Again, he had them into his field, which he had sowed with wheat and corn; but when they beheld, the tops of all were cut off, only the straw remained. He said again, “This ground was dunged, and ploughed, and sowed; but what shall we do with the crop?” Then said Christiana, “Burn some, and make muck of the rest.” Then said the Interpreter again, “Fruit you see, is that thing you look for; and for want of that you condemn it to the fire, and to be trodden under foot of men. Beware that in this you condemn not yourselves.”
Notes and Commentary
The Interpreter then shows the pilgrims his field. The field is in sharp contrast to the garden. Whereas the garden is lush and vibrant, the field is dry and barren. Though the ground was at one time well prepared and sown with good seed, all that remains are stalks and chaff. Like the garden, the field is another representation of a church. But this is a church that has imbibed the world and lost its spiritual vitality. Though it once may have born fruit and produced a harvest, now it stands dry and dead.
After this, he led them into his garden, where was great variety of flowers. And he said, “Do you see all these?” So Christiana said, “Yes.” Then said he again, “Behold the flowers are diverse in stature, in quality, in color, and smell, and virtue, and some are better than others. Also, where the gardener has set them, there they stand; and quarrel not one with another.”
Notes and Commentary
For the next lesson, the Interpreter leads the pilgrims into his garden. There they see a “great variety of flowers.” This imagery comes from Song of Solomon 4 where the Beloved sings a love song to his bride. In verse 4 he compares her beauty to an “enclosed” (protected and nurtured) garden.
A garden enclosed Is my sister, my spouse, A spring shut up, A fountain sealed. Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates With pleasant fruits, Fragrant henna with spikenard, Spikenard and saffron, Calamus and cinnamon, With all trees of frankincense, Myrrh and aloes, With all the chief spices— A fountain of gardens, A well of living waters, And streams from Lebanon. (Song of Solomon 4:12–15)
Many commentators have recognized the parallel in the Song of Solomon between the Beloved’s love for his bride and Christ’s love for His church. Bunyan uses this imagery here in his allegory. The Garden represents the local church. The “great variety of flowers” signifies Christians, individual members of each church. Christ is the Gardener, and it is He who places each flower where He wills.
Life is filled with many perplexing realities. It seems all too brief. It is tainted by sin. It is marred with suffering. Along with joy, there is sorrow. Contentment is ever being challenged with longing.
We know that God is good and always does good. He created both time and space as a canvas to display His glory. He made the heavens and the earth and declared them to be “very good” (Genesis 1:31). He crafted the world with beauty and wonder.
Yet, as we look at the world around us, we see trials and troubles. We experience sorrow and pain. We know that God is not the author of sin, but why would He allow sin and suffering to enter His “very good” creation? How could the presence of evil (and its final defeat) possibly bring about, in God’s design and purpose, the fullness of His glory and our greatest good?
This hymn wrestles with such questions and points toward a vital truth. This world is not all there is. This life is fleeting. We were made for much more. We were made for glory.
Listen and download a recording of “Made for Glory” from Bandcamp:
Made for Glory
“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
We journey through this life As pilgrims here on earth; Some live for years, some weeks or days, Some never see their birth. But when our journey ends, Our moments, days, or years Will all seem like a vapor when God wipes away our tears.
How short the time we have, How briefly we exist. Compared to all eternity, This life’s a fleeting mist. For glory we were made An everlasting soul, Not just the time this life affords With bodies that grow old.
Why is our time so short And stained with sin and strife? How could a loving God allow Such suff’ring in this life? In kindness God keeps short Our sorrows in this place, Yet through our pain and suffering We come to know His grace
As time moves quickly on, We must not waste a day, But bring our broken, sinful lives To Christ without delay. In Him each day find rest, Refreshment for the soul. For through His suff’ring we are healed, Forgiven, and made whole.
Though heartaches overwhelm And fill our souls with grief, Remember we are sojourners, Our journey will be brief. In glory one day soon We will look back and say: Our faithful God has brought us home, Our tears He’s wiped away
Yes, one day we will be In glory and can say: Our faithful God, He’s brought us home, Our tears He’s wiped away.
