The Christian world is indebted to Dr. Cheever for a beautiful
picture of Bunyan's devotional exercise in his cell. 'It is evening;
he finishes his work, to be taken home by his dear blind child.
He reads a portion of Scripture, and, clasping her small hands in
his, kneels on the cold stone floor, and pours out his soul to God;
then, with a parting kiss, dismisses her to her mother. The rude
lamp glimmers on the table; with his Bible, pen, and paper, he writes
as though joy did make him write. His face is lighted as from the
radiant jasper walls of the celestial city. He clasps his hands,
looks upward, and blesses God for his goodness. The last you see
of him--is alone, kneeling on the prison floor; he is alone with
God.'

Charles Doe, who manifested most laudable anxiety to hand down the
works of Bunyan to posterity, bears honourable testimony to his
conduct while in prison. 'It was by making him a visit in prison
that I first saw him, and became acquainted with him; and I must
profess I could not but look upon him to be a man of an excellent
spirit, zealous for his master's honour, and cheerfully committing
all his own concernments unto God's disposal. When I was there,
there were about sixty Dissenters besides himself there, taken but
a little before at a religious meeting at Kaistoe, in the county
of Bedford; besides two eminent Dissenting ministers, Mr. Wheeler
and Mr. Dun (both very well known in Bedfordshire, though long since
with God[249]), by which means the prison was very much crowded;
yet, in the midst of all that hurry which so many new-comers
occasioned, I have heard Mr. Bunyan both preach and pray with that
mighty spirit of faith and plerophory of divine assistance that
has made me stand and wonder.'[250] Here they could sing, without