Pilgrim's progress - Bunyan - VIII

Required reading 
Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Up to the paragraph that begins: 'Then I saw in my dream that when they were got out of the wilderness they presently saw a town before them and the name of that town is Vanity; and at the town there is a fair kept called Vanity-Fair.'

My notes and thoughts
The majority of today is concerned with our pilgrims' interaction with Talkative.  At the end of the reading there is a brief time spent in a wilderness and with Evangelist.

Talkative sounds good, but is someone whose behaviour does not match his words.  Christian's assessment of him is as follows: 'He [Talkative] talketh of prayer, of repentance, of faith, and of the new birth: but he knows but only to talk of them.  I have been in his family, and have observed him both at home and abroad; and I know what I say of him is the truth.  His House is as empty of religion, as the white of an egg is of savour.  There is neither prayer nor sign of repentance for sin...'

I think that Bunyan does well to introduce such a character, as our churches are often full of such people who only bring trouble upon the flock and repel unbelievers from the Lord.  Faithful is right to challenge Talkative and I agree with Christian's lament that it would be better if more Christians would challenge our own Talkatives: 'You do well to talk so plainly to him as you did; there is but little of this faithful dealing with men nowadays, and that makes religion so stink in the nostrils of many, as it doth: for they are these talkative fools, whose religion is only in word, and are debauched and vain in their conversation, that being so much admitted into the fellowship of the godly do stumble the world, blemish Christianity and grieve the sincere.'

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.