# “What is it that makes you desirous to go to Mount Zion?” by John Bunyan

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2014/08/03/what-is-it-that-makes-you-desirous-to-go-to-mount-zion-by-john-bunyan/
- Published: 2014-08-03T23:30:07-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“Then Prudence began to ask Christian some questions. ‘Do you ever think of the 
country you came from?’

‘Yes,’ Christian replied, ‘but with much shame and detestation. Honestly, if I had
pleasant thoughts about the country from which I have come, I might have taken the
opportunity to return; but I desire a better country, one that is heavenly.’

Prudence asked further, ‘Do you not still carry some of the baggage from the place
you escaped?’

‘Yes, but against my will. I still have within me some of the carnal thoughts that
all my countrymen, as well as myself, were delighted with. Now all those things 
cause me to grieve. If I could master my own heart, I would choose never to think
of those things again, but when I try only to think about those things that are 
best, those things that are the worst creep back into my mind and behavior.’

‘Don’t you find that sometimes you can defeat those evil things that at other times
seem to defeat you?’ Prudence suggested.

Christian answered, ‘Yes, it happens occasionally. They are golden hours that I 
treasure.’

‘Can you remember the means by which you’re able occasionally to defeat the evil
desires and thoughts that assail you?’

Christian said, ‘Yes. When I think about what I experienced at the cross, that will
do it. When I look at the embroidered coat, that will do it. When I read the scroll
that I carry in my coat, that will do it. And when my thoughts turn to the place
to which I am going, that will do it.’

Prudence inquired, ‘And what is it that makes you desirous to go to Mount Zion?’

Christian replied, ‘Why, it is there that I hope to see alive my Savior who hung
dead on the cross. It is there that I hope to be rid of all those things that to
this day are an annoyance to me. They say that in that place there is no death, 
and I will dwell there with the company that I like best. For, to tell you the truth,
I love Him because He eased me of my burden. I am weary of my inward sickness. I
desire to be where I will die no more, with a company that will continually cry,
Holy, holy, holy!'”

–John Bunyan, [_The Pilgrim’s Progress: From This World to That Which Is to Come_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1433562502?tag=toletaupanre-20),
Ed. C.J. Lovik (Wheaton: Crossway, 2009), 76-77.

 

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