I was just re-reading one of my favorite passages from John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress" -- a masterpiece and Christian classic published in 1678, written while the author was imprisoned for his religious beliefs. The poem that especially moves me is as follows:
"O world of wonders! (I can say no less)
That I should be preserved in that distress
That I have met with here! O blessed be
That hand that from it hath delivered me!
Dangers in darkness, devils, Hell, and sin,
Did compass me, while I this Vale was in;
Yea, snares, and pits, and traps, and nets did lie
My path about, that worthless silly I
Might have been catched, entangled, and cast down:
But since I live let JESUS wear the Crown."
Reflecting on Bunyan's experience of having his liberty taken from him for 12 years, worrying about whether his family would starve while he was incarcerated, and recalling so many other Christian heroes of the faith who went through things I can only imagine, something the woman who founded my religion wrote came to thought. I think it's worth sharing for those who will be reading this blog post who are not acquainted with Christian Science. This is from "Miscellaneous Writings", page 281: "Admiral Coligny, in the time of the French Huguenots, was converted to Protestantism through a stray copy of the Scriptures that fell into his hands. He replied to his wife, who urged him to come out and confess his faith, 'It is wise to count the cost of becoming a true Christian.' She answered him, 'It is wiser to count the cost of not becoming a true Christian.' So, whatever we meet that is hard in the Christian warfare we must count as nothing, and must think instead, of our poverty and helplessness without this understanding, and count ourselves always as debtors to Christ, Truth."
