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Advice To Sufferers (Annotated)
This work by John Bunyan, author of 'Pilgrims Progress', is an encourage for those Christians who are suffering under any means. The church today can learn how to suffer well from a man who spent many years in prison for merely preaching the gospel of Christ.
Includes a hyperlinks to every chapter from the Table of Contents and every footnote.
Includes a hyperlinks to every chapter from the Table of Contents and every footnote.
116 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 7, 1801
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About the author
John Bunyan
1,616 books1,412 followersJohn Bunyan, a Christian writer and preacher, was born at Harrowden (one mile south-east of Bedford), in the Parish of Elstow, England. He wrote The Pilgrim's Progress, arguably the most famous published Christian allegory. In the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 17, 2024
John Bunyan, that immortal and indefatigable spiritual cartographer, mapped out for us not only a perennial classic of symbolism in English Lit - Pilgrim’s Progress - but as well many, many small tracts of help for helplessly lost, ordinary people.
This is one of ‘em.
You know, it’s a pity we don’t often see modern translations into verbally simple English of these potent shots in the arm - great body blows to our grim despair, each one - and that’s the reason why I rated this only four stars. Get with the times, you evangelist publishers:
Keep on the ecumenical trail forged by the late Eugene Peterson.
***
You know, if you’re like me, and a sufferer in this dog-and-pony show of omnivorous and omnipresent misinformation we call the postmodernist life, chances are pretty darned good your suffering is spiritual.
For in our times there is:
“No place of Grace for those who avoid the Face.” Riding out the storm won’t work, unless you’re moving Upward.
Cause we are all PURPOSEFULLY turned obliquely from the Spirit to the Spiritual Trinkets of the Marketplace.
I woke up to that fact in 2012:
Burnt out and battered in early retirement, I sought the face of wisdom in books and videos. For as:
At Dawn we came down to a temperate place
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation.
So we continued on, finding the place in the nick of time -
Guess what? The place of the Face wasn’t in that warm vegetative spot.
So for me, a discarded refugee from the rabid workplace, I turned upwards - and all my spiritual hens CAME HOME TO ROOST. I Saw postmodernism’s Medusa Face beneath me.
It was the luckless face of hell.
Wow, did that wake me up fast.
And it confirmed every book I had read up till then, for:
The world is ultimately its own lie.
Sad, but simultaneously it suddenly reinforced every rag and tatter of faith I had hitherto been able to summon up. Reinforced, I faced all the perpetrators of the lie spread out around me.
Relax, it gets better...
For that insight eventually led to pure peace and tranquility. It’s true -
We CAN find our True Selves.
Away from the glitz & glam.
But only, if we do as Bunyan says here, and “commit that which is committed to those to whom such a thing is committed,” or in plain words, “commit your soul to God for his care and keeping.”
That act, now, is KEY, for:
The only help or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
Eliot and Heraclitus were right.
Don’t burn in that Other, Downward-leading Fire.
Choose the Higher Fire that HEALS.
This is one of ‘em.
You know, it’s a pity we don’t often see modern translations into verbally simple English of these potent shots in the arm - great body blows to our grim despair, each one - and that’s the reason why I rated this only four stars. Get with the times, you evangelist publishers:
Keep on the ecumenical trail forged by the late Eugene Peterson.
***
You know, if you’re like me, and a sufferer in this dog-and-pony show of omnivorous and omnipresent misinformation we call the postmodernist life, chances are pretty darned good your suffering is spiritual.
For in our times there is:
“No place of Grace for those who avoid the Face.” Riding out the storm won’t work, unless you’re moving Upward.
Cause we are all PURPOSEFULLY turned obliquely from the Spirit to the Spiritual Trinkets of the Marketplace.
I woke up to that fact in 2012:
Burnt out and battered in early retirement, I sought the face of wisdom in books and videos. For as:
At Dawn we came down to a temperate place
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation.
So we continued on, finding the place in the nick of time -
Guess what? The place of the Face wasn’t in that warm vegetative spot.
So for me, a discarded refugee from the rabid workplace, I turned upwards - and all my spiritual hens CAME HOME TO ROOST. I Saw postmodernism’s Medusa Face beneath me.
It was the luckless face of hell.
Wow, did that wake me up fast.
And it confirmed every book I had read up till then, for:
The world is ultimately its own lie.
Sad, but simultaneously it suddenly reinforced every rag and tatter of faith I had hitherto been able to summon up. Reinforced, I faced all the perpetrators of the lie spread out around me.
