‘THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS’: THE ENCHANTED GROUND

Evening Star, Issue 20137, 30 March 1929, Page 2

‘THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS’: THE ENCHANTED GROUND

Nkithkii tlic metaphor nor tin' experience is Banyan's invention. Both are common enough in the earlier romances of chivalry, «?. e.g., Spenser's ‘ .[''aerie Quceno.’ But Bnnyan's genius does with them what Shakespeare does witli like materials. Bnnyan gets hold of the abiding truth in the enchanted ground, and makes it a place in which we all live and move and have our being. Let ns see.

The first question is where it is and why. LJe gives Ihe answer in the second part of ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress.’ -Ho says: ‘‘The Enchanted Ground is one of tho last refugees that the enemy to pilgrims lias; wherefore it is, as you j see, placed at the'end of ihe way. for when, thinks the enemy, will these tools be so desirous to sit down as when they are weary? And 'when so like to; ho weary as when almost at tho jour- I ncy’s end?’’ That is the why and | wherefore of (he enchanted ground, j And now, what is it? Tho Inllcr de-j velopraenl of it must he studied in the , second part of the book along with Ihe , ■enchantress, Madame Bubble, one ol | the most masterly of Bnnyan's creations, j It must be enough to say hero that the i enchanted ground is just the every- I day world in which we all live and move ; and have our being—the world ol work and of pleasure; the talk, the society, the hooks, the newspapers, the gossip. I the eonimonplacc round ol the common- , place day. This is the, enchanted j ground; (hose and the like are the I materials with which the enchantress: works. It is by means ol these, it is; under the inllnence of these, that spiri-I tual drowsiness is induced and the pil- ! grim’s progress endangered. I he world. What is it? Says that great master ol . spiritual psychology, E. W . I'abcr:

"The world is not altogether matter! nor altogether spirit. It is not man i only; nor is it Satan only; nor is it exactly sin. It is an infection, an inspiration, ami an atmosphere; a tile, a ; colouring matter, a pageantry, a laste. a fashion, a witchery. None ol all these j names suit it, and nil of them suit it. Meanwhile its power over the human erealion is terrific, its presence nhiqni- , lons, its deceitl’ulness incredible. It can ; find a homo' under every heart beneath the poles; it is wider than the church! catholic; it is masterlul. lawless, and j intrusive within il. Ilf are all living in ; it, breathing in it. acting under Us influence, being checked by its experiences. and unwarily admitting its prin- i VipleS.’’ And dial brings on the next point ; the sort of inllnence it exerts anti the. method of its effects. It is the method of the enchanter; the method which makes to lose consciousness of the right , proportion of tilings—which makes the, unreal seem real, the shadow die sub- 1 stance. It acts as the rattlesnake upon | its victims, as the slock white murderer | i the snow) upon The wearied ■traveller, | stultifying his movement and stupefy- | ing his sense till he lalls asleep—-the ,

sleep that knows no waking. Banyan i describes it in the second part: ol ’ Ihe Pilgrim's Progress,’ wdien Valiant surprises Standfast upon/his knees. Me ■asks ■.him why, and Standfast replies; "We arc., as yon see, upon ihe on- | chanted ground; and as I was corning! along I was musing with myself of what 1 a dangerous nature the road in this place was, and how many that, had conic thus Inr on pilgrimage had here . boon 1 stopped and destroyed. I thought also i of the manner of the death with which ! this place destroys the men. Those that, . die here die of no violent distemper; j the death which such die is not grievous ■ to them. For he that goeth away in a i sleep begins that journey with desire j and pleasure. Yea, such acquiesce in ‘ that disease. ’’ If charged with being ihe subjects of it they would laugh at i the very idea, for it. is the witchery of. life enchanted ground to administer its [ own amestlietic. Others may perceive j th> fact, but they are oblivious of it.! .Sometimes, indeed, .some of them waive ,’ it]i to the danger of the course they are , pursuing to its deadening effect on their' better nature, and say with Bos.sclti : j Is this a friend, indeed, that I should sell : My soul to her, give her my-life | of youth, j Till my lecf, cloven too, take hold I on hell? | But the fast ■inatlon is usually too ! strong, and it is pursued to the hit- j ter end. A young American woman recently asked: ‘‘What do I want j with a homo? I was born in a ho>pi- I tal, reared in an apartment by a paid j governess, educated in a hoarding j school, courted in a car, married in a! church, live in * hotel, golf all. morn- | ing. bridge all afternoon, entertain | with dinner at a club In the evening, will dip in a sanatorium,, he buried from a funeral chapel—why should I have a home?” Something !ii:e that is the direction to which society is drilling in .our Western civilisation, j History lias seen such, drifts before—j by nations on their road to ruin. i

