true, and home sayings, attribute that to the Lord Jesus his gifts
and abilities, which he hath bestowed upon such a poor creature as
I am and have been.'[125] His maxim was--'Words easy to be understood
do often hit the mark, when high and learned ones do only pierce
the air. He also that speaks to the weakest may make the learned
understand him; when he that striveth to be high, is not only
of the most part understood but of a sort, but also many times is
neither understood by them nor by himself!'[126] This is one of
Bunyan's maxims, well worthy the consideration of the most profoundly
learned writers, and also of the most eloquent preachers and public
speakers.

Bunyan was one of those pioneers who are far in advance of the age
in which they live, and the narrative of his birth and education
adds to the innumerable contradictions which the history of man
opposes to the system of Mr. Owen and the Socialists, and to every
scheme for making the offspring of the poor follow in leading-strings
the course of their parents, or for rendering them blindly submissive
to the dictates of the rich, the learned, or the influential. It
incontestably proves the gospel doctrine of individuality, and,
that native talent will rise superior to all impediments. Our
forefathers struggled for the right of private judgment in matters
of faith and worship--their descendants will insist upon it,
as essential to salvation, personally to examine every doctrine
relative to the sacred objects of religion, limited only by Holy
Writ. This must be done with rigorous impartiality, throwing aside
all the prejudices of education, and be followed by prompt obedience
to Divine truth, at any risk of offending parents, or laws, or
resisting institutions, or ceremonies which he discovers to be of
human invention. All this, as we have seen in Bunyan, was attended