The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1871-02-01


life, we must not conclude that Ire was
really dcpravcd or vicious, but that
he loved certain games which Pnri-
tans hated, because King James en-
deavered to force them upon the pco-
pie of England.
Until he was seventeen years are,
he was mere tinker's boy who loved
sport. Then the controversy between
tho Puritans and the royal Govern
ment ceased to be war of Words
Young rs he was, John Bunyan en-
listed on the side of Parliament, and
served one campaign, during which
an event occurred that had qnFch in
4laence upen his after life. One of
his companions stood guard ono day
i'll his place, and was shot dead from
a ball from the besieged town. Bun
yam 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 instant
to be absent from his post. ..s. r.a
Readers of The Pil grim Progress
and 'Thc Holy War Remember 7how
frequently he employs in that work
illustrations drawn from warlike
scenes and objects, such as drums,
trumpets, flags, forts and camps, and
how he seems to revel In the po1np
AID. d.cIrcumstaLce of war. He deriv-
ed his taste for such illustrations from
his brief experience rs u soldier, when
he was Il lad of seventeen.
Before he was eighteen years of
age he had returned to his native vii
lage, resumed his tinker's apron, and
become married man. The incess-
ant preaching which he had heard ia
the camp, together with his singular
escape frcm death, had prepared his
mind to receive rcIigi6ds impressions
and these were now. strengthened by
some Puritan books which his wifo
had brought him rs her only portion
The struggle between his love of pleas
ure and the strixissgs of conscience was
50 severe as almost to shatter his i'll
tellect The sports which he loved
so we'll were given up one after the
fother. If lac ventared to play - game
Of ball, his conscience would arrest
him in the midst of it, and he would
stand transfXed, with the implement
of the game unused i'll his hand, The
delights of bellringing he found 50
hard to renouncc, that when he had
ceased to ring himself, he could not
/ refrain from going up into the steeplc
and looking Oh when his comrades
pulled the ropes. Once, while there,
he had such Il sense Of the gcilt of
what he was doing, that he ran out
efthe church, fearing the asteePle
would fall and crush 50 abandoned Il
wretch.
When, at length, all these pleas
ures surrendered, even to the dear
delight Of dancing On the village
green, and when the Puritans of the
neighborhood spoke Of him us 4 child
of grace, and pointed him out rs Il
model to young men, his conscience
still tormented him. His mind had
become diseased, as well rs his CON
science. At times he thought he had
sinned past forgiveness, and that the
day ofgrace was over for all that part
of England. There were moments
when he was tempted to think that
perhaps the Nlohammedan was the
right religion, not the Christians; and
sometimes he had an almost irresista-
BILE impulse to pray TO tho most alb
surd objects-to a broomstick tree,
or the parish bull. His misery be-
came past endurance. He was per-
llaps the wretchedest being on earth.
Nor was there any one ut hand to tell
HIM that these terrors were but the
fancies of distemPered mind.
81 am afraid, s;li4 he one day to
an old man noted forhis plcty, 'thut L
have committed the sin against the
Holy GAost."d osss1-s a..sds n. =.
'tIndeed, 1said the old man, '.I ana
afraid that you shave.Y4s a.>.i. -.
An answer ike this rs sometimes
salutary in such cases. sBunyan was
accustomed to accuse himself of the
deepest general depravity. Perhaps
this blunt reply of the oil man may
have had soino effect, not perceived
ut the time, in delivering him from
his grounIless alarms.
BY slow degrees, after tho lapse of
years, he became q sound and cheer
full man; though even after he had
Joined the Baptist Church, he used
to be tempted sometimes while hold
ing the communion cup in his hanl,
TO break cut into cursing. Before
long ho began to address his byebhren
Of the congrcgratioiii and at length he
became an,ordained Baptist preacher.
Wien he had,cxercised this calling
for five years., occurred that sad event
for England, for Europe, and for man
the Restoration of Charles III. Soon
began the persecution Of Dissehters,
the baleful effects of which England
has not yet outlivcd. s-ss,
Bunyan, who wasa a rude, terrent
strong, successful preacher, had now
become conspicuous IN -his' native
county; and as he.utterly refused to-
desist from pr .sscllipg, he was arrested
and cast into the Jail at Bedford-that
very Jail tie 81 ght of whfeh reused the
philanthropic energies of Howard, a
huhdrcH and thirteen years after, and
made him n p11sona reformer. for the
rest of his lilo In this foul and FL
thy place, where the very air and va
ter were abomf1i,bfe, where the food
was pcrnicious, and no regard for d'-
cency was even possible for men or
women, John Bunyan lived for twelve
years.
"Give up preaching" said the az.
over and over ag;iiii, "and
he prison doors are open.
His only answer was $ If you let
me out today, 1 will preach again to-
s. /
Tn the prison, as he could not AIRY |