So he had them into the slaughter house, where a butcher was killing a sheep. And behold the sheep was quiet, and took her death patiently. Then said the Interpreter, “You must learn of this sheep to suffer and to put up wrongs without murmurings and complaints. Behold how quietly she takes her death; and without objecting, she suffers her skin to be pulled over her ears. Your King doth call you his sheep.”
Notes and Commentary
The Interpreter continues to instruct the pilgrims by taking them into the slaughter house. There they saw a sheep being butchered, yet “the sheep was quiet, and took her death patiently.” The sheep signifies several important truths from God’s Word.
1. The sheep signifies Christ.
Jesus came to suffer and die for His people, “to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). He is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). When Isaiah prophecies of Christ’s crucifixion in the Old Testament, he compares Christ to a lamb being led to the slaughter. He faced His suffering willingly, without murmurings or complaints. He was oppressed, afflicted, and stricken, “yet He opened not His mouth.”
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. (Isaiah 53:7–8)
“Lord, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.” (Psalm 39:4–5)
Behold, O Lord, My Days
1. Behold, O Lord, my days are made A handbreadth as their span. Before the noon, my flow’r must fade, The end of ev’ry man.
2. So teach me Lord, to know my end And know that I am frail. To heav’n let all my thoughts ascend And let not earth prevail.
3. What love of earth can keep me here? I hope in You alone. When will You open glory’s gates And call me to Your throne?
4. A stranger in this land am I, A pilgrim far from rest. O be not silent to my cry, My yearning soul’s request.
5. Though I’m exiled from glory’s land, I dwell with glory’s King. My God is ever near at hand; He wakes my voice to sing.
I just added more titles to the growing collection of Hymns for Classical Guitar. New hymn transcriptions include:
To God Be the Glory
This Is My Father’s World
Grace Greater Than Our Sin
Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above
These Hymns for Classical Guitar are arranged to be concise, accessible, and useful for several occasions including preludes and offertories, accompanying congregational singing, or simply playing for your own enjoyment. The sheet music for each hymn is available as a free PDF download.
You are welcome to copy and share these hymns with friends and fellow guitar enthusiasts. Please copy the full page of sheet music with the website address and the “Used by Permission” notice at the bottom (see Permissions).
He had them then into another room where was a hen and chickens, and bid them to observe awhile. So one of the chickens went to the trough to drink; and every time she drank, she lifted up her head and her eyes towards heaven. “See,” said he, “what this little chick doth; and learn of her to acknowledge whence your mercies come, by receiving them with looking up. Yet again, said he, “observe and look.” So they gave heed, and perceived that the hen did walk in a fourfold method towards her chickens.
1. She had a common call; and that she has all day long.
2. She had a special call; and that she had but sometimes.
3. She had a brooding note.
And, 4. She had an outcry.
Interpreter: “Now,” said he, “compare this hen to your King, and these chickens to his obedient ones. For answerable to her, himself has his methods, which he walks in towards his people. By his common call, he gives nothing; by his special call, he always has something to give; he has also a brooding voice for them that are under his wing; and he has an outcry, to give the alarm when he sees the enemy come. I choose, my darlings, to lead you into the room where such things are, because you are women, and they are easy for you.”
Christiana: “And, sir,” said Christiana, “pray let us see some more.”
Notes and Commentary
Now the Interpreter shows the pilgrims a room in which they see a hen and her chicks. They watch awhile and observe how the hen calls and cares for her brood. Unlike the previous room, where the meaning of the lesson was not immediately apparent, this room offers a lesson that is “easy” for the pilgrims to understand. Christiana is a mother with children of her own. Mercy has joined the family to help them on the journey. They readily understand the need for watchfulness, nurture, and care.
The room with the hen and her chicks teaches us how God sends forth His mercies as well as how we are to receive His mercies. God’s mercies come to us through His Word—His written Word (the Scriptures) and the incarnate Word (the Lord Jesus, to whom the written Word points as the only Way of salvation).
