Sunday Half-Hour with the Great Preachers; With a Biographical Notices, and an Index (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: IV. THE HEAVENLY FOOTMAN. BmrtAH. [john Bunyan, the " Shakspeare of Divines," was born the son of a travelling tinker, at Elstow, Bedfordshire, in 1628. He was ignorant and dissipated till after his marriage, at the age of nineteen. In 1655 he became a Baptist preacher, and his zealous labors led, five years later, to his imprisonment in Bedford jail with other dissenters. " Here," states Dr. Barlow, " with only two books?the Bible and Fox's Book of Martyrs?he employed his time for twelve years and a half, in preaching to, and praying with, his fellow-prisoners, in writing several of his works ('Pilgrim's Progress,' etc.,) and in making tagged lace for the support of himself and family." After his release in 1672, he evangelized his brethren throughout England till his death at Snowhill, August 31st 1688. His imagination was strong and creative, his spirit earnest and profoundly religious; hence his masterpieces are his spiritual allegories. " The Holy War" deserves to be more read than it is, as well as this excellent metaphorical sermon, scarcely known to modern readers. Its sub-title is. "A Description of the Man that gets to Heaven." Owing to its length, a minor part has been omitted.] " So run that ye may obtain."?1 Cor. ix. 24. Heaven and happiness is that which every one desireth, insomuch that wicked Balaam could say, " Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end he like his." Yet, for all this, there are but very few that do obtain that ever-to-be-desired glory, insomuch that many eminent professors drop short of a welcome from God into this pleasant place. The apostle, therefore, because he did desire the salvation of the souls of the Corinthians, to whom he writes this epistle, layeth them down in these words such counsel which, if taken, wou...