The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1856-07-09
From Macaulay's History.
Sketch of John Bunyan.

Bupyan had been bred tinker, and
had served as n private soldier in the
Parliamentary army. Early in his life
he had been fearfully tortured by re-
morse for his youthful sins, the worst of
which seems, however, to have been such
as the world thinks veuial. His keen
sensibiiity and his powerful imagination
made his eternal conflicts singularly ter
rible. He fancied he was under sen.
tence of reprobation--that he had com
mitted 5lasphcmy against the Holy
Ghost-that he had sold Christ-that
he was actually possessed by demon.
Sometimes lond voices from Heaven
cried out to warn him. Sometimes fiends
whispered impious suggestions in his ear.
He saw visions of distant mountain-tops,
on which the sun shonc brightly, but
from which he was separated by waste
of snow He felt the devil behind him,
pulling his clothes. He thought that
the brond of Cain bad been set upon
him. He feared he was about to break
assunder like Judas. His mental agony
disordercd his health One day he shook
like a man in the palsy. On another
day he felt fire within his breast. 1t
is difficult to understand how he survived
suffering So intense and SO long contin-
ued.
At length the clouds broke. From
the depths of despair the pcnitent passed
to state of serene felicity. An ire
sistiblc impulse now urged him to impart
to others the blessings Of which he was
himself possessed. He joined tho Bap.
fists and became preacher and writer.
His education had been that Of me-
chanic. lie knew 10 language but the
English, as it was spoken by the common
people lie had studied no great mod
el of composition, with the exception
an important exception undou6tedly-of
our noble translation of the Bible. His
spelling was bad He frequently trans
gressed the rules of grammar. Yet
the native force of genius and his ex.
pcrimcntal knowledge Of all the religious
passions, from despair to ecstacy, amply
supplied iu him the want of learning
His rude oratory reused and melted
hearers who listened without interest to
the laborcd dscourses of great logicians
and Hebraists His works were widely
circulated among the lumber classes.
One of them Pilgrims Progress, was, in
his lifetime, translated into several for.
eigu languages It was, however scarce.
ly known to tho learned and polite. and
had been, during near century, the dc.
light of pious cottagers and artisans be-
fore it was publicly commended by any
man of high literary eminence.
At length critics condescnded to in
quire where the secrets of so wide aud
so durable popularity lay. They wero
compelled to own that the ignorant mul.
titudo had judged moro correctly than
the learned, and that the de'pised little
book was really masterpiece Bunyan
is indeed as decidedly the first of ale.
goris,s as Demostbenes is the first Of or.
ators, or Shakspcar the first of dramat.
lists. Other nllognrists have shown
ingenuity, but no other has ever been
able to touch the heart, and to make alb:
stractions objects of terror, Of love.
1t may be doubted whether ally Eng
lish dssantcr had suffered more severely
under the penal laws than John Bunyan.
OF the twenty-seven years which had
elapsed since the restoration, he had
passed twelve in confinement lle still
persisted in preaching, but. that he
might preach, he was under the necessity
Of Disgusting himself like a carter -
was often introduced into meeting thro'
back doors, with smock frock on
his back and whip in his hand.