have had but small leisure to devote to his worldly calling. This,
however, one of so honest and independent a spirit is sure not to have
neglected, it was indeed necessary that to a certain extent he should
work for his living. He had a family to maintain. His congregation were
mostly of the poorer sort, unable to contribute much to their pastor's
support. Had it been otherwise, Bunyan was the last man in the world to
make a trade of the gospel, and though never hesitating to avail himself
of the apostolic privilege to "live of the gospel," he, like the apostle
of the Gentiles, would never be ashamed to "work with his own hands,"
that he might "minister to his own necessities," and those of his family.
But from the time of his release he regarded his ministerial work as the
chief work of his life. "When he came abroad," says one who knew him,
"he found his temporal affairs were gone to wreck, and he had as to them
to begin again as if he had newly come into the world. But yet he was
not destitute of friends, who had all along supported him with
necessaries and had been very good to his family, so that by their
assistance getting things a little about him again, he resolved as much
as possible to decline worldly business, and give himself wholly up to
the service of God." The anonymous writer to whom we are indebted for
information concerning his imprisonment and his subsequent life, says
that Bunyan, "contenting himself with that little God had bestowed upon
him, sequestered himself from all secular employments to follow that of
his call to the ministry." The fact, however, that in the "deed of gift"
of all his property to his wife in 1685, he still describes himself as a
"brazier," puts it beyond all doubt that though his ministerial duties
were his chief concern, he prudently kept fast hold of his handicraft as
a certain means of support for himself and those dependent on him. On
the whole, Bunyan's outward circumstances were probably easy. His wants
were few and easily supplied. "Having food and raiment" for himself, his
wife, and his children, he was "therewith content." The house in the