right honest man. But oh! when I understood these were their words
and opinions of me, it pleased me mighty well. For though, as yet, I
was nothing but a poor painted hypocrite, yet I loved to be talked of
as one that was truly godly . . . And thus I continued for about a
twelvemonth or more."

Though not acting from enlightened MOTIVES, Bunyan was now under the
guidance of new INFLUENCES. For just as the Spirit of God puts forth
a restraining influence on many during the days of their carnality,
which makes the change at their conversion less conspicuous than if
they had been lifted from the depths of a flagitious reprobacy; so
others he long subjects to a preparatory process, during which some
of the old and most offensive things of their ungodliness pass away;
and when the revolution, effected by the entrance of the evangelic
motive, at last takes place, it is rather to personal consciousness
than to outward observation that the change is perceptible. The real
and final transformation is rather within the man than upon him. So
was it with John Bunyan. One by one he abandoned his besetting sins,
and made many concessions to conscience, while as yet he had not
yielded his heart to the Saviour. It was slowly and regretfully,
however, that he severed the "right hand." One of his principal
amusements was one which he could not comfortably continue. It was
BELL-RINGING; by which he probably means the merry peals with which
they used to desecrate their Sabbath evenings. It was only by
degrees that he was able to abandon this favourite diversion. "What
if one of the bells should fall?" To provide against this
contingency, he took his stand under a beam fastened across the
tower. "But what if the falling bell should rebound from one of the
side walls, and hit me after all?" This thought sent him down
stairs, and made him take his station, rope in hand, at the steeple