The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-12-21
As TIE STA RS FORE YER AND
EVER.

remarks Macaulay in the Encyclopedia
Britannica edition of 1860, "the Re-
storation put it in the power of the cava-
lier gentlemen and clergymen all over the
country to Cypress the Dissenters -
Among those whom the cavalier gentle
men and clergymen" took in hand at that
time was JOHN BUNYAN, whom they cast
into Bedford Jail for preaching that same
gospel which he afterwards preached in
the. Pilgrims Progress. This was the
head and front of his offending. He lay
in Bedford Jail twelve weary years, the
object being to force him to discontinue
preaching. He was brought before seve-
raj tribunals, laughed at caressed, re-
viled, menaced, in vain. "He was face
tiously told that he was quite right in
thinking that he ought not to hide his
gift; but that being tinker by trade
his real gift was in repairing old kettles >
He was compared to Alexander the cop
persmith.
AS is we'll known, he wrote the PHI
grtna'S Progress in prison. Macaulay re-
marks of it, 1.-The Pilgrim Progress stole
silently into the world" and that it is
a significant circumstance that till re-
cent period, all the numerous editions of
the Pilgrims Progress were evidently
meant for the cottage and the servants
hall. The paper, the printing, the plates
were all of the meanest description"
Literary men turned up their noses at
it. Young coupled it with the wretched
doggerel Of DUrfey. Swift seems to re-
fer to it with sheer. Even Cowper, as
late as the close of the last century, while
evidently admiring the work himself,
writes of Bunyan:
81 name thee not, lest so despised name
Should move sneer at thy deserved fame.'
Now for the Christmas holidays of 1881
we observe that two new editions of the
Pilgrims Progress are announced
intended evidently neither for the cot
tage nor the servants hall" One of
them is from the house of A. D. F. Ran
dolph & Co.. and is called the ."Elstow
edition" from the fact that the cover
contains piece of oak from the discard
ed timbers of Elstow church, in which
church the immortal tinker was for some
time bell-ringer. Upon this wood
photograph is set from pencil drawing
made from life in 1879, which is regarded
as the best likeness of Bunyan extant.
The edition contains also sketch of the
authors life, photography of the P5l-
grtneS Progress, an index, and numerous
engravings, and fac SMILES.
Another edition (English) is published
by Scribner & Wexford This is larger
volume, with larger type, and contains
number of magnificent illustrations by the
Stothard process. The price of this eozi-
tio'e de latre is $50. So that Bunyan is
no longer confined to the cottages of the
poor nor the servants halls in England.
The fact is, he has become great name
in literature. He is Gas decidedly" says
Macaulay, the first of allegorists as De-
mosthenes is the first of orators, or Shaks-
peare the first of dramatists." Southey
was not ashamed to write his life, and in
his review Of Southey's work, Macaulay
had already previously expressed his
opinion of Bunyan. He remarks that he
was not afraid to say that, though there
were many clever men in England dur
ing the latter half of the 18th century,
there were only two great creative minds
one of these minds produced the Para
disc Lost, the other the Pilgrims Pro-
gress.
The work has been translated into eve
ry language and almost every civilised
dialect of Europe, and the missionaries
in pagan lands have turned it into the
languages of the Scientific Turanian, and |
Hindu races. 1t has been done into
verse it has been done into modern Eng |
lish. Even the Catholics have made use
Of it, and have prepared a version of it
with the head of the Virgin on the title
page; and in 1853 the Sacramento party
Of the Church Of England, the successors
Of Laud and that very High Church par
ty which sent Bunyan to Bedford Jail,