John Bunyan (1628-1688), a Nonconformist preacher and author, received very little formal education and at an early age worked in the lowly trade of his father, who was a tinker—a mender of household utensils. In 1647 Bunyan married an orphan who was a praying Christian and led him to the Lord. After his conversion, Bunyan began to teach and write. In 1660, after the restoration of Charles II, the Nonconformists were subjected to rigorous persecution. Because Bunyan refused to give up his preaching, he was arrested and placed in prison where he remained for twelve years. During his imprisonment Bunyan wrote many of his most acclaimed works including The Pilgrim's Progress which has been printed, read and translated more than any book other than the Bible. People of all ages have found delight in the simple, earnest story of Christian, the Pilgrim.

There were many times that Satan brought doubts to Bunyan as to his salvation, causing great torment and anguish of soul. At such times, John 6:37 was a solace to him. In his own words Bunyan says, "This Scripture did most sweetly visit my soul— Oh the comfort that I have had from this word, 'in no wise'! By no means, for no thing, whatever he hath done. But Satan would greatly labor to pull this promise from me, saying that Christ did not mean me, but sinners of a lower rank, who had not done as I had done. But I answered him again, Satan, there is in this word no exception. 'Him that cometh,' him, any him; 'him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.'

"And this I well remember still, that of all the skilful tricks that Satan used to take this Scripture from me, yet he never did so much as ask, But do you come aright? I have thought the reason was because he thought I knew full well what coming aright was. I saw that to come aright was to come as I was, a vile and ungodly sinner, and to cast myself at the feet of the merciful God, confessing my sin.

"If ever Satan and I did strive for any word of God in all my life, it was for this good word of Christ; he at one end and I at the other. Oh, what work did we make! It was for this verse, John 6:37, I say, that we did so tug and strive; he pulled and I pulled. But God be praised, I got the better of it, and it was sweetness to my soul."

There is no doubt about John Bunyan's text. He inscribed it everywhere. Those words from John 6:37 that wrought his memorable deliverance crop up again and again in all his writings. The characters in his allegories repeat it to each other as though it were a password. If it is not the text, it is at least the burden of every sermon he preaches. It sings itself through his autobiography like a repeating chorus, like an echoing refrain. Nobody can have become in the slightest degree familiar with John Bunyan without habitually associating the text that he had made so peculiarly his own, which was a revelation to him of the approachability of Jesus: "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out."