And so ivc come to our next and most important point—Ll it; methods by which the drill may he arrested, the way by which the I'alal fascination of ibt? enchanted ground can be overcome. It cannot he by not going into it. We must, lor it lies on the road of the pilgrimage, We cannot escape it, We must go through it. Mow get through it victoriously I If one studies at leisure the incident of Madame Bubble in the second part of the hook the answer will be found written out at large. .Here we can do no more than reler to one or two of the points. As Great-heart and his company fared forward, we are told, they came to the Enchanted' Ground where a man is peculiarly apt to lose his road.. What did he do;' lie bad in his pocket a map ot all wavs leading to and from the celestial city. He struck a match and consulted it. We know, of course, what the chart is. It is the Bible, the handbook of the Puritan, the maker and master of Bnnyan. it is an age of reading this of ours. We are in danger of being snowed under by the avalanches of magazines, newspapers, books that are rolled out from the printing presses of the world. We are vl

Ifidd that the Bible is still the best seller. That may be; but it is not to the point. The point is; .Do people read it? <Wo doubt it much. And the result is seen in the multitudes of the bewildered and spiritually indifferent who flounder about in the Knchantod Ground. ***■* A second condition of victory is fellowship with those who know. .Hopeful says to Christian: “To prevent drowsiness in this place, let ns fall into good discourse.'’ They gave their cheerio to cadi other as well as thev could. Air Clreatheart commanded that Feehlemind should come after him, and Air .Despondency was under (ho eye of Mr Valiant and so forth. We see the significance of this. We can only get through the enchanted ground by what Krnorson calls hitching our wagon to a star—attaching ourselves to those who are higher and stronger than we. Hawthorne, in ‘ The Biythcdale Romance,’ Says of (.'overdale's ‘ .Hermitage ’ that it and its whole surroundings made his hero, feel " possessed of a mood of disbelief in moral Inanity or heroism, and a conviction of the folly of attempting to benefit the tumid." There arc books and people and places that act like that upon our moral and spiritual mines and nature. They soften their fibres. They bring a frost over our unselfish aims and duties. Kverybody knows of these. Marguerite, in ‘ Faust,’ could not hear the sight of Mopiiistopheles, 1 hough she did not know who lie was. He seemed to chill her goodness, draw the better fibres out of her soul. On the other-hand, there arc people and places and liferatnre that have the opposite effect. F very body knows jn-t where (hey can he found, and as one should shun Hie oilier like death, so one should cling and cultivate ihe-.e as hn very life.

Space " ill allow meal ion of only one oilier condition ol' gelling salely through t !;>■ enchanted ground. When Valiant mnl his company cmnc near it, they saw n ninn there on his knees. It was Air Siaudlasi. lie c\lil;lined thm .Madame Bubble i.c., i lie mistress ol Hie world-had beset him with her enticements--- money, hist, happinevss, ami what. not. Ho lound himself no niiileli lor her by the ordinary weapons he could command. And he was in danger of being overcome. ‘"Then I betook inys-.’lc to my knees, and so escaped out of the witcheries or the witeli of the enchanted ground." jiunyau lays great stre-s on prayer, in the- Valley of the Shadow there came upon him swarms ot bodiless enemies that, his sword went through like air. "Then." he says. ” 1 betook nivsell to a wcajion called ‘ All Braver.’ and so won l broiigh into the morning.' They who lose this "capon or cease in he expert with ft will inevitably 10-e their spiritual life. Armies are said io go on their hollies; but the soldiers of the eunijuering life advance upon their knees. That is the- verdict, of history. And the reason i>. as Browning puts if, in his great, poem, ' installs Tyraniins '; An Basisni despot tries ail means to master a slave, wiliiont success. Tie feels even to kill him would ho no victory. lie lavs other plans and puts lorth his subtlest elforts, and jn-.i when he thinks he is on the point ol success

J)o yon see? Just my very vengeance complete. The man sprang to 1 1 1> led. Stood creel, caught at God s skirls. and prayed. So I was a Ira id. That is it. The world F a spirit, and can only bo overcome by a .stronger spirit. Argument, is no match for it. Reason is powerless before it, and common sense turns to iiouseii-u in the enchanted ground. Rut Prayer makes the Christian armour bright. And Satan trembles when lie secs The weaken saint upon his, knees. Ron.