James Baldwin

“ His name is Legality, and I would advise you to go and see him at once."
"Are you sure that he can remove this burden of mine?" asked Graceless.
"Most certainly he can," answered Mr. Wiseman; "and he will do much more. He will put you in the way of getting a home for yourself in our village. Then you may send for your wife and children, and live happily among honest neighbors all the rest of your life."
"Oh, how delightful that would be!" cried Graceless.
"It would certainly be better than trying to reach that wicket gate," said Mr. Wiseman. ”

“ Graceless told him how he had met Mr. Worldly Wiseman at the crossing of the roads, and how he had been persuaded to seek the house of the lawyer Legality. And when he had finished, he cried, "Woe is me now, for I am undone!"
But Evangelist took him by the hand and said, "This Worldly Wiseman, who pretended to be so friendly to you, had no desire to help you. On the contrary, he wished only to turn you out of the way and send you to destruction. For that reason he advised you to go to Mr. Legality, who has no power whatever to remove your burden." ”

“ We two are close friends and companions, and we are on our way to the Celestial City."
"Why didn't you come in by the gate?" asked Christian.
"The gate?" answered Hypocrisy. "What is the use of going round by the gate, when one can make a short cut across the fields, and jump over the wall?"
"But it is written in this book," said Christian, "that he that climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber."
"Oh, you needn't call us names," answered Formalist. "It has been the practice a thousand years for people to climb over the wall just as we have done." ”

“ Then Good-will told him that there was a castle full of wicked giants on the hillside near by, and that often when these giants saw a man about to enter the wicket gate they would shoot at him with their arrows. In this way many persons had been killed before they could enter in.
"How glad I am that I am here!" said Graceless; "and yet I tremble from the dangers I have passed through!"
"Who sent you here?" asked Good-will.
"A good man, called Evangelist," was the answer. "He told me to knock, and he said that you would show me what to do to be delivered from this heavy burden." ”

“ You were a fool for having anything to do with that man Graceless," said the second neighbor.
"But you showed yourself a great coward," said the third neighbor. "A man who undertakes a journey and then gives it up as soon as the road becomes rough is not to be depended upon in time of need." ”

“ With the changed conditions of life in our own times the popularity of the Pilgrim's Progress has greatly waned. While it was formerly the first and perhaps the only story book read by thousands of children of all ages, it is now known to but few young people except by name. ”

“ By and by there came to the gate a man with a grave but kindly face, whose name was Good-will. He looked out, and when he saw a stranger standing there, he asked, "Who are you? And what do you wish?"
"I am a man with a burden," answered Graceless. "I have come from the City of Destruction, and am going on towards the mountains and the shining light, where I hope to be delivered. I have been told that the way lies through this gate ”

“ Surely they are a token of his kindness, for I had only rags before. And when I get to the city he will know me, for I shall be clothed in his garments."
To this the men made no answer. They only looked at each other and laughed; and Christian walked on ahead of them.
So they all went on until they came to a very high and rugged hill which is called the Hill of Difficulty. ”

“ Of course much abridgment has been necessary; and, in general, whatever the modern reader would be tempted to skip has been left out or rewritten.
Thus John Bunyan's dream story is presented to the school children of the twentieth century. May it prove to be as acceptable to them as, in its complete form, the Pilgrim's Progress was pleasing to the simple-hearted but adult readers of Bunyan's own time.
PROLOGUE
WOULDST thou divert thyself from melancholy? ”

“ At the foot of that hill there was a spring of clear water. And here there were two other roads besides the straight and narrow one. One of these wound around the hill on the right-hand side; the other branched off on the left-hand side. But the narrow road went straight forward over the steepest part of the hill.
Christian went to the spring and drank from it. Then feeling much refreshed, he went onward, right up the difficult way. And as he went he began to sing,
"The hill, though steep, I will ascend ”