The Slough of Despond

He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. PSALM 40:2

Christian and Pliable have not gone far when, talking of crowns and glory and heedless of their feet, they fall suddenly into a bog in the middle of the plain. Its name is Despond. They wallow in the dirt, and Christian, because of the burden on his back, begins to sink. Pliable, offended, asks whether this is the happiness he was promised, struggles out on the side nearest his own house and goes home. Christian is left to tumble in the Slough alone.

What the Slough is

Bunyan does not leave us to guess. As the dreamer watches, a man named Help draws Christian out, and the dreamer asks why this place has never been mended, so that poor travellers might pass more safely. Help explains that it cannot be mended. It is the low ground into which the scum and filth that attend conviction for sin continually run. As a sinner is awakened to his lost condition, there arise in his soul many fears and doubts and discouraging apprehensions, and they all settle here. That is why the ground is so bad.

So the Slough is not ordinary sadness, nor even depression, though it can feel like both. It is the particular despondency of a newly awakened conscience. A person begins to see his sin, and at once a flood of fears pours in: that it is too late, that he has sinned too much, that God will not receive him, that he is not really sincere. Bunyan had spent years in that mud. He knew exactly what it smelled like.

Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. PSALM 69:1–2

Why Christian sinks and Pliable does not

There is a sharp observation hidden here. Both men fall in, but only Christian sinks, and he sinks because of his burden. Pliable has no burden. He is muddy and offended, but in no danger, and he climbs out easily — on the wrong side. Christian, weighed down by the sense of his sin, cannot get out at all, but he struggles towards the side farthest from his own house and nearest the gate.

That is a picture every pastor recognises. The person who feels most deeply the weight of sin is often the one most tempted to despair; the one who feels it least is the one who gives up most easily. Despondency is not a sign that you are not a true pilgrim. It may be a sign that you are. What matters is which side of the Slough you are struggling towards.

The steps that were there all along

Help asks Christian a simple question: why did you not look for the steps? For, as he later tells the dreamer, there are good and substantial steps placed through the very middle of the Slough, by the direction of the Lawgiver. In Bunyan’s original margin the steps are the promises of forgiveness and acceptance by faith in Christ. But when the weather turns and the Slough spews out its filth, the steps are hard to see, and men through dizziness step beside them and are bemired, though the steps are there.

Christian’s answer is honest: fear followed him so hard that he fled the nearest way and fell in. That is how most of us fall into despondency. We do not calmly weigh the promises of God and reject them. We panic. Fear chases us, and we run the nearest way, and the steps that would have held us are right there under the muddy water.

Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. HEBREWS 6:17–18

Grace Abounding is in large part the story of a man learning to find the steps. Bunyan tells how, in his worst agonies, he would flounce towards a promise as a horse stuck in the mire flounces towards sound ground. He did not always feel it holding him. But he learned that the promise was there whether he felt it or not, and that the business of a despondent soul is to put its foot on the word of God and stand.

Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. JOHN 6:37

Help

The other great comfort of the Slough is the man called Help. He comes to Christian, asks him plainly what he is doing there, gives him his hand, draws him out, sets him on sound ground and bids him go on his way. Bunyan puts Psalm 40 in the margin. Help is the Lord’s own hand reaching into the pit — but in the story He reaches through a person.

Many of us have been pulled out of the Slough by someone. Bunyan was: by the poor women of Bedford, by John Gifford, by the fellowship of a small congregation that took a troubled tinker seriously. Help does not lecture. He asks one question, gives one hand and sends Christian on. There is a whole ministry in that. If you are in the mire, look for Help; do not be too proud to take a hand. If you are on firm ground, be Help to someone else.

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness. GALATIANS 6:1

The Slough that cannot be mended

Perhaps the most honest thing Bunyan says here is that the Slough cannot be mended. The King’s labourers have worked on it for sixteen hundred years; millions of cartloads of wholesome instruction have been thrown into it; and it is the Slough of Despond still. In the Second Part, when Christiana comes this way, she hears that it is even worse, because many who pretend to be the King’s labourers bring dirt and dung instead of stones, and so mar instead of mending.

A caution for the scrupulous

Bunyan’s picture is true, but it is not a law. Not every believer passes through a long Slough; some go over the steps dry-shod. And those who are prone to anxiety or depression should not conclude that their darkness must be spiritual, or that a true Christian will not struggle with low spirits. Some despondency is conviction; some is illness, grief or exhaustion, and needs a doctor or a friend as much as a sermon. The steps are still there in every case. But do not load a heavy heart with the extra fear that its heaviness proves it is lost.

The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. PSALM 34:18

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Have you ever been in the Slough — overwhelmed with fears and doubts after seeing your sin? Which side were you struggling towards?

2. Write out three promises of God that are, for you, steps through the mire. Keep them where you will see them when fear chases you.

3. Think of someone who was Help to you. Thank God for them, and if you can, thank them.

4. Is there someone near you sinking in discouragement? Offer a hand this week: one question, one kindness, one word of Scripture.

5. If your low spirits have lasted long, consider whether you need a doctor or a counsellor as well as a pastor, and do not be ashamed to seek help.

A PRAYER

Lord, when fear has chased me into the mire, and my sins have weighed me down, You have not left me there.

Show me the steps You have laid through the Slough — Your promises, sure and substantial, whether I see them or not — and give me courage to stand on them.

Thank You for every Help You have sent me. Make me a help to others who are sinking.

And set my feet upon a rock, and establish my goings, until I stand on the good ground within the gate. Amen.