This is Part 4, and after many twists and turns and jolts and thrills, our pilgrim friend and Mr. Smooth-it-away are eager to resume the historic route made famous by John Bunyan’s Christian. The portals of the Celestial City next await. Or do they?

<p>This is Part 4, and after many twists and turns and jolts and thrills, our pilgrim friend and Mr. Smooth-it-away are eager to resume the historic route made famous by John Bunyan’s Christian. The portals of the Celestial City next await. Or do they?</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 grading God's Sight for three episodes. Now we have been following the adventures of our pilgrim friend who is traveling to the celestial city by way of the convenient celestial railroad. Our last stop was at Vanity Fair where our friend has been so journeying for a while. Is the end of the journey in sight? Is the celestial city finally within reach? Join us now for the fourth and final installment of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Short story, the Celestial Railroad. Please be sure to subscribe and visit our website@thegreatpodcast.org. Thanks for listening. Day after day as I walked the streets of vanity, my manners in deportment became more and more like those of the inhabitants. The place began to seem like home. The idea of pursuing my travels to the celestial city was almost obliterated from my mind. I was reminded of it however, by the sight of the same pair of simple pilgrims at whom we had laughed so heartedly when a polyon puffed smoke and steam into their faces At the commencement of our journey there, they stood amid the densest bustle of vanity, the dealers offering them their purple and fine linen and jewels. The men of wit and humor jiving at them. A pair of buckham ladies ogling them a scans while the benevolent Mr. Smooth it away whispered some of his wisdom at their elbows and pointed to a newly erected temple. But there were these worthy simpletons making the scene look wild and monstrous merely by their sturdy repudiation of all part in its business or pleasures. One of them, his name was stick to the right perceived in my face, I suppose a species of sympathy and almost admiration, which to my own great surprise I could not help feeling for this pragmatic couple. It prompted him to address me. Sir inquired he with a sad yet mild and kindly voice. Do you call yourself a pilgrim? Yes, I replied My right to that Appalachian is indubitable. I am merely a sojourner here in Vanity Fair, being bound to the celestial city by the New Railroad, a last friend rejoined Mr. Stick to the right. I do assure you and Bessie you to receive the truth of my words. That that whole concern is a bubble. You may travel on it all your lifetime were you to live thousands of years and yet never get beyond the limits of Vanity Fair. Yay. Though you should deem yourself entering the gates of the blessed city, it will be nothing but a miserable delusion. The Lord of the celestial city began the other pilgrim whose name was Mr. Footed to heaven has refused and will ever refuse to grant an active incorporation for this railroad. And unless that be obtained, no passenger can ever hope to enter his dominions. Where for every man who buys a ticket must lay his account with losing the purchase money, which is the value of his own soul. Nonsense said Mr. Smooth it away, taking my arm and leading me off. These fellows ought to be indicted for a libel. If the law stood as it once did in Vanity Fair, we should see them grinning through the iron bars of the prison window. This incident made a considerable impression on my mind and contributed with other circumstances to inpo me to a permanent residence in the city of vanity. Although of course, I was not simple enough to give up my original plan of gliding along easily and ly by railroad still, I grew anxious to be gone. There was one strange thing that troubled me amid the occupations or amusements of the fair. Nothing was more common than for a person, whether at a feast theater or church or trafficking for wealth and honors or whatever he might be doing. And however, unseasonable the interruption suddenly to vanish like a soap bubble and be nevermore seen of his fellows and so accustomed with the ladder to such little accidents that they went on with their business as quietly as if nothing had happened, but it was otherwise with me. Finally, after a pretty long residence at the fair, I resumed my journey towards the celestial city, still with Mr. Smoother away at my side at a short distance beyond the suburbs of vanity, we passed the ancient silver mine of which Demus was the first discoverer and which is now wrought to great advantage, supplying nearly all the coined currency of the world. A little further onward was the spot where lot's wife had stood for ages under the semblance of a pillar of salt. Curious travelers have long since carried it away piecemeal. Had all regrets been punished as rigorously as this poor dames were. My yearning for the relinquish delights of Vanity Fair might have produced a similar change in my own corporate real substance and left me a warning to future pilgrims. The next remarkable object was a large edifice constructed of moss grown stone, but in a modern and airy style of architecture. The engine came to a pause in its vicinity with the usual tremendous shriek. This was formerly the castle of the Red Outted Giant despair observed Mr. Smooth it away, but since his death, Mr. Flimsy faith has repaired it and now keeps an excellent house of entertainment. Here it is one of our stopping places it seems, but slightly put together remarked eye. Looking at the frail yet ponderous walls I do not envy Mr. Flimsy faith, his habitation. Someday it will thunder down upon the