficiency of works, the need of Christ’s righteousness. Faithful is charmed. Christian, who knows him from the City of Destruction, is not. Talkative, he says, is a saint abroad and a devil at home. His religion is all in his tongue. His family, his servants and those who do business with him know him for a churl and a cheat.

So Faithful puts a searching question to him: how does the saving grace of God show itself in the heart? Talkative answers glibly that it causes a great outcry against sin. Faithful replies that a man may cry out against sin and still harbour it, and that grace shows itself rather by inclining the soul to abhor its sin, and by a life that answers to what is known. When Faithful presses him about his own life, Talkative takes offence and leaves.

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. JAMES 1:22

Christian sums it up in a sentence: “The soul of religion is the practical part.” Hearing, he goes on, is but the sowing of the seed; talking is not enough to prove that fruit is in the heart; and at the last day men will not be asked whether they believed, but whether they were doers or talkers only.

By-ends of Fair-speech

Just out of Vanity Fair, Christian and Hopeful overtake a man from the town of Fair-speech. He is reluctant to give his name, but it turns out to be By-ends — a by-end being a secondary, selfish purpose. He is well connected. His kindred include my Lord Turn-about, my Lord Time-server, my Lord Fair-speech, Mr Smooth-man, Mr Facing-both-ways and Mr Anything, and the parson of the parish, Mr Two-tongues, is his uncle. His great-grandfather was a waterman, looking one way and rowing another, and By-ends has made most of his estate the same way.

By-ends is perfectly willing to be a pilgrim. He differs from the stricter sort, he says, in only two small points. First, he never strives against wind and tide. Second, he is always most zealous when religion goes in his silver slippers; he loves much to walk with religion in the street, if the sun shines and the people applaud.

Christian answers him plainly: “If you will go with us, you must go against wind and tide.” He must own religion in his rags as well as in his silver slippers, and stand by him when bound in irons as well as when he walks the streets with applause.

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. LUKE 9:23

By-ends will not. He falls behind and is joined by three old schoolfellows, Mr Hold-the-world, Mr Money-love and Mr Save-all, all taught by one Mr Gripe-man, a schoolmaster in the market town of Love-gain in the county of Coveting. They agree that the pilgrims ahead are rigid and headstrong, and that the wise man is for religion only so far as the times and his safety will bear it.

Religion as a stalking-horse

Then the schoolfellows discuss a case of conscience. Suppose a minister has a small living and sees the chance of a bigger one, if he becomes more studious, preaches more zealously and alters some of his principles to suit the people. May he do it? Or suppose a tradesman can get a rich wife and more customers by becoming religious. Mr Money-love argues that he may, for it makes him a better man and brings good to others too. They all applaud, and put the question to Christian and Hopeful, expecting to silence them.

Christian answers that a babe in religion could answer ten thousand such questions. If it is unlawful to follow Christ for loaves, as it is, how much more abominable is it to make of Him and religion a stalking-horse to get and enjoy the world. He lists those in Scripture who took that view: Hamor and Shechem, who were circumcised to get Jacob’s cattle; the Pharisees, who made long prayers for a pretence to devour widows’ houses; Judas, who was religious for the bag; Simon Magus, who wanted the Holy Ghost to make money by it. The schoolfellows stand staring at one another, and have nothing to answer.

Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. JOHN 6:26

It is a sharp word for every generation. There are always those who use religion as a ladder: for reputation, for business, for politics, for influence. The prosperity preaching of our own day, which promises wealth and health to the faithful, is only a louder version of Mr Money-love’s argument. And the temptation is not only for others. Every Christian must ask how much of his religion would survive if it brought him nothing but rags and irons.

The hill called Lucre

Soon after, the pilgrims cross a pleasant plain called Ease, and beyond it a little hill called Lucre, with a silver mine in it. A gentlemanly man named Demas stands by the road calling them to turn aside and dig. Some who went near the brim before them fell in and were slain; others were maimed and never their own men again. Christian refuses; Hopeful is tempted and says, let us go and see, but Christian will not stir a step, and talks him out of it. By-ends and his friends come up behind, go over to Demas at the first call, and are never seen in the way again.

For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. 2 TIMOTHY 4:10

Just beyond the hill stands an old monument: a pillar in the shape of a woman — Lot’s wife, turned to salt for looking back towards Sodom. Hopeful is sobered. She only looked back, he says, and he had a desire to go and see. Christian draws the lesson: remember Lot’s wife.

Weighing ourselves

Bunyan does not want his readers to spend their time spotting By-ends in other people. The point of every counterfeit in the book is self-examination. Talkative asks whether our religion is in our tongue or our life. By-ends asks whether we follow Christ only when the sun shines. Mr Money-love asks whether our faith has quietly become a means to other ends. Demas asks what silver mine we are tempted to turn aside to see.

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. 2 CORINTHIANS 13:5

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Where is your religion more talk than practice? Choose one thing you often speak about and resolve to do it this week.

2. Ask the people who live with you whether you are the same at home as you are at church. Listen humbly.

3. Would you still follow Christ if it cost you your reputation, income or friendships? Name the thing you would find hardest to lose.

4. Examine one area — work, politics, social standing — where you may be using religion as a stalking-horse.

5. What is your hill called Lucre? Decide in advance not to turn aside to look.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You were despised and rejected, and You walked in rags, not silver slippers. Forgive me for wanting You only when the sun shines.

Deliver me from a religion of the tongue. Make my life speak louder than my talk, especially at home.

Keep me from using You to get the world, and from turning aside to any silver mine.

Give me grace to go with You against wind and tide, and to own You in Your rags as well as in Your glory. Amen.