We are en route for the Celestial City, and the heavenly locomotive rumbles on! Join our pilgrim friend and Mr. Smooth-it-away in Part 3, as they explore the sites, frights, and delights of Vanity Fair. Is their final destination just around the bend?

<p>We are en route for the Celestial City, and the heavenly locomotive rumbles on! Join our pilgrim friend and Mr. Smooth-it-away in Part 3, as they explore the sites, frights, and delights of Vanity Fair. Is their final destination just around the bend?</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

GYC Southeast

Rhonda Grakov

Great in God's Sight Season 2

Johannes Kepler: Thinking God’s Thoughts

Blaise Pascal: Where Faith and Reason Intersect

Sir Robert Boyle: Christian Virtuoso

Sir Isaac Newton: On the Shores of the Ocean of Truth

The Celestial Railroad: Part 1

The Celestial Railroad: Part 2

The Celestial Railroad: Part 3

The Celestial Railroad: Part 4

Johann Sebastian Bach: This Art Still Lives

John Bunyan: Progress in Prison


Hello and welcome to Greating God's Sight. In our last 2 episodes, we've been journeying with a pilgrim on the Celestial Railroad who is enjoying all the advantages of modern advancements that were wholly unavailable in the era of Pilgrim's progress. Our friend has just passed the valley of the shadow of death with his sophisticated companion, Mr. Smooth it Away, and we are back with part 3 of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, The Celestial Railroad. Please be sure to subscribe and visit our website at thegreatpodcast.org.

That's thegreatpodcast.org. Thanks for listening! At the end of the Valley, as John Bunyan mentions, is a cavern where in his days dwelt 2 cruel giants, Pope and Pagan, who had strewn the ground about their residence with the bones of slaughtered pilgrims. These vile old troglodytes are no longer there, but in their deserted cave another terrible giant has thrust himself and makes it his business to seize upon honest travelers and fat them for his table with plentiful meals of smoke, mist, moonshine, raw potatoes, and sawdust. He is a German by birth and is called giant transcendentalist, but as to his form, his features, his substance, and his nature generally, it is the chief peculiarity of this huge miscreant that neither he for himself nor anybody for him has ever been able to describe them.

As we rushed by the cavern's mouth, we caught a hasty glimpse of him, looking somewhat like an ill-proportioned figure, but considerably more like a heap of fog and duskiness. He shouted after us, but in so strange a phraseology that we knew not what he meant, nor whether to be encouraged or affrighted. It was late in the day when the train thundered into the ancient city of Vanity, where Vanity Fair is still at the height of its prosperity and exhibits an epitome of whatever is brilliant, gay, and fascinating beneath the sun. As I purposed to make a considerable stay here, it gratified me to learn that there is no longer the want of harmony between the townspeople and pilgrims, which impelled the former to such lamentably mistaken measures as the persecution of Christian and the fiery martyrdom of faithful. On the contrary, as the new railroad brings with it great trade and a constant influx of strangers, the Lord of Vanity Fair is its chief patron and the capitalists of the city are among the largest stockholders.

Many passengers stop to take their pleasure or make their profit in the fair, instead of going onward to the celestial city. Indeed, such are the charms of the place, that people often affirm it to be the true and only heaven, stoutly contending that there is no other, that those who seek further are mere dreamers, and that, if the fabled brightness of the celestial city lay but a bare mile beyond the gates of vanity, they would not be fools enough to go thither. Without subscribing to these perhaps exaggerated encomiums, I can truly say that my abode in the city was mainly agreeable, and my intercourse with the inhabitants productive, of much amusement and instruction. Being naturally of a serious turn, my attention was directed to the solid advantages derivable from a residence here, rather than to the effervescent pleasures, which are the grand object with too many visitants. The Christian listener, if he have no accounts of the city later than Bunyan's time, will be surprised to hear that almost every street has its church, and that the reverend clergy are nowhere held in higher respect than at vanity fair.

And well do they deserve such honourable estimation, for the maxims of wisdom and virtue which fall from their lips come from as deep a spiritual source, and tend to as lofty a religious aim, as those of the sagest philosophers of old. In justification of this high praise, I need only mention the names of the Reverend Mr. Shallow-Deep, the Reverend Mr. Stumble-a-Truth, that fine old clerical character, the Reverend Mr. This Today, who expects shortly to resign his pulpit to the Reverend Mr.

That Tomorrow, together with the Reverend Mr. Bewilderment, the Reverend Mr. Clog the Spirit, and last and greatest, the Reverend Dr. Wind of Doctrine. The labors of these eminent divines are aided by those of innumerable lecturers who diffuse such a various profundity in all subjects of human or celestial science that any man may acquire an omniginous erudition without the trouble of even learning to read.

Thus literature is etherealized by assuming for its medium the human voice, and knowledge, depositing all its heavier particles, except doubtless its gold, becomes exhaled into a sound, which forthwith steals into the ever-open ear of the community. These ingenious methods constitute a sort of machinery, by which thought and study are done to every person's hand without his putting himself to the slightest inconvenience in the matter. There is another species of machine for the wholesale manufacture of individual morality. This excellent result is affected by societies for all manner of virtuous purposes, with which a man has merely to connect himself, throwing, as it were, his quota of virtue into the common stock, and the President and Directors will take care that the aggregate amount be well applied. All these, and other wonderful improvements in ethics, religion, and literature, being made plain to my comprehension by the ingenious Mr.

Smutheway, inspired me with a vast admiration of Vanity Fair. It would fill a volume in an age of pamphlets, were I to record all my observations in this great capital of human business and pleasure. There was an unlimited range of society, the powerful, the wise, the witty, and the famous in every walk of life, princes, presidents, poets, generals, artists, actors, and philanthropists, all making their own market at the fair, and deeming no price too exorbitant for such commodities as hit their fancy. It was well worth one's while, even if he had no idea of buying or selling, to loiter through the bazaars and observe the various sorts of traffic that were going forward. Some of the purchasers, I thought, made very foolish bargains.

For instance, a young man, having inherited a splendid fortune, laid out a considerable portion of it in the purchase of diseases, and finally spent all the rest for a heavy lot of repentance and a suit of rags. A very pretty girl bartered a heart as clear as crystal, and which seemed her most valuable possession, for another jewel of the same kind but so worn and defaced as to be utterly worthless. In 1 shop there were a great many crowns of laurel and myrtle, which soldiers, authors, statesmen, and various other people pressed eagerly to buy. Some purchased these paltry wreaths with their lives, others by a toilsome servitude of years, and many sacrificed whatever was most valuable, yet finally slunk away without the crown. There was a sort of stock or script called conscience, which seemed to be in great demand and would purchase almost anything.

Indeed, few rich commodities were to be obtained without paying a heavy sum in this particular stock, and a man's business was seldom very lucrative, unless he knew precisely when and how to throw his hoard of conscience into the market. Yet as this stock was the only thing of permanent value, whoever parted with it was sure to find himself a loser in the long run. Several of the speculations were of a questionable character. Occasionally, a member of Congress recruited his pocket by the sale of his constituents, and I was assured that public officers have often sold their country at very moderate prices. Thousands sold their happiness for a whim.

Gilded chains were in great demand, and purchased with almost any sacrifice. In truth, those who desired, according to the old adage, to sell anything valuable for a song might find customers all over the fair, and there were innumerable messes of potage piping hot, for such as chose to buy them with their birthrights. A few articles, however, could not be found genuine at Vanity Fair. If a customer wished to renew his stock of youth, the dealers offered him a set of false teeth and an auburn wig. If he demanded peace of mind, they recommended opium or a brandy bottle.

Tracts of land and golden mansions situated in the celestial city were often exchanged at very disadvantageous rates for a few years' lease of small, dismal, inconvenient tenements in Vanity Fair. Prince Beelzebub himself took great interest in this sort of traffic, and sometimes condescended to meddle with smaller matters. I once had the pleasure to see him bargaining with a miser for his soul, which, after much ingenious skirmishing on both sides, His Highness succeeded in obtaining at about the value of 6 pence. The prince remarked with a smile that he was a loser by the transaction. Join us next time for part 4 of our journey on the Celestial Railroad.

♪♪♪ Thank you for listening to Great in God's Sight, a podcast by GYC Southeast. We hope you have enjoyed this adventure through time and pray it serves to deepen your relationship with God. Please remember to hit the subscribe button and share this episode with your friends via text or social media. You never know who might be encouraged! Until Next time, we wish you God's blessing as you seek to be great in His sight too.

Back to Menu

Series

Great in God's Sight Season 2

The Celestial Railroad: Part 3

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

Johannes Kepler: Thinking God’s Thoughts

11m

Blaise Pascal: Where Faith and Reason Intersect

10m

Sir Robert Boyle: Christian Virtuoso

11m

Sir Isaac Newton: On the Shores of the Ocean of Truth

11m

The Celestial Railroad: Part 1

13m

The Celestial Railroad: Part 2

13m

The Celestial Railroad: Part 3

11m

The Celestial Railroad: Part 4

13m

Johann Sebastian Bach: This Art Still Lives

13m

John Bunyan: Progress in Prison

9m

Sound Doctrine