heads of the occupants, we shall escape at all events said Mr. Smooth it away for a polyon is putting on the steam again. The road now plunged into a gorge of the delectable mountains and traversed the field where in former ages the blind men wandered and stumbled among the tombs. One of these ancient tombstones had been thrust across the track by some malicious person and gave the train of cars a terrible jolt. Far up the rugged side of a mountain. I perceived a rusty iron door, half overgrown with bushes and creeping plants, but with smoke issuing from its crevices is that inquired eye. The very door in the hillside, which the shepherd's assured Christian was a byway to hell. That was a joke on the part of the shepherd's, said Mr. It away with a smile. It is neither more nor less than the door of a cavern, which they use as a smokehouse for the preparation of mutts and hams. My recollections of the journey are now for a little space, dim and confused in as much as a singular drowsiness here overcame me, owing to the fact that we were passing over the enchanted ground, the air of which encourages a disposition to sleep. I awoke however, as soon as we crossed the borders of the pleasant land of Bela, all the passengers were rubbing their eyes, comparing watches and congratulating one another on the prospect of arriving so seasonably at the journey's end. The sweet breezes of this happy climb came refreshingly to our nostrils. We beheld the glimmering gush of silver fountains over hung by trees of beautiful foliage and delicious fruit, which were propagated by grafts from the celestial gardens. Once as we dashed onward like a hurricane, there was a flutter of wings and the bright appearance of an angel in the air speeding forth on some heavenly mission. The engine now announced the close vicinity of the final station house by one last and horrible scream in which there seemed to be distinguishable, every kind of whaling and whoa and bitter fierceness of wrath all mixed up with the wild laughter of a devil or a madman. Throughout our journey, at every stopping place, a polyon had exercised his ingenuity in screwing the most abominable sounds out of the whistle of the steam engine. But in this closing effort, he outdid himself and created an infernal uproar, which besides disturbing the peaceful inhabitants of Bela, must have sent its discord even through the celestial gates, while the horrid clamor was still ringing in our ears, we heard an exalting strain as if a thousand instruments of music with height in depth and sweetness in their tones. At once, tender and triumphant were struck in unison to greet the approach of some illustrious hero who had fought the good fight and won a glorious victory and was come to lay aside his battered arms forever. Looking to ascertain what might be the occasion of this glad harmony. I perceived on a lighting from the cars that a multitude of shining ones had assembled on the other side of the river to welcome two poor pilgrims who were just emerging from its depths. They were the same whom a polyon and ourselves had persecuted with tuns and jives and scalding steam of the commencement of our journey, the same whose unworldly aspect and impressive words had stirred my conscience amid the wild revelers of vanity Fair. How amazingly well those men have got on cried eye to Mr. Smooth it away. I wish we were secure of as good a reception. Never fear, never fear answered, my friend. Come make haste. The fairy boat will be off directly and in three minutes you will be on the other side of the river. No doubt you will find coaches to carry you up to the city. Gates a steam ferry boat. The last improvement on this important route lay at the riverside, puffing, snorting, and emitting all those other disagreeable utterances, which be token, the departure to be immediate, I hurried on board with the rest of the passengers, most of whom were in great perturbation. Some bawling out for their baggage, some tearing their hair and exclaiming that the boat would explode or sink. Some already pale with the heaving of the stream, some gazing of frightened at the ugly aspect of the steersmen and some still dizzy with the slumbers influences of the enchanted ground. Looking back to the shore, I was amazed to discern Mr. Smooth it away waving his hand in token of farewell. Don't you go over to the celestial city, exclaimed. Oh no answered. He with a queer smile and that same disagreeable contortion of visage, which I had remarked in the inhabitants of the dark valley. Oh no. I have come thus far, only for the sake of your pleasant company. Goodbye. We shall meet again. And then did my excellent friend, Mr. Smooth it away laugh outright. In the midst of which cache nation, a smoke wreath issued from his mouth and nostrils while a twinkle of lurid flame darted out of either eye, proving indubitably that his heart was all of a red blaze, the imput fiend to deny the existence of toit when he felt its fiery tortures raging within his breast. I rushed to the side of the boat intending to flinging myself on shore, but the wheels as they began their revolutions threw a dash of spray over me. So cold, so deadly cold with the chill that will never leave those waters until death be drowned in his own river. That with a shiver and a heart quake, I awoke. Thank heaven it was a dream. Thank you for listening to great and God's Sight, a podcast by G Y c 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.

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Great in God's Sight Season 2

The Celestial Railroad: Part 4

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Other Teachings in Series

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

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