BUNYAN'S STORY FULL OF THE SPIRIT OF THE BIBLE--THE
SIMPLE TALE OF CHRISTIAN'S STRUGGLES AND TRIUMPH
APPEALS TO OLD AND YOUNG.
No contrast could be greater than that between Milton and John Bunyan
unless it be the contrast between their masterpieces, _Paradise Lost_
and _Pilgrim's Progress_. One was born in the purple and had all the
advantages that flow from wealth and liberal education; the other was
the son of a tinker, who had only a common school education and who from
boyhood was forced to work for a living. Milton produced a poem nearly
every line of which is rich in allusions to classical literature and
mythology; Bunyan wrote an allegory, as simple in style as the English
Bible, but which was destined to have a sale in English-speaking
countries second only to the Bible itself, from which its inspiration
was drawn.
[Illustration:
PORTRAIT OF JOHN BUNYAN
AFTER THE OIL PAINTING
BY SADLER]
Milton knew many lands and peoples; he was one of the great scholars of
all ages, and in literary craftsmanship has never been surpassed by any
writer. Bunyan never traveled beyond the bounds of England; he knew only
two books well, the Bible and Fox's _Book of Martyrs_, yet he produced
one of the great literary masterpieces which profoundly influenced his
own time and which has been the delight of thousands of readers in
England and America, because of the simple human nature and the
tremendous spiritual force that he put into the many trials and the
ultimate victory of Christian.
John Bunyan was born in 1628 near Bedford, England, and he lived for
sixty years. His father was a tinker, a calling that was held in some
disrepute because of its association with wandering gypsies. The boy was
a typical Saxon, large and strong, full of rude health; but by the time
he was ten years old he began to show signs of an imagination that would
have wrecked a weaker body. Bred in the rigid Calvinism of his day, he
began to have visions of the consequences of sin; he began to see that
he was perilously near to the consuming fire which the preachers
declared was in store for all who did not repent and seek the Lord.
The stories of his early years remind one of the experiences of
Rousseau. Between the man of supreme literary genius and the epileptic
there is a very narrow line, and more than once Bunyan seemed about to
overstep this danger line. At seventeen the youth joined the
Parliamentary army and saw some service. The sudden death of the soldier
next to him in the ranks made a profound impression upon his sensitive
mind; he seemed to see in it the hand of the Lord which had been
stretched out to protect him.
On his return from the wars he married a country girl, who brought him
as a marriage portion a large number of pious books. These Bunyan
devoured, and they served as fuel to his growing sense of the terrible
results of sin. Of his spiritual wrestlings in those days he has given a
very good account in _Grace Abounding_, a highly colored autobiography
in which he is represented as the chief of sinners, driven to repentance
by the power of God. The fact is that he was a very fine young Puritan
and his only offense lay in his propensity to profane swearing.
Out of this mental and moral turmoil Bunyan emerged as a wayside
preacher who finally came to address small country congregations. Soon
he became known far and wide as a man who could move audiences to tears,
so strong was the feeling that he put into his words, so convincing was
the picture that he drew of his own evil life and the peace that came
when he accepted the mercy of the Lord. He went up and down the
countryside and he preached in London.
Finally, in 1660, he was arrested under the new law which forbade
dissenters to preach and was thrown into Bedford jail. He had then a
wife and three children, the youngest a blind girl whom he loved more
than the others. To provide for them he learned to make lace. The
authorities were anxious to free Bunyan because his life had been
without reproach and he had made many friends, but he refused to take
the oath that he would not preach. For twelve years he remained in
Bedford jail, and it is in these years that he conceived the plot of
_Pilgrim's Progress_ and wrote most of the book, although it was three
years after his release before the volume was finally in form for
publication.
Bunyan in a rhymed introduction to the book apologizes for the story
form, which he feared would injure the work in the eyes of his Puritan
neighbors, but the allegory proved a great success from the outset. No
less than ten editions were issued in fourteen years. It made Bunyan one
of the best known men of his time and it added greatly to his influence
as a preacher. He wrote a number of other works, including a fine
allegory, _The Holy War_, but none of these approached the _Pilgrim's
Progress_ in popularity.
When one takes up the _Pilgrim's Progress_ in these days it is always
with something of the same feeling that the book inspired in childhood.
Then it ranked with the _Arabian Nights_ as a thrilling story, though
there were many tedious passages in which Christian debated religious
topics with his companions. Still, despite these drawbacks, the book was
a great story, full of the keenest human interest, with Christian
struggling through dangers on every hand; with Giant Despair and
Apollyon as real as the terrible genii of Arabian story, and with
Great-heart a champion who more than matched the mysterious Black Knight
in _Ivanhoe_.
[Illustration (with text):
THE
Pilgrim's Progress
FROM
THIS WORLD
TO
That which is to come: