Beelzebub Tries Again.
So Uncle Jeff began his next story…. “Christian and Faithful were carrying on with their journey, and had already been warned that the next town was a dangerous place ‘I wonder if there is another way to the Celestial City rather than through this town?’ Christian said to Faithful as they carried on their way, ‘If it’s as bad as Evangelist says so, you’d think the King would make a by-pass for His people to travel through’. ‘Well, you know our Book says we are to count it all joy when these fiery trials come to us’, Faithful said, ‘So it must have a good effect on us after we’ve got past this place, and then we’ll come out shining like pure gold’. ‘Yes,’ said Christian, ‘We have to remember to be careful what we say and keep our mouth clean and not say anything that would displease the King’.
By this time, they were approaching the town of Vanity Fair, and it was a motley looking collection of buildings. As they went down the main street, they could see that there were a lot of markets selling all sorts of useless junky things. There seemed to be a lot of pubs and bars there too, and beggars were whining for money as they went along. Men were fighting each other outside the pubs, and there didn’t seem to be any sort of law and order anywhere. Their language too, was very bad and our two pilgrims hadn’t even heard a lot of the words that people were saying.
‘Come and buy’, the girls at the market stalls would call out as they went by. But nothing there attracted Faithful and Christian at all. People were fighting outside the pubs, and they had to dodge the buckets of slops that were being thrown out on the streets. ‘What will you buy?’ another girl called out. ‘We aren’t interested in anything but the Truth’, Faithful said. ‘What is the Truth?’ asked someone else with a sneer, ‘No-one tells the truth here! We grab what we can by saying anything that comes into our heads!’
By this time the whole Market was in a turmoil. This one was shouting one thing and someone else another. The Master of the market pushed his way through the maddening crowd, ‘What’s going on here?’ he shouted, ‘What are you fellows doing?’ When Christian and Faithful told him they were on their way to the Celestial City, the whole mob rose up and threw dirt on them , grabbed them and threw them into a cage locking the door behind them. People would make fun of them there, and spit on them through the cage wires. ‘Don’t be afraid of all this’, Faithful said to Christian, ‘this is how they treated our Prince when He lived here on earth. The servant is no better than his Master’.
The next morning, the officials took the two prisoners out of the cage, and tied big chains to their ankles and then dragged them up and down the main street of Vanity Fair, until their skin was all grazed and bleeding. Some of the better people of the town, started to feel sorry for them, and left town after this making their way to the heavenly city themselves. Our two friends were put back into the cage to wait for their trial, and when the time came, they found their Judge was the one called Lord Hate-Good.
‘I don’t think we’ll get a fair trial with this judge’, Faithful said to Christian, ‘He’s known for turning good evidence into bad, and bad into good’. The judge called for witnesses, and to their dismay, three were called…Envy, Superstition and No-Good. As each one was called to give evidence, they couldn’t say one good thing about the two friends. Everything they said was lies, and the judge believed what they said. ‘Besides all this,’ Envy said, ‘They have spoken against you my Lord, and against Beelzebub our Master, I heard them myself!’
At this, all those in the courthouse started to call out and make a great noise. ‘Order!’, the Judge called out banging his hammer on the desk with great force, ‘These two men have been found guilty of causing the disturbance in town, and must be punished. Take them out into the town square, and thrash them, then burn them at the stake’. So they were dragged out by their feet and Faithful was tied up first with Christian sitting on the ground with his arms over his eyes. Christian could hear the thrashing going on and then the noise of matches striking and finally hear the flames burning and Faithful’s grunts of pain”.
“Ooh, how could people be so cruel!” cried Betty as Uncle Jeff paused for a minute. “That’s what they are doing in some countries now, isn’t it Uncle Jeff?” Sarah asked. “Yes, they are”, said Uncle Jeff, “Let’s get past this bit of our story quickly…..
“Christian managed to crawl between the people who were busy watching what was happening to poor Faithful, and then get up and carefully walk until he was out of sight of the crowd, when he ran as quickly as his sore legs and back would let him until he was well clear of the city. After a bit, he heard someone else coming up behind him walking more quickly than he was. He tried to go faster, but it was useless. The man caught up with him and said, ‘Can I come with you to the Celestial City? I was watching what they did with you and your friend back there and I want to leave such a cruel place’. ‘If you really mean it’, said Christian , ‘It will be good to have company again’. This man’s name was Hopeful, so they went on together, talking as they went. After a while, they caught up with another man, and asked him where he was from. ‘I’m from the town of Fair-Speech’, he said, ‘It’s a place where people only say good things about everything that happens’.
‘It’s a very wealthy town isn’t it?’ asked Christian, ‘Yes, it is’, the man said, ‘And I’ve got a lot of rich relations there too. We never disagree with anyone there, especially in the matter of religion’. ‘Oh?’ said Christian, ‘What if they’re wrong in their ideas?’ “We believe that everyone’s idea is as good as the others’, the man said, ‘Everyone will get to the Celestial City in the end’. ‘Well, that’s not what the King’s book says’, Christian said, ‘It says that ALL have sinned and that only those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved and get there. By the way, isn’t your name Skitey Pants?’ ‘That’s what those who don’t like me call me’, he said, ‘But it’s not my real name’. ‘We believe what the King’s Book says,’ said Hopeful, ‘and if you don’t go along with it, we’ll carry on, on our own’. ‘Oh, very well then’, said Skitey Pants huffily, ‘Just as you please. Someone else will catch me up yet’, and he turned around and went back the way he had come. So we’ll leave him there for this week,’ Uncle Jeff said, “and catch up with him next time”.
He got up and went out into the kitchen. “Who wants something to drink?” he called out. “Me!” Betty and Bobby said together. “Yes please,” said Sarah as she followed him out, “That’s a really good story Uncle Jeff, and I can see the points of it too”.