Life of Bunyan | Page 7

many concessions to conscience, while as yet he had not yielded his
heart to the Saviour. It was slowly and regretfully, however, that he
severed the "right hand." One of his principal amusements was one
which he could not comfortably continue. It was BELL-RINGING; by
which he probably means the merry peals with which they used to
desecrate their Sabbath evenings. It was only by degrees that he was
able to abandon this favourite diversion. "What if one of the bells
should fall?" To provide against this contingency, he took his stand
under a beam fastened across the tower. "But what if the falling bell
should rebound from one of the side walls, and hit me after all?" This
thought sent him down stairs, and made him take his station, rope in
hand, at the steeple door. "But what if the steeple itself should come
down?" This thought banished him altogether, and he bade adieu to
bell-ringing. And by a similar series of concessions, eventually, but
with longer delay, he gave up another practice, for which his
conscience checked him--dancing. All these improvements in his
conduct were a source of much complacency to himself, though all this
while he wanted the soul-emancipating and sin-subduing knowledge of
Jesus Christ. The Son had not made him free.
There is such a thing as cant. It is possible for flippant pretenders to
acquire a peculiar phraseology, and use it with a painful dexterity; and
it is also possible for genuine Christians to subside into a state of mind
so listless or secular, that their talk on religious topics will have the
inane and heartless sound of the tinkling cymbal. But as there is an
experimental religion, so is it possible for those who have felt religion
in its vitality to exchange their thoughts regarding it, and to relate what

it--or rather, God in it--has done for them. There are few things which
indicate a healthier state of personal piety than such a frank and
full-hearted Christian intercourse. It was a specimen of such
communings which impressed on the mind of Bunyan the need of
something beyond an outside reformation. He had gone to Bedford in
prosecution of his calling, when, passing along the street, he noticed a
few poor women sitting in a doorway, and talking together. He drew
near to listen to their discourse. It surprised him; for though he had by
this time become a great talker on sacred subjects, their themes were far
beyond his reach. God's work in their souls, the views they had
obtained of their natural misery and of God's love in Christ Jesus, what
words and promises had particularly refreshed them and strengthened
them against the temptations of Satan; it was of matters so personal and
vital that they spake to one another. "And methough they spake as if
you had made them speak; they spoke with such pleasantness of
Scripture language, and with such appearance of grace in all they said,
that they were to me as if they had found a new world--as if they were
'people that dwelt alone, and were not to be reckoned among their
neighbours!'"
The conversation of these poor people made a deep impression on
Bunyan's mind. He saw that there was something in real religion into
which he had not yet penetrated. He sought the society of these humble
instructors, and learned from them much that he had not known before.
He began to read the Bible with new avidity; and that portion which
had formerly been most distasteful, the Epistles of Paul, now became
the subject of his special study. A sect of Antinomians, who boasted
that they could do whatsoever they pleased without sinning, now fell in
his way. Professors of religion were rapidly embracing their opinions,
and there was something in their wild fervour and apparent raptures,
prepossessing to the ardent mind of Bunyan. He read their books, and
pondered their principles; but prefaced his examination with the simple
prayer,--"O Lord, I am a fool, and not able to know the truths from
error. Lord, leave me not to my own blindness. If this doctrine be of
God, let me not despise it; if it be of the devil, let me not embrace it.
Lord, in this matter I lay my soul only at thy foot: let me not be
deceived, I humbly beseech thee." His prayer was heard, and he was
saved from this snare of the devil.

The object to which the eye of an inquiring sinner should be turned, is
CHRIST--the finished work and the sufficient Saviour. But, in point of
fact, the chief stress of the more evangelical instruction has usually
been laid on FAITH--on that act of the mind which unites the soul to
the Saviour, and makes salvation personal; and it