John Bunyan had a remarkable ability to represent everyday truth in impressive allegory. One of the most vivid representations in his story, Pilgrim ‘s Progress, has to do with what happened in the Valley of Humiliation.

No sooner had Pilgrim entered this valley than he saw the foul fiend Apollyon bearing down upon him, breathing fire and smoke. Pilgrim’s first impulse was to turn and flee for his life. As he was about to do so, however, he remembered that the only armor he wore was on his front side. Reasoning quickly in the light of this fact, he decided that if he had nothing more in mind than simply trying to save his life it would be better to stand and face the evil dragon than to expose his unprotected rear to the firey darts.

This approximates the message in the Scripture lessons read this morning.

The prophet Habakkuk bemoans the fact that he has been forced to experience much trouble and look upon many terrible wrongs. He complains that he has cried to God for help and that his cries apparently have not been heard. He cannot see any way out of the tangled mess that engulfs him.

In the midst of his depression and protest, however, he gets a message which, put in the slang of our day, was, "Hang in there! Don’t give up the ship!" Or, in the words of the scriptural record, the Lord said to him, "The vision awaits its time wait for it; it will surely come ... the righteous shall live by his faith."

Paraphrasing this, it seems to me the Lord is saying to the discouraged prophet, "Do not be impatient. There is a way out, and it will be made plain in time. Remember that faith is essential for a person who lives for what is right."

The selection read from Luke’s record emphasizes the same theme. Jesus had been talking to his disciples about some of the trying experiences he was sure they soon would be encountering. Then he told them a parable which, according to Luke, was to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. The parable was about a widow who tried to get a thickskinned judge to justify her in a complaint she had against someone who had done her wrong. For a long while the judge refused to do anything about her case. After she kept on and on, however, he finally decided to vindicate her to stop her from pestering him. If this kind of judge will yield to such persistence, Jesus asked, "Will not God vindicate his elect who cry to him day and night?"

Need we remark that there are enough terrible evils in today’s world to discourage anyone? Many of the most sensitive souls among us are being victimized by destructively immobilizing depression. How many of us have totally escaped sensations of what is being called "nuclear numbness"? The more sensitive and aware persons are, the more they are at risk to this type of dreadful illness.

This comes sharply to focus for me when I think of the tragedies of suicide, alcoholism, and mental illness I have known. Almost universally the individuals involved have been among the most sensitive and beautiful spirits of my acquaintance. The only appropriate generalizing way I have found to describe them is to say that they were victims of unfortunate social circumstances.

There was, for example, the lovely young Sunday church school boy more than forty years ago who was snatched from his warm-hearted adoptive home and put in the army to be made a killer for World War II. Though he was not physically injured, he was effectively destroyed. Through all the years since he has been staring vacantly into unknowing nothingness within the walls of one of the institutions where we store our social discards.

There was the little twelve-year-old black girl who hanged herself in the closet of a shabby home in the inner city. Unloved, abused, exploited, she had had enough years to explore the depths of despair.

A disturbed Jewish university student also comes to mind. He had been unable to measure up academically to the expectations of unloving parents. He had been taunted and tormented throughout his childhood in a congested urban neighborhood where prejudice against Jews was strong, and had found himself too self-conscious and physically unattractive to achieve satisfying acceptance among his peers on the university campus. No wonder he had come to the point of being unable to function!

Finally, I must mention the quiet, attractive, black youth of the inner city who confided his guilt with shame. Because he had been unable to find employment and was part of an impoverished family he had made himself a criminal by committing a robbery in order that his younger brothers and sisters might have a few small presents for Christmas.

The list of such examples could be extended indefinitely. We live in a harsh and cruel world. Behind the massive statistics on suicide, mental illness, alcoholism, crime, delinquency, and the like, are warm-hearted human beings. We can label them sinners or weaklings, but do the labels conceal more than they reveal? My guess is that the individuals are indeed more fragile, but possibly also more sensitive and aware, than most of us.

Who can look upon the evils which surround us and not be affected? Who can be impervious, for example, to: the greed and hunger; the exploitation and poverty; the suffering and neglect; the oppression and denial of human rights; the cut-throat competition and callousness toward the unsuccessful; the crime and delinquency; the slaughter of innocents on our highways; the corruption of politics; the strangle hold of the military-industrial complex that feeds on society’s paranoia; the awful apparition of nuclear weapons in the hands of posturing politicians threatening to use them; the monster of war attached like a leech to the underbelly of civilization; the racial prejudice and discrimination; the religious bigotry and intolerance?

These are but a few of the conditions that try human souls in our time. No wonder Bertrand Russell, even in pre-nuclear days, was prompted to say that "unyielding despair is the only legitimate state of mind for modern man!"

Christians, whose consciences have been made especially tender by the love of God perceived in Jesus Christ, cannot avoid being perturbed by such evil conditions as they daily encounter. After all, the Christian religion is an ethical religion. It prompts persons to look with critical evaluation at existing conditions, and beyond them to what ought to be, to what God wants.

But sincere Christians are not merely aware of things that are wrong. They hurt with a sensitivity drawn from the love of God revealed in Jesus. The sight of evil pains them; causes them suffering; makes them want to join Jesus in cross-bearing efforts to bring about redemptive change.

Regardless of the sincerity of their dedication, however, they are never emancipated from the pain and frustration in cross-bearing. Evil never surrenders without a fight. The wrongs that are resisted often seem to grow more monstrous the more they are opposed. Lifetimes of tears, prayers, and strenuous involvement may pass without seeming to make much difference.

The risk of discouragement, therefore, is always great. And discouragement unrelieved tends toward depression and despair.

