The Pilgrim’s Progress: Part 2: Honest and Fearing Summary & Analysis

The group continues on their way, and they soon encounter an old pilgrim dozing under a tree. Great-heart wakes up the gentleman, who is startled, thinking they might be robbers. He introduces himself as coming from the town of Stupidity, and Great-heart recognizes him as Honest, whom he’s heard of before. The people of Stupidity are frozen and senseless unless the Sun of Righteousness shines on them.

When Honest meets Christiana, he is overjoyed; he has heard of Christian’s honored reputation. After greeting the boys and Mercy, he walks onward with the group, talking about a former companion named Fearing whom Great-heart also guided. Great-heart says that Fearing was frightened of everything he saw or even just heard about—he spent weeks trapped in the Slough of Despond, for example, and hesitated at the Wicket-gate.

Great-heart continues narrating Fearing’s pilgrimage. He explains that Fearing wasn’t intimidated so much by things like the Hill Difficulty or the lions, but of being accepted in Heaven at his journey’s end. He thrived in the Valley of Humiliation but suffered in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, though the demons were quiet, as if God was holding them in check. When they reached the River of Death, the water was lower than Great-heart had ever seen it, and Fearing got over with no trouble.

Great-heart concludes that he never had any doubt that Fearing would make it to the Celestial City. But Fearing made the journey unnecessarily difficult for himself and thus made himself a burden to others, too. Most people’s spiritual journey begins in grief, but unlike most, Fearing was seldom able to rise above it. He wasn’t weak in spirit, but in confidence about his standing with God.

Next, Honest talks about a man named Mr. Self-will, whom he suspected of being a counterfeit pilgrim. Mr. Self-will did exactly what he wanted to do and couldn’t be persuaded by others’ argument or example. He believed that a pilgrim was allowed to practice vices as well as virtues. He justified this with biblical examples of holy people who had multiple wives, lied, stole, and deceived. Great-heart says that someone who held to such beliefs was not only deluded, but probably did not have genuine faith, either.

Honest says that because he is an old pilgrim, he has seen many who held strange opinions. He has encountered people who believe that repentance should be delayed to the end of life, people who have started out as unpromising pilgrims yet proved to be stalwart, and people who have completed most of their pilgrimage, only to deny their faith at the end.