The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1920-05-07

John Bunyan.

The most famous of all literary
men, who was compelled to submit
to the humiliation of being confined
in a prison, was John Bunyan, and
it seems hardly credible that a book
which is today recognized as a re-
ligious classic, and which, next to the
Bible. has been more translated than
any other book, should have been
written in jail. 1t was in the con-
fines Of the grim walls of the prison
at Bedford, England, in which John
Bunyan was incarcerated for twelve
years, that he wrote his immortal
"Pilgrim's Progress And equally
remarkable was this composition,
when the life of the author is con-
sidered.
It was but natural that a work so
produced should, for a long time, at
tract little attention outside OF the
humber classes for whom it was
really intended. Bunyan was one of
their number. The book was slow
in reaching the polite circles, who
esteem a written work for its m
tellectual Quality-its literary flavor.
It's early vogue was entirely among
the poor, the obscure, the unllterary.
It was the soul Of the converted
thinker speaking from the Bedford
Jail to an audience whose welfare
he had at heart, and with whom he
thoroughly sympathiZed. 1t was
written for them by an u%nllterary man
whose trade placed him among the
lowliest. In the days of Bunyan a
tinker was often no better than a
vagabond, a left-handed pilferer
whose wandering habits lifted him
but little above the gypsies whom the
good English yeomen despised.
Early in life Bunyan became fear
fully tortured by remorse for his
Youthful sins. But at. length the
clouds broke, and from the depths
of despair the penitent passed to a
state of serious felicity. An lrreslst-
ible impulse now urged him to I'M
part to others the blessings of which
he was himself possessed. He joined
the Baptists and became a preacher
and a writer. His education had been
that of a mechanic, yet his native
force of genius and his experimental
knowledge of all the religious pas
sions, from despair to ecstacy, amply
supplied in him the want OF earn
ing.
Il NAV be doubted whether any
| English dissenter had suffered more
severely, under the penal laws, thar
| John Bunyan. But, in spite of perse-
| cutions, he kept nobly on with the
work that he deemed he was called to
perform. 1t was often necessary for
| him to disguise himself as a carter
in order to preach undisturbed, n
! not infrequently he was introduced
into meetings through back doors,
with a smock frock On his back and
a whip in his hand.
To a man who had suffered these
| things, the disgusting jail-pen, into
F., which the Jealous authorities of Bed
| ford flung him in 1860 for unlawfully
preaching and praying in the streets,
had few terrors. Whlie MS nngers
were busy making shoe-lacers for his
wife and blind daughter to sell IN the
streets to keep the family, his mind
was occupied with images OF n
wonderful allegory which was to make
his name immortal. /,
Pilgrims Progress" was published
in 1878, shortly after its author
emerged from his twelve years i'm
prisonment, and, although attracting
no notice at the time of its appear
ance it pushed it's way closer anr
closer into the hearts of the COM
munity, and today it is classed as
worthy a place among the hundred
best books-this allegory written In
a prison by a tinker-N. o. States.
Owners of horses and blooded
stock are large users Of Liquid Bor-
ozone. It heals wounds, fostering
sores. barbed wire cuts by q mild