HiddenSmileOfGod.42470.int.qxd
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THE HIDDEN SMILE OF GOD
again and again at the dead of night. Ministers were introduced to their pulpits through trap-doors in floor or ceiling, or through doorways extemporized in walls.” 39 Bunyan expected to be taken away again. He deeded over all his possessions to his wife Elizabeth so that she would not be ruined by his fines or imprisonment.40
A Pilgrim Dies Away from Home But God spared him. Until August 1688. In that month he traveled the fifty miles to London to preach and to help make peace between a man in his church and his alienated father. He was successful in both missions. But after a trip to an outlying district, he returned to London on horseback through excessive rains. He fell sick of a violent fever and on August 31, 1688, at age sixty, followed his famous fictional Pilgrim from the “City of Destruction” across the river into the “New Jerusalem.” His last sermon had been on August 19 in London at Whitechapel on John 1:13. His last words from the pulpit were, “Live like the children of God, that you may look your Father in the face with comfort another day.”41 His wife and children were probably unaware of the crisis until it was too late. So Bunyan, in all likelihood, died without the comfort of family— just as he had spent so much of his life without the comforts of home. “The inventory of Bunyan’s property after his death added up to a total of 42 pounds and 19 shillings. This is more than 39 40 41
Ibid., p. 336. Ibid., p. 340. Ibid., p. 372.