did presently vanish, and I walked comfortably in my work for God again."
At another time, after three or four days of deep dejection, some words
from the Epistle to the Hebrews "came bolting in upon him," and sealed
his sense of acceptance with an assurance he never afterwards entirely
lost. "Then with joy I told my wife, 'Now I know, I know.' That night
was a good night to me; I never had but few better. I could scarce lie
in my bed for joy and peace and triumph through Christ."

During this time Bunyan, though a member of the Bedford congregation,
continued to reside at Elstow, in the little thatched wayside tenement,
with its lean-to forge at one end, already mentioned, which is still
pointed out as "Bunyan's Cottage." There his two children, Mary, his
passionately loved blind daughter, and Elizabeth were born; the one in
1650, and the other in 1654. It was probably in the next year, 1655,
that he finally quitted his native village and took up his residence in
Bedford, and became a deacon of the congregation. About this time also
he must have lost the wife to whom he owed so much. Bunyan does not
mention the event, and our only knowledge of it is from the conversation
of his second wife, Elizabeth, with Sir Matthew Hale. He sustained also
an even greater loss in the death of his friend and comrade, Mr. Gifford,
who died in September, 1655. The latter was succeeded by a young man
named John Burton, of very delicate health, who was taken by death from
his congregation, by whom he was much beloved, in September, 1660, four
months after the restoration of the Monarchy and the Church. Burton
thoroughly appreciated Bunyan's gifts, and stood sponsor for him on the
publication of his first printed work. This was a momentous year for
Bunyan, for in it Dr. Brown has shown, by a "comparison of dates," that
we may probably place the beginning of Bunyan's ministerial life. Bunyan
was now in his twenty-seventh year, in the prime of his manly vigour,
with a vivid imagination, ready speech, minute textual knowledge of the