When the Interpreter had showed them this, he has them into the very best room in the house (a very brave room it was); so he bade them look round about, and see if they could find anything profitable there. Then they looked round and round; for there was nothing there to be seen but a very great spider on the wall, and that they overlooked.
Mercy: Then said Mercy, “Sir, I see nothing.” But Christiana held her peace.
Interpreter: But said the Interpreter, “Look again.” She therefore looked again, and said, “Here is not anything but an ugly spider, who hangs by her hands upon the wall.” Then said he, “Is there but one spider in all this spacious room?” Then the water stood in Christiana’s eyes, for she was a woman quick of apprehension, and she said, “Yes, Lord, there is here more than one; yea, and spiders whose venom is far more destructive than that which is in her.” The Interpreter then looked pleasantly upon her, and said, “You have said the truth.” This made Mercy blush, and the boys to cover their faces; for they all began now to understand the riddle.
Then said the Interpreter again, “The spider takes hold with her hands, as you see, and is in kings’ palaces. And wherefore is this recorded, but to show you, that how full of the venom of sin soever you be, yet you may, by the hand of faith, lay hold of, and dwell in the best room that belongs to the King’s house above?”
Christiana: “I thought,” said Christiana, “of something of this; but I could not imagine it all. I thought that we were like spiders, and that we looked like ugly creatures, in what fine room soever we were; but that by this spider, this venomous and ill-favored creature, we were to learn how to act faith, that came not into my mind. And yet she has taken hold with her hands, as I see, and dwells in the best room in the house. God has made nothing in vain.”
Then they seemed all to be glad; but the water stood in their eyes. Yet they looked one upon another, and also bowed before the Interpreter.
Notes and Commentary
The Interpreter now takes the pilgrims into the best room in house. It is described as “a very brave room,” meaning it was most splendid and magnificent. The pilgrims survey the room and their reaction is telling. The room is wonderfully arrayed, yet they see nothing extraordinary. The only thing that is obviously out of place is “a very great spider on the wall” and at first the pilgrims don’t see it (or choose not to see it). Mercy tells the Interpreter, “Sir, I see nothing.” Christiana notices the spider but hesitates to say anything.
The Interpreter, then, has them take a harder look. Mercy notices the spider and exclaims, ““Here is not anything but an ugly spider, who hangs by her hands upon the wall.”
After awhile—because supper was not ready—the Interpreter took them into his significant rooms, and showed them what Christian, Christiana’s husband, had seen some time before. Here, therefore, they saw the man in the cage; the man and his dream; the man that cut his way through his enemies; and the picture of the biggest of them all; together with the rest of those things that were then so profitable to Christian.
This done, and after these things had been somewhat digested by Christiana and her company, the Interpreter takes them apart again, and has them first into a room where was a man that could look no way but downwards, with a muck rake in his hand. There stood also One over his head with a celestial crown in his hand, and proffered to give him that crown for his muck rake; but the man did neither look up nor regard, but raked to himself the straws, the small sticks, and dust of the floor.
Then said Christiana, “I persuade myself that I know somewhat the meaning of this; for this is a figure of a man of this world. Is it not, good sir?”
Interpreter: “You have said the right,” said he: “and his muck rake does show his carnal mind. And whereas you see him rather give heed to rake up straws and sticks, and the dust of the floor, than to what he says that calls to him from above with the celestial crown in his hand, it is to show that heaven is but as a fable to some, and that things here are counted the only things substantial. Now, whereas you were also shown that the man could look no way but downwards, it is to let you know that earthly things, when they are with power upon men’s minds, quite carry their hearts away from God.”
Christiana: Then said Christiana, “Oh, deliver me from this muck rake!”
Interpreter: “That prayer,” said the Interpreter, “has been lain by till ’tis almost rusty. ‘Give me not riches’ is scarce the prayer of one of ten thousand. Straws, and sticks, and dust, with most are the great things now looked after.”
With that Mercy and Christiana wept and said, “It is, alas ! too true.”
