Mr Worldly Wiseman and the Hill

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. GALATIANS 2:16

Out of the Slough and walking alone, Christian meets a gentleman crossing the field. His name is Mr Worldly Wiseman, and he lives in the town of Carnal Policy, a very great town not far from the City of Destruction. He has heard of Christian’s setting out, for it has become the talk of the neighbourhood, and he sees at once the dirt of the Slough upon him. He is kindly, reasonable and full of good sense. He is also the most dangerous man Christian has yet met.

Sensible counsel

Worldly Wiseman does not mock the burden, as Obstinate did. He takes it seriously. Get rid of it with all speed, he says; you will never be settled in your mind till then. But the way Evangelist has sent you is the most dangerous and troublesome way in the world. Look at you already — the Slough is only the beginning. Ahead lie weariness, pain, hunger, perils, nakedness, sword, lions, dragons, darkness and death. Why should a man throw himself away by listening to a stranger?

Then he offers a better way. In a village called Morality, not a mile off, lives a gentleman named Legality, a very judicious man with a very good name, who has skill to help men off with such burdens. If he is not at home, his son Civility can do it as well. Christian can send for his wife and children, take a house in the village at a reasonable rate and live among honest neighbours in credit and good fashion.

It is a brilliant portrait. Worldly Wiseman is not a scoffer or a sensualist. He is a respectable man who goes to church — Evangelist later says he always goes to the town of Morality to church. He believes in religion, as long as it is reasonable, moderate and comfortable. His advice is exactly what the world has always said to an awakened conscience: take your sin seriously, by all means, but do not become a fanatic. Be a better person. Keep the rules. Settle down.

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. PROVERBS 14:12

The hill that hangs over the road

Christian, in his weariness, is persuaded. He turns out of his way towards Legality’s house. But the road leads past a high hill, and as he comes near it the side of the hill seems to hang over the path, so that he fears it will fall on his head. His burden grows heavier than it was before. Flashes of fire come out of the hill. He stands still, sweating and trembling, and does not know what to do.

The hill is Mount Sinai, the mountain of the law. Bunyan is drawing, with terrible simplicity, what happens to a guilty person who tries to get rid of guilt by keeping the law. The law is good and holy. But it can only condemn those who have broken it. The nearer you come to it for relief, the more it overhangs you; the harder you try to satisfy it, the heavier the burden grows.

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. GALATIANS 3:10

Bunyan in the steeple

Bunyan had been under that hill himself. Grace Abounding tells how, after the voice on the green and the rebuke that stopped his swearing, he fell to outward reformation and set the commandments before him as his way to heaven. When he kept them he was comforted; when he broke one, he repented and promised to do better. His neighbours marvelled at the change. And, he writes, “I thought I pleased God as well as any man in England.” He looked back on himself in that year as nothing but a poor painted hypocrite, proud of his godliness and ignorant of Christ.

He tells a strange and telling story from those months. He had loved bell-ringing, and when his conscience grew tender he gave it up, but still went to the steeple to watch. Then he began to fear that a bell might fall on him, and stood under a beam; then that it might bounce off the wall, and stood in the doorway; then that the steeple itself might fall, and fled. It is the hill of Sinai in a village church tower: a conscience trying to be safe by rule-keeping and finding that nowhere is safe enough.

Evangelist’s rebuke

As Christian stands trembling under the hill, he sees Evangelist coming towards him and blushes for shame. Evangelist asks him what he is doing there, hears his story, and then speaks with great severity, quoting Hebrews: see that you refuse not Him that speaks. Christian falls at his feet as dead. And then, at once, Evangelist takes him by the right hand and tells him that all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men, and bids him be not faithless, but believing.

That order matters. Evangelist is fierce with the error and tender with the man. He then explains exactly what has happened. Worldly Wiseman is rightly so called, Evangelist says, partly because “he savoreth only the doctrine of this world,” and partly because he loves that doctrine best, “for it saveth him best from the cross.” That is the heart of worldly religion. It is not irreligion; it is religion without the cross — a way of dealing with guilt that never requires a person to be humbled, to die to self or to depend on another.

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. GALATIANS 6:14

For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. GALATIANS 3:21

The law’s true work

It would be a mistake to read this chapter as though Bunyan despised the law. He did not. The Ten Commandments are God’s holy will, and the Christian loves them. What Bunyan denies is that the law can do what only Christ can do. The law shows sin; it cannot remove it. It is a mirror, not a washbasin. Its proper work in the awakened soul is to shut every door but one, and send the sinner to the gate.

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. GALATIANS 3:24

Hope after the wrong turning

The chapter ends with mercy. Christian asks whether there is any hope; whether he may go back to the gate, or will be sent away ashamed. Evangelist tells him his sin is very great, but that the man at the gate will receive him, for he has goodwill for men. Then he kisses him, gives him one smile and bids him Godspeed.

I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. ISAIAH 43:25

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Where do you hear Worldly Wiseman’s voice in your own life — the counsel to be sensible, moderate and respectable rather than to go to Christ?

2. Have you ever lived under the hill, trying to quiet your conscience by keeping rules? Name honestly what that felt like.

3. Read Galatians 3:10–14 and 3:21–26. Write in one sentence what the law can do and what it cannot.

4. Ask yourself where you want religion without the cross — forgiveness without humbling, church without self-denial.

5. If you have taken a wrong turning, go back today. The man at the gate still has goodwill for sinners.

A PRAYER

Lord, I have listened to Mr Worldly Wiseman. I have wanted my burden gone without the shame of the cross, and I have tried to be good enough.

Forgive me. Let Your holy law do its proper work in me, not to make me proud or desperate, but to shut me up to Christ.

Deliver me from a religion that saves me from the cross. Teach me to glory in nothing else.

And bring me back from every wrong turning to the narrow gate, where there is goodwill for sinners like me. Amen.