LIFE OF JOHN BUNYAN. THE number of men whose talents have raised them from obscurity to eminence in literature is not few; and there have been poets of humble birth and limited education whose names rank high: but Bunyan is almost a solitary example of an unlettered man, by the sheer strength of his genius, forcing his way as a prose writer into one of the foremost places in literature, having his biography written by men of the highest culture, and extorting praises from those who, we fear, were unable to understand his theology, and were certainly opposed to it. John Bunyan was born at Elstow, near Bedford, in the year 1628. His father seems to have been a tinker, a circumstance with which he was reproached in after life, but of which he was not ashamed. He was educated at a school for the poor in Bedford, but "to my shame," he says, "I confess I did soon lose that little I learned, and that almost utterly." His mind was more engrossed with evil company than learning, and he had no parental instruction or example to check him. " I was," he says in his autobiography, "without God in the world; it was indeed according to the course of this world, and the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. It was my delight to be taken captive by the devil at his will, being filled with all unrighteousness, that from a child I had but few equals, both for cursing, swearing, lying, and blaspheming the holy name of God." If we are to interpret his language concerning himself literally, he must have been habitually a violator of every sin in the decalogue. "I was," he says, "the very ringleader of all the youth that kept me company into all manner of vice and ungodliness." "I found within me a great desire to take my fill of sin, still studying what sin was yet to be committed; and I made as much haste as I could to fill my belly with its delicates, lest I should die before my desire." "I was a great sin-breeder: I infected all the youth of the town where I was born." His imagination indeed seems to have rioted in evil, for he says, "I often wished that I had been a devil to torment others." These strong expressions must be received with very consi. derable limitations. One of his biographers passes a sentence upon him which, in our opinion, goes far beyond the evidence. "He devoted his whole soul and body to licentiousness." Of this there is no proof, though the language already quoted may seem to support the conclusion. He himself enumerates by name the sins to which he was addicted-cursing, swearing, lying and blaspheming, gaming and sports. The inference is, that these were the only vices which he practised. He never alludes to intemperance as one of his sins, and thus vindicates his own purity. "If all the fornicators and adulterers in England were hanged by the neck till they be dead, John Bunyan would be still alive and well." Macaulay extenuates the offences of Bunyan, and says, "The four chief sins of which he was guilty were dancing, ringing the bells of the parish church, playing at tip-cat, and reading the history of Sir Bevis of Southampton. A rector of the school of Laud would have held such a young man up to the whole parish as a model." Southey also, after declaring him to have een a blackguard, proceeds to say "The very head and front on his offending We accept of Southey's designation of Bunyan as correct and descriptive. He was a blackguard; but the attempts of these writers to whitewash him would have been repudiated by Bunyan himself. With a mind enlightened by the Word and Spirit of God, he knew himself to have a heart deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; and that though his sins might be venial in the eyes of the world, none were more hateful in the sight of a holy God, or more destructive to his own soul, than those of which he was guilty. When about seventeen years of age, he entered the army, whether that of the Parliament, as is asserted by Macaulay, or of the King, as is affirmed by Offer, is not quite clear. At the age of twenty we find him pursuing his father's occupation, and married to a young woman, "virtuous, loving, born of good, honest, godly parents, who had instructed her as well as they were able in the ways of truth and saving knowledge." "This woman and I came together," he says, " as poor as poor might be, not so much household stuff as a dish or spoon betwixt us both," an example more honoured in the breach than the observance, though it proved the means of his reformation. She persuaded him to remain at home and read, and though reading was nearly a lost art to him, by application it was soon recovered. Her example also led him to attend public worship. He began to study religious works for his own profit. He was awakened to a sense of his sinfulness, and after a very remarkable spiritual experience, he was finally led to embrace with his whole soul the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. Indeed, even before his marriage, his vivacious imagination had tormented him with the most frightful dreams and visions; he saw the heavens on fire; he thought himself at the bar of God, and cried out, "What shali I do, the day of judgment is come?" His study of the Scriptures, which now began, only furnished fresh material for his rare immaginatio to work tp into scenes of splendour or terror. Now he was in the third heaven of delight, now within a step of hell, but through all the perturbations of conscience and feeling, he was steadily progressing in knowledge of himself and of the gospel, and ultimately attained a firm and serene assurance which shed a bright lustre over all the later years of his life. His