Notes and Commentary
The Interpreter begins by showing Christiana, Mercy, and the children the significant rooms that Christian had seen in Part 1 of The Pilgrim’s Progress. Those lessons proved to be invaluable to Christian, helping him overcome dangers and obstacles as he journeyed to the Celestial City. Once the pilgrims have had some time to digest (meditation on) the truths of those lessons, the Interpreter shows them even more. The wisdom in God’s Word can never be exhausted.
They see a man in a room who looks only downward. He has a muck rake in his hand. There is One standing over him, offering him a celestial crown. If he would but look up, he could cast away the muck rake in exchange for the crown. The man, however, pays no heed to the crown and contents himself with pushing around the straw, sticks, and dirt on the floor, endeavoring to pile up a mound of muck he can call his own.
Thus now, when they had talked away a little more time, they drew nigh to a house which stood in the way, which house was built for the relief of pilgrims; as you will find more fully related in the first part of these records of the “Pilgrim’s Progress.” So they drew on towards the house (the house of the Interpreter); and when they came to the door, they heard a great talk in the house. They then gave ear, and heard, as they thought, Christiana mentioned by name; for you must know that there went along, even before her, a talk of her and her children’s going on pilgrimage. And this thing was the more pleasing to them, because they had heard that she was Christian’s wife—that woman who was some time ago so unwilling to hear of going on pilgrimage. Thus, therefore, they stood still; and heard the good people within commending her who, they little thought, stood at the door. At last Christiana knocked, as she had done at the gate before. Now when she had knocked, there came to the door a young damsel named Innocent, and opened the door, and looked, and behold two women were there.
Damsel: Then said the damsel to them, “With whom would you speak in this place?”
Christiana: Christiana answered, “We understand that this is a privileged place for those that are become pilgrims, and we now at this door are such; wherefore, we pray that we may be partakers of that for which we at this time are come. For the day, as you see, is very far spent, and we are loath tonight to go any farther.”
Damsel: Pray what may I call your name, that I may tell it to my Lord within?
Christiana: My name is Christiana. I was the wife of that pilgrim that some years ago did travel this way; and these be his four children. This maiden also is my companion, and is going on pilgrimage too.
Innocent: Then ran Innocent in (for that was her name), and said to those within, “Can you think who is at the door? There is Christiana and her children, and her companion, all waiting for entertaining here.”
Then they leaped for joy, and went and told their master. So he came to the door, and looking upon her, he said, “Are you that Christiana whom Christian, the good man, left behind him when he betook himself to a pilgrim’s life?”
Christiana: I am that woman that was so hard hearted as to slight my husband’s troubles, and that left him to go on in his journey alone, and these are his four children; but now I also am come, for I am convinced that no way is right but this.
Interpreter: Then is fulfilled that which also is written of the man that said to his son, “Go, work today in my vineyard.” And he said to his father, “I will not,” but afterwards repented and went.
Christiana: Then said Christiana, “So be it. Amen. God make it a true saying upon me; and grant that I may be found at the last of him in peace without spot and blameless.”
Interpreter: “But why do you stand thus at the door? Come in, you daughter of Abraham. We were talking about you just now, for tidings have come to us before how you have become a pilgrim. Come, children, come in; come, maiden, come in.” So he had them all into the house.
So when they were within, they were bidden to sit down and rest; the which when they had done, those that attended upon the pilgrims in the house came into the room to see them. And one smiled, and another smiled, and they all smiled for joy that Christiana had become a pilgrim. They also looked upon the boys; they stroked them over the faces with the hand, in token of their kind reception of them; they also carried it lovingly to Mercy, and bade them all welcome into their master’s house.
Notes and Commentary
The pilgrims now arrive at “a house which stood in the way, which house was built for the relief of pilgrims.” The House of the Interpreter is a familiar place in ThePilgrim’s Progress. Christian spent much time here in Part 1, learning lessons and seeing “excellent things.”
The House of the Interpreter is a splendid representation of God’s Word. Each room and object in the house points to profitable truths from the Bible. The Interpreter, who welcomes the pilgrims to “come in,” is the Holy Spirit, who illumines Scripture and helps us rightly understand and apply its truths.
