Valley of the Shadow of Death

"This Valley is a continuation of the preceding scene. Scarcely has the good fight been fought, when a horror of great darkness overcasts the vale, and gloomy terrors throng upon the Pilgrim’s soul, and he walks that live-long night through a darkness that might be felt, and through spiritual antagonisms that intensified both the darkness and the danger. The whole scene—from the first assault of APOLLYON to the sun-rising in the valley—is a continued series of perils encountered, dangers avoided, and difficulties overcome, that seemed insuperable. It is the reproduction in allegory of Bunyan’s own spiritual experiences, as more fully described in his 'Grace Abounding.' There he details the anxious travail of his soul, the dark days and wearisome nights that were appointed for him to pass through, during which his soul refused to be comforted, and all joy, and hope, and promise seemed as though they had departed; rendering his experience like to that of a spiritual death, casting its dark shadow over all his faith, and hope, and spiritual joy. He writes—'I fell, therefore, at the sight of my own vileness, deeply into despair; for I concluded that this condition that I was in could not stand with a state of grace. Sure, thought I, I am forsaken of God; sure I am given up to the devil, and to a reprobate mind. And thus I continued a long while, even for some years together.'"[1]