Pilgrim's Progress

The Lifting of the Burden

By John Bunyan

Now I saw in my dream, that Christian went on slowly and with great difficulty. For the road was steep, and the burden on his back was very heavy.

But he toiled on until he came to a hill upon which there was a Cross; and at the foot of the hill there was a sepulcher. So, as he climbed the hill and came up to the cross, behold, his burden fell from his shoulders and began to tumble; and it rolled downward till it came to the mouth of the sepulcher, where it fell in, and I saw it no more!

Oh, how merry of heart was Christian then. He stood for a while to look and wonder; for it seemed very strange that the sight of the Cross should thus ease him from his burden.

And as he wondered and wept, he saw three Shining Ones — who saluted him and said, "Peace be to you."

The first said to him, "I give you a pure heart."

The second stripped him of his rags and clothed him in beautiful garments.

The third set a mark on his forehead, and gave him a little book with a seal upon it. "Keep this book with care," he said, "and read in it often as you journey onward. When you come to the Celestial City — show it to the keeper of the gate; it shall be your passport."

So the Shining Ones vanished from sight. And Christian was so filled with joy that he leaped three times into the air and then went on, singing —

"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!"