Walking the Talk

Christian explains to Faithful why Talkative is such a “sorry fellow” and Faithful expounds the gospel meaning of the clean and unclean animals.

CHRISTIAN. He (Talkative - ed.) talketh of prayer, of repentance, of faith, and of the new birth; but he knows but only to talk of them.  I have been in his family, and have observed him both at home and abroad; and I know what I say of him is the truth.  His house is as empty of religion as the white of an egg is of savour.  There  is there neither prayer nor sign of repentance for sin; yea, the brute in his kind serves God far better than he.  He is the very stain, reproach, and shame of religion, to all that know him; it can hardly have a good word in all that end of the town where he dwells, through him.  Thus say the common people that know him, “A saint abroad, and a devil at home.”  His poor family finds it so; he is such a churl, such a railer at and so unreasonable with his servants, that they neither know how to do for or speak to him. Men that have and dealings with him say it is better to deal with a Turk than with him; for fairer dealing they shall have at their hands.  This Talkative, if it be possible, will go beyond them, defraud, beguile, and overreach them.  Besides, he brings up his sons to follow his steps; and if he findeth in any of them a foolish timerousness (for so he calls the first appearance of a tender conscience), he calls them fools and blockheads, and by no means will employ them in much or speak to their commendation before others.  For my part, I am of opinion that he has, by his wicked life caused many to stumble and fall; and will be, if God prevent not, the ruin of many more.

….Besides, good men are ashamed of him; they can neither call him brother nor friend; and very naming of him among them makes them blush, if they know him.

FAITHFUL    Well, I see that saying and doing are two things, and hereafter I shall better observe this distinction.

CHRISTIAN. They are two things, indeed, and are as diverse as are the soul and the body; for as the body without the soul is but a dead carcass, so saying, if it be alone, is but a dead carcass also.  The soul of religion is the practical part: “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”   This Talkative is not aware of; he thinks that hearing and saying will make a good Christian, and thus he deceiveth his own soul.  Hearing is but as the sowing of the seed; talking is not sufficient to prove that fruit is indeed in the heart and life; and lets us assure ourselves, that at the day of doom men shall be judged according to their fruits.  It will not be said them, “Did you believe?” but, “Were you doers, or talkers only?”  and accordingly shall they be judged.  The end of the world is compared to our harvest; and you know men at harvest regard nothing but fruit.  Not that anything can be accepted that is not of faith, but I speak this to show you how insignificant the profession of Talkative will be at that day.

FAITHFUL.   This brings to my mind that of Moses, by which he describeth the beast that is clean.  He is such a one that parteth the hoof and cheweth the cut; not that parteth the hoof only, or that cheweth the cud only.  The hare cheweth the cud, but yet is unclean, because he parteth not the hoof.  And this truly resembleth Talkative: he cheweth the cud, he seeketh knowledge, he cheweth upon the Word, but he divideth not the hoof, he parteth not with the way of sinners; but, as the hare, he retaineth the foot of a dog or bear, and therefore he is unclean.

CHRISTIAN. You have spoken, for aught I know, the true gospel sense of those texts; and I will add another thing.  Paul calleth some men, yea, and those great talkers too, “sounding brass and tinkling cymbals,” – that is, as he expounds them in another place, “things without life, giving sound.”  Things without life, - that is, without the true faith and grace of the gospel; and, consequently, things that shall never be placed in the kingdom of heaven among those that are the children of life; though their sound, by their talk, be as if it were the tongue or voice of an angel.

(The Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan, Lothrop Publishing Company, Boston – date unknown – pages 146-148)