Beulah Land. Sometimes he was so overwhelmed with the sense of God's grace and power that he could hardly bear up under it. He soon began to preach in little meetings, and people were deeply convicted of sin and wept tears of penitence. The Lord gave him "an awakening word," and so many were brought to Christ under his preaching that he was astonished that the Lord should thus use him. He became very famous as a preacher, but his plain speaking roused much opposition. The story of his twelve years' imprisonment for holding meetings separate from the Established Church of England, and of the writing of his famous books while in prison, does not belong to a narrative of this kind. He had only the Bible and Fox's "Book of Martyrs" with him in prison when he wrote "Pilgrim's Progress." He was frequently allowed his liberty, and sometimes used it in preaching the Gospel. After his release he traveled and preached in many places, and was so popular that he was nicknamed "Bishop Bunyan." King Charles was surprised that the learned Dr. Owen would go to hear "an illiterate tinker" preach. "I would gladly give up all my learning for that tinker's power of preaching," said Dr. Owen. Being told one time that he had preached a grand sermon, Bunyan replied, "Aye, you have no need to tell me that; for the devil whispered it to me before I was well out of the pulpit." He became one of England's most famous men; but in the midst of his religious activity he was smitten with a fever while on an errand of mercy, and died August 31, 1688. He was buried in Bunhill Fields, London's famous Non-Conformist cemetery, where tens of thousands of people have visited his grave.

JOHN WESLEY

The life and teachings of John Wesley, the famous founder of Methodism, have probably had a greater influence than those of any other man since the days of the apostles in deepening the spiritual life of the present time. The Introduction to the Methodist book of Discipline states that Methodism was raised up under God" for the spread of Scriptural holiness." Like a mighty conflagration it swept over the world until in less than two centuries it numbered more adherents than almost any other Protestant church. The secret of its success was partly owing to the fact that its theology presented a less fatalistic view of salvation than did that of the Old School Calvinism so common among other Protestant denominations; but it probably owed its success still more to the deep spiritual experiences of the Wesleys and the other early Methodist preachers, many of whom were so anointed with the Holy Spirit's power that multitudes were brought under conviction of sin while listening to their earnest sermons and exhortations. People often trembled and shook, and many were even stricken down in the meetings, under the overwhelming sense of their sins received under the preaching of these men of God.

Wesley's great-grandfather his grand-father, and his father were all clergymen in the Church of England, in