In the same year as Bunyan lost his friend his wife too died, and he was left alone with four children, two of them little girls, one of whom was blind.  She was, because of that, all the more dear to him.  “She lay nearer to my heart than all beside,” he says.

And now Bunyan’s friends found out his great gift of speech.  They begged him to preach, but he was so humble and modest that at first he refused.  At length, however, he was over-persuaded.  He began his career as a minister and soon became famous.  People came from long distances to hear him, and he preached not only in Elstow and Bedford but in all the country round.  He preached, not only in churches, but in barns and in fields, by the roadside or in the market-place, anywhere, in fact, where he could gather an audience.

It was while Cromwell ruled that Bunyan began this ministry.  But in spite of all the battles that had been fought for religious freedom, there was as yet no real religious freedom in England.  Each part, as it became powerful, tried to tyrannize over every other party, and no one was allowed to preach without a license.  The Presbyterians were now in power; Bunyan was a Baptist, and some of the Presbyterians would gladly have silenced him.  Yet during Cromwell’s lifetime he went his way in peace.  Then the Restoration came.  A few months later Bunyan was arrested for preaching without a license.  Those who now ruled “were angry with the tinker because he strove to mend souls as well as kettles and pans."* Before he was taken prisoner Bunyan was warned of his danger, and if he had “been minded to have played the coward” he might have escaped.  But he would not try to save himself.  “If I should now run to make an escape,” he said, “it will be a very ill savour in the country.  For what will my weak and newly-converted brethren think of it but that I was not so strong in deed as I was in word.”

Henry Deane.

So Bunyan was taken prisoner.  Even then he might have been at once set free would he have promised not to preach.  But to all persuasions he replied, “I durst not leave off that work which God has called me to.”

Thus Bunyan’s long imprisonment of twelve years began.  He had married again by this time, and the parting with his wife and children was hard for him, and harder still for the young wife left behind “all smayed at the news.”  But although she was dismayed she was brave of heart, and she at once set about eagerly doing all she could to free her husband.  She went to London, she ventured into the House of Lords, and there pleaded for him.  Touched by her earnestness and her helplessness the Lords treated her kindly.  But they told her they could do nothing for her and that she must plead her case before the ordinary judges.

So back to Bedford she went, and with beating heart and trembling limbs sought out the judges.  Again she was kindly received, but again her petition was of no avail.  The law was the law.  Bunyan had broken the law and must suffer.  He would not promise to cease from preaching, she would as little promise for him.  “My lord,” she said, “he dares not leave off preaching as long as he can speak.”