Weekly Chemawa American., January 13, 1911, Page 11, Image 11

THE
CHEMAWA
JO H N BUNYAN.
•
I t seem? h ard ly credible th a t a book
which today is recognized as a religion3
classic, and which, next to the Bible, has
been more tran slated th an any other
book, should have been w ritten in jail.
I l was in the confines of the grim walls
of the prison at Bedford, E ngland, in
which Jo h n B unyan was incarcerated
for 12 years, th a t he wrote his im m ortal
‘ P ilg rim ’s Progress.” And equally re­
m ark ab le was th is com position, when the
life of the au th o r is considered.
N atural it was th a t a work so p ro ­
duced should for a long tim e a ttra c t
little atten tio n outside of the hum bler
classes for whom it was really intended.
B unyan was one of th eir num ber. It
was slow to reach the polite circles, who
esteem a w ritten work for its intellectual
q u a lity ; its literary flavor. Its early
vogue was en tirely am ong the poor, the
obscure, the u n literary . It was the soul
of the converted tin k er speaking from
the Bedford jail to an audience whose
welfare he had at heart, and with whom
he thoroughly sym pathized. It was
w ritten for them by an u n literary m an
whope trad e placed him am ong the low
liest. In the days of B unyan a .inker
> as often no better th a n a vagrant, a
light band»d pilferer who-e w andering
habits lifted him but litt.e above the
gypsies whom the good English yeomen
despised.
E arly in life Bunyan became fearfully
to rtu red by rem orse for his youthful
sins. But a t length the clouds broke,
and from the d< pths of despair the pen­
ite n t passed to a sta te of serious fellicity
An irresistible im pulse now urged him to
im p a rt to others the blessing of which he
was him self possessed. He joined the
B aptists and became a preacher and a
AMERICAN
7
w riter. H is education had been th a t of
a m echanic, vet his native force and gen­
ius, and his experim ental knowledge of
all the religious passions, from despair
to ecstacv, am ply supplied in him the
w ant of learning
I t m ay be doubted w hether any E n g ­
lish dissenter had suffered'm ore severely
u n d er the penal laws th an Jo h n B unvan.
But in spite of persecutions, he kept
nobly on with ‘he work th a t he deemed
he was called upon to perform . It was
often necessary for him to disguise h im ­
self as a carter in order to preach u n ­
d istu rb ed , and not infrequently be was
introduced into m eetings through back
doors, with a smock frock on his back
and a whip in hi- hand.
To a m an who had suffered these
things, the disgusting jail pen, into
which the zealous au th o rities of Bedford
flung him in 1660 for unlaw fully preach­
ing and pray in g in the streets, had few
terrors. W hile his fingers were busy
m aking shoe laces for his wife and blind
d au g h ter to sell in the streets to keep
the fam ily, his m ind was occupied with
the images of the wonderful allegory
which was to m ake his nam e im m ortal.
“ P ilg rim ’s Progress was published in
1678, shortly after its au th o r em erged
from his 12 years’ im prisonm ent, and
although attractin g no notice a t the
tim e of its appearance, it pushed its way
closer and c'oser into the hearts of the
com m unity, and today it is classed as
w orthy a place am ong the h u n dred best
books—this allegory w ritten i i a prison
by a ti n k e r — Ex
I n order to secure a change of a d ­
dress, subscribers to T he C hemawa
A merican m ust give old as well as new
address to insure prom pt a tte n tio n ......