Spirit Jesus

The Pilgrim’s Progress

John Bunyan’s encounter with God transformed a poorly-educated, blaspheming tinker into a bold preacher of the Gospel. As a Christian, Bunyan would also display a genius for writing, authoring more than sixty books including the classic, The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Born at Elstow, Bedfordshire, England in 1628, Bunyan attended school briefly, followed his father’s vocation of repairng household utensils, and served in the parliamentary army during the English civil war. He then married a woman (whose name has been lost to history) who encouraged him to attend church, where he heard the Gospel. After a long internal struggle, Bunyan surrendered himself to Christ.

Bunyan soon began to preach, and the obvious change in his life brought many people out to hear him. His messages, however, also drew the attention of government officials, who arrested him in 1660 for preaching without permission of the state church. Bunyan would spend the next twelve years in jail for his ‘non-conformist’ ways.

During his imprisonment, Bunyan wrote some of his best works, including his spiritual autobiography Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666) and The Holy City (1665), an interpretation of the heavenly city passages of Revelation. Bunyan’s masterwork, The Pilgrim’s Progress, was published in 1678, six years after his release from the ‘County Goal’.

In the final decade of his life, Bunyan continued to write and serve churches throughout his region. In 1688, on a forty mile horseback ride to preach in London, Bunyan was caught in a heavy rainstorm and soon contracted a violent fever, which led to his death. He was buried in Bunhill Fields, London.

“The River has been a terror to many, yea, the thoughts of it also have often frighted me; but now methinks I stand easy, my foot is fixed upon that upon which the feet of the Priests that bare the Ark of the Covenant stood, while Israel went over this Jordan. The waters indeed are to the palate bitter, and to the stomach cold; yet the thoughts of what I am going to, and of the conduct that waits for me on the other side, doth lie as a glowing coal at my heart.

I see myself now at the end of my Journey; my toilsome days are ended. I am gong now to see that Head that was crowned with thorns, and that Face that was spit upon for me.

…His Name has been to me as a civet-box; yea, sweeter than all perfumes. His Voice to me has been most sweet; and his Countenance I have more desired than they that have most desired the light of the Sun. His Word I did use to gather for my food, and for antidotes against my faintings. He has held me, and I have kept me from mine iniquities; yea, my steps hath he stengthened in His Way.

Now, while he was thus in discourse, his countenance changed, his strong man bowed under him; and he said, Take me, for I come unto Thee, he ceased to be seen of them.

But Glorious it was to see, how the open Region was filled with horses and chariots, with trumpeters and pipers, with singers and players on stringed instruments, to welcome the PILGRIMS as they went up, and followed one another in at the Beatutiful Gate of the City….”

Christian Classics Collection
http://www.3rdpartynet-christian-classics.com/