autobiography, entitled "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners," and the character of Christian in the Pilgrim's Progress, present a wonderfully accurate and vivid picture of the workings of his mind, while he struggled through temptations and unbelief into unclouded peace. We have inserted a few specimens from the first of these works as illustrations of the allegory. In the year 1653, when Bunyan was about twenty-five years of age, he joined a congregation of Baptists, under the ministry of an excellent man named John Gifford, by whom he was baptized in the river Ouse, and from whose intelligent and liberal views he derived much benefit. His superior character and qualifications soon became known; he was chosen to be a deacon, and two years later, in 1655, sent out as an itinerant preacher, and speedily became most popular and successful. His spiritual struggles, which continued for a long period, seem to have animated his zeal, for he preached like one in the very heat of the furnace. "I can truly say," he writes, "that when I have been to preach, I have gone full of guilt and terror even to the pulpit door, and there it hath been taken off: yet neither guilt nor hell could take me off; my work for God carried me on with a strong hand." In the course of these journeys he had many interesting adventures. A Cambridge scholar overtook him one day and said, "How dare you preach from the Bible, seeing you have not the original?” "Have you the original?" said Bunyan. "Yes," said the scholar. "Nay, but have you the very self-same original copies that were written by the penmen of the Scriptures, prophets and apostles?" "No," said the scholar; "but we have the true copies of these originals." "How do you know that?" "How!" said the scholar, "why, we believe what we have is a true copy of the original." "Then," replied Bunyan, "so do I believe an English Bible to be a true copy of the original." While preaching in a country church on another occasion, a scholar, also of Cambridge, went to hear him, saying, "He was resolved to hear the tinker prate." But he who came to scoff, remained to pray, was converted, and became a useful preacher. He had pursued his labours with great acceptance for about five or six years, when in 1660 he was arrested for holding an unlawful meeting for public worship. After trial, the following sentence was pronounced: "You must be had back again to prison, and there lie for three months following; and then, if you do not submit to go to church to hear divine service, and leave your preaching, you must be banished the realm: and after that, if you shall be found in this realm without special licence from the king, you must stretch by the neck for it." "If I was out of prison to-day," replied Bunyan, undauntedly, "I would preach the gospel again to-morrow, by the help of God." After lying in Bedford jail about a year, he made an attempt to obtain his release, and his wife eloquently pleaded his cause before Judge Hales, but in vain. He seems in the jail, however, to have been, on the whole, kindly treated. He had opportunity allowed him of working for the subsistence of his family by making tagged laces. Besides the first part of the Pilgrim's Progress, he wrote several works which were afterwards published, among which was "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners." In prison, too, he was accustomed to preach to his fellow-prisoners; and many persons visited him who were under spiritual concern. Nay, it appears he had occasional leave of absence, during which he preached in the villages and woods; and at one time went to London. Of this period a curious story is told. A magistrate having strong suspicions that Bunyan was not in the jail, sent a messenger at midnight to visit it. On that day he had received permission to visit his family, with whom he intended to remain all night; but contrary to his design he had returned. On the arrival of the messenger he demanded, Are all the prisoners safe? Yes. Is John Bunyan safe? Yes. Let me see him. He was called up, and all passed off well. The jailer is reported to have said to him, "You may go out when you will, for you know much better when to return than I can tell you." Other curious stories are related of this period. A Quaker called upon him in jail one day, with what he professed to be a message from the Lord. "After searching," said he, "in half the jails of England, I am glad to have found thee at last." "If the Lord sent thee," said Bunyan, "you would not have needed to take so much trouble to find me out, for He knows that I have been in Bedford jail these seven years past." To pass away the gloomy hours in prison, Bunyan took a rail out of the stool belonging to his cell, and with his knife fashioned it into a flute. The keeper hearing music followed the sound to Bunyan's cell; but while they were unlocking the door, the ingenious prisoner replaced the rail in the stool, so that the searchers were unable to solve the mystery; nor, during the remainder of Bunyan's residence in the jail, did they discover how the music had been produced. It was while in this jail or "den," as he terms it, that the first part of the Pilgrim's Progress was written. Lord Campbell has said, "Had Bunyan been discharged and allowed to enjoy liberty, he no doubt would have returned to his trade, filling up his intervals of leisure with field preaching; his name would not have survived his own generation, and he could have done little for the religious improvement of mankind. The prison doors were shut upon him for twelve years. Being cut off from the external world, he communed with his own soul; and, |