The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1888-11-30
Mr.. JONI B~uNrsN,
Author CT the
"PlLGRlM's PRoenEss,"
Or. slst August, 1868. act COZ

W..
lWelve other persons at least were in
tered in the same vault, and their m
will be found inscribed thereon. But it
lsJohn Bunyan's tombstone, and thither
pilgrlmages are constantly being made,
not only by English speaking people on
this side of the sea, but by American
divincs, and others hardly divine, who
cross the Atlantic, and who when here
pay homage 10 the man whose works are
a household name with them as much as
with us
Two hundred years today, in the house
OF his friend, John Strudcwick, who kept
a grocer's shop under the sign of the Star
on SNOW Hin, John Bunyan breathed his
last. dc had come up from Bedford to
London that he might place in the prin,
ter's hands his "Exccllency of 8 Broken
Heart" The fame of his PILGRIM"
seems to have made him popular, and his
preaching services in the CITY were often
attended by thousands. Charles Doe. in
The s~truggler," published four wears
after Bunyan's death, says: "When Mr..
Bunyan preached in London, if there
were but one days notice given. there
would be more people come together to
hear him preach than the meeting
house could hold. l have
seen TO hear him preach, by my
computation, about 1000 at a morning
lecture by Z o'clock on a working day, in
the dark winter time. ] also computed
about 5000 that came to hear him one
Lords day at London, at a towns end
meeting house, SO that half were fain to
go back again for want of room, and then
himself was fain, at a back door, to be
pulled almost over people to get up stairs
TO his pulpit" 1t is said that on one oc-
casion King Charles ii. asked DIR. Owen
how he, who had so much learning, could
hear Il tinker preach. To which the
doctor replied, MAY it please your ma
Jesty, had l the tinker's abilities for
preaching, | would most gladly rclinquish
all my learning"
When in August, 1858, Bunyan jour
neyed for the last time to London he
rode via Reading. Alas! drcnching rains
fell for the closing forty. miles of his
journey, and when he reached the house
of This very loving friend. John Strudc-
wick (who later was buried by his
side, he vas thoroughly worn out. He
had only strength to preach once, real
Whitcchapel, and his successor and
biographer says that the last words he
ever uttered in a pulpit We're probably
these which closed his sermon on that
%cventful occasion. They were these:
Consider that the holy God is your
father, and let this obligc you to live like
the children of God, that you may look
Your father in the face with comfort an.
other day" That was Oh August 10,
1858. Two days later he was seized with
fever and OF the Friday week he died,
having endured with much constancy
and patience" a season CT severe suffer
ing.
Rev. John Brown, ID. D., the present
minister of the church at Bunyan Meet
ing, Bedford. gives in his standard life OF
Bunyan the following extracts from The
church book touching the effect Of The
news which told them of their pastors
death: "Wednesday, 4th Of September,
was kept in prayre and humilyation fol
this Heavy Stroak upon MS, ye Death OF
dcare Brother Bunyan. Appointed else
that Wednesday next be kept in prairie
and humiliation on the same account"
John Bunyan wrote sixty books anG
lived sixty years. His chief work, Tho
Pilgrims Plogrcss,' has been translated
into no less than seventy-two distinct Ian.
enages and dialects, and thus has had {
wider circulation and been more reaC
than any book next to the Scriptures
More than fifty years ago Macaulay spok,
Of it as the only book Of its kind ,ha'
possesses a strong human interest: tina
while other a~l.eeories only amuse til,
fancy, this has been read by thousand:
with tears What was true then is nc
less trup now