by Jody Hedlund. Minneapolis, MI: Bethany House Publishers, 2010. Pp. 379 + Acknowledgments. ₱25.00 (hardbound). [Reviewed by Jeremiah B. Pascual.]
Jody Hedlund, inspired by the real-life story of John Bunyan, dexterously puts into writing the product of her imagination, gracefully patching up the gaps to the factual events in the life of John Bunyan—who is very influential due to his magnum opus for which he is known by millions: The Pilgrim’s Progress.
This book review was originally written on April 21, 2019, and I’m making modest tweaks to provide new insights. Especially now that I am an ordained Reformed pastor, the book has left me with more personal impressions. Not to mention that John Bunyan was also a Calvinist. He was persecuted and jailed for his insistence to preach the gospel. Twelve years of imprisonment never hindered him to fulfill what he was called to do.
In John Costin, Jody tries to relay the life of this influential tinker who, with much faithfulness to God and perseverance, preached God’s Word to many. He relentlessly labored in England to preach the gospel. It is by this apparent foolishness, as the world regards it, that God effectually gathers the elect scattered abroad (I Cor. 1:21). He was persistent in being the preacher through whom the grace of God was communicated to the needy masses of the land. But at this point, tragedy came into his life. His wife, Mary, died and left him with four children, two of whom were a frail, blind daughter of eight and an infant needing a wet nurse.
In this providential act of God, Elizabeth Whitbread was introduced to John Costin.
In Elizabeth Whitbread I can now picture a scene whereby God saw the loneliness and need of a companion of John Bunyan during the dark night of affliction and suffering. Here, I see the fatherly hand of God guiding all things for the good of His servant, even the giving of a pious woman equipped in sound doctrine and Reformed practices.
In chapter 2, Elizabeth argues with Mrs. Grew after finding out that Elizabeth made a way to nurse Thomas, John’s infant, by hiring an unbeliever and poor wet nurse. Mrs. Grew is worried that the wet nurse’s depravity might be transmitted to the babe. Superstition! Depravity is inherited, it is communicated through propagation since the fall of Adam into sin and death. Elizabeth rightly rebukes the lady, “We’re all born depraved, Mrs. Grew. We all have bad blood. Thus, we all need the cleansing blood of the Savior“ (22). Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man (Matthew 15:11). Also, Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats… (I Corinthians 6:13). Sin and depravity is an ethical problem. It is the heart, not the belly.
In this scene, and one of my favorite scenes, Elizabeth caught the attention of John Costin. Here, I gradually admire Elizabeth’s strong character, and every chapter reveals how she is a God-given woman for John Costin, especially in times when the staunch Royalists, loyal to the exiled king and his church, the Anglican Church that had dominated England for over a century, hinder him from preaching. A godly wife is truly an help meet to a Reformed pastor.
William Foster, a Royalist, once confronted Elizabeth, saying, “Only a man with an education in the Scriptures and with the years of required and proper training ought to preach and teach,” but Elizabeth, with her God-given, skillful tongue, answers, “Brother Costin might not be educated, but he knows the Bible as well as any ordained preacher” (64).
In this scene, I recall how the world persecuted Christ and questioned His authority in Mathew 21:23. We are to expect the same. “The servant is not greater than his lord” (John 15:20). But unlike William Foster, in the story, there was this esteemed theologian in the same period when John Bunyan (now, I am mentioning the real John Costin) immersed himself in the ministry who came to sit and learn from the preaching of this tinker. That theologian was Dr. John Owen who was asked by King Charles II regarding the reason why an educated and esteemed theologian would want to hear a mere tinker preacher. Owen simply answered that he would be pleased to have the tinker’s ability to grip men’s hearts in exchange for his accumulated knowledge.
From beginning to end of the novel, the couple’s life is afflicted. But by the strength God has bestowed on them, they persevere for His name’s sake. Their experiences evince the pain they felt at undertaking this God-ordained pilgrimage, the pain they have to endure as one in the flesh—“they are no more twain but one flesh” (Matt. 19:6). Let me share to you the introductory remarks of our Marriage Form: “Whereas married persons are generally, by reason of sin, subject to many troubles and afflictions” (The Confessions and the Church Order of the Protestant Reformed Churches, p.306).
I really appreciate Jody’s ability to convey the life of John and Elizabeth Bunyan in the form of historical fiction while being faithful to the recorded facts. She beautifully highlights the woman behind the great Puritan preacher. Every page creates excitement unlike any other fictional book. It also helps me appreciate more the married life I have today as a pastor.
I would definitely recommend this book to every Reformed pastor.
I have immersed myself in this novel, and it unfailingly delights me at every turn of a page. This might be my start of reading and appreciating good fictional novels with Christian values aligned with biblical, Reformed doctrines.
Reader's Cave 