Of all the sad sights to meet the eye, one of the saddest is that of the bright-eyed, eager disciple who, like young Judas, upon encountering discouraging reality becomes disillusioned, abandons the vision, and glides toward the chasm of despair.

Church history is replete with examples of individuals who made a great start in the Christian life but failed. They found the struggle against evil too much for them. In particular, the number of those burned out after dabbling with Christian social action has been exceeded only by the number of those who have closed their eyes to social evil and sought salvation without personal involvement.

Jesus was greatly concerned both that evil be resisted and debilitating discouragement avoided. He challenged his disciples to take up their crosses and follow him. He instructed them to make concern for the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth the prayerful passion of their lives. He commissioned them to go into all the world with the good news of the Gospel.

At the same time, he prayed for them that they would be kept from, not overwhelmed by, the evil. Moreover, he obviously saw the evil as existing at both the personal and the social levels. It is fascinating to speculate on what he meant when he said "the kingdom of God is within you." Was he saying "it is inside you personally" or "it is in your midst as a group," or did he mean both? In any case, the implication is that if God is on the throne within you, there is nothing that can defeat you.

Much time in Jesus’ brief ministry was spent in counseling the disciples against discouragement. The parable in today’s Gospel lesson is only one among many examples. A few basic emphases in his counseling are easily identified, and they are just as important for us today as they were to the band of twelve to whom they were originally addressed.

Some of these emphases should have our special attention:

First, the emphasis on having and maintaining faith.

Believe in God and believe in me, he said. Without a settled conviction at the core of one’s being, he knew that persistent faithfulness would not be possible. Doubtless, he knew the story of Job’s saying of God "though he slay me, yet will I trust him." Certainly, he understood that with such a conviction, what Paul later described as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" would be possible as reassuring reality, come what may.

Second, note his emphasis on keeping faith animated by love.

Love was all-important to Jesus. He made it clear that God is love, and encouraged his followers to immerse themselves in the ethos of love, loving God back and going with his love. Love one another and love your neighbor as yourself, he said. Then, by the use he made of the cross, he demonstrated that love rooted in faith couquers all.

Third, Jesus assumed that faith and love must find their expression in courage.

He did not hesitate to challenge his disciples to the fearsome tasks of cross-bearing. He warned them against the unworthiness of putting their hands to the plow and then turning back. And one of his greatest admonitions to them came at the conclusion of his passionate remarks following the last supper in the upper room. In the King James Version his words were, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." I prefer the translation, however, that has him saying, "Courage! I have conquered the world."

He knew that faith and love must have in them a backbone of courage if they are to make a significant impact on the lost and sinful world.

Jesus’ emphasis on prayer must also have special consideration.

Pray to your heavenly father, he said; pray without ceasing. Do not be discouraged if you seem not to be getting the answers you expect. To him prayer obviously was communion and fellowship with God. It was habitual and continuous, not occasional or whimsical. Prayer was what enabled him to testify that he was not alone because the Father was with him, and to speak with assurance of the fact that he was in the Father and the Father was in him.

Finally, we should note that Jesus counseled against the idea of trying to go it alone.

His emphasis on prayer was to this point. Because they were to be in partnership with God they would never be laboring alone. Not only would God be on their side; the Holy Spirit would be present with them for guidance and comfort.

What great and good counsel is found in these guidelines and emphases! Where is the therapist who could speak more directly and helpfully to our spiritual need?

How shall we, his latter-day disciples, respond to this counsel? Shall we assess the quality of our faith, the extent of our love, the depth of our concerns, the sincerity of our commitment, the degree of our courage, the validity of our prayer life? Shall we check up on ourselves to make sure we are involved with God in his agenda, rather than trying to go it alone in pursuit of our own personal agendas?

If we find ourselves among the masses of the spiritually neurotic and sick, will we try to listen to Jesus that we may become well, healthy, and strong? Will we strive prayerfully not to lose heart, but to be among those who preserve the seeds of faith on earth?

No counseling is of any value unless it is embraced in an accepting, positive response.

There is mystery, of course, in the presence of evil in the world. But there is no mystery concerning the stance God wants us to take and maintain with respect to it.

If ever we are tempted to think God is unconcerned about the evil, or that he is not supportive of us in our resistance to it, we will do well to think carefully about how we expect him to work his will in the world. His schedule and perspective may be quite different from ours. Dr. Leslie Weatherhead has made the helpful suggestion that God’s will must be understood as three-dimensional. First, there is God’s intentional will; then there is God’s permissive will; and finally, there is God’s ultimate will, what he keeps moving persistently toward despite all impediments.

Obviously, we do not understand all that is in the mind and heart of God. We only know that he is love, that his loving purpose is to redeem his lost people in their troubled world, and that by his grace we are invited into partnership with him in pursuit of this purpose.

If we are tempted to impatience in the process of achievement, let us rest assured that there is purpose in his patience. Let us trust him and not lose hope.

Ours is a religion of hope, you know. Unlike the pessimism in other great religions, the message in the Christian Gospel is a positive one, affirming life, the world, and the goodness of God. This is why Christians have the reputation of being incurable optimists.

For all of us who walk the tightrope of faith between hope and discouragement, James Weldon Johnson, the eminent black scholar, has provided a useful prayer formula. It is found in the Introduction to his little volume of Negro sermon poems entitled God’s Trombones. A black layman is praying for the preacher before the sermon begins. He petitions God to put the preacher’s eye "to the telescope of eternity" and let him "look upon the paper walls of time."

This, I am sure we can all agree, is what we need in the darkest moments of our struggle against evil. We need God’s help in looking beyond the paper walls of time with eyes glued to the telescope of eternity.

Then perhaps we can understand, as Habakkuk came to understand, that "the vision awaits its time," and that the righteous must live by faith.