Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1871-02-15
JOHN BUNYAN.
BY JAMES PARTON.

IN uensely peOpleu countries, ike
} England, Holland and Germany,
there are classes Of people, unknown
in America, who move about from
town to town, and from village to vii
lage, exercising some homeIy craft by
which they live. ~
From time . immemOrial thinkers
have belonged to this order OF pOpu-
latiOn. The best of them convey the
implements of their trade in a dom
key cart, along with their household
goods while others carry their whole
possessions on their backs; and so
they go from house to house, each
having a certain round, which Oecu-
pies him for a considerable part OF
the year.
Such a tinker was the father OF John
Bunyan, and he was settled in VIII
Iage called ElstOw, not far from the
large English town Of Bedford. The
family was near the bottom OF the So
cial scale. 49,
John Bunyan was born In Elstow.
in 1923, two years before Boston was
/ founded, and eight years after the
! Pilgrim Fathers set foot upon Ply
mouth Rock. This gifted and impress
sible boy, therefore, grew to manhood
during the heat and ferment Of the
/ controversy between the Puritans and
the BISHOPS. To the thinkers son,
/ barely able to read and write, living
J in a remote village, this controversy
came in a form which did not require
learning or literature to understand.
/ One of the most keenly contested
! points between the Puritans and the
| King related to the lsWfulness of the
common sports Of the time, such as
dancing, ball-playing, bull-baitiDg
and bell ringing. It was cOmpliea-
/ ted question, because some Of these
sports were Innocent and others cruel.
/ The Sunday question was also involv-
ed in il, the King asserting that Chris
tians could properly indulge in these
movements on Sundays after church,
| the Puritans Yehemently denied.
Until he was seventeen years of age
he was a mere tinker's boy who loved
sport. Then the controversy between
I the Puritans and the royal Govern
ment ceased 10 be a war of words
Z Young as he was, John Bunyan en-
listed on the side of Parliament, and
served one campaign, during which
an event occurred that had much in
g
his companions stood guard one day
in his place, and was shot dead from
q ball from the besieged town. Bun
van was impressed by this event.
He thought that his life had been
saved by an act of Providence, which
had caused him at that particular in
staut to be absent from his post.
Before he was eighteen years Of age
he had returned to his native village,
resumed his tinker's apron, and be-
come q married man. The incessant
preaching which he had heard in the
camp, together with his singular
escape from death, had prepared his
mind to receive religious impressions
and these were now strengthened by
some Puritan books which his wife
had brought him as her only portion.
The struggle between his love Of
pleasure and the striVings Of cOnsei-
ence was so severe as almost to shat
ter his intellect. The sports which he
loved so well were given up one after
the other. II he ventured TO play q
game Of ball, his conscience would ar
rest him in the midst Of it, and he
would stand transfixed, with the inn
plement Of the game unused in his
hand. The delights of bell-ringing
he found so hard "a renounce, that
when he had ceased 10 ring himself,
he could not refrain from going up
into the steeple and booking On when
his comrades pulled fhe ropes. Once,
while there, he had sIich q sense Of the
gufit of what he W. doing, that ne
ran out Of the church, fearing the
steeple would fall and crush so aban-
doned q wretch.
Il am afraid, /" said he one day to
an old man noted for his piety, that I
have committed the sin against the
Holy GhOstn
Indeed, j" said the old man, 81 am
afraid that you have.n
An answer like this is sometimes
salutary in such cases. Bunyan was
accustomed to accuse himself Of the
deepest general depravity. Perhaps
this blunt reply OF the old man may
have had some effect, notperceived at
the time, in delivering hin fIom his
grOundless alarms.
By slow degrees, after the lapse Of
years, he became a sound and cheer
full man; though even after he had
Joined the Baptist Church, he used to
be tempted sometimes while holding
the communion cup in his hand, to
break out into oursing. Before long
he began to address his brethren Of
the congregation, and at length he
became an ordained Baptist preacher.
When he had exercised this calling
for five years, occurred that sad event
for England, for Europe, and for man
the Restoration of Charles II. Soon
4 81 -
the baleful effects Of which England
has not yet outlived.
Bunyan, who was a rude, fervent,
strong, successful preacher, had now
became conspicuous in his native
county; and as he utterly refused TO
desist from preaching, he was arrest
ed and cast into the Jail at Bedford
that very Jail the sight of which
reused the philsnthrOpie energies Of
Howard, ahundred and thirteen years
after, and made him q prison reform
er for the rest of his life. In this foul
and filthy place, where the very air
and water were abOminsble, where
the food was pernieious, and no regard
for decency was even possible for men
or women, John Bunyan lived for
twelve years.
"Give up preaching" said the au-
thorities over and over again, and
the prison doors are open"
His only answer was: "If you let
me out to-day, 1 win preach again to-
morrow"
In this prison, as he could not carry
on his old trade of tinker, he learned
to make stay laees, which he sold to
peddlers, and thus earned something
for his family Of little children, one
of whom, little blind girl, he loved
with peculiar tenderness. Ere long
he began to write. Like most Of the
preachers Of his time, he wasted his
| powers in controversy, attacking the
Quakers and the Church of England,
and defended the doctrine of open
I communion. His writings, il is said,
though course and illiterate, won
much popularity among the Dissen-
| ters, even before the great work ap-
peared which has immortalized his
/ name.
The Pilgrims Progress, which he
I began to write in Bedford jail, was
completed soon after he left it. While
he was writing it no one but himself
ever saw a line Of it, and when he
read the finished work to his brethren,
several of them disapproved Of it as
vain romance, too much like those
with which the people of the world
amused themselves. He published It
however, in spite Of them. At first il
/ made so little mark upon the history
] fNF "a