By Gregory K. Hollifield
Pleading
with Men . . . A Golden Crown
Bunyan
began preaching around 1656, shortly after joining Gifford’s congregation.
The people quickly embraced his vivid imagery, moving eloquence, and plain speech.
He worked as a bi-vocational tinker, preacher, and pamphleteer until his arrest
in 1660 as a nonconformist.
To
provide for his family, he made lace articles while in prison. He also passed
his time there by preaching to the nonconformist brothers who shared his bonds.
Occasionally, guards permitted Bunyan to leave the prison briefly. He took advantage
of such times to preach to those without. He was released in 1666 but arrested
again by the end of the year. During his long imprisonment he completed several
books and conceived the idea for Pilgrim’s Progress.
The
1672 Act of Indulgence finally secured Bunyan’s release. He returned to
the pastoral office of the Baptist church in Bedford, abandoning the tinker’s
trade. He returned to prison for six months in 1675 when the Act of Uniformity
was reinforced. During that time he completed the Progress.
Until
his death in 1688 Bunyan maintained an active ministry of preaching, pastoring,
and writing. A forty mile trip on horseback through a heavy rain left him feverish
in London. Still he kept his preaching engagement the following Sunday in Boar’s
Head Yard, his final sermon. He died days later and was buried in Bunhill Fields.
The
renowned Puritan John Owen allegedly envied his friend Bunyan once claiming,
“Had I the tinker’s abilities, I would gladly relinquish my learning.”
That same appreciation for the dreamer from Bedford led one poet to write:
We want our
Bunyan to show the way
Through the Sloughs of Despond that are round us today,
Our guide for straggling souls to wait,
And lift the latch of the wicket-gate.
We fain would listen, O Preacher and Peer,
To a voice like that of this Tinker-Seer,
Who guided the Pilgrim up, beyond
The Valley of Death and Slough of Despond,
And Doubting Castle and Giant Despair,
To those Delectable Mountains fair,
And over the River, and in at the Gate
Where for weary Pilgrims the Angels wait.
(Quoted
in John Brown, Puritan Preaching in England, 162.)
_______________________________
Gregory
K. Hollifield is Chaplain with Youth for Christ in Memphis, TN.