The Pilgrim's Progress (audio book)

You might start to think that I am being sponsored by christianaudio.com! No, not at all - however I am becoming a big fan of their free monthly downloads. They have just put out another free download for March.

I have always wanted to read Pilgrim's Progress, and even tried a few times. This version is abridged and updated for the modern reader, so I have no idea how much it has been changed.

I have been listening to it on my walks, and it's great. It's a story of the Christian life told in an allegory, Graceless starts on a journey carrying a burden of sin. He is shown the way to the Celestial City. His burden is lost at the cross, he continues on the way to the City and is renamed Christian. He meets characters such as Evangelist, Worldy Wiseman, Mr Legality, Sloth, Charity and Watchman.

When he is relieved of his burden, he says these words:

Thus far did I come with my burden of sin
And nothing could ease the grief I was in
But when I came hither the burden I lost
And I found peace and joy at the foot of the cross (Chapter 7)

I am only about a third of the way through it, so I don't really know what is yet to come (although I have heard enough about it over time to guess!) I suspect the children could also listen to it in a few years - it's all in modern English and very comprehensible (the very things I struggled with when trying to read it years ago!)