The Pilgrim's Progress (Moody Classics)

by John Bunyan

The hill, though high, I covet to ascend, The difficulty will not me offend; For I perceive the way to life lies here: Come, pluck up, heart, let’s neither faint nor fear. Better, though difficult, the right way to go, Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe.

CHRISTIAN: you make me afraid; but whither shall I flee to be safe? If I go back to my own country, that is prepared for fire and brimstone, and I shall certainly perish there. If I can get to the Celestial City, I am sure to be in safety there. I must venture. To go back is nothing but death; to go forward is fear of death, and life everlasting beyond it: I will yet go forward.

CHRISTIAN: What I promised thee was in my nonage: and besides, I count that the Prince, under whose banner now I stand, is able to absolve me, yea, and to pardon also what I did as to my compliance with thee. And besides, O thou destroying Apollyon, to speak truth, I like His service, His wages, His servants, His government, His company and country better than thine. Therefore leave off to persuade me further. I am His servant, and I will follow Him.

FAITHFUL: I did not know Him at first; but as He went by I perceived the holes in His hands and His side; then I concluded that He was our Lord. So I went up the hill.

and that the poor man that loveth Christ is richer than the greatest man in the world that hates Him:

Hearing is but as the sowing of the seed. Talking is not sufficient to prove that fruit is indeed in the heart and life.

for knowledge, great knowledge, may be obtained in the mysteries of the Gospel, and yet no work of grace in the soul.

that believing and coming were all one; and that he that came, that is, that ran out in his heart and affections after salvation by Christ, he indeed believed in Christ.