Pilgrim's progress - Bunyan - XII

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: 'I saw then in my dream that they went till they came into a certain country, whose air naturally tended to make one drowsy, if he came a stranger into it.  And here Hopeful began to be very dull and heavy of sleep.'

My notes and thoughts
Today, we briefly meet Ignorance, see Turn-away being led away by devils, hear of a man called Little-faith, see the pilgrims captured by the Flatterer and finally see them meet Atheist.

The majority of today's reading concerns a discussion of the story of Little-faith who was robbed of his money, but not his jewel (faith).  There are lots of good lessons we can learn from Little-faith's experience.  One is that although we may be robbed of our worldly possessions, if we still have our faith we can continue with great comfort: 'It [the jewel/faith] might have been great comfort to him, had he used it as he should; but they that told me the story said that he made but little use of it all the rest of the way; and that because of the dismay that he had in their taking away his money, indeed he forgot it a great part of the rest of the journey; and besides, when at any time it came into his mind, and he began to be comforted therewith, then would fresh thoughts of his loss come again upon him, and those thoughts would swallow up all.'  Sadly, we are all too much like Little-faith, mourning our losses so much that we cannot consider our greatest jewel.

I also appreciated that after the Shining One set the pilgrims free from the net of the Flatterer, he 'chastised them sore, to teach them the good way wherein they should walk.'  Just because we are set free from the eternal punishment of our sins, doesn't mean that we won't be lovingly disciplined to prevent further backsliding.

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