Relax, it gets better...
For that insight eventually led to pure peace and tranquility. It’s true -
We CAN find our True Selves.
Away from the glitz & glam.
But only, if we do as Bunyan says here, and “commit that which is committed to those to whom such a thing is committed,” or in plain words, “commit your soul to God for his care and keeping.”
That act, now, is KEY, for:
The only help or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
Eliot and Heraclitus were right.
Don’t burn in that Other, Downward-leading Fire.
Choose the Higher Fire that HEALS.
August 19, 2014
This was reviewed at AletheiaBaptistMinistries.org
Having read as much of Bunyan that I could, including The Pilgrim’s Progress several times, I have to rate this lesser known treatise at least second to the great classic. The editor of the reprinted edition writes, “This valuable treatise was first published in a pocket volume in 1684, and has only been reprinted in Whitfield’s edition of Bunyan’s works, 2 vols. Folio, 1767.” Bunyan was especially qualified to write on suffering, spending almost thirteen years in jail for preaching the gospel and in constant fear of losing his life either by death or by unending incarceration. From that jail on the river Ouse he could see to the south the church where John Gifford (the “Interpreter?”) had led him to Christ; to the east he could see the place in the river where Gifford had baptized him; and to the north he could see the small barn-like building where his church met, and beyond that his very home where his wife and children waited for his return. When he was finally released he continued to pastor the small congregation for the rest of his life. Bunyan died after riding to London in inclement weather and developing a bad cold. He was buried in Bunhill Fields, the Dissenter’s Graveyard, rather than being returned to his home in Bedford.
Here are a few excerpts. “This is the advice that, I thank God, I have taken myself; for I find that there is nothing, next to God and his grace by Christ, that can stand one in such stead, as will a good and harmless conscience.”
“Why, affliction is better than sin, and if God sends the one to cleanse us from the other, let us thank him, and be also content to pay the messenger.”
“I am not so uncharitable, as to think, that persecuting men design this. But I verily believe that the devil doth design this, when he stirs them up to so sorry a work. . . . This is the case: men when they persecute, are for the stuff, but the devil is for the soul, nor will any thing less than that satisfy him.”
“That which makes a martyr, is suffering for the word of God after a right manner; and that is, when he suffereth, not only for righteousness, but for righteousness’ sake; not only for truth, but of love to truth; not only for God’s word, but according to it, to wit, in that holy, humble, meek manner as the word of God requireth. A man may give his body to be burned for God’s truth, and yet be none of God’s martyrs.”
“He also that suffereth for righteousness’ sake, doth it also because he would not that sin should cleave to the worship of God; and, indeed, this is mostly the cause of the sufferings of the godly. They will not have to do with that worship that hath sinful traditions commixed with God’s appointments, because they know that God is jealous of his worship.”
In an interesting section Bunyan addresses the question of whether it is ever right to avoid suffering if possible. “First, having regard to what was said afore about a call to suffer; thou mayest do in this even as it is in thy heart. If it is in thy heart to fly, fly: if it be in thy heart to stand, stand. Any thing but a denial of the truth. . . . Objection: but if I fly, some will blame me: what must I do now? Answer: And so many others if thou standest; fly not, therefore, as was said afore, out of a slavish fear; stand not, of a bravado. Do what thou dost in the fear of God, guiding thyself by his Word and providence; and as for this or that man’s judgment, refer thy case to the judgment of God.”
Having read as much of Bunyan that I could, including The Pilgrim’s Progress several times, I have to rate this lesser known treatise at least second to the great classic. The editor of the reprinted edition writes, “This valuable treatise was first published in a pocket volume in 1684, and has only been reprinted in Whitfield’s edition of Bunyan’s works, 2 vols. Folio, 1767.” Bunyan was especially qualified to write on suffering, spending almost thirteen years in jail for preaching the gospel and in constant fear of losing his life either by death or by unending incarceration. From that jail on the river Ouse he could see to the south the church where John Gifford (the “Interpreter?”) had led him to Christ; to the east he could see the place in the river where Gifford had baptized him; and to the north he could see the small barn-like building where his church met, and beyond that his very home where his wife and children waited for his return. When he was finally released he continued to pastor the small congregation for the rest of his life. Bunyan died after riding to London in inclement weather and developing a bad cold. He was buried in Bunhill Fields, the Dissenter’s Graveyard, rather than being returned to his home in Bedford.
