THE FAITHFUL HELPMATE. Bedford meeting ; he preached there occasionally, and was employed in visiting members who re- quired advice and rebuke ; he was, therefore, " in good repute for discretion, as well as for his religious character." Pursuing his trade, writing, and visiting various districts to quicken the lagging energies of his more supine brethren, and to preach, were heavy labours ; and at last the iron frame of John Bunyan was prostrated under that mysterious disease-the " sweating distemper." He struggled through it, tenderly nursed by the loving Elizabeth ; but while his health was impaired by its effects, he undertook a journey to Reading. It was on " a labour of love," for a friend who resided there resolving to disinherit his son, the young man requested Bunyan to interpose in his behalf. He did so, with success, reconciling the difference between father and son ; but the good service cost him his life, as, riding back to London on horseback, through torrents of rain, a fever ensued, which he bore with his usual constancy°and patience, and expressed himself as if he wished nothing more than to depart and to be with Christ, considering it was gain, and life only a tedious delay of expected felicity. He was then lodging with a friend of his, one John Strudwick, a grocer, at the sign of the Star, on SnowHill, who appears to have loved and admired him greatly. Finding his strength decay, " he settled his worldly affairs, as well as the shortness of the time and the violence of the disorder would permit;" and, 39
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