As I have written several times, I am indebted to Pastor John Harrell who was the long-time pastor of the Bridge City UPC in Bridge City, Texas who encouraged me to read it. I can remember the copy that I bought in a Family Christian bookstore in Dothan. It was The Pilgrim’s Progress in Modern English published by Bridge-Logos Publishers. It was a paperback copy that weathered multiple backpack journeys with me to and from Flowers Hospital when I was still working full-time in one of the IR cath labs. I look at the copy now after 25 years and the highlights and marginal notes serve almost as landmarks of a spiritual journey moving on toward the Celestial City. If you have read it, some of this may be a bit redundant to you, however, I am going to focus on some points that brings in and around the vicious town of Vanity Fair.
There is a man whose name is Christian. With great angst of soul and conscience he flees from the City of Destruction, running from the wrath to come. His family and his neighbors scoff and mock him and he is initially greatly disheartened by their reactions. But as he responds to the call to the Celestial City, he realizes that he must strip away every entrapment that the world, his flesh, and the devil sets for him. The picture that is painted with words is of a man who has been deeply convicted of his sin and he cannot understand why that those that he lives with are not troubled as well about their own spiritual condition.
Early in the trip, he nearly sinks and drowns as he struggles through the Slough of Despond (“slew” or “swamp” for us in the Deep South). The story is filled with some of the most colorful characters you will ever meet like Pliable, Obstinate, Talkative, Ignorance, and Mr. Worldly Wiseman, all of whom try to talk him into forsaking the way and returning to the City of Destruction. You can feel his anguish of soul as he listens to them, sometimes pleading with reason to them and at other times you are almost convinced he is listening to them and about to turn back. He also encounters others who are greatly encouraging to him, people like Evangelist, Help, Discretion, Piety, The Interpreter, and the Shining Ones.
Along the road, he catches up with a traveler named
Faithful. Just prior to going into
Vanity Fair, they encounter Evangelist, a preacher of righteousness, who gives
them some spiritual instructions about their journey. He warns them about what they will face in
Vanity Fair and what they will need to do to survive the path through it.
The city of Vanity Fair has been set up on the way leading to the Celestial City. There are some characteristics about Vanity Fair. It is a place lighter than vanity and full of superficial carnal appeals and ridiculously vain citizens. It is ancient, being more than 5,000 years old. It is run by Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion; in other words, it is the run and owned by the devil. It was strategically placed in this location to trap those who are on the way out of the City of Destruction. It is a sinister place but that has been concealed to the travelers who pass by. Most never even consider that it is a spiritual dead-end whose greater wicked purpose is meant to burn up life by its frivolity.
The atmosphere is filled with the noise carnival hawkers calling out for all kinds of debauchery, mayhem, and decadence. The travelers can buy all sorts of things: Houses, land, honors, titles, jobs, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and carnal delights. But the travelers do not pay with money but with their souls, it is a lost fortune that is wasted on material things but will serve dark eternal consequences. The dark town is full of prostitutes, rascals, thieves, comedians, clowns, husbands, and wives whose intent is to entrap with temptation.
There are circus tents, rides, Ferris wheels, game shows, drinking contests, and wrestling matches. There are the bribes where the currency is gold, silver, pearls, food, drink, liquor, both riches and poverty, and gaudy clothes and jewelry. There is a lot of playing that goes on in Vanity Fair. Jugglers, cheats, card games, dice throwing, gambling, actors in plays, and fleshly pleasures. All sold for a price—the mind and soul of the travelers.
When Christian and Faithful start through Vanity Fair, Bunyan writes about how they are immediately picked out by the brutal citizens of the dark metropolis. There are some things about them that Bunyan describes them that marks them as different:
First, their manner of dress is immediately picked up on. They are dressed modestly, with no pretense, and they are not dressed in the gaudy, ostentatious manner that the worldlings are. They are laughed at and called fools, madmen, and oddly enough “strangers and pilgrims.”
Secondly, their manner of speech, their accents, and their language betray them. Their communication is not corrupt, absent of profanity, no cursing, in fact their words are clean, holy, and pure. Their tongues are not rude, vile, or crude. It is like there is an awe, a reverence, and a holiness about the way they talk.
Lastly, their lack of interest in what is being sold infuriates the powers that be in that shady place. This really seems to upset the sinful salesman because they are interested in taking every thing from everyone.
Then, the accusers, the slanderers, and the wicked start pouring out inflammatory complaints against them. My, what unusual garb you are wearing! Wow, what unusual manners you have! Your thoughts are so weird! Why aren’t you interested in our merchandise? You are a foolish spectacle to our city! You have dangerous opinions and extreme personal convictions are against the prince of the city! You are disturbers, you create commotions, and lead divisions among the residents! Then these accusers beat them from head to toe and throw them in a cage. They are chained with manacles, hung up in irons and finally taken down and placed in stocks as they await a “trial” in a kangaroo court.
Bunyan really does a great job with the names of the participants in the trial court. The presiding judge is a man named Lord Hate-good. As the legal proceedings begins, the same complaints and accusations are spewed out at Christian and Faithful. There are a number of accusers that have been drummed up. The accusers are accurately named by Bunyan: Envy, Superstition, and Pick-thank (meaning favor gained by flattery and talebearing) all come at these faithful laborers with fury.
Bunyan names the jury with the same zeal: Mr. Blind-man (foreman of the jury), Mr. No-good, Mr. Malice, Mr. Love-lust, Mr. Live-loose, Mr. Heady, Mr. High-mind, Mr. Enmity, Mr. Liar, Mr. Cruelty, Mr. Hate-light and Mr. Implacable. As you can see the jury is stacked before the trial can even get off the ground, sealing the possibility of a fair hearing. The trial ends and Faithful is snatched out of the courtroom and burned at the stake immediately. Christian manages to look up in the sky before he is thrown back into the jail, and he notices a fiery chariot with a couple of stallions waiting to pick up Faithful.
Somehow Christian manages to escape during the night. Not too long on his journey, he runs into another traveling companion who will accompany him the rest of the way—Hopeful.
You may be wondering: What in the world does a story that is almost 350 years old have to do with me? Obviously, we live and pass through a Vanity Fair of sorts every single day that we live. In the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21), Jesus answers a question from his disciples. It is the longest answer to any question that was asked of him. What shall be the sign of your return?
As preachers we can spend a lot of time trying to figure out the lay of the dispensations, the meanings of the horsemen, the seals, the trumpets, the bowls, and the woes. We pursue the identities of the various beasts and the mix of various animals. . . . HOWEVER it may be that we miss the biggest two points the Lord makes in all of the accounts given in the synoptic Gospels—Don’t be deceived and don’t get drunk!
Vanity Fair will deceive you! Vanity Fair will make you drunk! This is shocking that Jesus would tell his disciples not to be deceived (Matt. 24:4-5; Mark 13:5; 21-22; Luke 21:8) and not to get drunk (Matt. 24:48-49; Luke 21:34) of which I believe he is speaking of drugs and alcohol because Luke interjects the word “surfeiting.”
Luke 21:34 (KJV) 34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
You can get drunk on more than drugs and alcohol—we can get drunk on success, possessions, success, entertainment, educational attainment, and even to a certain degree the trappings of “churchianity.” As you travel through this old world, you have to make absolutely sure that you do not allow the wooing voices of Vanity Fair to capsize your soul.
I will stop here for now. There will be more observations about Vanity Fair and all of its glitterati to shun in the next few posts.
Thanks for reading. . .
Philip Harrelson
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