The Key of Promise

In one memorable scene from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian, finding the pathway difficult, climbed over a stile to walk in a meadowy bypath. Eventually the ground grew soggy and covered with poisonous vines. The sky became black, and Christian spent the night huddled at the foot of an oak tree, caught in a downpour. Next morning, Giant Despair came upon him, captured him, beat him, and imprisoned him in the dungeon of Doubting Castle with its grim battlements and thick, black walls.

Christian tried to sing, but couldn’t. His mood was dungeon-dark. Giant Despair beat him mercilessly, and he grew weaker each day. At length he found in his cell a rope, a knife, and a bottle, the tools of suicide, and for a moment he was tempted to end his misery.

But one evening about midnight he began to pray, and ... . . . a little before day, good Christian, as one half amazed, brake out into this passionate speech: What a fool am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty! I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am sure, open any lock in Doubting Castle. It did. Using the key of God’s promises, Christian escaped, never again to fall into the clutches of Giant Despair or Doubting Castle.

‘Jan Winebrenner, Steel in His Soul, The Dick Hillis Story (Chicago: Moody Press, 1985), ch. 10. -