their human representatives in devout female members of the congregation,
known in their little Bedford world as Sister Bosworth, Sister Munnes,
and Sister Fenne, three of the poor women whose pleasant words on the
things of God, as they sat at a doorway in the sun, "as if joy did make
them speak," had first opened Bunyan's eyes to his spiritual ignorance.
He was received into the church by baptism, which, according to his
earliest biographer, Charles Doe "the Struggler," was performed publicly
by Mr. Gifford, in the river Ouse, the "Bedford river" into which Bunyan
tells us he once fell out of a boat, and barely escaped drowning. This
was about the year 1653. The exact date is uncertain. Bunyan never
mentions his baptism himself, and the church books of Gifford's
congregation do not commence till May, 1656, the year after Gifford's
death. He was also admitted to the Holy Communion, which for want, as he
deemed, of due reverence in his first approach to it, became the occasion
of a temporary revival of his old temptations. While actually at the
Lord's Table he was "forced to bend himself to pray" to be kept from
uttering blasphemies against the ordinance itself, and cursing his fellow
communicants. For three-quarters of a year he could "never have rest or
ease" from this shocking perversity. The constant strain of beating off
this persistent temptation seriously affected his health. "Captain
Consumption," who carried off his own "Mr. Badman," threatened his life.
But his naturally robust constitution "routed his forces," and brought
him through what at one time he anticipated would prove a fatal illness.
Again and again, during his period of indisposition, the Tempter took
advantage of his bodily weakness to ply him with his former despairing
questionings as to his spiritual state. That seemed as bad as bad could
be. "Live he must not; die he dare not." He was repeatedly near giving
up all for lost. But a few words of Scripture brought to his mind would
revive his drooping spirits, with a natural reaction on his physical
health, and he became "well both in body and mind at once." "My sickness