Next to the Bible

On this day in 1673 John Bunyan was sentenced to prison. He was imprisoned for the offense of preaching without the permission of the state.

Today, in the center of Bedford England, stands a statue of Bunyan carrying a tinker's burden on his back and a Bible in his hand. Near the foot of the statue is a little bronze plaque with the engraved words of the prosecutor -

"At last we are done with this tinker and his cause. Never more will he plague us: for his name, locked away as surely as he, shall be forgotten, as surely as he. Done we are, and all eternity with him."

While imprisoned, John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress. it is translated into more languages than any other book save the Bible. CS Lewis, who wrote Pilgrim's Regress (a great book), said of Pilgrim's Progress, it is "a literary and spiritual masterpiece". We have Pilgrim's Progress in cartoon form and audio as well.