Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1856-07-18
From nIacaalay,s Hiatory. :.
sKETcH- oF IoHIN R.IINYAl

Il . .
SKETCH oF JOHN BUNYAN.
BunYan had been bred . tinker. and
had served as a private soldier in The Par
Elementary army. Early in his life hs
had been fearfully tortured by remorses
for, his youthfniI sins. the worst of which
seems. however, to have been such as the
world thinks svenial. His keen sensibility
and his powerful imagination made in-
ternal conflicts singnlarlY terrible. He
fancied he was under sentence of repro
baton, that he had sold Christ. that he
was actually possessed with demon
Sometimes loud voices from heaven cried
out to warn him. Sometimes fiends whis-
pered impious suggestions in his ear
He saw visions of distant mountain-tops
on which the sun shone brightly, but
from which he was separated by waste
of snow. ss;.,.5s7
He felt the devil behind him. pulling
his clothes. He thought that the brand
of Cain had been set upon him. He fear
ed he was about 10 break assunder like
Judas. His mental agony disordered 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 under,
stand how he survived suffering SO intense
and so long continued. s
AT length the clouds broke, From the
depths of despair the penitent passed to a
state of serene felicity. An irresistible
impulse now urged him to impart to 9TH
ers the blessings of which he was himself
possessed. He Joined the Baptists and
became preacher and writer. His edu-
nat ho1 hof 4F
He knew no language but the English,
as it was spoken by the common people.
He had studied no great model of compo.
sition. with the exception---an important
exception undoubtedly-.of our noble
translation ofthe Bible.
His spelling was bad. He frequently
transgressed the rules of grammar. Yet
the native force of genius. and his expe-
rimental knowledge as all the religious
passions. from despair to ecstacy. amply
supplied in him the want of learning.-
Hisrude oratory reused and melted hear
ersswho listened without interest to the
ilabored discourses of great logicians and
Hebraists. His works were widely cir
culated among the humber classes. One
of them, Pilgrims Progress, was, in his
own lifetime, translated into several for
eign languages. 1t was, however. scarce
ly known TO the learned and polite, and
been, during near century the delight
of pious cottagers and artisans before, it
was publicly commended by any man of
high literary eminence. ...ss
At length critics condescended to in
quire where the secret of so wide and du-
rable popularity lay. They were CONS
PEELED to own that the ignorant multitude
had judged more correctly than the learn
ed, and that the despised little. book was
really masterpiece.
Bunyan is indeed decidedly the first of
allegorists as Demosthenes is the first of
orators, or Shakespeare the first Of dramat-
lists. ~.
Other allegotists have shown equal in
genuity, but no other has ever been able
70 touch the heart, and to make abstrac>
tions Of terror. OF pity. and oflove.
It.may be doubted whether any Eng
lish dissenter bad 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.
He still persisted in preaching. but,
that he might preach, he was undcr the
necessity of Disgusting himself as a carter.
He was often introduced into meeting,
through the back doors, with smeck
frock on his back and whip in his hand.
m NJ N A 4.