After Bunyan’s marriage the record of the next few years is like
a nightmare, so terrible is his spiritual struggle. One day he
feels himself an outcast; the next the companion of angels; the
third he tries experiments with the Almighty in order to put his
salvation to the proof. As he goes along the road to Bedford he
thinks he will work a miracle, like Gideon with his fleece. He
will say to the little puddles of water in the horses’ tracks,
“Be ye dry”; and to all the dry tracks he will say, “Be ye
puddles.” As he is about to perform the miracle a thought occurs
to him. “But go first under yonder hedge and pray that the Lord
will make you able to perform a miracle.” He goes promptly and
prays. Then he is afraid of the test, and goes on his way more
troubled than before.
After years of such struggle, chased about between heaven and
hell, Bunyan at last emerges into a saner atmosphere, even as
Pilgrim came out of the horrible Valley of the Shadow. Soon,
led by his intense feelings, he becomes an open-air preacher,
and crowds of laborers gather about him on the village green.
They listen in silence to his words; they end in groans and
tears; scores of them amend their sinful lives.--WILLIAM J.
LONG, “English Literature.”
(3044)
=Spiritual Power the True Estimate=--See MEASUREMENT,
SPIRITUAL.