The Good Books - “mary” Bunyan

D. 1658

One of the bestselling books of all time was published more than three hundred years ago. Pilgrim’s Progress sprang from the creative mind of the prisoner-preacher John Bunyan, becoming an instant hit and a Christian classic.

Few would have expected such greatness of this tinker’s son from the small English town of Elstow. With his foul mouth and reckless ways, some thought he would (as he recounted later) “spoil all the youth in a whole town.” Drafted into the parliamentary army at age sixteen, he saw little action in three years of service, but maybe this helped him grow up a little. Two years after his regiment disbanded, he got married.

We don’t know Mrs. Bunyan’s first name, but since it was customary for the first daughter to be named after the mother and the Bunyans’ oldest daughter was named Mary, we can guess that Mrs. Bunyan was also called Mary. She came into the marriage just as poor as John was. He wrote later that they lacked such “household stuff as a dish or spoon betwixt us both.” Yet John treasured the fact that she was born of good parents who had taught her well.

Her dowry consisted of two good books—The Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven by Arthur Dent, and The Practice of Piety by Lewis Bayly. In retrospect, we can see that these two Christian volumes were as valuable to this writer-to-be as any sum of money. Both came from a Puritan perspective, pushing personal commitment to Christ and not just church ritual. It’s also interesting that both depicted the Christian life as a journey. For Dent, it was a pathway, and the subtitle of Bayly’s book was “directing a Christian how to walk that he may please God.” In Pilgrim’s Progress, of course, Bunyan would make this “walk” a powerful allegory.

Bunyan’s first wife died about 1658, less than a decade after they married, but it’s clear she changed his life in major ways. In that time he made a personal commitment to Christ, was baptized into an independent church, and began preaching.

It’s hard to know how deeply we influence those closest to us. It might be as simple as a book recommendation—or the way we live out the Word of God each day.

Your lives are a letter written in our hearts; everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you.

2 Corinthians 3:2