By Gregory K. Hollifield
On
Interpreter’s wall hung a portrait of a grave man. He “had eyes uplift
to Heaven, the best of Books in his hand, the law of Truth was written upon
his lips, the world was behind his back; it stood as if it pleaded with men,
and a crown of gold did hang over its head.” So wrote John Bunyan in his
allegorical masterpiece The Pilgrim’s Progress. The words were as
much a description of their author as the grave man himself.
Eyes
Uplift to Heaven . . . The World Behind His Back
During
the fall of 1628, Thomas and Margaret Bunyan welcomed into their tiny, Bedfordshire
home their firstborn son John. Thomas was a tinker, one who made and mended
metal pots and utensils. Young John often participated in his father’s
trade and accompanied him on business trips to Bedford, the county seat of less
than a thousand people.
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Though
relatively poor, John learned to read and write. He received his meager education
at Sir William Harper’s Grammar School in Bedford, founded exclusively
“for nourishing and educating poor boys in that place.”
As
young as the tender age of nine, Bunyan worried about his soul’s salvation.
During his adolescence he suffered through bouts of depression and spiritual
hallucinations, haunted by Calvin’s doctrine of predestination and wondering
whether he was one of God’s elect.
By
his own admission, the teenaged Bunyan possessed both a violent temper and foul
mouth. At sixteen, within a three month period, he lost his mother and a sister,
then gained a step-mother. He, in turn, drifted farther from God. During his
rebellion he joined the army and was assigned to a garrison fifteen miles from
home.
Returning
from the army in 1647, Bunyan married but continued through six years of inner
torment. His new bride exerted a positive influence upon him spiritually. History
has recorded little about her except that she came from a godly home, was pious,
and brought as her dowry a Bible and two religious books: Arthur Dent’s
The Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven and Lewis Bayly’s The
Practice of Piety. His reading of those books spurred Bunyan to attend the
local Anglican church. He soon quit however, because of one of the vicar’s
sermons against playing sports on the Sabbath.
Later
Bunyan began to read the Bible. His behavior improved. Then one day in Bedford
he saw three or four poor women discussing spiritual matters on a front porch.
He listened intently and returned to their company often. They eventually introduced
him to their nonconformist minister John Gifford, pastor of a small Baptist
congregation in Bedford. Gifford began assuring Bunyan about spiritual matters
in general and his own election in particular. Around that time Bunyan came
upon a copy of Martin Luther’s Commentary on the Galatians. At last
he felt his tortured quest for salvation had ended.