Derek Thomas

She's called diffidence, which in the 17th century would mean suspicion or distrust of

She urges Giant Despair, her husband, to beat Christian and Hopeful, to torture them, in effect, and to do so mercilessly.

And then something quite interesting.

unexpected happens.

And if you've not read Pilgrim's Progress carefully or you've not read it recently, you're just not expecting this.

Giant Despair urges Christian and hopeful to end their lives, to commit suicide.

This is Bunyan.

Bunyan is a pastor.

He's dealing with very dark issues, some of the darkest issues, the issues of suicide and the temptation to take one's own life.

And all of us, I'm sure, in this room, and I'm certainly not an exemption to this, have known dear friends, Christian friends, who have taken their own lives.

Or we've been pastors in situations in churches where

young people, college students especially, have taken their lives, and I've certainly had my share of those pastoral situations, and they're among the most difficult and the most dark that you have to deal with.

And what a

What a mercy, what an insight, what a pastoral mindset Bunyan has that in this family tale, Pilgrim's Progress, that parents would read to their children, that here you reach this really dark, dark moment, and Christian and hopeful are genuinely tempted.

They are tempted.

very tempted to take their own lives.

And I think Bunyan is saying Christians do sometimes reach this place.

Perhaps, perhaps Bunyan did, perhaps in his imprisonment, perhaps in the twelve years that he spent in prison there were occasional evenings when

He descended into a very dark place.

It's a rather lengthy and sensitive section in Pilgrim's Progress, and if you have a mind to, I would urge you to study it carefully.