“O my dear wife,” said he, “and you, the children of my bowels, I, your dear friend, am in myself undone, by reason of a burden that lieth hard upon me; moreover, I am for certain informed that this our city will be burned with fire from Heaven; in which fearful overthrow, both myself, with thee, my wife, and you, my sweet babes, shall miserably come to ruin, except (the which yet I see not) some way of escape can be found, whereby we may be delivered.” At this, his relations were sore amazed; not for that they believed that what he had said to them was true, but because they thought that some frenzy distemper had got into his head; therefore, it drawing towards night, and they hoping that sleep might settle his brains, with all haste they got him to bed. But the night was as troublesome to him as the day; wherefore, instead of sleeping, he spent it in sighs and tears.
So when the morning was come, they would know how he did; he told them, worse and worse; he also set to talking to them again, but they began to be hardened. They also thought to drive away his distemper by harsh and surly carriages to him. Sometimes they would deride, sometimes they would chide, and sometimes they would quite neglect him. Wherefore he began to retire himself to his chamber to pray for, and pity them, and also to condole his own misery. He would also walk solitarily in the fields, sometimes reading, and sometimes praying; and thus for some days he spent his time.
This is NOT Holy Spirit conviction begun in this darkened heart of Christian, contrary to what John Bunyan and many other false religionists may think. Rather, it is a natural conviction of conscience that multitudes of unregenerate persons experience due to being created in the image of God. Romans 2:14-15 speaks to this natural conscience conviction wherewith men are left in and remain in their ignorance of the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel of Christ.
For true Christians — in stark contrast to Bunyan’s Christian — “harsh and surly carriages” toward them may be their experience for preaching the true gospel-uncompromised. Believers in the true gospel who actually make their judgments by the gospel (yes, really) are at times derided, chided, or quite neglected by their own unbelieving family members.
We haste the day of Christ’s return and on His mercy we are countin’.
We fear the Lord and persuade men to repent of their self-glorying heist.
We boast in suffering at the hands of God-haters for our Savior-Christ.
The time is short, so repent and believe. Or, come meet the Mountain:“Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth” (Daniel 2:35).
Agrammatos 