This is the only hymn known for sure to have been by John Bunyan, famous for Pilgrim’s Progress. It reminds us that the pilgrim’s way is hard, but that we have a Helper who can never fail. To Be a Pilgrim, by John Bunyan: and this is my favorite rendition of it, by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band.
Please pardon me, if you will, for again resorting to this hymn–Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band’s knock-down, drag-out rendition of John Bunyan’s To Be a Pilgrim. The pilgrim’s path is hard and steep, and we need encouragement when we can get it. I hope this rousing hymn reaches you as it reaches me.
If plodding through the daily news these days doesn’t make you feel like you’ve wound up in Pilgrim’s Progress, I don’t know what will. I sometimes think John Bunyan wrote that book, and this hymn, especially for us.
We must be pilgrims, not castaways. God put us here and now for a reason. Let us shoulder the burdens He gave us, and serve Him with all our hearts.
I particularly love this version of the hymn by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band. Go get ’em, Maddy!
I need a hymn to brace me up this morning, before this machine gives me a nervous breakdown. So here again, one of my favorites, To Be a Pilgrim–words by John Bunyan, performed by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band.
He Who Would Valiant Be is a slightly altered version of John Bunyan’s hymn, To Be a Pilgrim. As a bonus, this video provides you with scenery of the North York Moors, Goathland, as seen from the North York Moors Railroad. I don’t know about you, but I find myself much moved by it.
Sometimes a day of tracking the news just knocks the stuffing out of me. This hymn, and God’s grace, puts it back in: Who Would True Valor See, words by John Bunyan–who knew a thing or three about these things!–with music by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band.
Meanwhile, what can be done for a great city sliding into sin? That was a sticking-point today, for my new book, The Temptation. And, as He has so often done before, the Lord gave me the next step in telling the story–something I never would have thought of on my own. Something that, quite frankly, blew me away.
For which I give Him the glory and my thanks, and pray my work will be fruitful in His service.
This is another one of those hymns we ought to sing louder–He Who Would Valiant Be (originally To Be a Pilgrim, with words by John Bunyan). This is a performance by choirs from Gloucester Cathedral, Hereford Cathedral, and Worcester Cathedral, all of them in England: there’s life in England yet, thank God. Maybe He will make it burgeon forth again.
One thing I can’t do is find and post hymns I haven’t heard of–so don’t be too surprised when I repeat myself. And everyone is welcome to request a hymn. Let’s not rely entirely on my store of them.
To Be a Pilgrim–words by John Bunyan, music by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band–we live in an evil age of a fallen world, and we all need bracing up. Remember what the Apostle John said: “Greater is he that is within you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
That’s the title of an album of 18th-century hymns and worship songs performed by Maddy Prior with The Carnival Band. It’s also words for us to live by, in this turbulent and evil age. Sing lustily and with good courage! And may Almighty God go before us and tread down His enemies.
And this, of course, is the John Bunyan hymn, one of my favorites–To Be a Pilgrim/He Who Would True Valor See.
If you ask me, the Western world–which once was known as Christendom–needs a great revival of the spirit expressed in this hymn. Words by John Bunyan. Music by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band. Message by the Holy Spirit.
Rise up, O men of God–rise up. And women and children, too.