Here are a few excerpts. “This is the advice that, I thank God, I have taken myself; for I find that there is nothing, next to God and his grace by Christ, that can stand one in such stead, as will a good and harmless conscience.”
“Why, affliction is better than sin, and if God sends the one to cleanse us from the other, let us thank him, and be also content to pay the messenger.”
“I am not so uncharitable, as to think, that persecuting men design this. But I verily believe that the devil doth design this, when he stirs them up to so sorry a work. . . . This is the case: men when they persecute, are for the stuff, but the devil is for the soul, nor will any thing less than that satisfy him.”
“That which makes a martyr, is suffering for the word of God after a right manner; and that is, when he suffereth, not only for righteousness, but for righteousness’ sake; not only for truth, but of love to truth; not only for God’s word, but according to it, to wit, in that holy, humble, meek manner as the word of God requireth. A man may give his body to be burned for God’s truth, and yet be none of God’s martyrs.”
“He also that suffereth for righteousness’ sake, doth it also because he would not that sin should cleave to the worship of God; and, indeed, this is mostly the cause of the sufferings of the godly. They will not have to do with that worship that hath sinful traditions commixed with God’s appointments, because they know that God is jealous of his worship.”
In an interesting section Bunyan addresses the question of whether it is ever right to avoid suffering if possible. “First, having regard to what was said afore about a call to suffer; thou mayest do in this even as it is in thy heart. If it is in thy heart to fly, fly: if it be in thy heart to stand, stand. Any thing but a denial of the truth. . . . Objection: but if I fly, some will blame me: what must I do now? Answer: And so many others if thou standest; fly not, therefore, as was said afore, out of a slavish fear; stand not, of a bravado. Do what thou dost in the fear of God, guiding thyself by his Word and providence; and as for this or that man’s judgment, refer thy case to the judgment of God.”
February 4, 2015
This is an in-depth study on the 17th century view of persecution. It gives you a sense of the spirituality that brought oppressed believers through the fire. There is no elongated wrangling over the causes of pain and suffering. Rather, it is embraced as normative for the journey.
The wording is challenging for the modern reader and the arguments are structured according to the lines of reasoning prevalent to that era. It requires some work but is worth the effort. In our modern era of personal rights, this is a theological corrective that is greatly needed. Bunyan's main concern is that the persecuted believer carries the pain without malice towards the oppressors or doubt towards God. He/she is able to do this knowing that God is both worthy and faithful.
The wording is challenging for the modern reader and the arguments are structured according to the lines of reasoning prevalent to that era. It requires some work but is worth the effort. In our modern era of personal rights, this is a theological corrective that is greatly needed. Bunyan's main concern is that the persecuted believer carries the pain without malice towards the oppressors or doubt towards God. He/she is able to do this knowing that God is both worthy and faithful.
January 1, 2016
This was absolutely excellent. It is taken from his larger works, but it is Bunyan's exposition of 1 Peter 4:19: "Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator." Bunyan was a man who knew suffering well, being imprisoned for twelve years, and he gives really helpful advice to any Christian, wether you have already suffered for his name's sake, or for those of us who will go through suffering for the sake of righteousness.
August 29, 2014
this book was probably closer to a three and a half because of the writing style but I had never heard of Bunyan's "other" books. well-written. well-thought out. good, if not great, information. besides the old writing style, it was a winner all around. glad I read it and I bought his book on prayer for 99 cents. looking forward to reading that.
May 5, 2015
Spice of grace
Gives the answer to so many types of suffering. I love the discourse of God not just as King and Father but as Creator. The language is a little difficult, but worth the effort.
Gives the answer to so many types of suffering. I love the discourse of God not just as King and Father but as Creator. The language is a little difficult, but worth the effort.
June 7, 2014
Read half way through then it became very repetitive and not understandable
September 5, 2021
Classic Puritan stuff. I love how earthy and realistic their writing is. The first third of the book was particularly helpful - a powerful reminder of God’s sovereignty over our trials and that he is for us and with us in those trials. Bunyan calls us to therefore commit our souls to God our faithful Creator. Even though these are simple truths, he expounds them in a heart-engaging way which stirs up faith. I skimmed through the second half of the book because I’d already found what I needed but I’m sure there are gems there too.
May 2, 2022
Primarily about suffering persecution for the faith. Good solid biblical content. Bunyan rightly grounds his theology of persecution in Genesis 3:15.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews